The Oh Crap, I acquired a non-titled, homebuilt trailer thread

Subbed for the shitshow.

 

you're right. i've got my eye on this one, next time things go on sale. i thought it was a dryer/oiler, but it's a dryer/filter.

 

very tail of the trailer is FINALLY completed fabrication-wise. last detail was adding mounts for some led ATV flag whips. these connect to the stop/turn/reverse wires, because normal snow plow markers are boring.

the big benefit is that these have quick connects on them, where plow markers don't. and they'll add additional lighting to the rear of the trailer. something i noticed when pulling it is that people would creep right up to the edge of the trailer because they couldn't see it over their hood. with the whips high up in the air and waving around as fiberglass poles do, i'm hoping it'll keep people a little further back.

it'll also really help with backing the trailer up unloaded, to see where the tail is in relation to the truck.



and i added a front board support, and prepped the winch plate for the fairlead.


that progress gets me back to 'emergency towing' status, where i've corrected everything that came up from the test use.

next on the task list, is to add a motorized scissor jack to the front of the trailer for a power tilt function. it's not waterproof, and hydraulic options that i would prefer had comma's in the price tag. electric scissor jacks are running $50/ea. so i bought two. i'm hoping to be able to paint them with some silicone and make them waterproof. time will tell how well it'll work. i had originally wanted airbags for this purpose, but decided that a screw-type mechanism is far more stable than a variable air pressure system. i'm also running out of space on the trailer for the air bag size to get the travel i need.

and after that, i want to re-build the current axle airbag mounts to be in front of the current axle instead of behind it. right now i'm running a roughly 1:2/1:3 ratio of 'axle travel vs. airbag travel'. i'd like to try to have less airbag movement for more axle movement--closer to a 2:1, 3:1 axle/bag ratio. i don't need additional travel, but would like more flexibility on total travel usage. biggest thing right now is that with the bags behind the axle, the mounts get really close to the ground at full extension, and the mounts rotate, which puts a ton of pressure on only one side of the airbag, which could pose a maintenance issue later on. the mounts don't rub, as they're shorter than the tires, but only if i don't blow a tire, which with my track record, should've happened already.

sometime after that, the plan is to either work out the fender mounts, and figure out fender lighting schemes (have some ideas with conduit that are very different for this), or start working on adding in the second axle. fender mounts really sound more exciting to me.


after those things are worked out, then i can start working on hard-mounting all the big gear, (battery/fuse/relay box, airbag controller, trailer junction block, compressor, and air tank. then i need to mount the tiedown d-rings, then figure out final connection locations for things like the compressor fill chuck(so i can either air up other things, or quick-fill the tank from another compressor), accessory an battery cutoff switch locations, and add all the threaded studs needed for grounding(so i can run the trailer chassis as a common ground) between the tilt-deck and axles, that are all currently isolated by the rubber bushings.

 

i've been getting a little restless lately. far too many other things occupying my time, and it's not leaving much room for progress on the trailer, which i'm finding more and more possible uses for, which makes every delay more irritating...

so i painted the front corners, winch area, and tail board area so i could install the lights and winch. not wired, just throw the lights and winch on it, for that artificial sense of progress despite the distractions. i'm certain i'll regret this later, but it felt like progress. i also came up with a crude game plan for wiring everything. really hoping to do that next weekend so i can start using the trailer without needing to add temp lights to it every time.

i chose the 'ford blue' implement paint. i later learned there's a 'new ford blue' that's slightly brighter, but harder to come by in my local area.






and the yard mule needed a new seat and some chassis reinforcement, so it also got some paint work.



the tractor got ace-brand rust stop 'safety blue paint' that i had on hand. gotta say, i don't care for it. i'm a sucker for the forest green sears paint, but haven't a clue where to get implement or rust stop variant paints in a similar tint. i can't stand the bright john deere green, so that's out.

i might need to try rustoleum's 'professsional enamel' paint in hunter green


or i'll give this stuff a shot

 

lots has happened this week. i've been mostly absent from here as a result.

it started last weekend with this.


the short version:
i was gifted 2 riding lawn mowers. the idea was to flip them for money. last weekend, after tearing into both to get repair parts pricing, they both failed, and needed to be scrapped. repair costs entirely exceeded any potential sale costs.

so now that the decision was made, i needed them gone. it's taken me 2 months to get to this point. no reason to keep them around if i can't do anything with them.

problem being, the only way to get them gone is with the trailer. the trailer that doesn't have functional lights. and i drop-dismantled my trailer temp lights taking them off last time. they hit the ground and the magnets needed to secure them to the trailer fell out and broke. another project that was very far down the list of priorities.

so reasonably, i decided this was the perfect time to implement a deadline. i needed to get the trailer lights working by saturday at all costs.

