Malone MicroSport Trailer for 2 Heavy Kayaks - 13' Long - 800 lbs

Video Transcript for Malone MicroSport Trailer for 2 Heavy Boats Review and Assembly

Collin: Hey everyone, it's Collin here at eTrailer. Today we're going to take a look at one of our Malone MicroSport trailer kits. Now in this kit you're going to get the MicroSport trailer, you're going to get the spare tire kit which comes with the spare tire, and you're also going to get two Malone MegaWing fishing kayak carriers. Now these kayak carriers are built to be able to handle those heavier fishing kayaks, up to 150 pounds, but as you can see we've got two normal kayaks on here and it can also handle those as well. We just don't have any fishing kayaks to be able to put on here to show you.Now what's great about this trailer is that's basically a roof rack on wheels, so it's going to allow you to carry up to two standard or fishing kayaks to and from your destination, which will create more space in your vehicle for other cargo or luggage, or in our case the bed of our truck. And that'll also allow you to add a roof rack to your vehicle for other accessories such as bike racks or even cargo boxes.

Each carrier is going to have two saddles which hold your kayak. At this hole down here all the way across the bottom, it's going to have nice rubber padding on both sides to help protect your kayak from any type of scratches or abrasions and it's also going to come with these straps that you need to secure it.Our crossbars are going to be 78 inches long and that's going to be more than enough space, so if you have some wider kayaks that you want to get on here, you can scoop the carriers over towards the edge and that'll create more space to be able to get your wider kayaks up here and secured without them rubbing up against each other. And with this trailer, it's also going to be a lot easier to load and unload your kayaks. You can see right now it's about hip level for me and I'm about five nine, so I'm just under average. With those fishing kayaks though, those get pretty heavy and could get dangerous to put on top of your roof, especially if you don't have that extra set of hands.

So if you have that heavier kayak, it's going to be very easy to be able to lift it up and off without straining yourself. And the same goes for loading them up.With those rubber grips on the saddles, it's going to make it very hard, even when your kayak's not secured, to shift it around. So that means that even in wet conditions it's going to have a good hold of your kayak. And even when it comes to strapping down your kayaks, it's going to be a lot easier. You're not going to have to stand on top of your tire or your running board to try to reach your straps and get them secured, which could also risk you falling.

Right here we'll just toss them right over top. We don't have to reach over top of our head anymore. We can just feed it through the appropriate slots and get it to the other side. And then we can just bring it up, we're going to run it through our felt right here, which is protecting the metal buckle from making contact with the kayak. Bring it through that felt and then through the cam buckle.

