building a trailer

[news.btinternet.com]

I would like to build a light car trailer. It seems that this would be cheaper than buying one.

Can anyone point to appropriate websites for plans and parts etc.?

Or is this simply a daft idea?

Thanks

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

The back axle of a small car(a mini) and a welded angline framework welded to the axle is basically the basis for the trailer. Frame work can be covered in quater inch plywood.

oblong letter shape for the framework as the < serves for where the towbar mechanics will go.

Backlights could be from a scrap car and cut outs at the back of the trailer plywood to house the lights.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[peter]

[Chris Bacon]

(cough)

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

"Wishbone" I forgot the mini didn't have an axle. :-P

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[Malcolm Race]

IIRC from a number of years ago Indespension used to supply traier parts. I built a luggage traiter using their suspension units - you could specify the stub axel required, depending on the hub/wheel you could find in a scrapyard. I have no current experience.

Malcolm

[Dave Fawthrop]

|IIRC from a number of years ago Indespension used to supply traier |parts.

Still do

[Adrian Brentnall]

Depends on how small / light you're after....

I obtained the chassis from a scrapped caravan (£20) and had it cut down (thought 19ft long was a bit excessive !). Local garage did some welding, I added plywood sides, hinges, lighting board and there you go..... trailer takes 8ft x 4ft sheets flat between the wheelarches...

Resulting trailer carries between 1/2 - 1 tonne of firewood - looks ugly but works well . Not the lightest of things to lug around though - original chassis is (thick) box section steel tube....

Maybe you were thinking of something smaller ?

Adrian ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[T i m]

I'm not sure you can do that any more Malcolm (if you were doing the brakes bit).

I built my 1/2 tonne braked trailer using Morris Minor stub axles / brake drums (and it still running fine some 20 years later) but I think now you can only use 'purpose built' trailer brake / stub axle assemblies?

Maybe if you go for a car conversion (where you retain the donor brake system) you can get round it (probably because it's not 'new' but a conversion)??

Also my trailer has the simple sprung 'overrun' brake actuator and I think new-builds must be damped ..?

All the best ..

T i m

[Rob Morley]

It doesn't have wishbones either.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Damn! it must have been the Hillman Imp then?

I am getting on you know.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[dennis]

Am I the only one wondering how you can build a *car* trailer by using *one* car axle. Don't you think it will be a bit overloaded with a trailer and a car on it?

Maybe a couple of axles from a transit?

I would go with the Indespension units myself.

Maybe the OP didn't mean car trailer when he said it?

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

I do hope he has a landrover to pull it then.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[Alan]

Do you mean a car transporter trailer?

Been there done that. By law any trailer over 750kg gross weight *MUST* be braked. For transporting cars you'll need a twin-axle trailer, with running gear big enough to carry the weight of the trailer itself and the heavyest car you're likely to carry. Factor in a winch and ramps to your design. I find it preferable to keep the centre of gravity low by having the road wheels either side of the bed the carried car sits on. I had a nasty experience once of a hired "beavertail" one with wheels under the bed and the car high up rolling over on a motorway - not pleasant. Towcar, carried car and trailer all written off :-(. Buying parts off the shelf is easy enough, but braked suspension units are not cheap, nor is the coupling. I've found

to be very good.

I'm currently in the process of upgrading my home-built (large) box trailer to fully braked using 4x braked indespension units from the above company.

If you mean a small box-trailer for general use, as long as you're under

750kg loaded you can get away without braking, which makes things far cheaper.

Alan.

[T i m]

Like my bike trailers (trailers I tow *behind* my cycle/tandem or motorcycle) ;-)

I read it as a 'small goods trailer' when he used the term 'light' .. and a car transporter trailer may be quite a challenge as yer first trailer project .. but could well be wrong?

All the best ..

T i m

[news.btinternet.com]

Sorry, I meant a small trailer - maybe 6"'bt 3' bt 18" (not for carrying a car!).

[T i m]

Phew ;-)

I used the Indespension 6'6" x 4' chassis as a starter (easier than sourcing / designing the base at the time) and built it up from there (it started as a 1m high box trailer for my Disco gear, sold to a mate, bought back some years later and rebuilt down to your 18" high idea) ;-)

I used exterior quality ply and most of it is still original (I think I put a new floor in after 15 years) ;-)

It doesn't get used that often these days (I also have a smaller unbraked one for the smaller jobs) but when it does it's a godsend. (like when I had one of those tubular 1 tonne hydraulic engine cranes I could get it in the trailer and take it elsewhere on my own) ;-)

Also the motorcycles will go in at a pinch ..

All the best and good luck ..

T i m

>

[cpvh]

Before you part with any money, add it all up and compare it with the cost of....

The Conway Carrier (if they're still available (bit basic, but mine was =A3400 new complete with 10" wheels (inc a spare & bracket) jockey wheel, tarpaulin type cover, err I think that was it.))

Also Tony Maris at

(I think that's the right url) sells some pretty cheap ready built.

Also try google groups and search for uk.d-i-y +trailer +build etc for previous threads and recommendations.

Come back and let us know how you get on.

[Autolycus]

There are many problems with using old caravans: the suspension was usually designed to carry a very narrow range of weights - loading a caravan with a few melamine plates and a bottle of blue gunge doesn't make a lot of difference to its weight - whereas a trailer may easily have a gross weight four or five times its tare. So it will either change considerably in height from tare to laden, or bounce around like a pea on a drum.

A caravan old enough to be scrapped has probably got old, seized, worn-out brakes - and trailer brake prices are ridiculously high, particularly from places like Indespension. They may not even be auto-reverse, which is a real pain.

Similarly, a worn-out, undamped hitch can make towing fairly miserable.

People fit all sorts of tyres to caravans, then leave them standing, flat, for long periods. Adrian mentioned putting a ton of firewood in his trailer, so that's an axle load of say 1500kg. For that load, you'd need at least 97 rated tyres, which you'll be hard pressed to find in

13", not a pair of 5.60x13 crossply remoulds with a few good cracks. Plenty of caravan wheels won't even have the correct seat profile for tubeless tyres.

Some caravans seem to rely on the body to provide torsional stiffness, so trailers based on them would be flexible, to say the least.

I know a lot of people use Indespension units, or copies of them, but I find the whole principle of them very dubious. Some of the rubber suspension beam axles (e.g. Avonride) are almost as bad, and can easily leave you with wheels pointing in odd directions. I think there's much to be said for the Ifor Williams approach of sticking to leaf springs. My next trailer will almost certainly be one of theirs, although I'd like to be convinced that their parabolic springs are sufficiently damped.

have got some sound stuff about trailers and the law, so I'd suggest reading that and then staying under your limit for an unbraked trailer. Or get a new one off ebay for a couple of hundred quid.

[Steve Walker]

I started costing it all, and decided that £200 wasn't actually a bad price considering you get brand new chassis, tyres, bearings, etc, all galvanised and ready to go. Sometimes DIY doesn't add up to VFM.