Must be a couple hundred pounds... I iike 
End-of-Days Trailer Build (9 Viewers)
- Thread starter HesterFab
- Start date
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SAS
Seeking higher vistas
gorgeous welds and some fine metal work. have you considered mounting the water to the exterior walls, allowing for more storage space in the interior? Just an idea.
x2
Nice welds!
Nice welds!
TrekboxX
Supporting Vendor
Nice work! I'm assuming you PC yourself, but if you outsource Melrose Metal Finishing has treated me really well. No affiliation. Again, beautiful welds!
- Thread starter
- #25
@SAS, I originally had planned on putting the water tank on the outside of the main box. I had too many different ideas and didn't like any of them so I took the easy way out and just put it inside the box. The tank will be easily removable so if I need some extra space I can pull it out. I still wish it was a little bigger...
@1407driver,
I don't do any powder coat myself. Its funny that you say Melrose Finishing because I can probably hit their shop with a rock from mine. I've used them a few times, and I think they do great work. However, for the money you usually can't be Leon's Powder Coating. Its at 49th & San Leandro Blvd....Another beautiful oakland neighborhood!! I swear you are at least the 4th person this month to tell me about how great Melrose is, so I might have to give them another shot.
@1407driver,
I don't do any powder coat myself. Its funny that you say Melrose Finishing because I can probably hit their shop with a rock from mine. I've used them a few times, and I think they do great work. However, for the money you usually can't be Leon's Powder Coating. Its at 49th & San Leandro Blvd....Another beautiful oakland neighborhood!! I swear you are at least the 4th person this month to tell me about how great Melrose is, so I might have to give them another shot.
Laying dimes 
I wish I could weld let alone weld like that. Trailer is looking good.
I wish I could weld let alone weld like that. Trailer is looking good.
TrekboxX
Supporting Vendor
I'll put it this way- everytime I use them I pay a bit more than the bill... Again, great work!
- Thread starter
- #28
I finally got some more work done on the trailer frame.
I'm sort of designing a lot of this as I go which I hate doing because I feel like it will eventually bite me but I designed/built the tongue this weekend. I'm going to make some sort of swivel hitch and wanted that to be 2.5" square. I didn't have any 3" 3/16" tube to make the female part for the trailer, and I figured that it would be sort of loose anyways so I just made a tube out of flat plate. It hopefully will give me a tighter fit on the 2.5" square tube that I make the swivel out of.
I also made a gusset for the tongue out of 1/8" plate and put some dimples in it to save weight
I'm sort of designing a lot of this as I go which I hate doing because I feel like it will eventually bite me but I designed/built the tongue this weekend. I'm going to make some sort of swivel hitch and wanted that to be 2.5" square. I didn't have any 3" 3/16" tube to make the female part for the trailer, and I figured that it would be sort of loose anyways so I just made a tube out of flat plate. It hopefully will give me a tighter fit on the 2.5" square tube that I make the swivel out of.
I also made a gusset for the tongue out of 1/8" plate and put some dimples in it to save weight
- Thread starter
- #29
Some pictures of the female tube I welded and the gusset
- Thread starter
- #30
Once I got the tongue finished, I started mocking up the suspension. The air-springs even look cool just sitting there so i'm super excited to build it.
I'm going to design the suspension in solidworks because it will just be too much of a pain to design as I build it. I've just started sketching it out so I don't have much to show for it yet. Once I have a decent design I'll post it up here so you guys can tell me where I screwed up since I've never built a trailer suspension before. I plan on doing independent so the axle in the pictures is just shown there as a mockup.
I'm going to design the suspension in solidworks because it will just be too much of a pain to design as I build it. I've just started sketching it out so I don't have much to show for it yet. Once I have a decent design I'll post it up here so you guys can tell me where I screwed up since I've never built a trailer suspension before. I plan on doing independent so the axle in the pictures is just shown there as a mockup.
ntsqd
technerd
Looks like it will ride pretty high, which I don't think is desirable. Maybe move the air springs to the inside of the frame rail?
How do you plan to be able to adjust toe?
Personally I don't see much advantage in true ITS (Independent Trailer Suspension) and some disadvantage. Yeah, with an axle connecting the tires together one will influence the other. You're not riding in the trailer, is that going to matter to the beer and eggs?
I'd link it as a beam axle with two lower-outer trailing arms and an upper 'Y' arm attached to the center of the axle. The 'Y' avoids the need for lateral locating linkage like a panhard bar, which keeps the tires centered in the wells, and offers torque reaction if/when you decide to put brakes on it.
How do you plan to be able to adjust toe?
