Box Rocket homemade trailer build

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Box Rocket said:
I got a few things done yesterday (sorry no pics). I was hopng to do more but my neighbor saw me in the garage and stopped to chat. That quickly ate up a couple hours. Then a friend called and needed an extra set of hands moving a TV. But I did get the captured nuts welded in on the inside of the tub for my plywood sides. I also got the reinforcement all welded up at the end of the tongue. I didn't have tube to slide over but I had some 3/16 plate that I cut and welded on. Turned out well. Then I used some of my left over 1x3 that I used for the tub rail and made some little steps at the front and back edges of the fenders. ALso welded a little tab on the steps to bolt the outside of the fenders to. Fenders are rock solid now and I can stand on them without any flexing.
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That's it? Some lame good samaritan story about moving a TV and we don't get any pictures?! :)

Looks great, Adam, I am impressed with your fabrication skills and more importantly, your ability to stay true to course and keep it within budget and within plans. I have the unfortunate tendency to get carried away and then end up not finishing stuff.

Can't wait to see it painted!
 
Gosh, Henry sending me on a guilt trip.:flipoff2: I had to go snap a couple pics.

reinforced tongue...
_MG_3420.jpg


captured nuts, there's one in each of the tub uprights so I can bolt in my plywood sides.
_MG_3421.jpg


Steps and fender tabs. Nothing fancy but enough for an adequate step and really holds the fender solid.
_MG_3423.jpg


trailer tucked into the corner nook in the garage. You can see both fender steps and the amount of tire still exposed with these particular fenders.
_MG_3424.jpg
 
Awesome, I really like the idea of the plywood to keep the trailer more utilitarian. Question, can you balance the trailer on its "butt"? Mine sits in one of my garage bays, resting against the wall, and I could park a small car against it if I needed to (that space is occupied by a myriad bikes, scooters, wagons, helmets, balls, lacrosse sticks, etc...)! :flipoff2:

Pictures are much appreciated, BTW! :)
 
Exiled said:
Awesome, I really like the idea of the plywood to keep the trailer more utilitarian. Question, can you balance the trailer on its "butt"? Mine sits in one of my garage bays, resting against the wall, and I could park a small car against it if I needed to (that space is occupied by a myriad bikes, scooters, wagons, helmets, balls, lacrosse sticks, etc...)! :flipoff2:

Pictures are much appreciated, BTW! :)
Click to expand...

Henry, do you mean all the way up on the tailgate, or just tilted all the way back with the tongue up? I haven't actually tried it all the way up on the tailgate. Right now it probably wouldn't as my gate latches stick out a little and wouldn't let it lean all the way flat against the tailgate. Maybe I'll have to work on that.
 
I got the last bit of welding done (except for the lid) today. That included a couple more floor braces and loops for the safety chains on the tongue and the truck. After that was done I pulled out my magnetic towing lights and hooked it all up and took it for a spin. Ran it down a gravel road near my house at about 40mph. Bounces a bit, but I'm sure most of that is because it's empty, and there were some good potholes. Got it up to about 60mph on pavement. Tracks straight and obviously can't even tell it's back there since its empty. Found a big dirt pile and tried my best to check the lock-n-roll. So far I'm really liking the hitch. Doesn't make any noise that I can hear and I'm sure will work well on the trail.

After the test run I came back and broke out some brake cleaner. I was going to use the acetone I picked up last week, but didn't get a chance to go buy the necessary rubber gloves. So I sprayed the whole thing down with brake cleaner and got a coat of primer on the exterior sides and most of the interior of the tub. I still need to spray more on the inside and underside of the tub, and the fenders. I also sprayed the tongue and main frame with some satin black rustoleum. It's definitely starting to take shape now. I picked up some CJ7 fender flares (thanks to Exiled for the suggestion) and they are even the perfect length for how I trimmed the fenders. They're going to work great and are just the right width to cover the rest of the tires too. Sorry I forgot to take pics of the primer etc.

One more little bonus was a call from Wildyoats who happened to be at NPS (a local discount warehouse) today. I guess there was a sizeable quantity of products from UPOL that showed up at the warehouse recently. One of those products is the Raptor liner that I've been planning on using inside and under the tub. Normally the kits go for $100-$120 and sometimes a little more if the kit includes the Schutz gun. It can be had a little cheaper on ebay I think. It sounds like they had several kits (without the gun) at NPS for $59. That's a pretty sweet deal and Wildyoats was thoughtful enough to call me and let me know and also pick one up for me. I have found the UPOL Schutz guns for $10-$15 so I'll snag one of those soon and hopefully get this thing all painted and lined in the next couple weeks.

Here's a few pics from the test drive.
_MG_3494.jpg


_MG_3495.jpg


My temporary magnetic towing lights and I need to get new hooks for my safety chains. The chains have those threaded chain links on the ends and they don't open far enough to go onto the chain loops on the tongue so there is an old ratchet strap hook on it for now. And yes, I'll run two chains not just one.
_MG_3500.jpg


_MG_3503.jpg


_MG_3507.jpg
 
Nice job. Enjoyed the entire thread.
 
I'm hoping to have paint on the exterior panels this weekend. I'm just leaving primer inside the tub then spraying with Raptor liner. If I'm lucky I may get to that this weekend too but it will probably have to wait until the following weekend.
 
sseaman said:
I would hate to see your hard work start rusting, what comes next after paint?
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Well it's a little drier climate here in Utah than in Tennessee so it shouldn't develop any rust even if it does just sit a little. Also, it's stored in my garage rather than outside so that helps. I have primer already on 70% of it. I ran out of primer or it would all be done. I'll finish that up this weeked and get paint on the outside panels.

After that, its just a matter of spraying the bed liner. Once that is done, I can run all the wires and mount the lights. Also need to install the fender flares that I have. That's basically it, until I build the lid. I will also probably build some brackets for fuel/water cans and maybe a cooler rack once I figure out where I'm going to put all of that stuff.
 
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Only had a few minutes tonight so I got the CJ flares mounted up. Hoping to finish up primer and paint on Saturday. Then spray the bedliner next week.

_MG_3516.jpg


You can see that these fenders and flares are very close to covering the tires. I think its good enough for me.

_MG_3517.jpg
 
OlympiaFJ60 said:
They fit great. Just a standard CJ flair? What fenders are those?
Click to expand...

Yep standard CJ flare. I got the fenders at the local trail supply place. 10.75" wide.
 
Great fit on those flares. Looks nice!
 
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