6' x 10' utility trailer build.

I thought for sure I already had done this build thread for this site.

I've been meaning to do a build thread on the trailers that primarily make and sell. Have had several members ask and I promised that I would do this.

Please bear with me, I can only post and comment a few pictures a day.

Here it goes.

We are going to start out with a pile of steel and end up with what you see below.

 

First thing is to get the rectangular frame tacked up. Each side is 118" and the ends are 76". Measure diagonally to get a square rectangle. As long as your measurements are less than 1/8" in difference you will be fine.

I have scraps of 5/4" deck boards that I use as spacers. I don't have to waste time measuring the proper depth tof the cross members using the spacers. If you have a floor that is not perfectly flat, you may have to compensate a bit. You will see the spacers in the pics below.

 

The second cross member is tube steel, all the rest of the cross members are angle steel. The tube steel is needed to have a solid anchor for the tongue base to weld to.

I don't measure the spacing on the cross members, just eye ball it. These parts will not be ssen once the lumber is attached. You are welcome to measure them out, I just don't have the time and have done enough of these that I can be pretty much be dead on by putting them in position based on what looks good to me.

Stay tuned

 

When you start welding the cross members in place, make sure that you go from corner to corner and side to side. If you start on one side and move down the frame, you will end up pulling the frame out of square. It is really amazing how much a weld will shrink and end up messing up the squareness of the frame.

 

I should mention that the trailer frame is up side down at this phase of the build. We will be flipping it over a bit later. In addition, the cross member steel pieces are 72" long.

As you can see, the axle is not the correct width. They never are.

 

Anyways, the steel you see there is mostly 14 gauge. This is classified as a medium duty utility trailer. I do this to keep the weight down. When all said and done the trailer will weigh around 750 lbs or less. The wood will continue to dry and thus make the trailer lighter. This weight allows one to use mid-sized vehicles to pull the trailer.

What you see there in the first pic, minus the wheels and axle, you are looking at 325 bucks around here. For 50 bucks more you can move up to 1/8 wall iron.

The cross member for the tongue and the tongue itself are 1/8" wall. Those are very important structural parts and for the 6 bucks extra it costs me, it is cheap piece of mind.

 

On with the build:

At this point I have hoisted the frame onto my welding table. I made a mark that is the center of the tongue cross member. I previously welded the ball coupler to the tongue. make sure the coupler is upside down as you see. I fucked up and welded the damn tongue on to the frame upside down once. That sure looked stuped when I flipped the trailer.

I only tack weld the back rear of the tongue to the tongue cross member at this piont. Once this is done, I stand in front of the tongue, back up about 6' feet and eyeball the tongue to see if it centered. Once I think I am close I will measure from the far corner to the front of the tongue. Check the oposite corner, adjust until they are equal. You will be suprized how close you will get just by eyeballing it. I would be willing to bet that you will be within 1/4" difference in your angle measurements.

Once I am happy that the tongue is ready to be welded in place, I place a nice solid tack weld were the tongue contacts the frame front. At this point I'm going to weld all the cross members completely. I will add my tongue angle braces at this time as well. Once we get alll these welds done we will be ready to install our axle.

To be continued.

 

You will notice that my axlw has a sleeve. This is no big deal. The stress on axle tubes is near the spindles. I previously would order the size axle I needed only to recieve the wrong axle time and time again. It is just quicker for me to make the axle whatever width I require. This way I can have several on hand.

You will also notice that there is an arc to the axle tube. This gives the wheels a bit of camber. This helps on roads that have high crown. I like it, but it is not nessasary. Just my preference.

I like to place my spring seats 56" from the front of the trailer. This gives me enough tongue weight when the trailer is empty to insure safe tongue weight. Regardless what you have read or heard, I don't believe there is an actual calculation for the proper placement of an axle on a trailer. You just want to make sure you have some tongue weight empty or loaded.

I don't even bother measuring the location of the rear shackle location. The only thing I care about is that the shackle links are leaning a bit to the rear. This allows the spring to flex like it is sapposed too.

When you tighten all your bolts, make sure that the spring bolts are only snug. I made the mistake of using my impact wrench a bit too aggressivly. The bolts were so tight that the links could not pivot/flex. This caused the shackle mount to actually rip right out of the steel tubing. Only good thing about that was I knew I had good welds. Welds held, steel didn't.

Stay tuned

 

Pics aren’t showing up

 

Dammit!

 

I found my pictures. Are they showing?

 

Still no pics

 

Yeah, I'm gonna abandon this thread until I figure out my pic issue.

 

Dang I was hoping to see it because I’m gonna be doing a trailer referb/conversion.... ps I can see two pics now.

 

I have the complete build on another forum. I've been trying to bring those pics here. They show up just fine in screen.

I'm gonna try to download the pics tonight to my computer.

The pics you can see came from TW media file, so those were easy. Unfortunately I don't have a complete build set of pics there.

 

Can’t wait

 

Getting ready to flip the trailer right side up. I slide it by hand and lower the one side to the ground. 2 people can do this job no problem. I'm by myself so I use my chain falls.

 

Chain falls holding up the side and fab table moved out of the way. I lower it about 3' and attach a tire/wheel at this time.

 

Both wheels on and trailer is starting to look like a trailer.

 

You can't see it from this angle, but I have a floor jack under the tongue. I previously laid a 4' level along the frame lengthwise. I use the jack to ensure the trailer frame is perfectly level.

I've placed all my uprights and top rails along with the fenders on the trailer. At this point things move along pretty fast.