Personally I don't see much advantage in true ITS (Independent Trailer Suspension) and some disadvantage. Yeah, with an axle connecting the tires together one will influence the other. You're not riding in the trailer, is that going to matter to the beer and eggs?
I'd link it as a beam axle with two lower-outer trailing arms and an upper 'Y' arm attached to the center of the axle. The 'Y' avoids the need for lateral locating linkage like a panhard bar, which keeps the tires centered in the wells, and offers torque reaction if/when you decide to put brakes on it.
LAMBCRUSHER
SILVER Star
would you please be so kind as to stop posting pics of your work....you're gunna make people feel bad about their own work, then they'll get discouraged, start buying bolt on upgrades for their jeeps and generally stop being creative. Thanks for your time.....(and maybe some psych help would also be in order for someone as SICK as your bad assed self.) please read as a compliment
This looks awesome HesterFab. You said at the outset that you wanted people to chime in so here I go...
What are you gonna' pull that thing with? You have obviously built this with being bomb-proof in mind, but you gotta' start (depending on your tow rig) thinking light weight. Its my biggest regret of my trailer build. If I do it again, I am going to build it out of carbon fiber or marsh mellows to keep the weight down. Then again I am pulling mine with a 2f tractor motor up the Colorado Rockies.
If you have some big torque infested turbo diesel... build it BIG! Otherwise, I would look heavily into lightening everything else you add to it. Just my .02
The trailer looks fantastic, your welds look like works of art, if I could weld like that I'd throw my grinders away Keep it up, this thing is gonna rock.
What are you gonna' pull that thing with? You have obviously built this with being bomb-proof in mind, but you gotta' start (depending on your tow rig) thinking light weight. Its my biggest regret of my trailer build. If I do it again, I am going to build it out of carbon fiber or marsh mellows to keep the weight down. Then again I am pulling mine with a 2f tractor motor up the Colorado Rockies.
If you have some big torque infested turbo diesel... build it BIG! Otherwise, I would look heavily into lightening everything else you add to it. Just my .02
The trailer looks fantastic, your welds look like works of art, if I could weld like that I'd throw my grinders away
Keep it up, this thing is gonna rock.
Excellent fab work
Excellent work!!!
LCDiesel60
Oregon
LCDiesel60
Oregon
- Thread starter
- #38
Thanks for all the compliments guys. Sorry I haven't updated much recently. I've been swamped with jobs that aren't as fun, but I have to pay the bills somehow.
I finally have a decent design of the suspension I have planned. I scrapped the ITS suspension and went with a 4 link setup as was recommended. I attached some pics of the design (missing all the links, but you get the idea.) I still have some messing around to do with cleaning up some details and playing with the geometry but I think its pretty close.
What do you guys think? I know you must think I'm crazy for building a 4-link, airbag suspension for a glorified beer trailer....cause I certainly do.
Oh...and to answer REZARF, I hear you on the weight, but my daily driver is a 6.0L diesel and my jeep has a 454. Hopefully I can keep it light enough to not bog them down too much
I finally have a decent design of the suspension I have planned. I scrapped the ITS suspension and went with a 4 link setup as was recommended. I attached some pics of the design (missing all the links, but you get the idea.) I still have some messing around to do with cleaning up some details and playing with the geometry but I think its pretty close.
What do you guys think? I know you must think I'm crazy for building a 4-link, airbag suspension for a glorified beer trailer....cause I certainly do.
Oh...and to answer REZARF, I hear you on the weight, but my daily driver is a 6.0L diesel and my jeep has a 454. Hopefully I can keep it light enough to not bog them down too much
- Thread starter
- #39
Here's a couple more screen shots of the suspension design. I just realized I have one of the link brackets put together wrong.....at least it is only on the computer
ntsqd
technerd
Any particular reason that you went with a 4 link over a 3 link? I see plus' and minus' for each, just wondering why you went the direction that you have.
FWIW a better tongue design is for the diagonals to go under the main frame and meet the outer longitudinals about where the frame bracket for the outer/lower links are. This doubles the bending strength at the critical point in the frame - at the front-most cross member. I know most people build their frames for this sized trailer as you've modeled it and it appears to work, but it is not a good design. Have a look at Trailers, How to Design and Build (GOOD GRIEF those have gotten spendy!!) for how to set up a simple Shear-Moment diagram.
FWIW a better tongue design is for the diagonals to go under the main frame and meet the outer longitudinals about where the frame bracket for the outer/lower links are. This doubles the bending strength at the critical point in the frame - at the front-most cross member. I know most people build their frames for this sized trailer as you've modeled it and it appears to work, but it is not a good design. Have a look at Trailers, How to Design and Build (GOOD GRIEF those have gotten spendy!!) for how to set up a simple Shear-Moment diagram.
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