Newbie with another trailer build thread

[indycecil]

Let's start off by saying hello.

I just found this site early last week and it was just in time as I have started building a trailer. It's not an expedition/RTT trailer though. It will be used primarily to haul and keep all our camping gear in. We used to pull a 34' travel trailer with an Excursion, but sold them both right after the first of the year. We decided about 2 weeks ago that we were going to Grand Isle LA for a little R&R over Spring Break and since we don't have a travel trailer or big ole Excursion to haul everything in, well we need a trailer to pull behind our 09 JK. I looked all over the states of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois for a trailer to suit my needs. The only ones I found were $3K-$4K, and I will not pay that for a trailer that I can't sleep or shower in. I'm a pipefitter by trade and decided I could build one myself alot cheaper than that.

I have around $330 in steel. $300 in the first axle with all the springs/mounting hardware and hubs. $140 in the second axle (bare). I haven't bought the metal to sheet the sides or the steel to build the lid but I will this weekend.

My trailer box is 4'x6' inside. 24" tall with a 1x3 "lip" around it. The frame is 2x2x1/8 with 2 cross braces.

I bought all the steel from a local steel supplier and had him cut the pieces to length. It cost a little more money but it saved me a TON of time yesterday. I bought the first axle from a local trailer repair place. It is/was a Dexter EZ lube 3500# 60" H-H. It is too short so, it is for sale if anybody is interested, if not then I will keep it and build another trailer on top of it. I ordered the axle with 5x5 hubs so I could run the same 17" tires as on my JK.

I started yesterday morning around 8:30 and worked till 5 last nite, with a little help from a friend and my 11 year old son. Then went out today around 7am and worked until 4. I would have worked later tonite but I ran out of 75/25 gas.

We got the frame, spring hangers, tailgate, and box all tacked together and over half way welded up. When we put the axle on top of the springs it looked a little short to me. I worried it about all night long last nite and woke up at 7 this morning, run outside before the wife and kids got up, and took the spare tire off the wifes Jeep. Sure enough, the d**m axle was WAY TOO SHORT. I went to TSC and picked up a 3500# Dexter axle 72" H-H, brought it home, put the spare up to it and :wings: it works perfectly. I finished the welding on the frame, box, spring hangers, spring perches, and the tongue cut/fit/tacked in place.

I have taken several pictures along the way.

Here is the sign we always hang at our campsites.:Wow1:

Here it is being squared up.

Here it is being squared up the right direction.

One ugly weld

And one good friend grinding said ugly weld.

 

[indycecil]

More pics of yesterday's progress

Local 440's (my local) newest apprentice. :sombrero:

Uprights tacked in place.

The start of the top lip.

The tailgate. (A little dark but I think you can see what I'm trying)

The axle is too short! DOH!!!!

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Nice progress for a weekend... It will be nice to see how you finish it off.

Are you going to have a lid and have room for stuff on top, or just pile stuff in.

-

 

[indycecil]

Nice progress for a weekend... It will be nice to see how you finish it off.

Are you going to have a lid and have room for stuff on top, or just pile stuff in.

-

I will install a lid hopefully this coming weekend. I'm planning on hinging it from the side.

The plan is to use 3/4" plywood (birch and stained) for the floor and 1/8" aluminum diamond plate on the sides and lid. The sides will eventually be painted yellow to match my JK.

I think I found a set of OEM 17" Moab's, I'll find out later tonite when I call about them.:wings:

 

[indycecil]

Sunday's progress

Here are a few pictures of yesterday's progress. I got everything welded out except the tongue(ran out of 75/25). I went to TSC and picked up a 72" axle and got the spring perches welded out. Got the hubs "mocked up" and tried to mount the spare of the Jeep. It's always something with these builds aint it? The center in the wheel won't fit the center of the hub. I will still run a set of these wheels, I just won't be able to interchange wheels with the Jeep. Oh well, it'll look pretty cool with a spare mounted on the side or front of the trailer.

Here is the new spring perch welded out.

Rear spring hanger

Tongue fit/tacked up with my apprentice helping bolt the axle on:sombrero:

And another shot of the tongue.

If any of you guys with the experience see ANY thing that looks out of place, please let me know. This is my first time building any thing of size that I designed.

