Koditten random project/boat build thread/Tacoma frame swap..

anyone notice anything odd with the ramp gate?

 

Looks like the metal net isn’t same width side to side.

 

Fab shop read my prints wrong. Never found it until I had the gate was put together. I noticed I was having more difficulty squaring up the frame than I normally do. Figured it was because I was in a hurry.

At this point I said "fuck it", it's my trailer, so if I can live with it, it stays built.

I did call my bud at the fab shop to put his cut team thru tape measure reading school.

We both got a laugh.

 

Bingo!

 

Something about welders...

In my shop, I keep saying the welders follow the +/- 2" rule.

So that gate is within spec.

 

Mounted a 2" square tube to the side of the trailer. There is a garage door spring inside the tube. I have a kevlar V-belt attached to the spring. The ass end of the V-belt is attached to the ramp gate. My red neck lift assist works very well.

 

I used a couple of wore out mower deck idler pulleys to guide the V-belt.

Even tho the pulleys are worn out and " growly" as hell on the mower deck, they are silent while guiding the belt.

 

I really like how the ramp gate suspends at whatever position I stop it at.

I especially like how I can lift the gate with the toe of my shoe.

No risk of blowing an "O" ring bending over to lift the ramp gate.

I'm done with being bent over...

 

Hah. Wait till you get old. And need something to pull up on.

You'll make one of those spring pulley contraptions and connect it to a deep sea fishing shoulder harness.

 

Smart thinking, works well & cheap too!

I like how the garage door spring is contained in the steel tube, when they break it is pretty violent.

 

This^

I mounted it on the passenger side since most of the time lifting/lowering occurs from the driver's side.

 

Morning

 

So now you really have me thinking about a trailer! haha. I've wanted one for my kubota BX23s for years, but could never pull the trigger on it. I thought aluminum for weight savings at first and maybe lay down treated lumber on the deck since our tacos can only tow so much (safely...). Thought to myself a 16ft trailer with dovetail or something to load.....double axle with brakes....now I'm just going to defer to you koditten!

 

Aluminum trailers are nice but the price.

Your BX23 isn't all that heavy, a steel full deck car trailer is only about 2000 pounds and with the addition of some extra tie down points can be quite useful for all sorts of things.

Like these:



I bought my last trailer from these folks: https://econotrailer.com/trailers

Great folks to work with and the trailer has been flawless, I picked it up on the way out on a 2500 mile trip. I put almost 5000 miles on the trailer in less than a year.

 

My thoughts on aluminum trailers:

I have built a lot of utility, car hauler and boat trailers. I have roughly 200 trailers I've built over the last 20 years. All these trailers were iron.

The aluminum trailers look nice, but I won't build one.

The 1st thing I can count on when I build a trailer, the customer WILL overload the trailer.

Steel trailers will bend and will spring back to shape when unloaded. Aluminum trailers don't like to bend...they break.

I've repaired many more aluminum trailers than steel trailers. My experience from all the cracked aluminum welds, that the aluminum weld is the weak point. A steel trailer the weld is stronger than the base iron.

This is my thought about the construction.

As for weight, the trailer may be 400 lbs aluminum vs steel. Our trucks aren't going to care. Gas milage is gonna suck no matter what trailer you pull.

 

Trailer wiring today. Wiring up the buds stepsons trailer.

Anyone wiring up a trailer, get yourself one of these junction boxes. They make trailer wiring so easy and they are very durable.

 

Nice, do you have a part number/supplier for the box?

 

I like to surface mount the wiring. I don't like to enclose the wiring.

Here in Michigan, you WILL be rewiring the trailer if you keep it for a long time. It just makes it an easy job to run new wires.

I use high quality wire vs the craptastic trailer wiring harness kits. A good wire will last a long time.

 

I think this is the one I used.

 

https://a.co/d/3RVUEaU

Here is the link.