Making 2 trailers out of 1...worth it?

[curdy]

I am in need of a heavier duty trailer that I can: haul my tractor when needed, logs, lumber, cars, hay, other equipment, etc. None of these needs are for a regular basis, but I find myself needing one too often to keep borrowing from others.

I have a good friend that lives about 2 hrs away that also needs a trailer, mostly for car and equipment hauling.

This same friend is currently storing a 40' gooseneck/5th wheel deckover trailer out at our farm. Its a tandem axle, single wheel set up. He got the trailer along with other equipment in a package deal. Neither of us really want to use a trailer that big. I used it twice, and don't care to again.

I have heard that trailers this size don't hold their value as well given their limiting factors. So selling or trading it may not be the best option. With both of us needing trailers about 1/2 this size, is it crazy to consider making 2 trailers out of it? I have a 5th wheel hitch and he does not. So I could make use of the front half, and he could make use of the back half.

I'm going to make some calls to see what might be offered for it by a dealer and then go from there to see if we think its worth our time to move forward. Just wanted to throw it out there to see if anyone has looked into something like this before.

I guess one way of looking at it would be:

How much would a 20' deck be worth by itself? Because that's all we'd be left with minus the front metal.

We'd have to add:
Front metal
Tongue
Coupler
Move axles
Ramps, and maybe a beaver tail
Break away box
Battery
Wire connections


5th wheel trailer
Add tail end, ramps, maybe a beaver tail
Axles, suspension
Wheels
Tires
Lights

 

[schmism]

do you have the equipment and skill to do this mod?

Its going to take significant welders and cutting tools, plus more than just hobby welding skill to make those 2 trailers.

5200lb axles are about $400 a piece. Figure alxes, springs, hangers etc for the GN (front half) is ~$1000

Id likely add a 4' dove to the back of the 20' GN... (thus 24'GN)

that leaves the other half to make into a bumper bull. Likely go with a 4' dove on that one also, plus tongue/hitch etc.

If i had to balkpark the expense Id guess you'd have $4000 in cost to make to trailers (if you could do the work yourself)

SO ya in the end i see the finished product being worth $2k each...

 

[slowzuki]

My guess is cutting it in two and doing all that work would turn a 5000$ trailer into two 1500$ trailers. Try selling it. On pirate4x4 guys buy that type of trailer, pop a truck camper on the nose then haul their two rigs behind on the deck.

 

[schmism]

turn a 5000$ trailer into two 1500$ trailers.

have you priced 20' or 24' deck over trailers in your area? There are none-zero-nada- 20' trailers in my area for 1500 and that includes home built MH axled old-boat trailer converted deals.

youd be VERY hard pressed to find a 20' deck-over for $1500.

 

[crazyal]

If you've got the tools and skills go for it. You could try to sell it and buy two smaller trailers but a trailer that long may not be easy to sell. It would allow you to customize the trailer(s) to your needs. Just take a look at a factory built trailer to get some ideas.

As far as costs go, I guess it depends on if you have any steel or other spare parts around. If you have to buy everything new it could get a little costly to build the second trailer. It may not save much over the cost of a new trailer.

 

[firemanpat2910]

I am thinking make one trailer the size you want out of this one, then sell the scrap materials and buy the second trailer.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I would sell that trailer and buy two new 18 to 20 foot bumper pulls.

Chris

 

[curdy]

Given what our time is worth, selling is be considered. Its not in as much demand as say a 20' deckover, no doubt about that. If we can get a good offer on it, its worth selling and buying what we need. But its only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

If memory serves me well, my friend has some extra axles. I actually forgot about that. I'll have to look into that.

schmism, you asked about equipment and skill. Myself, no. My friend, absolutely. I'd look to buy the parts he'd need for his trailer and pay him to make mine go. Then, we'd both end up with what we needed.

slowzuki, you let me know someone with $5k that would be interested because we'd like to talk to him.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Id say go for it, I did one like that for some friends. . In fact it was I denticle to that one almost. He had gotten it from a furniture factory. I started by cutting the deck off a where the third upright to the right is. and removed 3 feet of decking from the rails in that area. I notched the frame and brought the main rails down for a dove tail The way the suspension was we had to unbolt the axles and suspension and turn them around to face the former rear end. Then took the ramp mounts off and welded in a new Pintle hitch and tongue. On the other end we left the GN and measured from the rear and put in a set of tandem dual axles and suspension. You never could tell that anything was ever changed.