Tonights plan is to do NOTHING but enjoy the evening. I ran out of gas yesterday and didn't get to the supply house before they closed today. Darn work hours get in the way of everything!

 

[StumpXJ]

If any of you guys with the experience see ANY thing that looks out of place, please let me know. This is my first time building any thing of size that I designed.

Hello and welcome to the Portal!

You certainly have a great start to what appears to be an awesome little trailer.

One thing I wanted to bring up though, in looking at the 2nd picture from the bottom on your last post. The axle you have was originally designed for spring under axle, and you have it mounted as spring over axle. This is normally just fine as it provides a decent amount of lift to allow us to run larger tires. However, you should have welded the new spring perches 180 degrees apart from the original stock perches. If you notice the 'bend' in the axle, its now facing the wrong direction. The bend is supposed to go towards the top of the trailer, not point at the ground. The bend is there as built in camber, so in theory when the axle is heavily loaded the camber will be closer to zero than negative. A lot of axles are straight, and this would not have been an issue, but since the axle you have has the 'camber bend' in it (mine does too), you will need to flip it so it doesnt cause premature/uneven wear on those pricey tires.

Basically just need to cut off the perches and weld them on the opposite sides, then flip the axle over so the bend is pointing up.

Does that make sense?

Looking forward to your progress, these trailers are fun to build...

~ James

 

[indycecil]

Hello and welcome to the Portal!

You certainly have a great start to what appears to be an awesome little trailer.

One thing I wanted to bring up though, in looking at the 2nd picture from the bottom on your last post. The axle you have was originally designed for spring under axle, and you have it mounted as spring over axle. This is normally just fine as it provides a decent amount of lift to allow us to run larger tires. However, you should have welded the new spring perches 180 degrees apart from the original stock perches. If you notice the 'bend' in the axle, its now facing the wrong direction. The bend is supposed to go towards the top of the trailer, not point at the ground. The bend is there as built in camber, so in theory when the axle is heavily loaded the camber will be closer to zero than negative. A lot of axles are straight, and this would not have been an issue, but since the axle you have has the 'camber bend' in it (mine does too), you will need to flip it so it doesnt cause premature/uneven wear on those pricey tires.

Basically just need to cut off the perches and weld them on the opposite sides, then flip the axle over so the bend is pointing up.

Does that make sense?

Looking forward to your progress, these trailers are fun to build...

~ James

Great eye James!!!

I went out in the garage to look and you are exactly right. I knew that too, that's what's so bad. I may go get another set of perches and weld them on the right place and have a multitude of axle options.

On a good note, I found a complete set (4) of 17" Moab's with GY SRA's with less than 12000 miles for.......... 200 bones!:wings:. That's about 400 cheaper than I can find on the Jeep forums.

 

[StumpXJ]

Great eye James!!!

I went out in the garage to look and you are exactly right. I knew that too, that's what's so bad. I may go get another set of perches and weld them on the right place and have a multitude of axle options.

Now that you mention it, that would definitely be the easiest/best way to do it. Especially after seeing the weld you put on that sucker....:sombrero: It definitely is not coming off easily. Thats a good thing....

~ James

 

[indycecil]

. Especially after seeing the weld you put on that sucker....:sombrero: It definitely is not coming off easily. Thats a good thing....

~ James

I have been using a Millermatic 135 110v wire feed welding machine. I was a little worried about penetration with a 110v machine and the 3/8" wall thickness of the axle, so I preheated everything. When I struck an arc it was going so well I just couldn't stop.:sombrero:

 

[indycecil]

Saturday's progress

Well I went out and worked on the trailer yesterday. Things accomplished are:
1. Got the bearings packed full of grease and wheels on, with the help of a pair of spacers from Just Differentials. I heard about these guys on this forum. Great guys to work with. I called them at 4pm on Wednesday and had the spacers on Friday.
2. Got the tongue welded out, after a test drive to make sure it tracked square.
3. Got the tailgate built and the most simple latch/lock system I could come up with.
4. Got the flooring material bought. 5/4 decking board.
5. Got the lid figured out and drawn up. Will pick up material on Monday for this.
6. Flipped the axle under the springs. After a few measurements I realized the bottom on the trailer was going to be way too high for my JK. It is 22" from ground to bottom now.

Now the axle is flipped right.

