Need advice on truck bed trailer (1 Viewer)

[Three oaks 80]

If you were curious wheels off a 66 mustang fit. You won't be needing that for a minute.

But I found some free Camry wheels and some re-capped mud tires.

I finished welding in some patch panels in, they aren't done well, but they are done and that something.

I also capped the frame and welded on some additional frame members to the tongue.

This welding went much better.

 

[flartius]

Nice looking project, I hope to see it out and about sometime!

 

[WoodsTruck]

I had a Courier bed trailer years ago which worked awesome except for one thing. The pickup uses the front suspension as kind of a sway bar and without it the trailer wants to lean in corners pretty heavy. I had to add some add-a-leafs to the spring packs to stiffen it up. Something to keep in mind when you start towing it.

 

[Three oaks 80]

I had a Courier bed trailer years ago which worked awesome except for one thing. The pickup uses the front suspension as kind of a sway bar and without it the trailer wants to lean in corners pretty heavy. I had to add some add-a-leafs to the spring packs to stiffen it up. Something to keep in mind when you start towing it.

Oh man! I wish you had caught me 24 hours before I was so close to buying these Amazon product ASIN B001AMA854
instead of the normal shock absorbers.

 

[Three oaks 80]

Got the new wheels and tires on and made a spare tire carrier. Tomorrow I will do a test drive. They said they couldn't balance one of the retreads so hopefully it's not bad out of balance. At least good enough for a trailer

 

[gnob]

That tire carrier looks like it could be in a potentially bad spot.

 

[Three oaks 80]

That tire carrier looks like it could be in a potentially bad spot.

I tested it last night and it doesn't hit the tow vehicle. I had to jack knife it before it touched.

 

[SteveH]

I put air shocks on my '77 Courier trailer in the early 1990s and they are still going strong. You can add 100# to the shocks and get lift and firmness to the suspension. Good for offroad/hunting trips.

If your tongue weight is too much, you can move that spare back up closer to the front of the truck bed.

 

[Three oaks 80]

I put air shocks on my '77 Courier trailer in the early 1990s and they are still going strong. You can add 100# to the shocks and get lift and firmness to the suspension. Good for offroad/hunting trips.

If your tongue weight is too much, you can move that spare back up closer to the front of the truck bed.

I was hoping to up the tongue weight because it was back heavy before. I just took it for a test drive and it did great.

 

[Three oaks 80]

I figure I should do an update, this is what I did last year:

I did the wiring for the trailer and I ordered a CURT 56196 2-to-3-Wire Splice-in Trailer Tail Light Converter for RV Dinghy Towing

Amazon product ASIN B0046EKPHY
and I ordered a wire connecting kit

Amazon product ASIN B091BN8C33
I wired everything up with their own plugs and put in LED bulbs. This is how turned out:

The problem I am having is this: When I hook the trailer up to my mom's jeep, the light all work normal as I expect. When I hook up the lights to my 80 or my wife's 100 the left turn signal is so dim that you can't tell when you are pressing on the brakes, when you let up on the brakes it blinks like normal.

here it is not blinking:

 

[Three oaks 80]

It took me forever to find a camper top that fit. I found one off a Toyota pick from the early 90's. I was about to give up.

Kid approved.

 

[Three oaks 80]

Here I am going to Marti Kraw in 22.

The next thing that I have coming up is this: my parent's truck camper died. The wood is all rotten out and it would have to be completely rebuilt. So I am planning on gutting it to load up the trailer full of goodies.

 

[neockder]

wild.. i am half done on a '76 LB trailer as well!

after finished with the body mounts to the '92 frame, I'm going to drop the top half of an 80 series on it... and see how it looks haha. It's so hard to find the narrow but long toppers. And only those that exist are 40+yrs old and not a great style. If I could find a long-bed Glasstite camper shell, that would be different.

 

[POPO AGIE]

I had one of those that we used 4" square tubing to make the tongue to pull back to Wyoming from Vancouver, WA. I kept it at my Dad's house until I moved back to Wyoming from PA and then gave it to a contractor. I see it once in a while around town.

 

[Three oaks 80]

So I thought I would flip my axle because I thought it would look cool. And I was right.

Before

After


I was expecting it to get 5 inches higher, but it came up like 9 niches. Before you had to stoop in to get stuff out, now the tail gate is waist high. You used to have to stoop under the top's hatch, now it is well over your head. Here are a few details:

First, I had to choose how I wanted to do this my criteria was the most free and the easiest. So I could 1) flip the axle upside down, 2) cut and move the spring perches, or 3) make some sort of plate.

So I flipped the axle upside down. To do that you have to consider some things, leaks from the breather tube, leaks from the break distribution block and a breather for the new top. I just took off the breather tube and cut off the cap and weld in the hole and used a crush wash to stop it. I took the brake t-block off and cut the very long bolt down and then used a bunch of sealant to stop it up. Finally I took the old drain plug (now the filler hole because it's on top) and drilled a pin hole for a breather.

 

[Three oaks 80]

The next thing you need to do is fill up the axle to the height of the pinon bearing, luckily the old fill port is at a leave to oil the pinon bearing right side up or upside down.

The next thing was sliding it in, lining it up to the old centering bolt and attaching.

if you used the left bracket on the left side then the mounts for the shock down line up and then you need to take it apart. Don't be like me and swap you left and right brackets so you can line us the mounts for the shocks.

which allowed me to mount new shocks which were cheap so why not.

I used scissor jacks to hold the axle up while I swapped the left and right brackets that used to be under the spring and are now on top.

The hard part was jacking it up high to put the wheels back on that was sketchy and thought I was going to knock it off the jack stands a couple of times.

Big thanks to Bush for the advice.

 

[WoodsTruck]

You are likely going to want to add additional leaves, helper shocks or something to stiffen up the suspension.

I had a trailer made from a Ford Courier bed and it was miserable to tow until I put an add-a-leaf to it to firm it up then it towed fine.