I started looing at 6x10 enclosed trailers and realized there is going to be a lot to buying a enclosed trailer. There are just so many options that I'm just not sure which ones I wanted. I decided to start a list of things I wanted on a trailer and start looking for new trailers that have those items on it.
I put things like:
- black outside
- 32 in side door
- rear ramp door
- 6'x10' so I could put my garden tractor in it if I needed to.
I then set out to find trailer places, so I could start looking at nice looking trailers. Well the more I looked the more I wanted in a trailer. I soon founded out that a 6'x12' trailer cost about the same and that they were more desirable when sold used.
Now my want list looks like this:
- Black outside
- 32 inch side door with screen and RV latch
- V nose
- 6'x12' (new size)
- Rear inside stab jacks
- 7 pin wire plug
- Brakes
- Rear door ramp
- ALL LED lights
- Electric tongue jack
- 2x4" tube frame
- 5200lb axil
- nice wheels
- Spring Suspection
- 2-5/16 ball
- Work bench inside
- e-Track inside
Now it time to get started getting ideas on how build a trailer.
I need a place to buy parts cheap, I can already tell that this trailer is not going to be cheap.
Link list to possible:
Axel size - with brakes
The rear of the Axel is to the left in this picture, also the rear is where the brake wire come out at.
http://www.trailerrvparts.com/5200LB-BRAKE-AXLE-86HF-685-SC-6-LUG-TRAILERCARGO_p_257.html
Tire & Wheel size ST225/D75-15
Tire
the normal size tire was 205 but I check with a buddy of mine and he has six lug rims on his RV and ;he had 225 tire on it. So that is what I decided to us on this one. Rims
I need the rims to look nice so while I was at Johnsons I decided to go ahead and get the tires and rims all at one time. The cost in store was $125 each.
Coupler size - 14,000 lbs 50degree 2-5/16 ball (in store price is lower than internet price)
Lots of difference & prices in couplers. Harbor freight had small 3500lbs one for $20 but after the size thing I decided that I needed a much larger one. Tractor supply had a nice one for about $90 but here we go the good stuff cost a lot more.When I was shopping on-line looking for the axil I found a place on eBay called Johnson's RV Surplus, in White Pigon Michigan. I look in to where they were at and they are about 90 mile from here. Just north of the heart of trailer capital (just a metaphor).
This place was really cool and they look like they have lots of stuff on the eBay store. I did a little bit of digging and found there store online here: Johnson RV Surplus.
They had a real nice 14,000 lbs 2-5/16 ball coupler for $18
Coupler Jack $99 at Johnsond's
Frame rail size
2" X 5" The main frame steel I think should have been made out of 2x4 but the cost of new steel was just crazy money. I did a lot of checking around on steel price and found that the range of the cost of steel for the trailer changed a lot, depending on who you got it from. I decided from past experiences that getting three quotes on something was a good idea, so that is what I did.
Here is what I decided to have quoted at each place. First I all three places and asked how much a stick of 2"x2"x20' angle iron would cost. The price range was from $20 to $80 for just one stick and I was going to need at least 6 of them. They each said that if I bought more the price would go down.
I then decided that I needed to have most of the steel quoted as a lot so I could get a good price on it.
I needed to have a control lot to have quoted so here is what I decided to have the quotes for:
4 - 2"x4"x20' Tubing
6 - 2"x2"x20' angle iron
12 - 1"x1"x24' Tubing
Quote #1 Alro Ann Arbor Steel Store Full Retail price $1500.00
Quote #2 Van Buran Steel Bellville Quantity discount $1100.00
Quote #3 Johnsons RV Surplus $500.00 (Angle iron was 1 1/2" x 1 1/2", Frame tubing 2"x5"x20')
I think the cost of the steel at Johnsons was by far cheaper that all the others. The way they charged for steel was by the pound. $0.46 cents per pound. That made the steel very cheap over all.
My big problem with buying 1146 Lbs of steel was Jonson's was almost a 100 mile one way from here. How was I going to get that much steel home? I rented a U-Haul 6x12 trailer for $40 for the day. It worked out very well. I then used my sawzall and cut the 24 footers down to 12 foot so they would fit in the trailer. They wanted $3 per cut to cut it for me.
I got the main beams of the trailer 2"x5"x12', they only had 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 20' and the 1"x1"x24' I also got some flat steel and square steel. Total cost $700.00
Tongue Design
The tongue of the trailer took a lot of thinking. Lot of stuff going on with the tongue, do you weld the arms under the main frame of the trailer or put it into the frame of the trailer?
Tongue height (ball height) is a large consideration on how to attaché the tongue to the front of the trailer. There were two main ways I found to do this.
Design #1 - Weld the tongue under the trailer
With this design and coupled with the wrap around tongue design, this may have been the strongest way to build it. With a five inch frame rail, this would have made parts of the frame 10" thick, and I thought that would have been just a little bit of over kill, not to mention the cost.
