Building a trailer

[dmax007]

Hi, I have read posts on this site and it appears as though it is one of the best forums on the net... I HAVE SEARCHED and SEARCHCED.

I must admit I am not a teardrop anthusiast though I am trying to build a trailer frame and there seems to bit a great deal of knowledge here.

I am planning to build a trailer to pull my kayaks with and would like to build it out of aluminum. I am stumped on what material I need. There is so much to choose from. Ideally I would like to puchase the materials and pay a local welder to build the frame and I plan on assembling everything else.

Ideally the frame would be 5X5 and have a 9 foot toung. The base of the trailer would be similar to a typical utility trailer and have two mounting T's, one front and one rear that would allow me load two Kayaks on the top. Ideally I would have a very versatile trailer. It would carry one or two Kayaks without the T's attached and 3 or 4 with the t's attached. Weight of each Kayak is appx 80 Lbs. I have plans drawn and would like to post for clarification but I am not sure how to include an image.

I am thinking that I could make the frame out of 1"x2" square tubing and the toung out of 3" square tubing???

Any suggestions?

[Dale M.]

First the aluminum material to get the strength of steel is will be about 3x large is dimension than steel.....

The cost of TIG welding up a trailer will be prohibitive.... labor will probably run you $50-75 an hour .... You can buy a welder and learn to do it your self in steel that the cost of TIG welding.... And NO TIG welding is not for the rank amateur....

There is a reason most trailers are made out of steel....... Weight you save in using aluminum will be off set by the bulk of the materials you need to gain strength you want....

Best solution would be to get a trailer "kit" like from TSC or HF and just replace tongue with long length of square steel tubing..... Since you load is "lite" it should work quite well....

Dale

[mk10108]

Will this work for you

[TD Beej]

For a give mass. aluminum will be stronger then steel, so in-dead for the strength of an aluminum tube to match that of steel it would need to be larger and/or thicker walled but would weigh less. Two things to worry about with aluminum is electrolytic reactions and stress fractures over the lifetime of the trailer. Problem with steel is it rusts and the weight penalty but it is easier to work with and cheaper. Really it comes down to how much you want to pay for the increased performance.

After seeing the the discussion of frameless building I am thinking that making the frame smaller and lighter is probably more cost effective approach to lighter trailer.

Barry