I got started building but has anyone done this?he trailer

[vabuzzz]

Well I'm new here and have been luking around and reading like crazy. Today I got started building and maybe it won't go to bad to soon. I'm waiting for harbor Freight to put there trailer on sale before I go get one. I have a local harbor freight store and they keep them in stock. I stoped by today to and took a few mesurements . I'm building a 5' wide benroy on a 4' trailer I know canalever out over the wheels . I was thinking about replacing the stock u bolts on the trailer and adding about 2" between the axle and the springs to get the clearance I will need. Has anyone tried this and had good luck or more important bad luck. Thanks for any info. probley about a million more questions to follow

[Miriam C.]

Well welcome to the playground Vabuzz.
The thing is your feet are where the wheel wells are so you can just cut the mattress out for them. Your feet really don't need that much support.

I don't have a harbor freight frame so I hate to throw this out. My frame is about twice what the Harbor Freight is in thickness and width of the beam the springs attach to.

I put longer spring hangers on to get my two inches. There is a down side to doing this. It raises the trailer and everything else up by the same two inches. Maybe one of the engineering people will chime in to tell you if this can be done on the HF trailer.

[EZ]

When you build the frame out over the wheels that will give you some clearance. The camper will be the same distance from the ground as if you dropped the axel. I used 2 X 3s and got about 2" or so clearance. No wheel wells. My trailer is the 1175# HF variety and I am sure my camper weights about 700 at most so that seems to be enough. My camper is also 5 1/2 feet wide.

You can add 2 inches to the spring or add 2 inches to the floor frame.

Ed

[Bigwoods]

vabuzzz,

This is how I am doing the same widening project you mention. My welders are slow to start.

The following is borrowed from Jim Marshalls post from long ago.

Bigwoods




I finally got my carriage built to widen our Harbor Freight trailer to five foot. I didn't want to cut it down the middle and splice everything, as it would have been major problems with the tongue. Here is a picture or two of how I widened it to 5'.
I plan to cantilever the floor struts out 6 inches on each side and go from there.
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Kayakrguy, I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner. I have the same problem sometimes with our PC not opening pictures.

My neighbor gave me some 2X2 angle iron so I made a frame 5 feet long and as wide as the HF spring carriage is. I cut the axle and bought a solid 1 1/4 inch steel rod which fit perfectly inside the U shaped axle tube. I also bought a 1 1/2 inch piece of angle iron and welded that from end to end to the axle tube that I had welded the 1 1/4 inch rod into. I located the carriage where the axle would be at 32 inches from the rear of the HF trailer frame and welded it there. When you build your floor, it will cantilever over the sides of your HF frame. Let me caution you at this point. I wish I had built the carriage for my axle less than 5 feet wide because when I put my aluminum on the side of my tear now, all that will cover the carriage that I built Will be the aluminum skin. Since I am using 1/8 inch plywood on my sides and adding the aluminum, I should have taken 1/8 inch off the width of the carriage that I built on both sides. This would have made my carriage 59 3/4 inch.

My friend, I sure hope I have not confused you. If I didn't explain this right please feel free to PM me or make another post here and I will try to make myself clearer. I am not very good at explaining things.
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I started out with nothing and I still got plenty left.

VOL-N-TEAR