Finished Lowe's trailer

[Deschutesl]

Picked up a used trailer from some guy who had bought it at Lowe's originally. I started on it this past December and taught myself to weld for this project with a 110V flux cored machine. I just found this site and thought I would share some photos of my progress. There are some great threads on here I only wish I had found it sooner.

 

[Deschutesl]

 

[Deschutesl]

more...

 

[Deschutesl]

 

[SOLAMF]

Fantastic! Is this the 4x6?


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[Deschutesl]

Fantastic! Is this the 4x6?


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Close, its their 3.5x5 made by carry-on trailers

 

[utherjorge]

Are you keeping the stock axle?

 

[krick3tt]

Certainly looks to be purpose built. Fine work.

 

[dearchristopher]

man i wish i could weld. i just don't have the room. living in an apartment sucks! great build

 

[Deschutesl]

Are you keeping the stock axle?

Yeah for now. It's rated 2000lb, although I don't actually know the weight of the trailer yet. I noticed a couple weeks ago the axle was bowed downward since I had flipped it to raise the leaf springs. I didn't know it was bowed in the first place and I'm not sure how safe it is to run it upside down. I imagine its acceptable for a certain fraction of the axle's load rating but how much I have no idea. I'm going to put new leaf seats on the axle and get it back to an upright position. This is all new to me but I figure if I keep the weight substantially lower than the axle's rating I should be fine off road. Would you use a different axle?

 

[Deschutesl]

Certainly looks to be purpose built. Fine work.

Thank You

 

[utherjorge]

Would you use a different axle?

This sort of engineering is beyond me. But I seem to recall someone doing something similar (not as comprehensive as what you've built, but taking a HF trailer and upfitting it, I think) had to swap the axle, more for allowed speed than anything else.

 

[98xjaz]

I just picked up the 5x9 version of this trailer. I also went to flip the axle to lift it for level towing behind my XJ and discovered that it is a pre-loaded (bent) axle. I think this means that when loaded the axle will straighten so having it bowed down before loading will be no good at all. I went ahead and welded new perches directly opposite the old ones and left the old ones in place. It bolted back on without issue. Looking at what you have done already it will be no big deal and the new perches are only a few bucks each. The only thing you might need to consider is the penetration your 110v welder will provide. the perches need to be welded on firm, especially for off road towing.

Nice work on the modifications. I am looking to build a similar trailer. I have been buying parts for a build but it has been slooow progress. the 5x9 just happened to hit Craigslist at the right price so I grabbed it for general use. It is too modestly built to modify such as you did (it's pretty flexy) and the axle width is not what I wanted. There are 2 of the 3.5x5 models on my local CL too though that have me thinking about doing the same as you.

 

[FS_Overland]

This is awesome. I was definitely wondering about the axle as well!

 

[98xjaz]

The data sticker will tell you what the empty weight of your trailer is, subtract that from 2,000 and you have your carrying capacity. Mine is in the neighborhood of 400. With the steel you added, you can ball park it. I'm sure there are resources online that tell you how much a foot or square foot of what material you used weighs. So if you added say 300 lbs to it, you would still have over a thousand pounds of carrying capacity.

BTW... Love Love Love the Black Butte Porter