Trailer update

This box is made of steel and is reinforced with ribs evey 9 inches. It is not some sort of plywood bed reinforced with some steel tubing, it is a rigid steel bed. That's why I bought it.

You are right.

i

Others are relating experience from building a trailer or frame from scratch. One plots, schemes, plans, jigs, clamps, tacks, bumps, tacks again, bumps again with a bit of anticipatory Kentucky windage, welds, then uses hydraulics, a big hammer and occasionally a torch for final tweaking to flat and square. (Sound familiar anyone?) Factory-built trailers use massive jigs, and usually MIG which doesn't distort things as much because HAZ's are smaller.

Ya don't get much distortion when welding parts to a bridge!

I suppose that welding a trailer from scratch would be more difficult, in fact, I would never bother with doing that, it is cheaper and easier to just buy a used trailer. This bed is a little special in the sense that it lets me build a super strong and useful trailer, on the cheap relative to the level of function that I would get. Plus it looks good (to me at least). That keeping everything true is easier on this bed, is also a plus.

That's why I was a little bewildered by suggestions that somehow my frame would twist if I weld it after tacking it down to my bed.

I always wanted to have a very sturdy and compact trailer with walls. Not very easy to find. The strong trailers are too big for my zoning area, I think that I have a 17 foot limit on trailer length. This trailer is approximately 14 feet.

i

So did you ever take the frame off from the bed for welding? Yes or no.

Nick

The answer should be obvious by now, it is "no".

i

You'll have to excuse Nick, the Dick. He was probably imagining how HE would have made it: Plywood ....... some staples ....... some PVC bracing ............ you get the idea.

I killfiled Nick a long time ago. I can see has not posted anything relevant since then.

Steve

"Don Foreman" wrote

And yet, I think that some of the very nastiest MIG welding I have seen in my life that was for sale was on mass produced trailers. I went to buy one, and I rejected four of the same model before I found an acceptably welded one, which I bought.

Steve

Steve, I will do the same right now. What a waste of time.

i

OK Ignorant. Here you go again: This way, you couldn't make the upper welds (trailer standing on his wheels), and added real nice stress concentration.

So you lost: [Assuming you used the 2x4 for the frame as you wrote.] Bending strength in 2 axes: 17% Bending strength in 1 axis: 33% Pulling load strength: 17%

But you always know how to make things, you calculated your frame from start to finish, know exactly what to do and how to do it, can weld like no other.

Nick

How can you see what you can't see?

Nick

How can I critic Iggy's nonsense when I don't understand what's involved? And every critic I made on Iggy's failer er ... trailer was right to the point.

I bet my head that I have welded more frames (not for trailers*)), doors, railings, stairs, anchor plates, bridges, whatever, than Iggy did.

*) Welding for automotive would require a special license the company I worked at didn't have.

Nick

Nice work. I built a 3 rail motorcycle trailer several years ago and still have an interest in this type of project.

Fred

>

Thanks... I am slightly reluctant to call this a "three rail trailer", due to the reinforced nature of the bed itself. The bed's sheetmetal is like a fourth rail that ties everything together.

i

Looking good - if you break this frame, you'll have to work at it.

Then again this isn't the Military style lunette on a swivel, if you get seriously off-camber while towing this off-road you could put some nice spiral twists in the tongue...

Did you also get the ball coupler that bolts onto the slide channel in place of the lunette eye? Too many cars don't have pintle hitches, and there are days when everything goes wrong - your truck motor spits out a connecting rod sideways or the transmission calls in with a mild case of death, and you need to tow the trailer home with something else, in a hurry.

Might want to pick a good place to put another section of mounting channel to store the lunette or ball coupler when not in use (and a few spare mounting bolts), like inside the tongue Vee. Or underneath the bed if you don't mind crawling on your back to get to it - out of sight, out of a klepto's mind.

-->--

Thanks Bruce, you know a thing or two, so I feel a little relieved to hear that.

That would seem to be highly unlikely to be able to find a pieceof road like that (highly twisted road).

I do not have such a thing, sounds like a good idea.

I am going to post an interesting (to me) news update about this trailer.

i

And you must be clairvoyant.

Seeing Nick the Dick's drivel is easy enough. Everyone posts it when dueling with the unarmed man.

Steve

Steve

Time to open a new group "Nick's Schtick" Gerry :-)} London, Canada

All interested parties, please meet in the women's rest room in fifteen minutes.

Be prompt!

Steve