The Just Differentials wheel spacers. Awesome customer sevice!

Test drive. "Measure twice/cut once" really works!

Da** overhead welds. I'm too big for this!

5/4 deking, yet to be cut to fit.

VERY SIMPLE LATCH!!! Works though.

Just because.

 

[indycecil]

Saturday's progress

Well let's start off by telling ya, I didn't take any pictures today. That may be how I got so much done today.

First I pulled the chassis outside out of the way. I then put the 4' x 8' 14 gauge sheetmetal on the floor, put a cut off wheel in the circular saw, clamped a guide the metal, and cut the sides to fit.
Second I put the 5' x 8' sheet of 14 guage (double the price of the 4x8) on the floor, layed the lid frame on top, and started tack welding the frame to the metal.

I then picked everything up, so I didn't have to work on the ground (too dam old and big for that anymore), and put it on a make shift saw horses. I pulled out the ole circular saw with the cut off wheel and started cutting the metal to fit the frame. See I don't know if I have mentioned before, but I built the box 4'-4" wide so I could put a sheet of plywood/sheetrock/ect in the bed. If you haven't figured it out yet, if you build something big enough for plywood to fit inside the you physically can not cover the same with a piece of plywood. Took a bit to figure this one out because I had intended on using wood on the lid. Oh well it's done now.

Next I backed the trailer back inside the garage (it's been raining here since yesterday) and cut the 5/4 board to length. I also painted the inside of the box so I can install tomorrow everthing I got finished today.

I started at 8 this morning running around with the wife and kid getting some spring break shopping done. I got in the garage around 11am and finished the painting around 730 tonite. I plan on getting this thing finished tomorrow except for the finish coat of paint and fenders.

Speaking of fenders, I tried to build a fender this past week. That is when I realized there are some things I can do and some things I DON'T EVER WANT TO TRY AGAIN. I found some on etrailer for 16.5" wheels that are 13" wide. I'm pretty sure these will work fine and they are only $35 a piece. This will leave 1 1/2" of tire showing outside of the fenders, but I figure if I have trouble I should be able to use a set of CJ flares to make up the difference.

Oh yea I almost forgot. I found a factory hitch on CL this past week for 50 bucks. Picked that up today too. I hope to put it on early next week. I have read a lot of threads on trailer light hook-ups and still can't figure out why anybody would pay 30-40 bones for a "Jeep" brand 4 prong hook up when you can go to autozone or napa and for 3 bucks and 30 minutes you can have the same end result. Can anyone give me a little insight that I may have missed.

Well that's all for now. Have a happy Saturday nite and don't forget to set your clocks up one hour before you go to bed.

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Good progress... NOW GET THE PICS..

-

 

[indycecil]

Here is how I started out the day. I primed the top of the bottom steel so it won't rust after I put the boards on. I also primed the tube steel uprights before attaching the side panels.

The first panel.

The floor and the front panel. If you see a little daylight, which you should, don't think anything of it. It has been filled with paintable sealant. Just waiting on it to dry so I can paint this week.

The lid turned upside down for a little primer and cleaning before final attachment.

I think it will be strong enough to hold anything I want to put up there. I am 6'-3" and 300# and didn't budge and I was bouncing on it.

My wife had these plant hangers from last year sitting on the bottom shelf and I wasn't paying attention to the spark spray from the grinder. Needless to say when you smell something that smell like something is on fire, well there more than likely is. I wish I had taken a picture of the blaze (after I got it out of the garage) it was something to see. I wouldn't think a little dry whatever they put in these hangers would blaze like that

I have worked 3 weekends in a row on this with out so much as a busted knuckle. That changed today. I'm blaming this stupid daylight savings for everything that happened to me today. It started this morning when I was putting the floor in. 1st I got the heel of my hand caught between the chuck and the chuck key in my drill, then when I was ripping the last board to fit I got a piece of saw dust that felt like a 3' long 2x4 in my eye. Then on the next to last screw I got my thumb in between the chuck and chuck key, this one brought lots of the red stuff. To top the day off I tried to burn my garage down. I will be soooooooooo glad to get out the burbs and into the hills and hollows with a barn that you actually work in.

 

[Rezarf <><]

That is coming along really nicely, good job!

Glad you caught the flame before it caught you!

 

[scarysharkface]

That looks great!

John