Half way through my trailer 6' slider build - seeking advice

[jd-santaclarita]

Hi all - I took the plunge after seeing so many great builds on this forum. I was following pretty close to some builds, particularly the parts list jlmo shared in the main build thread. My goal was to be able to do it myself (dusting off welding skills, etc) and make it low enough clearance to fit my arb 63 without hitting the trailer lid.

- I ended up going with 2" angle iron as the base (1/8" thick).
- I coped and welded a back support piece to make it more rigid.
- Mounted the 60" Orr & Orr sliders to it.
- To keep weight down a little (a lot), went with the 2" aluminum angle for the slide rails (mounted 1/8" above the base angle iron for lowest profile)
- I screwed in some cross member aluminum angle supports but its not my favorite to be honest, seems a bit sloppy

I'm debating on the base (slide floor) material to use. I was going to get some diamond plate cut to fit but after seeing its $300+ per slide; thats way more than I want to spend. Wood is too thick and not sure it will be strong/tight enough to really make the slide rails rigid.

I was thinking about getting some 1/8" aluminum plate sheets (24"x4" - cut them to the 21" across i need) and screwing those down every 18" or so. Or I could frame out the "known" items like the fridge. But I'm not sure I love the screw situation and its tight given the low profile clearance i've got below the slide rails. I've never welded aluminum, I've seen you can hit it with a MAPP torch and use a brazing rod. Any thoughts on if it maybe a good idea to go that route and weld in some support bottoms that way?

Any other low profile type options that may work?



Thanks,
JD

 

[Lucky j]

Nice.

Go with pop rivets.

Simple and efficient. Or shallow t-nut and mechanical screws.

I did the rivet for my entire assembly but mine in only 32'' but orr and orr as well. I only used strips of 1/8 aluminium instead of full bottom. And very sturdy so far, more than 2 years later.

 

[jd-santaclarita]

I never even thought of rivets. Never used them either, but looking at how to do them on youtube and the one concern i see is the bottom of the rivet looks to leave a pretty long tail piece underneath. Looks like it essentially balloons it out to hold it in place, so given my 1/16" or less of clearance not sure i could go that route, unless there is a different kind of rivet?

-JD

 

[NatersXJ6]

Do you need a floor? Could you connect the slides directly to the side off your box? Lots of rigidity there.

 

[Lucky j]

All depend of the lenght of the rivet you will use.

 

[jd-santaclarita]

Got some 1/4" rivets and they seem to do the trick, thank you. Also tried my hand at some welding with a brazing rod and jury is still out on that...not the easiest to get a clean bond.