The Noob Trailer build

[Forsie]

Very nice additions. I like how you did the fender mounts.

Thanks man, i kinda had to roll with the change in wheel and tires, but it came out really nice.

Nice work, look forward to seeing more!

Oh there will be more! Im excited to get it road worthy and then put some dirt miles on it!

Keep up the slow but good work.

Hopefully not too slow

:lurk:

LOL, there will be more, keep watchin.

Nice work man. You must have really paid attention while perusing the build threads! I can't wait to see it rolling/camping.

Im definitely excited for that part too! All I can say is Google Images and I are good friends, seriously countless hours scrolling..... scrolling....

 

[Forsie]

I added racks at both ends. The tent will stay low in the center, and the racks will maybe hold an awning, and can support other gear above the tent. Also my leveling jacks will drop out the bottom of the rack legs...

I'm coming up on a pretty big problem tho, my tailgate is not strong enough. I thought I had some flex in the sides of the bed, but not so. After adding the rack, I went about trying to trouble shoot the sag in the tailgate. What I found was that where the hinge was attached to the gate had bent. The gate is pretty heavy and if it has already bent and I havent even taken this thing out yet,.... I gotta change it up. I'm just thinkin the gate isn't strong enough, and I may have to start over on that part.

 

[Forsie]

Well, filled in the triangle panels around the fenders today, and started bedliner, got the bottom all done.

 

[Forsie]

Set up the wire routing, more painting, built a tie down system for the bed, and drilled holes to bolt down my temporary OSB floor.

 

[Forsie]

Well, I am moving. Pretty far from where I currently live. So the trailers maiden voyage will be loaded down with everything I can fit on packed on. This also bumps my timeline to finish waaaaayy up! As in I need to have it licensed by next weekend, yikes!

So some things have to be prioritized out. Like my water tank location, and pump/battery box will be moved off to the future. But my tailgate problem had to be addressed immediately, since it has to be there to hold lights etc. in order to get a license plate. Really that is the end of the major fab work for now. But things like a lid will hopefully come later.

I wanted to go with square tube, cuz it would blend in a little better with whats already there. But wifey forbade the buying of more stuff to haul, so i used round tube that I had left over from a buggy build last summer. And it came together pretty fast, not my finest design work here, but its gotta be done dernit... :snorkel:

 

[Forsie]

Also had to rethink my fold up table top on the gate. This is what I came up with this time around. The table top will be some oak plywood that I already have, bolted into the frame. I actually like this idea better than the original. Also the turnbuckles double as lock-downs too, there will be a catch in the down position to hold the table top down when not deployed.

 

[Forsie]

And finally I set up the new light locations, license plate and light. A few small finishing touches and she will be ready, I'm pretty stoked!

 

[Forsie]

Grey fenders, cuz I had paint that color, and I'm not a fan of too much black. Tailgate handle, not sure I love it. And you can kinda see the stabilizer leg, they are almost done just need to finish the feet this afternoon.

 

[Forsie]

Stage 1 is done! :wings: Went to license it today....
But then it all came crashing down when I failed the inspection. Apparently in AZ a trailer must have mud flaps, yes mud flaps no more than 14" from the ground. I did not know that until today. So she now wears mud flaps...., and I get to go back and spend another fun filled afternoon with the lovely folks at the DMV tomorrow.

Since it was already hooked up I figured I would just tow it around to see how it felt. It towed great, for a super light, empty, high COG, short box on big wheels. I smiled the whole time tho :smiley_drive:

 

[Oldmancrash]

Nice build. I hope to build one next winter, hopefully

 

[Expedition.Report]

Looks good man!

 

[pkcub]

I real like your fender mounts. looks like they could take a hard hit .I may try to copy some thing like them.The trailer I am building uses a fiberglass curtain wall. I have to work them to be inside the box.

 

[Forsie]

Thanks fellas! I'm really excited to have it rolling!

Here's another picture, because I like pictures, and because it's sunny today...

 

[Forsie]

Well it's been another little while on this. I used it to move with, and boy did that end up being an adventure. It's way smaller than it looks, I looked like Jed Clampit on the freeway with all our stuff strapped to it...

And the adventure didn't stop there. On a particularly rough spot in the highway coming across northern AZ, we hit a very unexpected bump, and the trailer caught air! Talk about unnerving, holy smokes! But I got pretty lucky, things coulda got way worse. It ended up stuffing the tire all the way up into the fender, and that would have been fine except for those damn mud flaps! The tire caught a bolt head, ripped off one flap, bent the bottom of the fender, and damaged the tire pretty bad. That little mishap also bent the axle right at the hub on both sides. Luckily I was riding with spares.

So I have gotta re think the flaps, trim the bottom part of the fenders, and get a beefier axle. It was also really bouncy, so shocks are in its near future too. All things that you learn along the way, so I am not upset, but I am glad it stayed wheels down, and i learned a little bit more about what I am doing.

 

[Forsie]

Been a while, crazy work/ school schedule gets in the way of the things I know are really important...

New axle progress, bought a spindle and hub kit, and some tube. This thing is way beefier than this little trailer needs, but overkill is probably good in this case.

Will be adding shocks too, hopefully this week