Ute tray to trailer?

[Toyoden]

Hi ppl, have been given a one ton Toyota Hilux flatbed, with sides wheel arches, and axle, 6 stud rims, all in A1 condition. What I intend to do is make it into a standard trailer for home use. Will be my first big project, am looking fwd to it. Need your expert advice if possible?. Being 1 ton, will need brakes? can't find any info anywhere on how to install brakes, cables etc onto a single axle from the start to finish, believe electric is the way to go, again, no idea how to affix brakes, will need new drums of course, just the fitting and wiring etc from brakes to my 4x4. Will have to make the drawbar, out of 75x50 RHS, what kind of hitch is the best? max amount of weight would be a ton, will need to put in springs also, what would you recommend? 6 or 7 leaf eye to eye?. Is there anything I am missing? hopefully someone has converted a traytop into a trailer and has plenty of how to's , if not is there a site that can help with this kind of subject?.
Any support will be appreciated.
Cheers from Australia
Waz

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

different laws may apply over there...

but here I'd go for changing the hubs to those that have mechanical brakes, ie, pulled on by levers. The tow-eye moves back and forward by a couple of inches and it pushes the top end of a lever backwards.

The bottom end of this lever pulls the main brake rod that goes down the middle of the trailer. At the back end of the main rod, somehwere in the middle of the wheels, there's a contaption that turns the 'pull' through 90 degrees, one to each side, and the rods from the hubs attach to these.

Difficult to explain but imagine two 'L' s on their sides with the hub rods attached to one of the legs and the main rod attched to the others.

You should be able to find these things on other trailers or caravans.

Alternatively it may be legal to use cabled brakes over there, similar set up to a car handbrake. It'd be much easier to run cables to the wheels but there's the danger of them snapping so they may not be legal.

Regards
Peter

 

[Toyoden]

brakes

Thanks Peter, explains a bit, gave me the idea to go to a trailer place and check how they are set up, if I can't work it out, will get a mechanic to do it. Cheers
Waz

 

[Justme]

Even though the util might have had a 1 ton payload I dont think the trailer will too. The load would have been spread over all 4 wheels, ok most to the rear but still a good % to the front too. On the trailer you cant spread that load onto the tow hitch unless you go for a fith wheel type arangement like they do in USA for big trailed camper jobbies. Here standard 50mm hitches have a static load of about 100-150kg ish. Also here max all (trailer & load) up trailer weights can only be 750kg unbreaked.


Justme

 

[Toyoden]

Trailer build

Hi Just me, sounds weird, same here 750kg max for unbraked, would have to reinforce the crossmembers and upgrade to larger rims, Hard to work out which is easiest to do Elec or Hydraulic, only thru ppl on the net like here and elsewhere that ppl like me that want to learn and DIY, can get somewhere, tired of being ripped off by so-called professionals, had my 4x4 worked on a few yrs back, body work etc, and cracks appeared, filler everywhere, and poor painting, doing it myself now, and enjoying the journey, make mistakes of course, but they are mine and no one to blame but me. Thanks for the info on hitches, all helps with the learning. Fifth wheel, will have a look at that one.
Cheers
Waz

 

[SC_BK]

Spotted this on ebay a while back, if it gives you any ideas