 

[curdy]

Id say go for it, I did one like that for some friends. . In fact it was I denticle to that one almost. He had gotten it from a furniture factory. I started by cutting the deck off a where the third upright to the right is. and removed 3 feet of decking from the rails in that area. I notched the frame and brought the main rails down for a dove tail The way the suspension was we had to unbolt the axles and suspension and turn them around to face the former rear end. Then took the ramp mounts off and welded in a new Pintle hitch and tongue. On the other end we left the GN and measured from the rear and put in a set of tandem dual axles and suspension. You never could tell that anything was ever changed.

Please tell me you have pictures of this! How much time would you say it took you?

 

[slowzuki]

I bought my 27 ft bumper pull (24 ft that someone welded 3 more ft onto) for 1600$ I had been looking for a bigger GN for a long time, all 5000-10000$.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Here's my suggested equation...

The value of this trailer in it's current state is the cost of new trailers minus the cost to re-build this one.

If you think you can get more out of this one than the equation above suggests it's worth, put it up for sale for a month. If you have any takers, you're golden. If not, you're re-building and posting lots of pictures and progress updates for us to marvel at.

Here's an example. If you can buy two new (or used) trailers for $3K each and it will cost you $4K to re-build this one, the difference is $2K. If you can sell this one for more than $2K you're ahead to just sell it and buy new trailers. I personally think you can find trailers for less than $3K, but I also think you can re-build this one for less than $4k, especially if you have the other axles already.

 

[curdy]

Switching gears here a bit...

Took a look at a trailer today maybe 1/4 mile down the road. I had been eyeing it a couple of times whenever I drove by. Met the owner yesterday and asked if he'd consider selling it. He said yes, so I mentioned I'd stop back over to take a look. Its only about 15 yrs old. Been sitting for 5-6 years. Made by Oklahoma Trailer Manufacturing, Inc. Gooseneck set up. It does have bolts to remove the sleeve and put a 5th wheel king pin I would assume. Its 25' long (20' bed with 5' beaver tail). 14k GVW. Deck looks fine and the tires should be fine unless they're just too old. I'd probably price it as needing tires, and if I can use what's on there for now, I'm in good shape. The guy is very nice and said he has to realize he'll never end up using it, and he'd be happy to see a neighbor make good use of it. It was his father's, and he got it after he passed away. He only used it a couple of times, mainly to haul back stuff from him father's place in OH.

Any thoughts? What do you think you offer someone in a situation like this? $750 seem unreasonable? Would it be a good idea to test the lights and brakes or just make and offer figuring on having to replace those too? I would expect to replace bearings from how long it has been sitting.

This would be a very ideal piece of equipment for me. I do believe the guy will be very very fair with me too. I already made the comment that if we're able to work out a favorable deal, I'd be happy to help haul something for him with in a reasonable distance. He seemed to be happy with that gesture.

 

[Qapla]

That looks like it could work. You might think about offering him something for the trailer and offer to haul off the "debris" all around it.

This would allow you to cut the other trailer off for your friend and use metal from the front of the trailer or some of the metal in that debris to fix that 40' trailer in the conversion.

Then take all the excess metal and sell it for scrap. That would probably pay for any extras you may need and whatever is needed to "repair" the GN you want to keep.

 

[schmism]

$750 seem unreasonable? Would it be a good idea to test the lights and brakes or just make and offer figuring on having to replace those too? I would expect to replace bearings from how long it has been sitting.

