I may have had plans but it felt like I was just making it up most of the time.
I wanted a a 5'x 9' trailer. I was not finding a chassis that fit my plans.
I was a total noob. My metal working experience was limited to opening tin cans. I decided I should be bold.
I opted to fabricate the chassis. This involved learning to weld. I would recommend this to anyone. Don't listen to the folks who try to discourage.
I enrolled in a stick welding class at the local community college. We were a fairly mixed group of students. There was a retired farmer and a construction contractor but mostly young men hoping to gain a skill for employment. One of the students apologized to the instructor for dropping out of his class a previous semester. He explained he had been in jail since then. The shop classroom we worked in had all sorts of equipment that I will never own in my garage. I really enjoyed this class.
I have found this is a worthwhile skill. I made several objects before tackling the chassis including a welding cart, a firewood rack and a fence post driver. Since the fence post driver seemed to be holding up after driving a bunch of steel posts, I felt confident the welds of my chassis would hold together too. I also looked at a Harbor Freight trailer in light of my new skills and felt I could do better. My welds often don't look so attractive but they are strong.
The chassis I decided on consists of an "A" type design using 2" X 1" X 1/8" tubing for the long stretches. Andrew's tables indicated that is plenty strong enough for the anticipated weight of this trailer. This design borrows much from Alaska teardrop
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=51991All steel pieces were cut to size using an angle grinder tool fitted with a cut-off wheel. The tongue is 40". Here is the hitch adaptor piece ready to weld to "A frame" pieces. I clamped a bit of square tubing to the adaptor section to help align the pieces for welding. This helped assure everything was flat and symmetrical.
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Here is the tongue welded up. I tidied it up a bit with a grinder before painting. I also welded on a loop of 3/8" round for safety chain attachments.
One of my least favorite fabrication tasks is drilling holes in metal. I needed to drill some 1/2" holes to mount the hitch ball adaptor.
I used a Dexter #8 Torflex axle derated to 800 lb. When you order an axle there are a number of dimensions that must be described. Based on your input, they build a custom axle just for you. This process was very stressful but I seem to have hit all the numbers OK. The axle fit the trailer perfectly. The tires are 13" trailer tires.
The axle was attached to the chassis with the supplied 1/2" bolts. I used a torque wrench to tighten as instructed.
A rectangular frame of 1"- 1/8" angle was welded to the chassis to provide bolt attachment spots for the floor and lights and license plate and fenders. This probably contributes very little to the overall structural integrity but having all the connection spots was convenient. Here is the chassis minus the axle.
The floor was attached with 6 3/8" carriage bolts to tabs on the rectangle. Much later, I applied Loctite to the threads.
When this was assembled, I visited the County assessor and was awarded a license plate for the trailer, sight unseen for $20. I was somewhat disappointed that no one wanted to even look at the trailer. Iowa requirements seem somewhat more relaxed than many other states.
I installed a Harbor Freight trailer light kit and attached the license plate to it. Now it was road legal!
The weight of the chassis with wheels and fenders was 220 lb.
This is obviously not the cheap way to get a trailer.
The cost of the steel, fenders, axle, wheels and lights came to $730. I also had to buy a stick welder and pay tuition for the welding class. However, factoring in the entertainment value, the new skills and tools, this was money well spent.
After driving around a bit and trying my hand at backing up (yet another skill to master), I removed the sandwich floor from the chassis.
It was time to work on the cabin.