car trailer overhaul (1 Viewer)

[nuclearlemon]

my recent move to wyoming and opening of essentially a new store meant i needed to pick up a trailer (since i ditched the bf and that meant i really couldn't ask to borrow his trailer anymore ). i got a 20' roadboss from the guy who owned the bar i used to hang out at. had been his dads, who used it for a couple years and had been sitting for at least 10 years.

first thing up was getting rid of the 2002 tires since i'd be hauling precious cargo. i went with taskmaster contender tires from discount because i was in a hurry and they had decent reviews. the trailer brakes worked great, but everything else was intermittent. after a search, one wire in the socket had come loose and the wiring to the trailer lights was questionable or completely rotted out. i bandaided everything enough to get two runs to texas to store a few vehicles away and to haul the pig, the 45 and the powertrain from the marshmallow to wyoming, but before hauling the pig up, jerry insisted on fixing a bent light bracket and throwing some new trailer lights on and fixing a few shorts to get me threw the winter.

 

[nuclearlemon]

the trailer continued to see heavy usage. in addition to hauling all the vehicles northward, i made multiple trips between our main colorado store and the wyoming store hauling pallets of fluids and semi truck parts. on one trip to pick up pallet racking, everything had been good when i left, but upon arriving at the southern store, i noticed a four foot section of deck missing on the outermost board, which would be important a week later when i needed to pick up the new parts truck. so....i pulled a decent board from the middle and swapped it.

with the new truck brought north, a few runs to the scrap yard to get rid of some decrepit steel and a trip helping a friend bring home a jeep on fullsize axles with no steering, it's time to think about giving some serious ass love to the poor trailer.

i've started stockpiling some parts to completely rewire the trailer with a new breakaway battery, all new led lights, extra lights added to the outer edges of the fenders so i can see them when i'm backing it up in the dark (which apparently happens a lot more than i'd like), a new winch to make putting dead rigs on much easier, new deck and some rattle can and conspicuity tape to make it a bit more obvious. plus, i'll have to massage the right fender out (the jeep did a number when it went up onto it), cut off the lights and brackets that jerry fixed (and the jeep bent again), make a new bar to keep the ramps in place, and create some sort of storage for straps, chains and binders.

 

[nuclearlemon]

i've started purchasing 2x8 #1 ac2 cedartone ground contact wood. it does use a copper preservative which i've read negatives about, but it seems that's as opinionated as linseed oil vs thompsons water seal vs motor oil for treating the wood.

once i rip the deck off, i plan on wire brushing the rust and treating the frame with phosphoric acid, using a hammer and dolly to motivate the fender into submission, priming it and painting. then the new wiring will go in with all new lights. i'm thinking of mounting a 1/4" steel plate to the front of the trailer to mount the winch.

for storage, i'm thinking a small section of thinner gauge steel welded to the bottom of the front tongue with a couple small holes drilled for drainage, and a hinged top with rubber weatherstrip on top. won't be a lot of storage, but i only need to keep a few chains and straps and a binder or two. another option is maybe adding a pickup truck fender box to the front fender area of the trailer.

i'll also be welding on a spare tire carrier.

i plan on running the wiring into a junction box because i've found too many friends trailers where the green corrosion working it's way down the wiring and i'm hoping to stave it off from the rest of the harness. i also have a lot of heat shrinkable/glue butt connectors so i can throw away those dam scotchlocks. and ill top everything off with greasing up the hubs since they've gotten a workout.

i haven't done much work on trailers, so any helpful suggestions or comments are welcome.

 

[pb4ugo]

Be sure to check out the suspension. Especially the shackles, equalizers, bushing, u bolts, brakes and bolts. I rebuilt my really old trailer and found most were shot and or ready to fail. I found E -trailer had everything I needed cheap. Throw the scotchlocks away. They create more problems than repairing anything.

 

[ntsqd]

Messing with trailer light wiring over the years has taught me to always, always, always run a ground wire to each light and reject those lights that don't have a dedicated ground wire. Wire it as if the whole trailer is fiberglass, create a complete ground wire system & do not trust the trailer frame to be the ground. I do run a wire from the ground buss to the trailer frame, but I do not use the frame to conduct ground.

A trick that MISF & I used on the Cheep Utility Trailer was to put an RV type 7 pin socket in the tongue. Then make or buy male/male jumpers to go from it to whatever the tow rig has. Seems like no two tow rigs in our collection have the same trailer light receptacle. Having jumpers from the RV 7 pin to each different type means that no one is cutting off one connector to add something different. It also means that when the trailer is sitting there isn't a connector laying on the ground and/or exposed to the elements as they're all stored away in the tongue box.

 

[nuclearlemon]

@ntsqd did you run the lights to a ground wire as opposed to grounding the lights individually because of rust issues? my thought is it's easier to fix one bad ground vs one at every light

 

[ntsqd]

My experience has been that grounds are almost always the cause of trailer lights not working right. Usually because the ground for one light has failed for whatever reason and that causes all sorts of weirdness. By bussing all of the grounds together they stay sealed (I use those adhesive lined H-S butt connectors for all of the ground connections) and aren't subject to corrosion or fatigue decaying the grounding.

 

[ntsqd]

I've implied it, but haven't said it explicitly so I'll say it just in case. I first run the grounding wire clear to the trailer light connector without connecting it to the trailer frame anywhere. I then splice in another branch of the grounding wire and connect that to the trailer frame. I usually do this at the tongue somewhere.

