That certainly wasn't true in my case. Axle & wheels were $25 at a junkyard, rear axle out of a van. I bought steel, a spring set, lights, tongue jack, hitch, safety chains and paint. Cost was considerably less than a commercial trailer with 1/3 the capacity.
Steel is a lot more expensive now than it was then, though. New steel was 40 cents a pound at the time.
Price it out both ways, see what works for you.
Trust me, I have built my share of trailers too. Personally a used van/truck axle works, but not my preferred way to go. I have went as far as to machine axle stubs, and build a axle from scratch, but would prefer to use a factory built axle. Like you said, steel prices are high, but it should raise premade prices too. It seems that I see more places selling trailer than ever before, with good prices too. Greg
Would be very interesting!
My trailer's pictures are here:
I would disagree. But it's one of those cases, where if you have to ask you shouldn't.
My father and I have built several trailers. It is far from rocket science. The hardest part isn't building the trailer it's getting tags for it. We have started buying the rattiest, nastiest trailer for cheap for the tags and then "rebuilding" it.
Steel deck is a big plus. You can skid a load on a steel deck. Can't with wood. Steel is easier to work with too.
Lunette hitch would be nice.
Electric brakes would be dependent on the size of the trailer. Anything with capacity beyond 2000# I would recommend. Below, maybe.
If you are building from scratch, consider placing tie downs in the deck of the trailer. It is really nice.
And build a "hook" edge on the tail for your ramps.
Try to keep the deck as low as possible.
Highly consider an unsprung trailer. It keeps your deck lower, simplifies the axle geometry, keeps it lighter. The flex in the tires is enough suspension.
Nothing else coming to mind right off.
JW
Good thinking.
When I was making my trailer, I spent about 5 hours per day, for 7 days. It was relatively hard work. Grinding, cutting, stick fumes in cold garage, etc.
I am not including time it took me to post to usenet with questions etc. Which was also substantial, as my friend Bob Swinney would attest (Hi Bob!)
For 35 hours, that labor charge would be $1,750 dollars. The bed was $140. The 6,000lb axle with brakes was about $700 with delivery, IIRC. The steel was about $400, IIRC (I did not have time to look for cheap stuff, odds and ends, and had to order it). I am sure that I am forgetting some electric doodads, lunette ring etc. But let's say $200 more.
So, the cost of materials was 140+700+400+200=$1,440. With labor at $50/hr, the total cost was $3,190. A similar trailer, new would cost me about $4k plus tax. So I was ahead, but just barely.
Redoing my Hobart CyberTig, with the programming in BASIC, microcontroller, all the pieces, and inverter, was a huge financial mistake, I could literally buy any brand new miller welder, for less than the labor charge would have been, not even factoring in the considerable cost of materials. But it was fun and the labor was mine, and it does some things that a welding machine cannot do (like making high voltage DC or low voltage).
Plus I learned a lot, so I if I paid myself back for the education value, it would reduce the labor charge.
i
Are you in the US? Getting "tags" (a license plate and a VIN) for my trailer was as easy as visiting a currency exchange and paying a fee.
Yes. And skidding, dragging stuff on a deck, happens a lot.
I absolutely hate ball hitches after having gotten a lunette hitch with a big ring.
i
When I went shopping for a trailer for my ATVs, I found one that was good for $1,000. It was not worth my time to build a trailer, although I could have built a heavier one for the same price.
But that was not factoring in my labor.
Now, when I work (and I mean work in a muscular laborious term) I like to make at least fifty dollars an hour or more. For what I do, it runs up from there.
So, I bought a trailer that was 3500# rated, powder coated, had a spare, was all wired, had a dolly wheel, and ready to roll.
Now, the downside. I had to personally inspect five trailers before I found one that was satisfactorily welded. On the sixth one, I found one that did not have missing welds, crappy welds, or incomplete welds. Guess the guy just had a good day that day when he was welding.
I cannot build a trailer cheaper than what I can buy them for once I factor in my labor.
That's just me.
Steve
On Nov 18, 4:25 am, Ignoramus16741
In Washington State you have to get the trailer weighed and then inspected by the State Police. My design goal of my last trailer was to build it for less than the cost of getting it registered. The trailer ended up costing about 15$ less than the cost of getting tags.
Dan
Labor is definitely the big swing factor. I didn't call it "labor" if I was enjoying and/or learning an activity done on my discretionary time. Now that I'm retired, there's no such thing as "labor". There are "senior activities" I enjoy doing, and stuff I pay to have done. Havin' fun is job 1, and welding is a hell of a lot more enjoyable than daytime TV!
Pintle Hook and Lunette Ring hitches are nice, but it's even nicer to have a convertible - you weld a vertical U-channel on the trailer tongue end, and you can swap from lunette eye to standard ball hitch with two bolts and a wrench. And the channel allows you to adjust the height of the lunette or receiver to match the tow vehicle more closely - very handy for the lunette eye, because the pintle on the truck is usually mounted at a fixed height.
Trailers tow very squirrelly if they aren't riding more or less level, especially if the load has a high Center of Gravity and the tongue weight is constantly changing or going negative.
Make the trailer light wiring Universal like on a commercial tractor trailer - two separate sets of stop and turn lights on the back, all in red. That way you can plug right in to both American cars and trucks with 2-light combo S/T/T (the Stop pair won't be used) or Japanese/European cars with separate stoplight circuits with no light converters needed.
(Except when the car has a tail light failure monitor circuit, high-end Toyotas and such. Then you need the relay converter to provide a separate power feed for the trailer lights without blowing out the very expensive monitor module. Read the Owners Manual.)
