"Wingin' it" 4x6-ish Trailer Thread

[Kevin B.]

I I may be overthinking this but if I have to add a spacer I think it'll be worth it to me in the long run.

You should probably check torque on the studs before every trip, but if you have to have matching OEM wheels that's probably the easiest way to do it.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Wheel spacers on a trailer won't be too bad. Just put a little blue loctite on them, torque them down in a star pattern, and head off into the sunset. I prefer to avoid them if possible, but on a trailer where there's no steering or scrub radius, it's not going to be too bad.

 

[Gravy]

I've bent an axle tube on a 3500lb axle towing my old car hauler up a dirt road empty. So definitely not overkill

 

[nnnnnate]

I decided to keep overall width as well as wheel path in line with the JK I needed to shrink it a bit. I had wanted to have an interior dimension of 48" wide but that seemed to screw everything else up. Going with an OD of 48" and ID of 43" I can get the numbers to work.

I made another stop at Henderson and got some good info. They can't do anything about shrinking the center of the hub which I expected. The guy said it will only take 4 or 5 days to build after I get back to them with measurements. I expected it to be a longer wait than that. It also seems like the price has gone up since Adam did his but it has been what, 8 years or so? Springs are included with all these prices.

No Brakes	$187.45
Brakes	$288.66
Brakes with Parking Brake	$325.66

That pretty much settles it for me going no brakes on this trailer. If it was close (i.e. $50 or so) I would probably add them but don't think I will for an extra $100.

Enough of the numbers crap. I got some metal cut this afternoon and did a quick mock up on the ground.



I'm planning on doing more work on it tomorrow.

 

[Box Rocket]

Yeah I got mine almost 8 years ago so it doesn't surprise me that the price has gone up a bit. As for brakes? They'd be nice but I've never felt like I needed them on my trailer. The only time I've ever had any sketchy behavior from the trailer was coming down a fairly steep section of the road coming down from Gold Bar Rim and it was very wet, muddy and slick. I needed to stop quickly for an oncoming vehicle and the truck slid a bit in the mud and the trailer moved sideways a bit in the mud since it wanted to keep going. Something called "inertia" or something......duh whatever. It really wasn't all that bad, and I don't even know if brakes would have made it behave any differently in that scenario. Bottom line is I think in most cases these trailers are small enough and light enough that brakes are not a must have item.

 

[nnnnnate]

I'm now wondering about the design on the front. In my sketch I had the side pieces that flare out butting into a 2' piece at the front of the platform with the hitch receiver coming through that piece. Do you guys think there will be any issues with strength doing it like this? Would it be stronger if I had the angled pieces butt into the receiver tube instead? I had thought about doing it with the 2' section for esthetics mostly I guess.

 

[Box Rocket]

Shouldn't have any problems either way. Typically straight triangulation is stronger than one with any kind of corner/joint in it but it will still be fine the way you have it drawn.

 

[nnnnnate]

In the words of the great philosopher and life coach Ice Cube, "Today was a good day."

I made some good progress and was able to get the main frame cut and tacked up. It took me close to 5 hours to do it but I'm happy with the results.

I put the pieces on cider blocks so I could get a strap on the side rails to bring the pieces square. I also clamped the side and center rails together to get the tops flush. I did 4 tack welds on each joint alternating between the sides to try and keep the heat down. I don't know if that was necessary but its what I did.


Here it is standing up after cleaning things up for the night. I still need to attach the top wings and the front most center piece but that will have to wait. I worked really hard to get a uniform width and ended up with measurements of 48 1/8" at both the front and the rear. The flare outs on the bottom extend 14" on each side. I think I figured I will only need 12" but I decided to leave it long and cut it down to length later.

 

[Box Rocket]

cool

 

[thefirstzukman]

I decided to keep overall width as well as wheel path in line with the JK I needed to shrink it a bit. I had wanted to have an interior dimension of 48" wide but that seemed to screw everything else up. Going with an OD of 48" and ID of 43" I can get the numbers to work.

I made another stop at Henderson and got some good info. They can't do anything about shrinking the center of the hub which I expected. The guy said it will only take 4 or 5 days to build after I get back to them with measurements. I expected it to be a longer wait than that. It also seems like the price has gone up since Adam did his but it has been what, 8 years or so? Springs are included with all these prices.