And then just tie off your excess.Now this trailer is also going to be very easy to hook up and unhook from your vehicle. Now at the end of a long day, the last thing I personally want to do is take my kayaks off my trailer or if I have them on my roof rack, it's going to be a hassle to get those off just so I can park in my garage. So wherever you're storing your trailer, it's going to be very easy just to come down and flip up the lock on your coupler, get your safety chains unhooked, we'll just hang those over the tongue, and then we'll come over to our wiring harness and pull that out. Now with this vehicle application, we have a seven way connector. If you don't have a four pole hook up, you're going to want to pick up an adapter, which you can find plenty of those here at eTrailer.And now instead of having to unload all of our stuff, we can just get it off of our vehicle and then store our trailer in our garage or wherever is convenient for you. It is going to have an 800 pound weight capacity, which you can see we're not even coming close to, but if you are riding towards that capacity, you may want an extra set of hands. Now we have our trailer inside our garage and unloaded so we can have a closer look at it. Now the entire trailer is going to have a galvanized steel construction that's going to be very tough and durable and resist rust and corrosion. Now while some other trailers might have some plastic components, such as the fenders, we're still going to have steel on those as well. Any plastic opponents that you might have on other trailers could wear down a lot faster or even break sooner, meaning you've got to replace them more often. In the case of this trailer, it's going to last a long time.Now the wiring system on our trailer is going to be very easy to install. There's no tubular design to our trailer so we're not going to have to worry about getting it all the way through the tubing. It is open on this side, we just have to run the wire all the way back to the lights. And it does come with these clips so we can get it clipped up and organized. And now when we come back to the lights, we are going to have these bullet connectors which is going to be very easy to get our lights installed. Literally all we have to do is plug it in and we're good to go.We're going to have two leaf springs attached to our axle. That's going to help absorb a lot of the impact that you might encounter while on the road and it's also going to help absorb a lot of road vibration that you may experience when traveling at highway speeds. Both the wheels with the trailer, as well as the spare tire, is going to be good for speeds up to 75 miles per hour. So this is going to do just fine on the highway. And we're also going to have the steel fenders covering our tires, that's going to help prevent a lot of dirt and debris from being thrown up onto our kayaks.It's always a good idea to have a spare tire because you just never know what could happen out there on the road. If for some reason you we're to blow a tire, the last thing you want to do is have to unhook your trailer, leaving your nice kayaks behind to have to go find a fix or find a new tire. With this spare you're going to be able to get it off the trailer, replace the damaged one, and then be on your way. It is going to attach to our trailer using a U-bolt and a set of threaded brackets. We have the tire sitting at the part of our trailer where the tongue meets the rest of the frame. That's where the most surface area is going to be for our tire to sit on, that's where it's going to be the most stable. Then we just have our brackets tightened down, making sure that it can't go anywhere.You can see the U-bolt that comes up from the bottom making contact with the frame right here and then it comes up and out of two of the lug nut holes. Once you have your brackets tightened down, there is an option to get a padlock and install it right there. That's going to just add more security to your spare tire, making sure no one can take it.Our LED lighting system is going to be fully submergible, so that means you can back your trailer down the ramp and release your fishing kayaks straight into the water if you don't want to have to carry them. We're also going to have a light under our driver's side tail light, illuminating our license plate, making sure that's visible at night. And we're also going to have two side marker LED amber lights, which are going to make good auxiliary safety lights.Now I really do like this trailer. It's nice that you don't have to struggle with getting your regular or fishing kayaks up on your roof rack anymore. They're going to be about hip level, which makes them easy to load and unload and secure. The galvanized steel construction is going to do a great job of resisting rust and corrosion so you can rest assure that it is going to last a long time. Now as far as assembly, it may take about an hour and a half to two hours, but as long as you follow the instructions or just follow along with this video, it shouldn't be too difficult. Let's go ahead and show you how to do that now.Now the first thing we did was we set up the frame how it's going to be put together. You might notice that we do have it upside down, we're going to put it together that way, so that it's a little bit easier to get the spring and axle assembly installed. Now the first thing we're going to do is get the brackets for our spring and axle assembly installed. The C-shape ones are going to go on the back of our trailer, while the U-shape ones go on the front. They're all going to bolt together the same way. You can see right here just the two holes on the frame of the trailer. The bracket sits right on top. Then we just drop a couple of bolts through the bracket in the frame of the trailer. Take a couple of locknuts and thread them on. You want to make sure you're installing the locknuts on the inside of the frame of the trailer. And now we'll just grab our wrench and socket and tighten it down.Now at the front end of the tongue of our trailer, we're going to feed our wiring that's going to go all the way through the tongue and towards the frame of the trailer. How we know that we have the front end is, one, there's a sticker right here, the warning sticker's going to go towards the front of the tongue. We also have that triangle set of holes right there, that also let's us know it's the front. So we're just going to let gravity do the work and just feed the wire all the way through. Now we have it out the other end, just going to feed it through the connecting bracket right here. Just leave it right there.Now we're going to take the bolts included in our kit, this is going to be the longest bolt of your assembly. We're just going to pull the frame, line it up inside that bracket, and because our trailer is upside down right now, we're going to pick it up and then feed it through the bottom. Just like that. Now we'll get a flat washer and a locknut and all we're going to do is hand