Put a 6-pin or 7-pin Commercial Round female trailer socket on the tongue of the trailer, and you can do any wiring conversions needed to fit odd cars in the double-ended connector cable - make one cable that goes from Commercial Round to what you need for the tow vehicle's existing connector, be it 4-wire flat, 7-wire or 9-wire Bargman Travel Trailer round...
And if the cable gets mussed up or cut, you can unplug and replace it in 10 seconds. Or take it to the workbench and change the other end plug to fit a new car.
(Don't worry about the "hot end being exposed" - the female sockets on a Commercial Round male plug are shrouded, and 12 VDC won't jump out and bite you. And you know to plug in the trailer end first and the car end second.)
For a small utility trailer, get LED marker and tail lights. Not for the long life or low power draw (though those are still good reasons) but for the shock and vibration resistance - an empty trailer bouncing on the freeway will kill the filaments in no time at all, and even the "Super Shock Mount" sealed lights won't take a whole lot more abuse.
Don't skimp on side-marker lights - they can see the big truck or SUV in front, make sure they see the little trailer tagging along. Light it up like the 4th of July. You don't want them cutting their turn or merge move too tight and tagging the trailer.
Have a spare tire and rim for the trailer, and make sure it has air before use. Tires cost triple out in the middle of nowhere, they can see you coming. And having a jack and lug wrench along that will work for the trailer will also help - they aren't all the same size.
If you pick a car axle for the trailer (like the rear axle from a FWD minivan) know what it is and stamp a tag on the trailer - you may need to find new bearings or a hub in 20 years, and memories fade.
Have plenty of "bomb-proof" tie-down points at every conceivable angle, and carry plenty of good rope and ratchet straps, and tarps or cargo nets to contain smaller items. There is no such thing as "overkill" when securing cargo, because the Highway Patrol gets extremely annoyed when you scatter your stuff across the highway - and they hand out very expensive reminders that will stay on your 'permanent record' for several years...
-->--
Hear him!
Well sail, Don.
Richard
I finished a 2.55m x 1350m single axle trailer recently, and I decided after the event that it was not economically worthwhile. It was a project that was cursed with bad luck throughout and took 4 good weekends which are rare. After the fact, I wondered how they could build them so cheap commercially, and galvanise them too. Mine is painted with zinc paint (2 coats 95 % zinc, etch primer and 2 enamel) - probably $300 of paint in it. It is all the little bits that bite you, and the steel cost far more than planned. OTOH, I have lots of tiedown points, which the cheap trailers don't have, and it has towed 1100 kg of sand on it's first trip. Rather overloaded, but it took it ok. Geoff
Obviously I have sails on the brain. Let me try that again...
Well SAID!
Lots of trailer places sell 3500lb dual axle trailers ready made for about $1500
Granted they are manufactured in Mexico..and some of the welds are cosmeticly challenged on some...but Ive not seen one fail yet
Sometimes its cheaper to buy new/used, then build your own.
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
Your priorities sound just right to me. Making stuff "just the way you want it" continues to give pleasure for many years as you grin every time you use your creation. We can hardly ever make what can be bought, if we can buy something (like a trailer) that will serve the purpose as well as doesn't matter.
I can dig a hole cheaper than I can have it dug, but I surez hell don't unless it's a very small hole.
I built my trailer at least partly because it looked like a fun welding project -- and it was! If I did welding for a living, I might see it differently. I sure as hell don't make my own cellphones or TV sets -- though I did build a color TV once.
A thing I think engineers and people with skills should keep in mind, and a phrase I use often, is: "just because you can doesn't mean you should!" (My wife uses that phrase a lot too....) There are far more things we can do than we'll ever have time to do, so we get to cherrypick. It'd be a shame to spend time building a trailer that could be bought when one could be building something REALLY COOL!
"Don Foreman" wrote
I am awash in projects. This week, I shall return to Las Vegas and bring all my steel and my welding table, and the remnants of my "Sanford Yard", as the wife called it.
I bought a rural house with two acres. It is at the end of the road and when you get here, you have to turn around. Every once in a while a lost ATVer will come down the hill, but mostly it's just us and the coyotes, jackrabbits and quail.
We're building a 1,000 sf casita for my MIL. In the process, we're having southwest parapets put all around the formerly square roof line. We're going to put up a lot of southwest decor, and that will include flamecut geckos, kokopellis, quail, roadrunners, etc.
I'm going to make a ten by ten by ten foot high platform for stargazing and so the grandkids can sleep out. And us adults can sit out there and enjoy adult beverages and the view.
I also bought a big old commercial Singer walking foot sewing machine, and will be building quite a few canvas awnings with metal frames. I built hundreds of these as a contractor.
Plus, a couple of very very large motorized gates.
On these kinds of things, I think it worth it for my time, as having these things built exactly as I want them would be about twice the price of the regular item. Then there's the bragging factor of "I built that". I have priced some ornamental metal lately and some decorative items, and it is definitely cheaper for me to do it.
But for trailers, and some items, it's cheaper to buy. Lots of laser cut designs now that are cheap at trade shows we go to.
Now, if I could just find some bar grating .........
Steve
Put a couple layers of 1/4" plate around the parapet, with 4" of sand between em.
Would make a great OP and gun tower if you get uninvited guests.....
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
Hard to believe that a single axle will work on a trailer that is approximately 8 feet wide by about 4000 feet long. How do you turn a corner with the sucker?
Rick :-)
The axle is likely in the back 10m and the tongue weight is 8000 pounds. :-)
Mart>> I finished a 2.55m x 1350m single axle trailer recently, and I decided
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