I'm sure I'm not going to get any arguments from this crowd.....but I decided I needed a trailer! I was tired of renting trailers or borrowing friends trucks to move long loads of lumber.
So I started to shop around and found out that apparently used trailers are made of gold, because people want a fortune for them! So I figure I can build something like this (for about half the price including adding a winch). Will end up being a 18ft trailer with a 2.5ft dove tail at the end made out of 4" C-channel for the outer frame, 2x2 angle iron crossmembers, and 2x6 wood planks for the floor.
But before I got started, I ran into a little scope creep issue...where to store the trailer? So first order of business was to rip down my old rotten fence and put in a new swing out gate to park this thing on the side of my garage. (But I got busted by the wife and ended up having to replace all 110ft of the fence around the house to make it all look new. And build a new gate door with pergola arch. And the fun part of staining everything)
Well now that all of that is done....back to building a trailer.
Craigslist score of (2) 3500lbs axles, wheels, and springs
pre-prep work of priming the metal (not sure if this was a good idea)
Squaring up the frame
Determining width for axle placement (ended up at 81.75")
Working on mitre joints for welding
All spring mounts tacked on (also see the finished painted swing out gates)
Now I'm going to start cutting and welding in all the crossmembers. Then I'll need to find a way to flip this sucker over!