tighten it for now. Now we have the bracket slid in, we're just going to get the carriage bolts installed on the bracket. On the inside, we'll go flat washer and locknut, just like the bracket bolt, we're just going to hand tighten for now. And then repeat this for the other side. And now we'll just apply a flat washer to our bolts and feed them through the two slots connecting the tongue of our trailer to the frame. Go flat washer on both sides again. And then hand tighten our locknuts.With our carriage bolts, we're now going to get the center beams installed on the frame with the locknuts on the inside. Just hand tighten and make sure you go around and get the other six hand tightened as well. Now we're going to go around and get all the bolts tightened down. We're going to start here at the back with the carriage bolts on the center beams in our frame and then make our way up towards the tongue of the trailer.Now we can go ahead and assemble our spring and axle assembly. There's going to be a bolt right here, goes into the hole on our axle. Then we'll put the U-bolt plate on that knob, we'll bring our U-bolts up through the bottom, and then put two locknuts on. Do our second U-bolt and now we'll just tighten everything down. Now we'll repeat this process for the other side, making sure we set the spring in the exact same formation.Now we'll set our assembly in place, making sure to get the flat part of the springs into the C brackets, and then the eye holes of our springs into the U brackets. Now we'll feed the bolts through the eyes of our springs, put the locknut on, hand tighten on both sides.Now we're ready to get our wheels installed. While the frame is still upside down, I'm going to take our hubcap first and slide it through the back of the wheel like so. It'll catch on the sides. We'll put it on the axle of our trailer. And now we can get our lug nuts hand tightened. Now in a star pattern, we'll go around and tighten down all of our lug nuts. Then repeat this process for the other side.Now we're going to get the lights and brackets assembled. The brackets right here are going to go on the side of our trailer. And you see the big hole right there is where our light is going to go. So just put it on the side, stick a couple of bolts in there. Now let's put some locknuts on and tighten them down. On the driver's side of your trailer, don't forget, once you get the bolts through the slots, to put your license plate holder on there as well.And I will plug in the wiring from the tongue of our trailer to the wiring that's going to go back to our lights. From there, just make sure you run the appropriate wires to the appropriate lights. And then don't forget to clip your wiring to the sides to make sure it stays out of the way. Now you will have a little bit left over right by the bracket, which is connecting both the sides, however make sure you don't get the two heads right here inside the tongue of the trailer. That bolt right there is to prevent them from being pulled by the other side and disconnecting your wires. But if you want, you can just grab a zip tie, put it right there, and a zip tie it up to clean it up a little bit.Now when installing the brackets on your fenders, we're just going to set it from the bottom, apply our bolts through the top, hold them there, and then apply our locknuts. And then repeat this for the other side. Now with a flat head screwdriver, we're going to hold the other side of the bolt in place and then tighten down all four bolts. Now with a flat washer and a bolt, we're just going to feed it through that center hole right there and then apply another flat washer and a locknut and do that for both sides. Now we'll just tighten up all the bolts.Now on our coupler and safety chains, we'll get the safety chains installed first. We have a flat washer on the ends of our two chains, on there we'll push it up through that bracket and hold it there. Then we'll just apply a flat washer and a locknut. Just get that threaded on there and tightened down, and now we'll tighten it down all the way. Now with our coupler, we'll just set that down and line it up with the holes. Before we install the bolts, we want to pick which side the handle goes on. Doesn't necessarily matter too much, just whatever you feel more comfortable with. We'll apply the bolt through the handle and then through the coupler. Get it all the way through and then the other bolts and then apply locknuts to the other side. Now we'll tighten everything down.Now we're going to start assembling our upper deck with the crossbars. The support bar is going to go one on the back end of the trailer, the other one's going to go about 48 inches up towards the front. Now we just drop our U-bolt on top, bring the plate, and then we'll put two locknuts on. Once you have it set where you want it, we'll tighten everything down. Now we have one of our crossbars just sitting on top of the support bar right here. We're going to take these brackets, it's going to go over top like so, make sure you line up the bottom holes. We'll feed a bolt all the way through. Now we'll put a locknut on there. And now with the crossbar, what we're going to do . That's going to come straight up and the second bolt is going to sit right under it, and do this for both sides. Then we'll go around and tighten all four bolts. Now on both of your crossbars, be sure that the one hole on the outside of each side of the bar is facing towards the inside of the trailer.Now our final step is going to be to get our D-rings installed in those holes. Just going to apply a flat washer and then put the bolt through there. Now I'm going to slide my finger in and line it up with that hole and then start to thread it on there. Once you've gone as far as you can with your hands, what I'm going to do is a nice little trick, take a pair of needle nose pliers, we're going to feed the pliers in and clamp down on that locknut. Get a good grip. Now we'll tighten it down. Doesn't have to be super tight. You can see it's pretty snug. Now just repeat this step for all the other sides and then put your end caps on.When installing the carrier, there is going to be a groove on the underside that's going to be able to fit your square bars very well. What we'll do is just set it down, making sure that that groove is right on top of the square bar. You see it just balances itself right there. We already have it partially installed with the rubber coated bracket, which helps protect your crossbar from any type of scratches or abrasions. From there, we're going to drop our other bolt through the top. Now we'll bring our bracket up and over the bolts and we're going to bring our wing nut down and get it threaded on there. Now we'll just tighten both sides up until it's secure on our crossbar. Doesn't have to be super tight, just pretty snug, and then you just repeat this process for your other three saddles.Well, thank you all for watching. That's going to do it for our look at the Malone MicroSport trailer.