Another trailer project

[mich]

Hi Chaps,


been lurking around on this forum for a while, reading a lot and learning tips but haven't posted so far. I was really inspired by the post from SC_BK (http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2574) and because I needed a trailer I decided to dive straight in and do my own project. I have been welding for a few years and restored cars and motorcycles before, so this is not entirely new terrain for me.

I'm on a tight budget and I didn't have £500 to spend on a big trailer, but I am able to spend £100-£200 per month, and because I wanted to have something to do and learn something I decided to do it myself.

Bought an old crusty caravan from eBay. For £36! Good chassis and all lights worked, but the rest was a bit sorry for itself.




Spent 10 minutes considering whether I should save anything from the caravan, but after realizing that it would take me AGES to unscrew and take everything apart 'gently' I decided to just trash the whole thing. Got my circular saw out and started cutting the sides and roof off.






That's how it looked after I cleared everything away with my girlfriend.



Last thing I did that evening was to remove some of the wood from the chassis.



2 days ago I stripped the chassis completely:



And today I started de-rusting the chassis with a wire wheel on a grinder.



The chassis rails are in a remarkably good state after 40 years!





That's the suspension, which I'm stripping to clean, paint and rebuild. Brakes will be overhauled too. Safety first!



All nuts and bolts were in surprisingly good nick. Either because they were covered in grease or paint.



After about 4 hours of hard labour I only managed to get less than half the trailer rails de-rusted and the paint removed.



then I painted those bits in a rust preventing hammerite paint. This'll be followed by a top coat of black hammerite.




Next things to do:

1 - Finish removing all rust and old paint. Apply new paint.
2 - Disassemble suspension and remove wheel to clean, paint and rebuild.
3 - Weld top frame in 40x40x4mm angle and railings of 16x16x3mm angle.
4 - Build tail gate
5 - Fit flooring made from OSB (painted on both sides to prevent water absorption)
6 - Fit lights

I'll be doing some more work tomorrow and next week, so updates to follow!

Cheers guys,


Mich

 

[the snooper]

i hope you didnt forget to weigh in the aluminium.

 

[Bigjoe]

Bet the neighbours love you at the moment

Looking good tho!

 

[mich]

Bet the neighbours love you at the moment

Looking good tho!

I think the neighbors are used to my antics by now...

And I'm keeping the aluminium skin for future projects. I might even build a removable 'streamlined' roof for that trailer. But that's too far away for now. Gotta get this thing done first. The steel angles will be delivered on Tuesday and I've got all the lights and all other parts already. So its just a question of rolling my sleeves up and getting on with it. I'm hoping that I will have it done by the end of the month. (famous last words!)

 

[SC_BK]

The aluminium will no doubt be worth more at the scrappies than what you paid for the entire caravan

 

[JayRS4]

Whats the Benson thing in that background? Printer? Signwriter? Vinyl cutter?

If you hadnt already started such a good job of cleaning it up the way you have, i would have said give it a good going over with a pressure washer to get the general crud off first. Whats it going to be used for?

 

[mich]

Whats the Benson thing in that background? Printer? Signwriter? Vinyl cutter?

If you hadnt already started such a good job of cleaning it up the way you have, i would have said give it a good going over with a pressure washer to get the general crud off first. Whats it going to be used for?

Well... one learns...

That Benson used to be a plotter for architectural drawings. I bought it to convert to a knife plotter but I ended up buying a proper one with modern software and a USB interface. So now its just standing around either waiting to be used for metal or it'll go to the tip once the trailer is done.

Incidentally, I spent another 4 hours today scraping away at the bloody chassis and getting rid of the rust. I'm now about 2/3rd's through it. I have about 2-3 hours left before I can flip it over and do the other side. But the majority is done.

That's me taking no chance with the old paint. Don't fancy breathing in lead dust....



Most of the beams are in good nick. The front triangle however is a little marked. I might have to reinforce that just for peace of mind.

 

[oz.]

Nice pikey jacket. Good idea on the mask.

 

[visor_down]

That Benson used to be a plotter for architectural drawings. I bought it to convert to a knife plotter but I ended up buying a proper one with modern software and a USB interface. So now its just standing around either waiting to be used for metal or it'll go to the tip once the trailer is done.
.

Are you in the sign trade? Or do you just have a plotter for the odd job? When i looked they were pretty expensive, although a very handy bit of kit.

