Converting a boat trailer

[Osage Outlaw]

I am planning on building a stand up teardrop shape trailer this summer. I traded for a dual axle boat trailer because of my very tight budget. I plan on hauling a lot of 70" long pieces of wood in the trailer so I think the axle spacing actually works better with a boat trailer instead of a dual axle utility trailer. I bought some angle iron and watched a youtube video on welding. My only experience welding was with a stick welder in a high school shop class 20 years ago. This was my first time using a wire feed welder. I think I figured it out and did OK.

Not all of the welds looked this good but they are all solid.




I made a 13' long and 75" wide flat frame. It's ready for paint and deck boards now.

[Redneck Teepee]

The weld you show looks just fine with proper prep on grinding off the paint. Proper prep goes along way towards a good weld,.... and especially a wire feed.... does not like paint, grease/oil, rust etc.

[Osage Outlaw]

I made sure to get all the welding areas down to bare metal.

[KCStudly]

That weld does look pretty good. Just hold a little longer at the end of the bead (so long as there is no risk of melting thru) and you will fill in that last little bit to match the rest.

I'm assuming that you plan to remove the outrigger stanchions and the carpet from inside of the fenders?

looking forward to following your build.

[Osage Outlaw]

Thanks for the welding tip. I will be removing the outriggers and carpet. I'm not sure what I'm going to do on the inside fender wells yet. Here is a profile I would like to build on the trailer. The wood compartment would be a bed platform on the inside.

[starleen2]

Before you get too far into the build - do yourself a favor and repack the wheel bearings. Not only will you know what the bearings are like, but you will also have the peace of mind that they are OK

[Osage Outlaw]

Before you get too far into the build - do yourself a favor and repack the wheel bearings. Not only will you know what the bearings are like, but you will also have the peace of mind that they are OK

Thanks for the tip. I ordered some replacement bearing buddy caps because one was missing. When I put the deck boards on I'm going to check them out and repack them.

[Osage Outlaw]

I used a sanding disk to remove as much rust areas as I could.




I gave it one coat of primer and two coats of flat black. It looks so much better with that horrible burgundy color gone.




I used 2x10's for the deck. It turned out looking pretty good for as little money as I have in it. I went ahead and got 2 more tires for it. That's new rubber on all 4 plus a new spare on the rim. The conversion to a flat deck went so smooth I decided to start on my camper build now instead of this summer. I need to at least get the outside shell done before the end of April.




I put one of the pieces of wood that I will be hauling in the spot that I want to make the wood storage compartment over the back axles. I think the spacing will work out just fine.

[KCStudly]

Curious about the wood. Are you making your own beech wood flavored beer?

Trailer looks good. Had you considered limiting the planks to the wood compartment and going with something lighter for the cabin deck? I realize the planks may have been more economical than ply, but how do you intend to seal between them?

[Osage Outlaw]

Curious about the wood. Are you making your own beech wood flavored beer?

Trailer looks good. Had you considered limiting the planks to the wood compartment and going with something lighter for the cabin deck? I realize the planks may have been more economical than ply, but how do you intend to seal between them?

The wood is osage. It's for making longbows. I thought about doing something different for the floor but I would have needed to weld in more angle iron supports so their wouldn't be any weight savings. I plan on putting some sort of sub floor down over the planks and then doing some kind of wood flooring over that.