Anybody ever built a trailer or car hauler? What level of skills do you consider this at?

basic skills, intermediate skills, or Fabricating God?

I think I want to give this a try sooner or later but I'd just like to see what you guys have done so far.

 

lol you know whats funny, I was just looking for info on line today.

 

Here's what i found so far http://www.circletrack.com/how....html

 

Its cheaper to buy a used one than build if your time is worth more than a Few Dollars an hour or you plan on building 10 of them selling them than it might be worth it. You Can find a Good 16ft 10k lb Trailer with ramps for ~1k. Throw in some nice acc like a Spare tire, Storage box, Straps, remote winch and your still under 2k.

The Biggest Problem W/ used Trailers is the wood is rotted out, Spend an Afternoon and Replace the wood W/ some good Pressure Treated Stuff and the trailer will last for years. Look for 12" Centers on the supports, 18-24" centers have been known to have stuff fall thru

 

I built my own trailer about 10 years ago. I'm still using it today - it probably has 30k miles on it. If you can find exactly what you are looking for in a standard trailer, then there really isn't a reason to build your own, since labor is not a big part of the price of a trailer anyway. In my case, I wanted a very small, low, single axle trailer to haul my racecar. The car is only 1600lbs, plus a few hundred for spares and tools. Having a standard dual axle 18 ft car hauler that weighs 1900lbs and can hold 7000lbs was way overkill and thus requires a larger tow vehicle and uses more gas. I designed and build my trailer to exactly match my car. I built it very low to the ground with a torsion drop axle. For my application, it works great. The trailer is only 700lbs, and never sways since it is low. It also places the car lower and out of the wind more.

As far as building it goes, it really wasn't very hard. I spec'd the axle out and had it made with my width, spring capacity, electric brakes, bolt pattern, etc. I bought steel at a local steel yard and had it pre-cut to my specs for most of the parts. I bought a tongue, jack, and fenders from a local trailer manufacturer (tractor supply also sells these parts). A neighbor and I built the trailer in a long half day, like maybe noon to 10pm. It really isn't complicated. Typically the angles are easy, and the steel is pretty thick so it's easy to weld. Flipping the trailer over to complete the welding can be a little tricky, but as long as you have a few friends to help, it's not so bad.

-Chris

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EMod Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I built my own trailer about 10 years ago. I'm still using it today - it probably has 30k miles on it. If you can find exactly what you are looking for in a standard trailer, then there really isn't a reason to build your own, since labor is not a big part of the price of a trailer anyway. In my case, I wanted a very small, low, single axle trailer to haul my racecar. The car is only 1600lbs, plus a few hundred for spares and tools. Having a standard dual axle 18 ft car hauler that weighs 1900lbs and can hold 7000lbs was way overkill and thus requires a larger tow vehicle and uses more gas. I designed and build my trailer to exactly match my car. I built it very low to the ground with a torsion drop axle. For my application, it works great. The trailer is only 700lbs, and never sways since it is low. It also places the car lower and out of the wind more.

As far as building it goes, it really wasn't very hard. I spec'd the axle out and had it made with my width, spring capacity, electric brakes, bolt pattern, etc. I bought steel at a local steel yard and had it pre-cut to my specs for most of the parts. I bought a tongue, jack, and fenders from a local trailer manufacturer (tractor supply also sells these parts). A neighbor and I built the trailer in a long half day, like maybe noon to 10pm. It really isn't complicated. Typically the angles are easy, and the steel is pretty thick so it's easy to weld. Flipping the trailer over to complete the welding can be a little tricky, but as long as you have a few friends to help, it's not so bad.

-Chris
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Pics?

 

Chris I remember whe you and David built that trailer. Glad to hear it is still going strong.

When building a big trailer you need to be very careful about getting the balance points and tongue weights to come out right. Otherwise it will sway. I had a trailer com in my shop a couple of years ago, built for the customer by some dude in his garage. It was scary as hell. Welds were done with an underpowered MIG so half of them were already cracking others weren't even full welded. The tongue (3in square tubing )was butt welded onto the 4inch channel on the front of the trailer. It was only welded on three sides. You could pick up on the tongue of the trailer and it would twist 25deg before the trailer was affected by the movement. How scary is that? Be very careful when you build a trailer as I and other motorists are the one that will be affected by your good or bad work.

Brett

 

I have a 16footer right now but want to build a longer one. I'm still in the thinking stages.

Maybe I'll just add a beaver tail or something to the current one.

 

In the midwest & south, there's always some hick who got a trailer hoping to win the $10k prize at the local track, only to let it rust & dry-rot then sell it cheap. I'm actually not making this up. In middle/high school I helped my neighbor race in 4 states for 3 summers, and there were always people bringing their trailers just to sell them. Hell, they had 6 tandem-axle car haulers between the 4 brothers.

IMO its a lot easier to buy an old trailer, cut it down/mod it to your needs, than to make a fully custom trailer. If racing is all you do, a custom job isn't that bad of an idea.