great write up on your build, I did a double take when seeing the Fairfax County police van. I'm just up the road from you in Herndon. Your paint came out looking great, especially compared to my rattle can job. have you had it inspected as a home built for the registration yet?
Mighty Max (pickup) Expedition/Utility/Rally Support Trailer Build.
- Thread starter irish44j
- Start date
irish44j
Well-known member
Yeah actually in that picture where the police van is after they were done dealing with what they were doing I had a lieutenant come over and validate that my new VIN tag was on it and sign off on it. So now I just have to wait for my appointment at DMV which is in late April so I can register and get plates for it. So far as I can tell there is no other kind of inspection requirement for trailer this size since I am noti g gross weight as being under 3500# So no need for brakes (and only trailers of the brakes need to be inspected, like my bigger car hauler trailer)
irish44j
Well-known member
Lol. Yeah, i have plenty of different hitch bases (including one identical to that), but simply dropping the ball down will make the rear of the trailer tilt up and i want it level. In any case, i decided on a bulldog hitch, which will be at the same height as now but wont have the latch in the way in top.
Mine was the same way, I was surprised how easy it was. The only annoying thing is now I pay more in PPT on my little home made trailer than I do on my 94 Wrangler. lol Don't forget to tell the county you still own it each year still if it's permanently registered, I misplaced the envelope with my confirmation and almost got a $300+ fine!
irish44j
Well-known member
Hm, that's interesting. I pay minimal PPT (like $20/year) on my 18-foot car hauler trailer, and I think it was about the same for my 4x8 carry-on and 4x4 HF trailer before that. Then again, I'm paying a lot more on my GTI, Sequoia, and wife's CX-9 (not to mention the huge property tax on my house), so maybe I just never looked much at the trailers. Don't pay any on my 3 vintage-tagged cars at least
irish44j
Well-known member
After debating on some solutions to the hitch interference (thanks all for the suggestions!), I went ahead and bought a bulldog hitch, since it doesn't have a top latch and will save me from making changes to suspension or the neck itself. So that came in today and man, it's beefy. I know these aer generally for heavy-duty trailers but it probably weighs twice what the other hitch weighs. If you don't know, the bulldog basically has the side of the "cup" open to let the ball in when you slide back a spring-loaded collar. Then once the ball is in, you close the cup and the collar pops back over it (with a bin behind to keep it from opening). Maybe this just needs some break-in (or lubrication) but it took a good amount of strength to get the collar all the way back to clear the cup's lip. Not a big deal since not like the trailer is going on and off frequently, but definitely a bit cumbersome.
Also, bulldogs are generally weld-on (for HD applications) but in order to leave my options open in the future I decided to drill it to be bolt-on. Took a lot of measuring to try to make the holes in the same place as the frame
Holes lined up and bolted on
And painted it black, since the gray is ugly. I found it amusing that Bulldog puts some contact paper over their big sticker that says "remove after painting" - like they want to make damn sure their sticker is still visible after your dumb-ass paints over it, lol.
Also, bulldogs are generally weld-on (for HD applications) but in order to leave my options open in the future I decided to drill it to be bolt-on. Took a lot of measuring to try to make the holes in the same place as the frame
Holes lined up and bolted on
And painted it black, since the gray is ugly. I found it amusing that Bulldog puts some contact paper over their big sticker that says "remove after painting" - like they want to make damn sure their sticker is still visible after your dumb-ass paints over it, lol.
irish44j
Well-known member
Trust me it's on the list! That said I've never had any issues with the welder running 110, And I'm not sure I have enough future project justification to drive the cash on a bigger welder. The thing that actually trips my circuits is my plasma cutter when being used at the same time as my compressor, which I would like to resolve since having a plasma cutter opens a lot of opportunity for doing cool smaller fabrication projects.
old_CWO
Well-known member
I used to think that as well. That is until I made the leap to 240 for the air compressor and welder. The performance difference of both is incredible. It's more like having a small commercial shop and you waste less time waiting for duty cycles to catch up. I have seen guys make up an adapter cord that goes to the dryer outlet in the laundry room. For occasional use tools like the plasma or welder it's a pretty good solution if not too far from the garage.
My garage is finished drywall so to save money on the upgrade I ran conduit on the surface of the walls myself, pulled the wire and installed the receptacles. Had an electrician come in and install the breakers, inspect my work and make final connections. Saved a ton and spread the cost out a little bit. I do have a subpanel already in the garage so that helped quite a bit.
I have enjoyed the progress on your project, thanks for sharing.
irish44j
Well-known member
Yep same plan here in terms of running wires. Right now I run everything off a block of plugs that is basically right next to my fuse box in the garage.
Laundry room is an interesting idea since it is directly across the wall from the garage but I would need either a very long extension cord or to put a hole in the wall between the garage and laundry room which my wife would probably not like at all lol.
It's been in my plans for a while I just keep on having other things to take care of!
Laundry room is an interesting idea since it is directly across the wall from the garage but I would need either a very long extension cord or to put a hole in the wall between the garage and laundry room which my wife would probably not like at all lol.
It's been in my plans for a while I just keep on having other things to take care of!
irish44j
Well-known member
I had to cut some stickers for a buddy's rally car yesterday, so while I was at it, cut a MITSUBISHI one for the tailgate. I was thinking about doing it in white, but in the end decided to go with something a bit more subtle.
The dog decided to show off how well the vehicles match with him.
The dog decided to show off how well the vehicles match with him.
irish44j
Well-known member
Saw a pair of tow eyes from my Sequoia sitting around the garage (removed to fit the front hitch), so figured, might as well do something with them, and give myself rear recovery points on the trailer, if for some reason I'd ever need them
Oops, fail at camera focus because of wet paint or something. Anyhow, they're welded on there far more extensively than needed lol
While I was there put an angle iron bracket behind the "tripod" leg so I can lock it in place vertically if needed (hardware is temporary)
Oops, fail at camera focus because of wet paint or something. Anyhow, they're welded on there far more extensively than needed lol
While I was there put an angle iron bracket behind the "tripod" leg so I can lock it in place vertically if needed (hardware is temporary)
colorado matt
Adventurer
been following along...great work ...maybe i missed it .... have you loaded the trailer with weight consistent with what you might carry when in use ... was thinking that may have dropped the space you needed for hitch mod ....Matt
irish44j
Well-known member
Not yet. Thanks to DMV COVID restrictions I don't have tags for it yet (scheduled for later this month), and I don't really feel like loading it all up just to unload it. I'm too old for that ******** lol.
I did use it for a week to store all of my spare rally gear in the black and yellow bins, which was probably a good 300# of total weight, didn't really seem to change the height of things at a glance, but didn't really expect it to.
I do have a set of shorter shackles sitting on my workbench, so once I finally do get it behind the truck and loaded and go drive it a bit I'll have a better idea of whether I want to make any adjustments on the suspension height. With rally season about to begin, I've been spending time getting the race car ready to go so right now the trailer is stashed in the backyard with my bigger car-hauler trailer. Once I get plates and can do some towing with it, I'll update this thread.