Unfortunately, my last build opportunity had life get in the way. Not as much accomplished before I had to leave as I was hoping. It's been about two weeks since I have done anything to the trailer and hopefully I will have a chance to complete some small task next weekend after I get home. The last thing I did was lay the ground work to mount the fenders. Trailer building is something I have no idea about so I reached out to Tony about how his were attached. Thank you Tony for your help and pictures
What follows is my execution of what he told me.
The first problem I ran into was my fenders were too short. I had 13 inch tall jeep fenders. Looking around, that is the right size for the 15 inch wheels. I guess if I had trailer tires with springs it would have worked but I don't. The recommendation is at least 4-1/2 inches between the top of the tire and the fender. I stacked a 4x4 and some other wood scraps to make that distance and it looked like I could not even attach the fenders to the frame. After searching around the internet, I found that they make taller ones, 18 to 19 inches. Before I committed to the internet store, I ran down to my local trailer supply and was able to pick up a pair of 19-1/2 inch tall fenders. Even better, the pair cost about the same as the single one on line and I could return the short ones. Advantages to shopping local when you can. Now that the fenders reach the frame, how do I attach them? Every trailer I could find had them welded to the frame. That doesn't work because the frame is slightly narrower than the cabin. Tony's method involved mounting a pair of brackets to the side of the frame and bolting the fender to the frame. Here is the bracket I fabricated
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It consists of a 1x1/8 flat bar about an inch and a half or two long with a 3/4x1/8 angle welded to it. The angle is about 10 inches long. Unfortunately, the exact dimensions are slipping away from my memory. The hole in the bar is for a 3/8 bolt.
I placed a 4x4 and 2x4 on top of the tire and placed the fender on the wood. That gave me 5 inches between the wheel and the fender. I then fiddled with the bracket placement until I had it with the hole in the middle of the angle. On each side of the fender, I cut a one inch notch. My speed square didn't have standard 1/8 increments so I can't tell you the exact dimension but it was the first mark past 5 inches and the first past 6 that I cut out. Again, I'm playing with two week old memories so verify on your own build if you follow this. Here is what the notch looks like after I cut it out
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the notch cut out all the rounded edge so that the fender would sit flush with the bracket and I would not need spacers.
Placing the fender back on the wood, I adjusted the first bracket to where the fender looked even and level and clamped it in place.
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Then I went to the other side Then I went to the other side and repeated the steps. It took a several tries and I actually adjusted the first bracket a couple times before I was happy with the placement of the fender. With it clamped in place I marked the location of the holes, took everything down again and drilled through the square tube.