No Brakes	$187.45
Brakes	$288.66
Brakes with Parking Brake	$325.66

That pretty much settles it for me going no brakes on this trailer. If it was close (i.e. $50 or so) I would probably add them but don't think I will for an extra $100.

Enough of the numbers crap. I got some metal cut this afternoon and did a quick mock up on the ground.

View attachment 96890

I'm planning on doing more work on it tomorrow.

Future reference on the pricing of axles. There are enough people on here working at shops that buy from Hendersons, I used to co own an American Car Care Center and I had an old employee that started his own shop order my axle for me and saved me a lot of money. If there is someone on here that can hook you up its worth it.

 

[zmotorsports]

Future reference on the pricing of axles. There are enough people on here working at shops that buy from Hendersons, I used to co own an American Car Care Center and I had an old employee that started his own shop order my axle for me and saved me a lot of money. If there is someone on here that can hook you up its worth it.

Also, just FYI, NAPA auto parts now owns Henderson wheel so if you are in tight with your NAPA counterman I am sure he can help out with a better price from Henderson as well. That is what I did.

Mike.

 

[jeeper]

Also, trailer manufacturers, like big bubbas, will sell axles for less. There are multiple stores/people on KSL selling complete and custom axles.

I'm excited to see this build getting underway!

 

[nnnnnate]

That's great info, I don't know anyone that works at an auto shop and don't do enough car work to be tight with anyone at a service counter. I'd love to save a few bucks though...

 

[sixstringsteve]

looking good nate

 

[nnnnnate]

So while we were watching the Super Bowl a few weeks ago I was talking to my brothers about the trailer I was going to start building. My older brother is a Civil Engineer and my younger brother is studying to also become a Civil. When I said I had bought some tube to start the frame my older brother asked what kind, I responded steel. He laughed then started listing a bunch of different stuff to mess with me. I told him it didn't matter. So last Friday I sent him a picture of my diagram and where I had started to lay things out and he sent me a message this morning saying that he needed to know what axle I was going to use. A little bit after I responded he sent me this:

It only took a few minutes for me to run an analysis. This is what I do all day long. I assumed the trailer was loaded evenly with 3,500 lbs as shown on the applied load picture in the attachment. The unity ratios picture on the second sheet shows you how much each steel member is loaded. As you can see, the highest loaded member is only 46.7% of the capacity allowed by the steel design code. At work, we try to get the members as close to 100% as possible. The reactions section shows you how much load each tire will take as well as the tongue load.

In summary, the design is pretty good. You shouldn't have any problems with members failing. The hard part will be making sure you have good welds.

My tow rating is only 2000 lbs so I'm not even going to load it up that much and we are both in agreement that the welds are going to be the most questionable part of this trailer. The axle will be further forward from where he has it so I'm sure those numbers will change but I thought it was pretty cool that he would run this for me.

 

[sixstringsteve]

very cool!

 

[Box Rocket]

Meh....civils.......maybe do some checking with a M.E. and then I'll listen. j/k

 

[nnnnnate]

Against my better judgement I went to church ball on Thursday and it appears I may have torn my ACL. Thats what I get for being a fat guy trying to play a skinny guy game. I got in to a sports med doctor yesterday and I've got an MRI next Friday to know for sure but it looks like progress on this has stalled for the moment. I'm really disappointed because with the long weekend I had hoped to knock out a ton of work on it. I may try and get the frame on saw horses to final weld what I've got but I don't know that I can kneel down to get the front framing finished up. I'll probably get impatient and try to work on it but I don't know how that will go. The axle is also supposed to be done Monday.

 

[nnnnnate]

I hobbled around the garage this afternoon on my day off and managed to get a fair amount done. I figured out how I wanted the front tongue area and and tacked that in. Then after checking measurements again I started to final weld up all the other joints. I was super happy with how that went and feel like my welds burned in well and they also look pretty good. I'll add some pictures in a bit of the progress along with a couple questions.

 

[zmotorsports]

That sucks that you got injured. However, I am looking forward to seeing your progress and how it is looking.

Mike.