Trailer widening

[garp55]

I recently posted a question on whether you could widen the body on a 4' x 8' trailer to make it 5' wide and several of you were so kind to answer my post, I forgot to ask if I had to weld dog ears on the sides to accommodate the extra width or simply extend the floor over the frame by 6" on each side.About skinning, since it will hopefully be 5" wide, do they make luan in 5" widths to skin the trailer? Thanks again for the replies, Gary.

[Roly Nelson]

Some builders just run the side-to-side wooden floor supports out over the trailer frame to obtain the required width. Trying to find 5 ft wide sheets may be a problem. You might check with some specialty plywood suppliers, but the cost will be outragious. Skinning the roof is usually done with the grain running from side to side, not lengthways, since it is easier to bend it over the roof curves. You could go ahead and use 8 ft lengths for the roof, and then use the 3 ft cut-offs for cabinet construction........Hey, it works for me. Good luck, and keep asking questions and someone will answer.
Roly ~~