the trailer's been living in my driveway for the week, and i've been working on it every night after work until the sun sets and the bugs come out and assault my light sources.

thanks to koditten here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...oat-build-thread.833295/page-21#post-30669219

i drastically re-worked my wiring plan. but his advice came a day too late. or i burned an entire day, depending on perspective.

not pictured, but i spent all of monday cutting and bending conduit to contain all the wiring for the trailer. tuesday was planned to weld it all in. instead i read his post monday night, and revamped my entire wire-containment idea.

i ended up with this. small pieces of flat stock to contain the wiring within the inside edge of the c-channel. it's an otherwise useless area of the trailer that now has a purpose.




i also added some d-rings. not enough for what i want, but enough for starters. for this load. i want another 4-6 on it i'll be adding later.


and a valid suggestion by koditten, but something i had picked up last year for the project(ahhhh! an entire year already!), i added in a trailer junction box for adapting the 7-blade to the trailer wiring. always handy for clumsy people like me that may or may not end up shearing off a 7-blade in a rash of poor decisions during trailer disconnections/connections...


and a big part of the week was spent building the zip tie holders for wire management.


it's one of those massively-time-consuming-simple-things that i never would've expected to be such a time-suck. i had to break out the band saw to cut the 1/2" square tubing(good thing i didn't sell it off yet! i was going to list it the same time as i listed the repaired riding mowers), then individually de-burr the 60 tubing pieces.

the next set of bad news, is up until friday night the weather forecasts were calling for heavy rain all day saturday. i already committed myself to getting rid of the riding mowers saturday, so i just buckled down to finish the task at hand.

ended up staying out until 2-am saturday morning, rain-free to get everything wired and loaded onto the trailer so i could run-n-dump in the rain instead of having to load up and tie down in the rain. the rain never did show up.

surprisingly, this is only 1100 pounds of scrap. still a high score for me, but i had guessed 2000-2500 pounds while towing it...




i did have a failure during loading.

i was using a farm jack to hold the tilt-deck in the raised position. i decided that while i wasn't extremely happy with my scissor-jack lift adapter, it should work just fine for holding the deck at the raised position for loading the tractors. and it did hold. until i started letting the trailer back down with it. i thought the design only had issues with raising under load. apparently there's also an issue with lowering under load as well...

this is what the design looked like(with bolts added!) before.


the bushings were needed so the two surfaces could pivot independently of each other.

and after the jack got down to the last 8" of it's travel to become fully stowed, it just, dropped. fortunately, nothing of value was lost. absolutely everything on the jack is bent/twisted. every arm, even the lead screw.



i went in to the jack purchase because it was a cheap option. i'm not shocked at the result of modifying it to do something it wasn't meant to do, and getting carnage. i'll move on and build something better. in some ways i'm glad it failed now, and in a safe controlled environment.

i'm horrified this stuff is sold to the general public for a real purpose, that they describe as being able to handle "3 tons", and it folded like paper on a load that scaled at 1100 pounds-just barely half a ton. the tilt feature wasn't even subjected to more than 2/3's that weight...

so i need to come up with a new idea for the tilt-deck raising/lowering that's far safer than a farm jack, and less expensive than a $3000 hydraulic setup.

i'm eye-balling vevor 3-bellow air jacks, but am really not crazy about the variability of air supporting the front like that. hydraulic is the way to go, but the cost is eye-watering.


and for kicks, my dog figured out that he likes truck beds this weekend. i didn't coax him into any of it.

 

a halfway productive bonus 'saturday' today.

got the safety chains installed, trailer plug tidied up in a more permanent layout, and started agonizing over the fenders.

primary goal for the time being is to make the trailer functional as-is. that means finish out the single axle with fenders, brakes, and lights, and get my deck board attachments figured out. bonus project is going to be getting the tongue storage box cut up and installed as part of the tongue frame rails, which is not at all a small project. just like the fenders. not difficult, just lots of tediousness. i'm pushing on the fenders and tongue box mostly because i'm tired of them taking up all my garage storage space.

fenders are planned to mount off the brake backer plates, with bolts, in case i need to remove them for any reason. i had originally figured to implement a hitch pin style quick disconnect method, but in order to have enough clearance to take the hitch pin off, i'd need to leave the fenders loose on the mount, and that will make them look sloppy, bouncing around all the time.



i have no idea where all my welding wire goes!



yes, this is exactly how one makes a $100 metal fender with a bright future into a $300 metal fender full of regret and over engineering. it should be spectacular on the first tire blowout.





and my neighbor is starting to pester me about getting the 2nd axle underneath it. i'm pretty sure he thinks it's going to be a failure, and wants to see it happen. i'd like to think i've planned better than that.