I know it aint a car but Its a pretty nice trailer I think, maybe some of you will appreciate it. I'll make it short and sweet. I spotted a camper trailer frame sitting in a driveway here in New Mexico. It had been there for quite a while. I poulled in and asked him if he'd be interested in letting it go, I pulled out with it for $400. If you guys dont want to see trailers let me know, I asked ya'll about building a ramp truck and the general consensus was that a trailer would be better so here it is.
i always see free campers round my neck of the woods and think of how easy it would be to makes the frame into something usable, will definitely follow/ show this thread.
I took it back to the shop and first thing I did was flip the axles, I want to be able to retrieve a really low car but I need to be able to get up and down driveways and dirt roads. This is a vintage tin recovery trailer. Also I'll be able to haul stuff for you guys around the southwest. I did a 30 inch dovetail in the back, braced the heck out of the kinda weak trailer frame, put a sheet of 14 gauge diamond plate in the front for a good area for tool boxes, tires, air tank etc. Then I decided to get some rough cut lumber straight from the lumber mill. That was a cool field trip, all the true dimensional 2x12s were cut from one tree. HEAVY and wet. I hauled themn back to the shop and did my precision trimming with a chainsaw.
After the precision chainsaw trimming was done I had to research what kind of sealer to use. I decided on cabot. Pretty oily stuff. A lot of folks said to use diesel fuel but I figured I'd smell like a gas station evert time I go tunder a car on the trailer. I stained all sides of the rough cut and bolted it down right away. I didn't want to waste 200 bucks of timber letting it warp. I butted the boards right up tight next to each other and its a good thing I did. It's been only a month and now there is almost a half inch in-between each board. After all boards were bolted I contemplated it for a while and decided to go with 1/8 inch diamond plate steel for the dovetail. Finished that up yesterday. Oh and I painted the wheels red and I have some 50s chevy hubcaps on it. All the diamond plate has been painted with rustoleum, I used a roiller and put a thick coat on. Found some d rings and welded them on too. All I have left is fenders, lights, and to go through all the state weigh in and deputy inspections them I'm on the road. And the ramps. I'm in it $1150 right now and about 50 hours labor. It's almost 8 feet wide and 20 feet long.
It has 7000 lb axles with brakes on all 4, if I was going to build another trailer this beefy I might look for 10000 lb axles. Fortunately the tubing is really solid
I got a hold of an old trailer like that. The only thing left worth using was part of the tongue, axles, and title. lol. The frame rails were so rusted out, they were only good for 600lbs of scrap. Still not exactly finished with it yet.
R Frederick- What size and thickness of rectangular steel did you use making that trailer? Im wanting to build a trailer myself. But my trailer will see more weight than just a car, i need to haul my tractor around some. So have to be able to tote 7000 pounds easily.
I built my trailer from a camper frame too....Only trouble with them is that they are a bit narrow between the fenders.
I used 2x4x3/16" box, but I'm not really interested in pulling anything but my 2,000lb car. I should be good for any passenger car though. If I were to want to pull any more, I'd go with 1/4" thick box, and 5,000 lb axles. My axles are 3,500 ea.
The center point of the axles should be mounted 60% of the deck length from the front of the deck. If your deck is 10', hook the tape on the front of the deck and measure back 6'.
I sorta did the same thing ....... This trailer was free .... leaked in storage for years and once they get wet inside its all mush ..... Stripped it down to the rails Cut the tongue end back 5 feet and tucked it under and used 2x2 for frame-crosses and removeable headache bar with winch hookup. Iron plate wheel humps, ramps tuck in under, spare tire under, storage box front under deck. Wood deck screwed at each cross rib. Wanted to be able to haul both cars and construction wood (fork-lift accesible) Wanted to avoid a dove tail which, in my opinion, is wasted space .... no problem with low-slung cars. I have about $800 invested in plus the winch and alot of fab time ... but it tows bitchen and serves it purpose. PLUS I have made alot of new friends!!! LOL
I had 2x4 3/16" in mind for my trailer build, maybe 2x6.(2x6 with 2x4 crossmembers) With 5000lb+ axles with electric brakes. 1/4" thick is too heavy after all the cross braces and all. I also thought about 5 or 6 inch C channel 1/4" thick. But i am going to build the tounge and frame as one piece rails not squared like you have here. The tongue will flex the one side of that 2x4 3/16" like crazy butt welded up like that. But that's why you added the support underneath.
You can see the actual tongue in this photo is the piece underneath [ it's not a support like you suggest ] What he has done here is raise the coupler height [ or lowered the trailer ] , so instead of putting a "Z" in the tongue he has taken the top piece back to the front x-member. Nice workmanship! I have built trailers using 2"x6" ,because you have greater beaming strength from a 6" blade [standing vertical ] you can get away with 1/8 wall thickness. I have also folded up "lipped channel" to make a tongue 2"x6" tapered down to 2"x3" with 1/8" wall thickness Channel has poor torsional strength but good beaming strength, I couldn't mount the jockey wheel on the side Here is an example, total weight is 680kg's [1496 lb's] for this example , it towed like a dream
people widen cambered axles also without much luck ... they go through alot of quickly woreout tires from that action.
also don't forget you need to open the door to get out,you need to have clearance over the trailer fender or be able to remove the fender,
I didn't exactly flip the axles. I re-welded the spring perches and moved the axles to the other side of the springs retaining the correct camber.
Perfect timing for this thread since i just picked up one of these frames for free and am going to make a car trailer out of it.
On your ramps... looks like 3" C channel with 2" angle iron cross braces? what centers did you use for cross braces? also I'm thinking 6' long ramps. Are yours very heavy to lug around? I was even thinking of making them swing up and stay attached to the ass end of the trailer. I'm contemplating the added ass end weight. Any thoughts???
The ramps are made of 1x2x1 channel about 8' long with 2x1.5 angle treads at about 8" ... they weigh about forty pounds each and slide into the two troughs you see at each side of the license plate at the rear "bumper" (see the pic with chevelle) .... the troughs have a cam that holds the ramps inplace that I can put a lock on one single handle that locks them both in place. The ramps can also be hooked onto that 3.5 flatplate on the side for sideloading ATVs etc. the cross ribs are 2' oc
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