New Trailer

[Peter T]

Hi All and thanks to all who have given ideas prior to me starting my new trailer build. I have been progressing slowly as it is quite a lot more work making all the little bits and pieces but it is also very rewarding. I thought it about time to put up a progress report with photos and as it is a nice sunny day here in Tassie, so here goes.
First I cut the main side and front rails from 100 x 50 x 3.2 mm RHS and the cross members from 50 x 50 x 4 mm RHS and made and welded on the brackets to hold the keel roller frames. the main frame is not welded as yet. In this photo, obviously the frame is sitting upside down as its not put together yet.

Then I cut the tow bar sections from 65 x 65 x 5 mm RHS. I used 65 x 10 mm plate to make the connection between the coupling and the tow bar. The back two bolts had to be welded in to place that hold the coupling and I had to drill an access hole in the side plate to be able to fit the hand brake pivot. The front two coupling bolts just bolt on through the base plate.

Also fitted the new galvanised hitch

Then I made the last three keel roller brackets which have 20mm spindles as well as 20 mm for the main spindle. As these roller brackets will flop down and sit on the cross member when the boat is not on the trailer, I will fit small rubber blocks for the roller frames to rest against and then not damage the galvanising.

And purchased grey rubber keel rollers which are a bit longer between the ends of the dog bone to allow a little more room for the keel to fit them. Also, they are softer than the red ones and non marking

Manufactured the hinge for the trailer tilt and the lock mechanism for the tilt but as yet have not made the back end of the draw bar or fitted the hinge to that.

Have made up a kit for the axle including 9 Leaf,1900kg springs, 4 inch drop bars, new galvanised hubs, 45 x 45 solid axle and stub axles as well as new galvanised mechanical disc brakes and fitted the brackets to hold them on to the stub axles. The axle is not welded as yet, but what you do is to use a large piece of channel (I am going to two pieces of steel for the lifting frame ( 90 x 90 x 3.5mm )temporarily welded into a channel ) to sit the bare wheel rims in, have the hubs fitted dry and done up tight on the stub axles, then tack weld it all up. This way, you get the wheel alignment correct as it is welded with the wheels absolutely true, sitting in the channel.

I will soon be ready to start assembling all of the above, its been a very interesting project so far and at the end of the day, should end up with a great trailer.
I spoke to the registration inspector, and as a result, once I have it completed the build, I will have it weighed before I have it inspected for rego, he will stamp in the VIN number and supply me with the compliance plate which I will fit to the trailer once I have dismantled it , had it galvanised and reassembled it.
Still to do, build the spare wheel carrier and winch post along with the tow bar fold out extension and various other brackets, etc
More photos to come, hope you found this of interest.
Cheers all.
Regards Peter T

[Peter T]

Hi David. It's really interesting. The trailer will be rated to 2 ton. The inspector guy said that there is no way of rating welds etc for them to come to any figure but anything with a GVM over 2 ton must have a breakaway system fitted. He didn't seem too worried about the axle size, what bearings I am running, just so long as the total is under 2 ton seemed to be the go, especially when I told him I was going to run light truck tyres. I guess time will tell, but I can tell you that the trailer will not be light, that axle solid 45 x 45 is really heavy. I could have used RHS 6 mm thick walls but there is no such thing, 40 x 40 or 50 x 50 only and the 5 mm 65 x 65 not light either
Regards Peter T

[Ozzie]

Fantastic workmanship Peter, all looks excellent. After years of handyman level fabrication I am at best mediocre with welding and only do minor stuff. I would not attempt a trailer. As a retired draftsman I have no issues measuring, cutting and setting up steel stuff but as soon as I start welding the whole job looks like crap. Holds together but looks crap, A mate recently gave me his gassless mig setup. It was all modern, light to carry and according to the internet easy to learn, so I gave my ancient stick welder to my son in law . 3 jobs later my Mig work still looks like crap squared .

Think I’ll sell the mig , give the money to my mate and buy myself a nice new stick welder.

