Started with a trailer I bought from craigslist (see below, I maxed out pics and the first one got bumped)
The girlfriend was extremely unimpressed, although I, having been mezmorized by my own vision for it and desire to have a kayak/camping gear trailer (as well as new project to obsess over) bought it on the spot.
Took it home for the night.
The initial euphoria of the purchase wore off and I realized I just towed a huge ugly piece of junk all the way across town. This is going to be a lot of work...as you can see, it's a pretty light steel angle frame with sides out of HVAC duct spot welded to the frame. The tires were mis-matched donut spares, the spare spare was shredded, the only plus was that the frame was light (I only plan on carrying two kayaks and camping gear, not a lot of weight) and it had super long leaf springs and was cheap. The rest, well, needed some attention...
I got it to the garage and decided to check out the axle, it seemed to tow fine but I took the tires off and spun the hubs and sure enough one was starting to feel a little rough. After doing some research I discovered that the axle is actually from a 1940 (+/-) Model A, it was a front axle that had the knuckle components welded solid, true Okie-fab style.
Yeah something not quite right looking about that...
Anyways, found some wheels and tires for a great deal and decided to get them and then figure out the axle next.
Fit the tires on the old axle just to get a base measurement, it was a little tight but actually would have worked, but that axle had to go.
I found a local Dexter axle supplier that had a 3500# axle with the exact hub face dimension I needed and they actually switched the hubs for me to a 5x5.5 pattern that they also had in stock, but the spring centers were a couple inches long so I went ahead and got some extra spring seats and welded those on myself. I welded the spring seats on the opposite side of the axle, I had to cut out part of the original seats to make the ubolts fit.
Here is the frame mostly painted, a lot of the extra steel pieces cut off, and the start of the siding (wood for now) and check of the tongue length. When I bought the trailer I noticed the frame was slightly twisted so I had to straighten it out by parking it between two parking curbs and chaining two corners down, blocking one corner up, and jacking the remaining corner to twist the frame back into (mostly) plumb. It worked well enough.
I kinda rushed the whole "build" since I was trying to get the trailer ready to test out on a kayak bass fishing tournament and camping trip about an hour and a half away. Here it is loaded up and ready to go.
It ended up trailering great!
Here were are after the tournament, trailer in background along with a kayak carrier system me and the other two guys in teh pic fabbed up a month or so back to carry 4 kayaks to Galveston for a fishing vacation.
I didn't get on the board this tournament but the guy sitting next to me won that day with 2 11" bass. It was a small lake and slow day...I'm in the blue shirt
Anyways, all this week I finished painting the inside and out, underside of the frame and doing misc hardware and welding touchups and whatnot...here it is as it sits now, I painted the outside with $10 rustoleum hunter green exterior enamel, it doesn't quite match the jeep but for $10, who cares! Now it needs more stickers. I'm looking for a good deal on some steel to start fabbing up a top, and the front panels on each side will be swing out doors once I get around to it. Might be a week or two since I'll be gone for work all next week though, but here's a good stopping point.
OK doesn't require trailer registration, but I figure I'd go ahead and register it, apparently they don't even inspect the trailer, you just pay $10 and get a tag. I figure it might help some if it gets stolen or lost? Probably not, but maybe I can get a cool looking plate if nothing else. Maybe it will look better with some stickers and mud on it.
Okay I can't delete the attachment below for some reason, it is my old kayak trailer I built up off of a northern tool folding trailer...
The girlfriend was extremely unimpressed, although I, having been mezmorized by my own vision for it and desire to have a kayak/camping gear trailer (as well as new project to obsess over) bought it on the spot.
Took it home for the night.
The initial euphoria of the purchase wore off and I realized I just towed a huge ugly piece of junk all the way across town. This is going to be a lot of work...as you can see, it's a pretty light steel angle frame with sides out of HVAC duct spot welded to the frame. The tires were mis-matched donut spares, the spare spare was shredded, the only plus was that the frame was light (I only plan on carrying two kayaks and camping gear, not a lot of weight) and it had super long leaf springs and was cheap. The rest, well, needed some attention...
I got it to the garage and decided to check out the axle, it seemed to tow fine but I took the tires off and spun the hubs and sure enough one was starting to feel a little rough. After doing some research I discovered that the axle is actually from a 1940 (+/-) Model A, it was a front axle that had the knuckle components welded solid, true Okie-fab style.
Yeah something not quite right looking about that...
Anyways, found some wheels and tires for a great deal and decided to get them and then figure out the axle next.
Fit the tires on the old axle just to get a base measurement, it was a little tight but actually would have worked, but that axle had to go.
I found a local Dexter axle supplier that had a 3500# axle with the exact hub face dimension I needed and they actually switched the hubs for me to a 5x5.5 pattern that they also had in stock, but the spring centers were a couple inches long so I went ahead and got some extra spring seats and welded those on myself. I welded the spring seats on the opposite side of the axle, I had to cut out part of the original seats to make the ubolts fit.
Here is the frame mostly painted, a lot of the extra steel pieces cut off, and the start of the siding (wood for now) and check of the tongue length. When I bought the trailer I noticed the frame was slightly twisted so I had to straighten it out by parking it between two parking curbs and chaining two corners down, blocking one corner up, and jacking the remaining corner to twist the frame back into (mostly) plumb. It worked well enough.
I kinda rushed the whole "build" since I was trying to get the trailer ready to test out on a kayak bass fishing tournament and camping trip about an hour and a half away. Here it is loaded up and ready to go.
It ended up trailering great!
Here were are after the tournament, trailer in background along with a kayak carrier system me and the other two guys in teh pic fabbed up a month or so back to carry 4 kayaks to Galveston for a fishing vacation.
I didn't get on the board this tournament but the guy sitting next to me won that day with 2 11" bass. It was a small lake and slow day...I'm in the blue shirt
Anyways, all this week I finished painting the inside and out, underside of the frame and doing misc hardware and welding touchups and whatnot...here it is as it sits now, I painted the outside with $10 rustoleum hunter green exterior enamel, it doesn't quite match the jeep but for $10, who cares! Now it needs more stickers. I'm looking for a good deal on some steel to start fabbing up a top, and the front panels on each side will be swing out doors once I get around to it. Might be a week or two since I'll be gone for work all next week though, but here's a good stopping point.
OK doesn't require trailer registration, but I figure I'd go ahead and register it, apparently they don't even inspect the trailer, you just pay $10 and get a tag. I figure it might help some if it gets stolen or lost? Probably not, but maybe I can get a cool looking plate if nothing else. Maybe it will look better with some stickers and mud on it.
Okay I can't delete the attachment below for some reason, it is my old kayak trailer I built up off of a northern tool folding trailer...
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