Design #2 - Weld the tongue thru the frame
This is the design I decided to go with. This will allow for more ground clearance when going over a hills while pulling the trailer. The ball height will work for my little truck and they do make different height ball hitches for the truck.
I was thinking that this way would be weaker than the under the frame design, but I now think over all that this maybe stronger over all. With this design there is more weld area for the tongue.
The tongue design layout. After measuring a lot of trailers I found that the pass thru design required about 12" of front frame on the outside of the tongue and about 40" of tongue in front of the front frame rail. The 40" is so I have room to make the V nose on the front of the trailer. The hardest part of the tongue design was how long to make each tongue rail. The following is how I figured the length out.
A few important detentions:
Coupler angle 50 degrees included.
Tongue coupler beam angle 25 degrees
Tongue frame beam angle 65 degrees
Center to Center of main frame rails are 68.5"
Door Cam Locks
I got 3' door came locks at Johnson's for $3 per foot. I got 3 - 3footers, two for the ramp door and one for the side door. The lock latch part of them was $3 each and I got 3 of them. Total cost for the complete set of 3 was $36.00
Outside Aluminum Siding - Black
I got one sheet (49x96x.030) of black side aluminum siding as a sample to
Wood Floor
Advantech wood. Lowes
Glue - Here is what they recommend to use.
Video on installing this product
I plan on installing this product because it seems that all the new trailers are coming with this as the floor. It comes with a limited lifetime warranty when installed in a building, but I'm not sure about the warranty when installed in a trailer. Maybe I should call the company and ask them about this?
I found a nice video on uTube on how to install this product in a house. The point they were making in the video was SCREW & GLUE it down. I think that is a good idea. I do need to call or read up on the Glue and see if it will work with Steel.
Building the Trailer
Frame
2x5x.187
Toung
2x5x.187 is the steel size I'm going to use. After looking at other heavy duty trailers and how they mate the tourge to the main part of the frame, I have found that there is three way they do this.
1 - butt weld to the front of the frame
2 - under the frame
3 - under the frame with a wrap under the frame.
I think I'm going to use the under the frame and wrapped method, it just looks the strongest.
Brake controller: Tekonsha Prodigy or Tekonsha Prodigy P2
The P2 is for newer cars with EL ABS brakes.
What is a Proportional Brake
Controller?
An electric trailer brake controller is a device that supplies power from a vehicle to a trailer's electric brakes when the vehicle's brakes are applied. Any trailer with electric
brakes needs a brake controller to activate
the operation of the brakes. You should check your state laws to determine if
the trailer you are planning to tow required an
electronic controller. We've reviewed various
types of brake controllers; time activated and motion-sensing or proportional.
Here we will explore the proportional controller a bit more.
If you find that you are pulling trailers on
a regular basis, then a proportional brake controller is probably your best
option. These types of controllers typically cost a bit more, and depending upon the brand you choose may
be a bit bulkier than a timed controller, but for smoother, more predictable
stopping the proportional controller offers better design and features. The basic design includes
a dual solid state accelerometer. The accelerometer can measure gravity and
deceleration of the tow vehicle. These types of
controller can tell up from down regardless
of how they're mounted and how steep the grade is (self-leveling). As the
vehicle slows, the controller supplies a proportional amount of voltage to the trailer brakes. The more
rapid the deceleration, the more voltage supplied. Voltage is supplied equally
to all trailer brakes (different models specify the number of axles the controller can serve). This design
causes the trailer to stop at the same rate as the tow vehicle when everything
is adjusted properly. This can have the effect of making it seem as though you are stopping the vehicle
by itself with no trailer in tow. One major benefit of this design is that in a
situation in which the driver must apply maximum brake pressure (slamming on the brakes) a
proportional controller will send maximum power to the trailer brakes
immediately.
The design of the proportional brake
controller provides the quickest and most even braking power and has the added
benefit of causing the least amount of wear on the trailer and vehicle brakes. For these reasons and the
reasons describe above you would do well to research different brands and
models of proportional brake controllers.
Winter is here, my work is done for the time.
I have put the trailer build into 4 stages:
1- Frame build
2- Enclosed frame work
3- Skin work
4- Interior
Stage 1 is done,
Stage 2 is almost done I need the door before I can go any farther.
April 2014 is going to be the next time I it will be warn so I can get out and start to work on the trailer again. In the mean time I will start to procure the materials I need to finish the job. I need to get all the wire, out side skin, insulation, lights, door, wood floor, and stuff like that.
I'm going to try and get the door soon and get it installed in the cold so I can say that stage 2 is done.
Not sure that is going to happen, its cold out side. This week the high is going to be close to 1 and at night is going to be like -10 and that is just to cold to work outside in.
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