 

[mich]

Right chaps. Have finally found a bit of time again this week to work on the trailer. Did a couple of hours yesterday and about 2 today. The project is coming along quite nicely and I can now see the light at the end of tunnel in regards to this whole cleaning business. Most of the chassis is done. I'm hoping that another 3 hours or so tomorrow evening will sort the rest out.

So... Took the jockey wheel and the brake mechanism off the chassis and found a whole lot more rust underneath. I will take the whole brake mechanism apart to clean, inspect and overhaul anything that needs doing.



As you can see it doesn't look too tasty here... lots of rust, especially inside the chassis rails.





So I cleaned everything and decided to reinforce the chassis with a 5mm steel plate. That plate extends backwards to the part of the chassis that is healthy. So I should get all the strength back into it. I didn't want the bleeding thing to come off while towing something heavy!



I'm using gasless MIG welding wire on my welder cause I haven't figured out yet how to/where from to rent a bottle of Argon...



That's my Mig welder. eBay bargain!



Then positioned the jockey wheel back onto the chassis, with the original mounting plates cut down to size, so that it would sit at the same height as before.



Then welded them on the outside and inside. Its joined to the 5mm steel plate I had welded on earlier for added strength. The surge protection on the extension cord kept on cutting out cause I had the welder on the highest setting to get a good penetration to the steel.



Here it is all painted with that rust prevention paint. Will get 2 coats of black Hammerite soon.



This is today's work: Clean and paint the inside of the front and rear chassis sections...





And flip the trailer over onto its underbelly. Remarkably the chassis rails underneath are in excellent condition. Probably because water couldn't sit anywhere and start rusting... So this should be a quick clean. I'm hoping 3 more hours and this is done! I can then flip the trailer back over and start welding on the angle sections I've bought.

 

[cazl1994]

looking good what are you going to be using the trailer for?
keep up the progress

 

[mich]

looking good what are you going to be using the trailer for?
keep up the progress

Its gonna be used for transporting motorbikes and general bits and bobs. I want to start motorbike racing next year and I needed a trailer to transport the bike and tools and spares to and from the tracks, so I need lots of space. And I also want to use the trailer for carting around other stuff, hence the size.

 

[cazl1994]

quads or on road racing

 

[fran9r]

Cracking project. I often dream of a fully enclosed trailer capable of taking 2 bikes and loads of kit...one day!

 

[Shedendman]

Excused me for this daft question,is ok to mod a old caravan to a trailer of some sort,does it come under this new law in october 2010 about home built trailers,will they have to be tested/plated in some way?

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

I'd say it already is plated. You're taking a fair amount of weight off it by removing the van and interior, so it theory it should be safer.

About the only problem I can see is that with an empty or lightly loaded trailer it might tend to bounce around a bit as the springs maybe wouldn't compress enough.

Plus, with an old chassis it'd be hard to tell when the conversion was actually done...

Regards
Peter

 

[Shedendman]

Thanks for your reply Peter,you see i'd like to build a trailer or shall i say mod a rolling caravan chassie for my needs,but no way would i need it as long,so i'm wondering by doing a mod like shorten it for my needs would this effect anything.
Also a question to Mich,was there a plate on the caravan before you started work(just like to add,looks damn good btw),see i'm looking at building something over 750kg payload for my pressure washer plus 650lt water tank plus other bits,which would come to a payload of about 1200kg,getting one made would cost the earth,but an old caravan seems to be the right direction as there going rather cheaper on fleabay,plus i wont need it as long,so i'm thinking of a cut and shut sort of thing.

Any ideas/comments are more than welcome
ty

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

previous page, last message, second picture down the plate is there.

Fourth picture down it's been removed to fit the strengthener plate...but I'd just drill a couple of holes and pop-rivit it back on there.

Regards
Peter

 

[Paul.]

Caravans of that era had 2 serial numbers, the one on the drawbar is the body manufacturers plate, that one is a 1970s Thomson made in Scotland, from memory the last 2 digits denote the year of manufacture, the chassis is made by B&B trailers the plate for the chassis is on the crossbar where the swinging arms are mounted, again the numbers relate to the year, although body and chassis numbers often showed different years, the coupling is a B&B beta 4, I've probably got an exploded digram and parts list somewhere.
If you find that the trailer is a bit bouncy without the weight of the body on it, you can soften the ride by undoing the long bolt that goes through the spring from the bottom a few turns to reduce the tension on the road spring.

 

[Shedendman]

Cheers guys,just wish i had that much room as mich has,fleabay here we come