18 foot travel trailer

[L3450]

Has anyone here ever stripped down an old travel trailer to build a utility trailer out of ?

Any tips / tricks a body needs / should to know before proceeding ?

Its an old Glenelle 18 footer , tongue included in measurement !

 

[toy]

Has anyone here ever stripped down an old travel trailer to build a utility trailer out of ? Any tips / tricks a body needs / should to know before proceeding ? Its an old Glenelle 18 footer , tongue included in measurement !

My neighbor is doing this type of project now, he has been getting measurements off of my car hauler. My car ahuler has a 16ft bed not counting the tongue, his trailer frame had quite a bit more hanging out behind the wheels so he cut the frame off closer to the wheeles. The frame of my camper trailer is a lot heftyier looking than his, the frame of my camper has rectangular tubing, his doner camper frame has c chanel frame. He asked me to look at his frame to get my opinion and in my opinion I felt that his frame needs more cross bracing to strengthen which he is doing. I also think he needs to sister angle iron the length of the frame to make it stoughter, he hasn't done that yet but I beleive he will. When he puts the deck boards and angle iron around the boards that might make it strong enough to not have to sister the angle iron on the frame we'll see. Your frame might be strong enough to start with without having to reenforce it. It is an interesting project.

 

[bigshovel]

I did this with an old pop up camper frame for my four wheeler trailer. A little more steel here and there, welded new side rails on and steel diamond plate decking, it has served me well abd not to involved of a project. Have fun.

Brad

 

[MrJimi]

Travel trailers are designed to be supported by the box mounted to them, once that is removed you don't have much strength left for anything. And TT are NOT very heavy haulers, usually built light and not heavy duty
Trailers are measured by bed size, not overall length

 

[L3450]

Then i'll have somewhere between a 12 & 14 foot utility trailer bed length when all is said and done. (in my neck of the woods Travel Trailers include tongue measurement in overall measurement of length, according to a friend who sells / repairs them)

Hope is that angle iron , deck plate floor & side boards will gain me enough support to build a good light duty utility trailer .
( Used mostly to haul an approx. 700 lb. quad pulled by a 4 cyl. Camry )

Is this a project better left alone ?

 

[GT2]

A quick search brought this http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...-building.html?highlight=travel+trailer+frame
I would think that for what your using it for you should be ok, but the first time you put a tractor or small car etc. on it you could have trouble.

 

[Skyco]

Travel trailers are designed to be supported by the box mounted to them, once that is removed you don't have much strength left for anything.

HAH! I've owned a bunch of travel trailers over the years and I'd say the box is useless as any kind of support Ever see one in a wreck? The box literally falls apart, most are made with 2x2 framing.
Now all that said many travel trailer frames are pretty weak even so...

 

[L3450]

After a quick trip to Home Hardware this morning to examine the utility trailers sold there i'd have to say an old travel frame with mods will stand all of my intended uses.

Those on sale have a rectangular frame work built of angle iron (2" or maybe 21/2") with equal size cross pieces laid across (welded) to form floor supports . Welded on top is an open mesh which serves as a floor .

Real kicker as i see it is that the leaf spring chafs / slides (between guides) directly against the underside of the rectangular frame angle iron !

 

[Bill_C]

I've had two ancient travel trailers, a Zenith 21 footer from around 1960 and a Serro Scotty 13 footer from the early 70's. The Zenith had a massive frame, it would've made a great utility trailer. The Serro was lighter but still would've been OK for a single-axle "riding-mower-toter". I stripped the Serro to the frame and started restoring it, got tired of the project and sold it. Sold the Zenith too (after realizing from the Serro, what a PITA it would be)...

I now have a newer 25 foot Fleetwood. Although it's got a 6800 lb GVWR, the frame doesn't look nearly stout enough to use as a flatbed trailer, at least not without some judicious reinforcement.

 

[EaTmYtAiLpIpEs]

This guy did the reverse of what u did.
YouTube - Homemade Fifth Wheel RV Camper

 

[mark in da soo]

My equipment trailer is built off of an old 18 foot camper. We reinforced here and there and placed new crossmembers the whole length. It really works well for hauling my JD 4100 with implements and even has room to spare. I have had my dad's Kubota L3830 on it also and worked fine. Sorry I don't have pics! Maybe later...