750 seems a bit unreasonably low to me (least in this part of the country) for a trailer of that size and condition.

i see no reason why the bearings would be bad and would be MUCH more worried about the rubber on the tires before i was about the brakes or bearings.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I would plan on tires, brakes, and bearings plus my bet is most the lights are not working plus a new brake-away battery. YOU will need to put $750 into it to get it safe and road legal.

Chris

 

[curdy]

I would plan on tires, brakes, and bearings plus my bet is most the lights are not working plus a new brake-away battery. YOU will need to put $750 into it to get it safe and road legal.

Chris

That's along the lines of what I was going to tell him. But I would certainly think the total for those would exceed $750. The tires alone would probably be $400-$500

 

[sandman2234]

I did a trailer project along the lines of what you are talking about. I cosider myself a qualified trailer builder, only because I have built several, and modified several more. I work cheap, have a considerable junk pile and steel rack to pull supplies from, and it is still a lot of work, and time consuming. The other side as far as time, is I have a regular job, so working on trailers was the afternoon job, not my means of providing bread, so consider that also. The last fact, is I am cheap, so spending large amounts of money on a trailer to replace one that I have that will work just as well with a few modifications is usually not going to happen.
Trailer #1 was a 27' deckover, modified to haul a pair of Conversion Vans behind an angle deck one ton truck. It was a lot of work, took several weeks of every night work. Because I was working "for" somebody, modifying my trailer to fit their needs, it had to work, to their approval before they wrote the check. Problems were simple, trailer was too short, simple plan, extend it 10' with matching metal. Problem two, axle placement. The normal placement for a trailer pair of axles for a trailer this length was considered and followed. Then the truck didn't like it loaded with the vans and placement had to be moved. Problem three was decking material. I purchased a used trailer to strip the floor off, but the timing wasn't working out, so I purchased bar grading to deck the trailer out with. Good move on my part, bad move for the buyer, as now the trailer weighed 4700 pounds empty. He took delivery and I got a call two weeks later about a D.O.T problem with his vehicle. Seems the 7700 pound truck and 4700 pound trailer were eating into his 25999 or less license, so I took the bar grading off and installed the original aluminum flooring from the purchased trailer.(weight now at 3300) Bottom line for this was, doing it and getting it exactly right takes a lot of planning and expertise, so expect setbacks as far as getting it right unless you are easy to please or a trailer guru.
Trailer #2 was a 45' fifth wheel boat trailer that I shortened to a 20' deck, and made 12' of it into a dump trailer. I call it my ugly dump trailer, because it is, but it does work great, didn't cost me a lot of money ($100) but it took several weeks of work, a lot of spare materials and some great help from a friend.
If selling the existing trailer was an option and purchasing what I needed was within my spending limits, I definitely would consider doing that, even if I had to kick in a little extra because modifying a large trailer is a lot of work, and takes a lot of effort to get it exactly right or your going to have problems with it.
David from jax

 

[Iplayfarmer]

... Gooseneck set up. It does have bolts to remove the sleeve and put a 5th wheel king pin I would assume...

Something like this... PopUp Industries GN5 Gooseneck to 5th Wheel Adapter for 4" Round Coupler Tube There are other options including different sizes of square and round tubes depending on what the coupler on the new trailer is.

The other option is to get a gooseneck spider for your 5th wheel rails. Like this... SuperGlide Gooseneck Adapter 18K - Torklift Central

I went with the second option. I really like it. My daughter calls it the "goose bump".
Be careful bringing up different hitching options, though. It's a surprisingly emotionally charge issue. First thread I ever had locked on TBN was over trailer hitching options.

 

[schmism]

YOU will need to put $750 into it to get it safe and road legal.

Chris

I always try to work backward.... whats a good condition trailer like that worth? $4K? (would be in my neighborhood) so 4K - 1K for fixes, another 1K looks (paint/rust etc)

In my neck of the woods a trailer like that would be listed on CL for at least 1200 perhaps as much as 1800-2K (because of the above math)