Oh yeah , when I asked my mate to show me how to mig weld he said “I can’t mig weld...that’s why I gave it to you”

[Peter T]

Oh Ozzie, don't sell the welder mate. I found the problem I had was that With my multi focal glasses on, And because the reading part of them is at the bottom, I could not see the molten puddle when welding. I also have a pair of just reading glasses so switching to them made all the difference. When welding, I use a circular motion and gradually keep the molten puddle moving forward with the torch angle at about 60 deg. When welding thicker material, always grind the edge of both pieces to a 45 deg angle to allow good penetration and always go slow enough to fully fill the "v" that is formed by the grinding. If you need to, or on very thick material, clean up your first weld and then run another wider bead over the first if you need to. Also check that you have the settings of the welder correct for the thickness of material being welded. Mine has a very good chart on the inside of the door where the reel of wire is housed. Those numbers actually mean something, all three settings are important.
Hope this helps, give it another go and see if this helps.
Cheers Ozzie and good welding

Regards Peter T

[Ozzie]

I’ll give it a go Peter. I had found it more difficult to see, as you say. Certainly harder than my old stick welder. I put it down to a combination of my new darker helmet, poorer light from the thin mig wire spark and my slowly increasing cataract blindness which is not bad enough yet for surgery. I too have reading only glasses so can’t hurt to try.

The thing I find frustrating is that my stick welds were basically serviceable if not pretty but my GMIG gives me no confidence in the weld at all other than the ability to exhibit it at Lake Macquarie Art Gallery as a metal sculpture of pigeon guano

Yes, breakaway trailer systems are complicated and to be avoided where possible. Most of my friends are now retired and converts to caravan touring. The shock of the van cost, tow vehicle cost is bad enough but when you add the extra wiring in the tow vehicle for electric brakes, battery charging Anderson plugs etc $ etc $ sheesh. One good mate gave me the rundown and you must now have a dashboard monitor constantly showing the battery level for your battery that supplies the electric brakes with power on the trailer if it disconnected. All sensible from a road safety point of view but making simple trailer towing more and more complicated by the year.


More amazing still though, from my perspective as a retired road designer, is that any Joe Shmo, who has never driven anything bigger in his 65 years than a Fiat 500 can buy his 25 foot van, Dodge Ram and armed with his dash monitor light drive off into the sunset ( and possibly the emergency ward)

[Peter T]

Hi David, you know you can always get me to help if you need to mate either at my place or yours.
Cheers
Peter T

[Peter T]

Hi David, no fee, no problems. Anytime that suits you mate
Regards Peter T

[Peter T]

Hi Ozzie, you are correct about some of those grey nomads. I myself have a 25 ft van which we normally take to Qld in the winter for up to 5 months at a time as we love lawn bowling, but we didn't go this year obviously. Some of those blokes are a total danger to themselves and others.
With the welding, the quality of your mask is also very important, as is the settings within that. It might be worth looking into the brightness setting etc to enable you to see your welding. It's important to not set the delay time too slow as this can cause eye flash, but with the welding helmet, you get exactly what you pay for.
When learning to weld, it's better to practise on a horizontal plane, leave the verticals up and ver tickle down welding till you really know the skills. Often verticals down welds can be very weak with poor penetration . Vertical up is a strong weld but very easy to make them look like the perverbial metal sculpture, ha ha. Use 3 or 4 mm material to practise as its a lot more forgiving. Very thin metal is very easy to burn through till you gain the skills. If you start to get burn through, just do shorter burst af weld at a time or turn the settings on the welder down, but don't forget that the weld needs to penetrate and not just stick on the outside. This it why grinding the V between the pieces is important. Don't forget that one of the settings is wire feed speed, another the heat of the fire so to speak. It's a balancing act but the settings given on the machine are a very good starting place. Let me know how you go.
All the best,
Cheers
Peter T

[Geoff]

Re dangerous towing scenarios.

A year ago when I bought Timeless in NSW I had to get a trailer inspection to register here in Qld. Our local RACQ garage is the main inspection place. The mech is a salt of the earth, no BS bloke in his forties, his mum runs the office. He told me I had to change the light setup to be compliant, but passed me on trust to make the changes.

While I was there we got yarning about boats and trailers. He and his mum told me about someone who had passed through about a year before.

A car pulled up outside the workshop and as it stopped one of the trailer hubs collapsed, he just made it. Driver was late seventies or early eighties by estimation, wife as passenger. They fixed the hub and they went on their way.

Here is the best bit. The boat was a sailboat, the mech, who is a boater himself (powerboats) reckoned it was at least 25 ft. There was also a tinnie on the roof of the towcar. Car and sailboat were loaded to the max. They said they had travelled from Nth Qld (we are in central Qld) and were heading down to NSW central coast.

The towcar was a YARIS.

The mech and his mum regret they didn't get photos. They considered phoning the police but didn't. Howzat.

[Geoff]

Mate, even more fun watching it go down the hills...