My scratch built expedition style trailer build up thread (2 Viewers)

[REZARF]

Drew,
Are your X-members right above the spring eyes and shackle mounts?

Keep burning and posting pics!

Thanks,

Ed

Yup, you guessed it. My crossmembers are centered over the spring hangers. The thing you will probaly wrestle with the most is the idea of keeping things light... and strong. It is easy to make it strong... keeping it light is a bit harder.

Make sure you start a build up thread once you get going!

Rezarf <><

 

[photogod]

I got a little time to tack up the front end of the trailer on Monday. It was fun to try to get all the angles right. My cheapo HF saw and getting angles right... don't exactly mix too well.

I feel your pain. I use the chop saw and have learned to go reeeeeeeeeel slooooooooow when cutting angles so the abraisave blade doesn't warp and cause a weird angle.

Your project is looking very nice. keep the photos comming. Nice job!

 

[REZARF]

Yeah, I try to keep the speed up on the blade and chop release, chop/release, chop/release... etc.

The blade wanders if I just chop away.

Patience is the key for sure.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Get a bandsaw, you'll never look back

 

[REZARF]

Get a bandsaw, you'll never look back

No space

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

I only have a portaband and it is by far my favorite tool in the shop now. I'm lusting after an upright bandsaw, but I need a job before I can pick up one of them.

Trailer's looking good, hurry up and finish it already!

 

[REZARF]

I am on a ROLL!

Got the chassis "rolling" today. It was a fun day of measuring and tacking some of the major suspension components into place.

I started out by lugging the chassis back to the saw-horses for about the 100th time Then I measured out each of the spring hangers and tacked them into place.

I am not sure where but I was off about an 1/8" toward the rear on the drivers side, once I measured for square everything checked out, but it has me puzzled, the axle is square to the drawarm, I just can't find where I am missing the 1/8"?

Anyhow, after measuring for another hour, I realized as long as the axle is square to the draw-arm, I was fine.

 

[REZARF]

After the spring hanger dilemma I was on to mounting up the springs. Short little guys... I can see it bouncing now!

This was a simple as it looks, I had Randy at www.abctrailerparts.com leave my spring perches off so I could put them right where I wanted them, and as it turns out, this was a great idea.

Once I got the axle centered over the chassis and springs it was time to mark the spring perches for welding. However, I didn't clean the finish off the axle before mocking it up (do this if you can before ). Then I realized if I used a marker, it would just get sanded off, so I pulled out a spring punch/awl and outlined the axle to perch overlap... worked out great.

 

[REZARF]

It's rolling... sorta'

Once the perches where in place I put some friends who were over for dinner to work...

Once we had it buttoned up we removed the sawhorses and prepped for the 35's to go on.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Just a tip for tacking brackets in place. If you tack at the corners/ends of the tab/bracket it makes fully welding the piece in place a lot easier as you don't have to "absorb" the tack into your weld. Also makes breaking things apart easier too.

Lookin good man!

 

[REZARF]

Once the tires were mounted up, the thing just came alive!

I am stoked, there are a lot of welds to run tomorrow, but it is nice to have the day mostly off. I have to do it spurts to avoid warping, but I am going to double check everything that needs to be square... which is EVERYTHING, then I will burn it in.

I have decided to run LED side marker lights with two amber lenses facing forward at the top of the cargo box, another two on the front sides, and two red LED clearance lights out back on the sides.

Now, I need to mount up the pintle and work on the sliding tongue.

 

[REZARF]

Holding the front up with the Bulldog jack gave me an idea...

I am going to make a short, 6in or so, sleeve that will fit inside the main draw-bar location and be able to be pinned with a hitch pin, but it will also have a round mount welded to the front edge of the sleeve. Then I can remove the sliding draw-bar and stuff the sleeve in and prop the trailer up with it, essentially shortening the trailer by nearly 3 feet for storage... we'll see!

 

[photogod]

I really appreciate it when people look at my posts and give hints about this or that so I'm going to chime in. When I look at spring perches I see that most of the ones I see and especially the millitary stuff have perches that have the corners knocked off so the shackle wont get jammed in there if you go max compression and the shackle ends up against the frame. Like in post 107, the top photo, knock those corners off at a 45 or so to take the corner off a bit. Just a thought. I see that you might have clearance in case they bottom out but I can't tell for sure.

Great project and it's great to see it comming together!

 

[FLFJ40]

Like photogod said I love it when people chime in with things I may not have thought of. Earlier you were concearned with being within 1" of level with the cruiser. Although you already have your perches welded I thought I would mention that you height will change by over an inch when you start to load this thing down.

Also I am a bit worried about your location for your LP tank. Although rare, a blowout could knock that thing right off. Also in this sue happy world if someone t-boned you in the tank you might be at fault as the manufacturer for the resulting explosion. I like the idea of putting it up front, I think you will have plenty of room on your triangle for it even with the tank there.

 

[REZARF]

I really appreciate it when people look at my posts and give hints about this or that so I'm going to chime in. When I look at spring perches I see that most of the ones I see and especially the millitary stuff have perches that have the corners knocked off so the shackle wont get jammed in there if you go max compression and the shackle ends up against the frame. Like in post 107, the top photo, knock those corners off at a 45 or so to take the corner off a bit. Just a thought. I see that you might have clearance in case they bottom out but I can't tell for sure.

Great project and it's great to see it comming together!

Great ideas! I haven't decided how to get the extra lift I need yet. But knocking the spring hangers off at an angle is no biggie.

I might go for the lock-n-roll hitch setups, and a bolt on receiver for the 40. That may bring me down the tiny bit needed.

Feel free to chime in on whatever! Doesn't mean I am going to listen to you!

 

[REZARF]

Well, no pictures but I got everthing but the spring perches burned in today. The 1/4" material took two passes to fill in the joint properly, but it turned out well. AxleIke and slid the draw-bar in for fun and it looked sweet!

I will post up some pics when I get another chance.

 

[REZARF]

Also I am a bit worried about your location for your LP tank. Although rare, a blowout could knock that thing right off. Also in this sue happy world if someone t-boned you in the tank you might be at fault as the manufacturer for the resulting explosion. I like the idea of putting it up front, I think you will have plenty of room on your triangle for it even with the tank there.

I think you have a good point but I am sticking with my plan on that one. The front triangle will be covered with a box. And the propane tank will have DOT approved clamps and they will have sliders and a floor preventing the odd blow-out. Thanks for the imput.

Rezarf <><

 

[alia176]

I highly recommend a Roll N Lock type ( I have a Treg) hitch after seeing mine in action last week. The lack of banging/clanging and the crazy angles makes this type of specialty hitch worth it. Also, the tow vehicle wasn't influenced greatly by the trailer on the trails from what I observed. My trailer is only 1,000lb, FWIW.

 

[Degnol]

Drew, I just got my stuff from ABC and I have a question. I got the axle and just the spring perch/U bolt kit as I am going to use the old cruiser springs I have, but they are 2 3/4" wide and the perches are for a 2", maybe. Anyway, a narrower spring. Do I need to get wider perches? I mean, this will not carry a ton of weight, but I didn't know if that would stress the spring too much?

I could also weld a piece of 1/4" over the top of it to give the spring more support?

Ed

 

[REZARF]

Good question, I am not sure about that, the spring perch's main job is to keep the axle located to the spring, but I am not sure if there are any other things to consider. You would probably be fine, but maybe give Randy a call.

Sorry, wish I knew.

Drew