18ft Car Hauler trailer....

[bs46488]

I'm sure I'm not going to get any arguments from this crowd.....but I decided I needed a trailer! I was tired of renting trailers or borrowing friends trucks to move long loads of lumber.

So I started to shop around and found out that apparently used trailers are made of gold, because people want a fortune for them! So I figure I can build something like this (for about half the price including adding a winch). Will end up being a 18ft trailer with a 2.5ft dove tail at the end made out of 4" C-channel for the outer frame, 2x2 angle iron crossmembers, and 2x6 wood planks for the floor.



But before I got started, I ran into a little scope creep issue...where to store the trailer? So first order of business was to rip down my old rotten fence and put in a new swing out gate to park this thing on the side of my garage. (But I got busted by the wife and ended up having to replace all 110ft of the fence around the house to make it all look new. And build a new gate door with pergola arch. And the fun part of staining everything)







Well now that all of that is done....back to building a trailer.

Craigslist score of (2) 3500lbs axles, wheels, and springs


pre-prep work of priming the metal (not sure if this was a good idea)


Squaring up the frame


Determining width for axle placement (ended up at 81.75")




Working on mitre joints for welding


All spring mounts tacked on (also see the finished painted swing out gates)




Now I'm going to start cutting and welding in all the crossmembers. Then I'll need to find a way to flip this sucker over!

[bs46488]

Got the perimeter frame all together.

Started working on fabricating the tongue.

[bs46488]

Got all the spring hangers and crossmembers on and welded on the bottom.

I need to add on my dovetail on the back, but since I set up to close to my gate, I have to pull the trailer out a little.

Once that is welded in place, I'll have to find a way to flip this over and weld on the top side.

[azle]

Nice Work, thought about doing the same thing. How much do you think you will have in supplies?

Azle

[bs46488]

I should end up around $1600 with all the extras and mods I'm planning (brakes on both axles!, stake pockets, winch mount, spare tire mount, tool box, D-rings, straps, LED lights, adding a brake controller to my truck, etc)

Some of my friends said I should have just bought a used trailer and fixed it up. Right now those are around $2 - 2.5k for 16ft (and it will need new wood, paint, and usually tires)

The 18ft trailer in the picture in my first post I'm basing my off of is $4300 (plus tax, and DMV fees)

[bs46488]

Was able to move the frame out so that I could install the dovetail. 30" dovetail with a 7degree drop makes the step about 3.5" lower than the frame. I think that will be enough to help out but not too much that I'll drag the rear.

I'm going to weld in a 1/8 diamond plate step on the behind the rear fender so that should provide some strength to that weld. I might make a small fishplate for the outside rail "just in case"

This weekend I'll flip it over and weld all the topside joints. I estimate the weight right now at about 600lbs

[bs46488]

Got it flipped over.

On paper it seemed like "only" 600lbs of metal, but in reality it seemed like a lot more when we were trying to flip it over!

Lots of topside welding to do. Also have some small fabrication stuff to finish up (stake pockets, steps for the sides, front roll bar, ramps and ramp storage, etc)

[bs46488]

Starting to look like a real trailer...



Any advice on the equalizer for the double suspension? I have 2 of them, the bigger one is about 7.75" between the eyes. The little one is about 5.5" between the holes.



Suspension with 7.75" equalizer


Smaller 5.5" equalizer

[bs46488]

Latest progress.

Got the fender mocked up and front tongue braces measured and welded in. That made a HUGE difference in stiffness. Have to cut some diamond plate and weld down, which should also help.

[flashed]

It looks great so far , I just bought a nice 16 ft car trailer for $900 with 5 new tires .

[Advanced Design]

You are going to have a nice trailer. Ours was built in 1990 and is still going strong.

Did you decide which rocker? The longer one "looks" right.

[mongocanfly]

definitely use the longer equalizer. .those short ones will trip on you and its aggregating to try flipping them back..especially with a load on it

[aggie91]

any updated on this one?

[bs46488]

Had to move this to the back burner to work on the honey-do list a little.

Built a pergola on top of our deck and then pressure washed and stained the old deck.

I'm planning on rolling the trailer out this weekend and try to finish it up.

[aggie91]

Nice work on the deck!

[lolife99]

VERY nice work on the trailer!

[bs46488]

Got a little more done on the trailer.

Mounted the fenders. Fabricated the rear step with an integrated taillight housing. Also got a bunch of the stake pockets tacked in place.

Still need to fab the other rear step. I also have some fab work left on the front with a bar and tool box/winch mount. Then just paint, wiring and then the DMV

[bs46488]

Still plugging away. Got the diamond plate for 3 of the 4 steps on the trailer cut and welded in. I blew out the tip on my plasma so I have to order some consumables and finish it up the last piece. Maybe this weekend I'll wire brush and paint this thing.

[bs46488]

Finally broke down and made a decision about the Photobucket mess and switched to Imgur.

Also finally set some time aside to spray a gallon of primer and a gallon of gray on my trailer.

Amazing how paint really changes things.

[bs46488]

Painted, wired, and registered at the DMV.

Need to go buy some wood for the top.

It pulled pretty nice on the way to the DMV.

[Clyde65]

Well done!!

[mongocanfly]

that turned out nice..

[aggie91]

Looks really good. I like how you did the front bar, gives the trailer some flare.

If you don't mind, about how much do you have in the trailer $$ wise minus the axles?

[bs46488]

I think its amazing what a little paint does to a project!

Minus the axles, wheels & tires....just shy of $1100

Going to use the trailer to go buy a load of 2x8's to finish off the decking.

[mongocanfly]

only thing I see you may regret is the jack...those flip-up jacks aren't very stable especially if you use it while the trailer is loaded.. ive had em twist off before..