 

[scrout]

I did exactly that to a late 40's early 50's trailer.

rot on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The axle is actually pretty beefy, 5k lbs I think, but the frame was 4x2 1/8 C channel that was put face to face and stitch welded.
I am not worried since my load is light, a bandmill. We put 4 inch round pipe cross braces and then the 3x4 3/8 angle for the track, so that made things pretty stiff. Since i got the old girl for $125, no comparison to the roll your own and buying new steel.

 

[excelagator]

I have rebuilt an old pop-up. Any camper from the 70's is built better and hefty than any post-dated frames I have ever seen.

 

[L3450]

Thanks to everyone for their input , its great to have your thoughts as it keeps ones mind open to all possibilites both good & bad.

Since the heaviest thing i will ever haul on what i hope will be my new utility trailer is a 4 wheeler (or firewood) i've begun tearing down the old travel trailer in preparation for the up coming build.

 

[Pennsylvania Weldor]

I've built 2 utility trailers from travel trailers. One from a 19' Coachman with a 5,000 lb GVWR, the other from a pop-up with a 2,000 lb rating. cross members are the weak point of these frames as they're constructed for floor decking, which increases o/a strength. I added additional crossmembers and integrated a side rail to strengthen the whole unit.

The 19' unit I shortened to 15', added a rail for ramps and a winch for loading non running mowers, etc. This trailer has electric brakes on both axles. Works great. Down side is that most travel trailers have narrower wheel width. So, unless you build a "deck over" the tires, you're not going to get a very wide trailer decking.

The Pop up is a little over 8' long on the deck. Just completed this project. "re-fabrication" technique the same as the Coachman.

Remember to install new tires as the ones on the thing are probably dry-rotted. I'll send pics later today .

Good Luck, and don't worry about carrying the rated load, IF, strengthened properly.

 

[L3450]

Thanks Pennsylvania Weldor thats good to hear !

At the risk of sounding really stupid (and remembering i still need to strip the floor from the frame) is there a tag on the axle to state the max. weight , if its missing (or none exsistent) is there another way to judge it correctly ?

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I think it was stated earlier, but there's a big difference between the older (70's and earlier) and the newer travel trailers. The older ones are built a lot heavier, and there's actually something of a frame under there to strengthen. I think if I had a newer, lighter one that I was working with, I'd just tear the axles off and build a new deck on the old axles.

 

[Pennsylvania Weldor]

Finally got a couple of pics of the 15' trailer made from a 17' Coachman travel trailer. The 8' utility trailer is built the same way.

I have carried a small skid steer loader on this, and lots of heavy steel fabricated items. This trailer is rated and inspected for 5,000 GVWR. I wouldn't hesitate to haul that much on it.

Hope this helps.

 

[unioncreek]

I did this about a year ago to a 17 foot trailer. I boxed in the C channel with 3/16 inch flat iron to reinforce it. Then then used 3 inch C channel every three feet in the frame to reinforce it. The only thing I would do different is put the hitch under the frame back to just in front of the axles. I used the original hitch and then run a piece of 2 x 3 tubing with 1/4 inch thick walls back from the hitch coupler through the first cross piece and then install a piece of 3 x 4 tubing as a cross piece and welded it. I've had three ton on hay on mine and have not had a problem. One day when I get time I'm going to load my Farmall M on it to see how it looks, it doesn't have any weight added to it.

Bobg

 

[600rider]

I built a 16'x61/2' trailer from an 18 foot travel trailer last year. I used the 4" c chanel that was the main frame, the tounge and axels and that was it. Where I work I can get scrap steel for .15 cents a pound and also have a scrap yard not to far from work where I used to work, (still friendly with the boss and ex-coworkers, translate good deals!!). I used 3x3x1/4" angle on top of the "c" run the length of the trailer and also about every 30"s across the width, then 2x2x1/4" square tube for the uprights and top rail. The fenders are 1/6" diamond plate that I took to work and bent in my press brake. I put all LED lights on it and all new tires, I usaed 2x8x16 treated for the deck. For the ramps I used 21/2x21/2x1/4" angle for the frame and 2x3x1/8" rectange tube for the supports and expanded metal on the field. the axels had a tag on them and was able to discern that they 3500# dexters. all told I have about less than $600 dollars in it and I pull my B7510 and 5' woods brush hog with only one problem.... the brush hog is to big for my tractor!!!!! This is a very sturdy trailer and was worth the effort to build as a new trailer that size was about $1800. P.S. That is Mocha he is my 9 year old chocolate lab. He was the forman on the job ...made sure project was on time and under budjet. Hope this helps, Ken.