 

[nuclearlemon]

A trick that MISF & I used on the Cheep Utility Trailer was to put an RV type 7 pin socket in the tongue. Then make or buy male/male jumpers to go from it to whatever the tow rig has. Seems like no two tow rigs in our collection have the same trailer light receptacle. Having jumpers from the RV 7 pin to each different type means that no one is cutting off one connector to add something different. It also means that when the trailer is sitting there isn't a connector laying on the ground and/or exposed to the elements as they're all stored away in the tongue box.

we did that for the colorado assoc of 4wd clubs trailer since we had a multitude of people towing throughout the years. it seems lately that wiring is more standard, but a decade ago, every manufacturer had their own ideas of how to wire their sockets.

 

[ntsqd]

MISF's Scout II only has room for one of the 5 pin trailer light receptacles. I'm slowly converting my fleet to either be flat 4 rubber or 7 pin RV. Two have 7 pin RV's, but 2 others only have flat 4's & the Bronc-up has nothing, yet.

I've considered going 7 pin OTR because it seems like the plugs and receptacles made for those are far, far better parts. But then nothing would interchange with those.

 

[nuclearlemon]

i'm one of those weird chicks that gets turned on by car parts for Christmas. i actually got new dewalt driver kit and money, but i used the money to go shopping. in this pic is the wiring, all the lights, the new breakaway setup and tire carrier. the spare tire is ordered and i picked up a 9k badland winch that's not pictured.

still need to pick up the phosphoric acid and order the rest of the deck as i only got three pieces to band aid it together. i'll order seven more pieces. i still haven't figured out what i'm going to do about the one board that's half width. (10 boards measuring 7.5", one board measuring 4.5") also i need to grab a new plug and from work and the new deck screws are on an order that hasn't shown up from our trailer supply vendor.

today would've been a great day (53 degrees and sunny) to start the trailer overhaul, but it's currently still sitting at the shop with a 600 gallon oil tank and truck parts all over it

 

[nuclearlemon]

let the fun begin.
tonight, i stripped off all the wood, stripped the lights, and started pounding out a fender folded by a fullsize with no steering.

plan for tomorrow is more fender pounding and spray the ospho. maybe get the drums pulled and inspect/clean brakes and grease everything.

 

[nuclearlemon]

got up last saturday and took a block of wood, the floorjack and a bfh to the right fender and beat it somewhat into submission, then stripped all the old lights, cleaned up the rh brakes and drums, added a bit of grease as they really didn't have a lot, and sprayed the frame with ospho. the ospho takes a while to dry, so i was done with that project for the day, but sunday was five cans of sos black paint, mounting up the new breakaway switch and battery, relocating the license plate, installing lights (led baby, led), running new 7 way wiring, and started wiring the lights into the 7way.

i still need to get the rear middle light in (have to drill holes and that dang frame is not pleasant to drill through) and add the four fender lights (but the fenders are hard enough that i didn't even get one hole drilled before it destroyed my holesaw :O )

 

[nuclearlemon]

proof that i don't know how to work on trailers....i used heat shrinkable butt connectors with glue instead of scotchloks

surprised the front lights worked (they actually were the ones that i had the least issues with) considering almost all of the insulation was missing. fortunately, it appears mice had nested in the frame in the past so their bedding must've kept the bare wire from contacting metal

hope i don't wipe out the license plate lights, but the plate got bent a few times just going in and out of the shop parking lot, so moving it up higher was a requirement.

and, in keeping with cruiser content, the screws i used on the johnson clamps were from an fj62 that i parted out a few years ago

 

[nuclearlemon]

forgot to update...almost done. still need to get the winch mounted, make a replacement bar for the ramps and figure out strap storage.

i did pick up some stake pocket tie downs for when i towing rigs. they can be moved around to wherever i need them.

was really nice to plug it into the truck and have everything working, and have lights in the fender fronts so i could see them backing it up the drive in the dark

things i learned/didnt think about. didnt need seven way wire, only six, since i don't have power going to the trailer. the junction box i put under the front of the frame was just a tad too tall and broke. i could've notched the boards there to clear, but i'd rather not. i'll get another box at some point and move it to the front of the frame vs underneath

the tire carrier is normal on the side, but blocks the fender light so i'm going to move it up front.

no one can cut a straight board

ospho really should have more than 24 hours to dry, even if it is windy. it was bleeding through the paint a few days later

good luck finding a 15x5 modular white wheel....even when you find one, get the tire mounted, it will turn out to be 15x4.5

 

[nuclearlemon]

this was two days after i got the deck on ...blizzard in denver was bad enough i had to stay down there. but everything on the trailer worked great (except for the fender lights in the front of the trailer that you couldn't see because they were packed with snow)

 

[PAToyota]

things i learned/didnt think about. didnt need seven way wire, only six, since i don't have power going to the trailer.

But the seven-pin connector is more popular than the six, so it is good to have it wired that way even if you don't use all the pins.

 

[ntsqd]

I'm moving everything to either the flat rubber 4 pin connector or the 7 pin RV type connector. I've been disappointed with the quality of the plugs and receptacles sold for trailer light use, but it possible to find something approaching quality parts in the RV 7 pin version where all that I've seen in the 4, 5, & 6 pin plug/receptacle connectors is junk.

Could use that 7th wire to put a back-up light on the rear of the trailer.