ATV Trailer build

[Xfaxman]

Here's one from an earlier post on this thread. It wasn't skinned then but you can see the dump angle. Pretty steep, and I doubt it will leave anything much in the bed.

Thanks, if it is like mine, it will go steeper.:thumbsup:

Just push it back further.

 

[handirifle]

Yea the only thing stopping mine is the ground. So if I back to a downslope, it will stand straight up.

 

[Oldpath05]

I was just thinking the other day, what happen to the great atv trailer build. Your trailer looks awesome, that wooden bed looks great, I like it, has that old pickup truck look, and maybe that wood on the bed will make the trailer ride quieter when empty. If you need the trailer to dump higher, use a sky hook.

 

[handirifle]

The funny part is I almost got some metal to put in between the boards to give it just that "old truck" look. I decided I didn't have the patience to mess with that. Hopefully this week I will get the frames for the end doors built up, and start my search for sheet metal to skin those with. I will have to figure out some sort of latch system for them too. The bottom of the trailer frame has tubing that pins will slide into for easy removal, once unlatched.\

The latches will got near the tops. I don't want anything too complicated, but sturdy, in case I fill the bed with dirt or compost.

 

[handirifle]

OK making progress. Still not done, but close. It's at least usable now. I had to drain our spa, that holds about 350-400 gallons of water, so I used a sump pump and hose to fill a 35 gallon water tank I put in the trailer, then took the water to the trees on our property.

OK working on the gates and latches. I wanted a latch that opens top and bottom for the dump capability. Unlatch the bottom and tilt bed and drive. Here are the parts I made up for the slide latch.

Here is the slot the parts will work in.

Here are the parts installed, and the gate open. If you look closely you can see a small nub on the top rail about 4" to the right of the slot. That nub is a 1/8" rod I drilled through the top rail for. It goes through a hole in the bottom of that rail, and is welded in place. It is a stop for the coil spring, and allows constant spring pressure to keep the gate latched.
The small screw is the handle. It hurts bare fingers a little to open it, so I will be looking for SOMETHING to put over it for my tender hands

This last pic is the gate latched. This pic shows the true color a little better too.

I still need to skin the gates when they get done as well. By the way, I have a small hill in the back that is about a 45 deg angle up, but is short, about 15-20ft up. Once the water tank was loaded, 35 gal + 290lbs, and about 200lbs trailer, it pulled the hill fairly easily. It lost a bit of traction near the top but otherwise did fine. Not bad for a 250cc 2WD.

 

[Xfaxman]

Neat :thumbsup:

Is the bottom latch/hinge made the same way?

 

[zing]

Here is the slot the parts will work in.

Here are the parts installed, and the gate open. If you look closely you can see a small nub on the top rail about 4" to the right of the slot. That nub is a 1/8" rod I drilled through the top rail for. It goes through a hole in the bottom of that rail, and is welded in place. It is a stop for the coil spring, and allows constant spring pressure to keep the gate latched.
The small screw is the handle. It hurts bare fingers a little to open it, so I will be looking for SOMETHING to put over it for my tender hands

This last pic is the gate latched. This pic shows the true color a little better too.

I really like the way you did that, looks very functional. How did you cut the slot in the top rail without going all the way through the other side of the rail? It doesn't look like you have enough depth for a jigsaw to run in between there without bouncing off of the other side of the rail.

 

[handirifle]

Xfaxman
Not currently, but a miscalculation on the front gate has made me re-think the design, so in the end, it will be. Currently, it has 2 steel rods, like the sliding latch part, that slip into steel tubing and acts as a hinge pin. I will have to post a pic for it to make sense. As I said, I will end up changing that. I want to be able to unlatch the bottom and leave the top latched, to alow a bottom swing gate, like a dump truck does.
Zing
That caused me some real head scratching.
I finally decided on drawing the slot with felt pen, then drilling a hole with the drill press, the width of the slot, at each end. Next I used my 4" angle grinder with thin cut of wheel to cut away most of the straight side, and did the finish and fine cutting with my Dremmel and a 1" cutoff blade on it. The Dremmel is fine enough it allows me to tip it inside the slot to de-burr it some. I then use a 12" long 3/8" dia drill bit to clean the inside of the tubing and insure smooth operation.

The best thing I decided from the very beginning is to completely weld up the gate, ONTO the trailer frame, as I build it. I do this to insure true alignment with the gate latch parts. I do not have a welding table (or room for one) or any jigs to hold it, so I could not insure consistency any other way.

 

[handirifle]

Here is the front gate in progress.

In the lower left hand corner of the trailer you can see the long 3/8" bit I mentioned. Also in this shot, you can see the tubes (below bottom rail) that I described above that act as the hinge on the rear gate. The top has to be unlatched and then the gate opened and slid sideways to remove the gate completely.

Now look below the ground clamp and you will see an orange square piece inside a black "U" piece, that has a latch pin going through it. This latches the bed to the frame, and is what I disconnect to use the dump feature. This is also what cause me to re-think my lower latch setup. Because this sits above the tubes that WERE supposed to be for my lower hinge, they would interfere. So I decided to make it a sliding latch on all 4 corners, which is pretty much what I wanted all along, but couldn't earlier decide how to do it. So in the end, it will work for the best.

I want the gates to act as both a tailgate, and be removable. That gives me a lot more options in what I can haul with it.

This is just a close up shot of the corners welded onto the trailer frame.

 

[handirifle]

I have no idea how much weight this thing will handle, but I can tell you the 290 lbs of water didn't phase it. There was no noticeable squat to the tires and they have little to no air in them. I'd bet it will carry far more weight than the little quad could stop on a down hill, so I will have to make sure to not overload it, weight wise, if in the back country.

 

[Oldpath05]

For a single axle trailer build, not bad. I understand the rear tailgate with the spring latches, it swings and removable, good, but don't you need the tailgate also to have a chain to hold it down in flat position like a pickup truck. And the last pic shows the front gate welded so it cant come off, is that right?

I'm sure your trailer could carry 500 lbs. all day long if you can slow it down. Have you kept track of the cost of this trailer so far, I'm seeing around $300.00.

 

[handirifle]

Yes, it will have chains or cable when complete. The front is welded in place, for now. The rear was too but the latch pin goes into the 1" piece I leave welded to the frame, and actually cut the gate away from it. I do it that way to prevent warping of the gate as I weld all the other pieces in place.

It might seem odd (probably is) but I also weld it in place so I get the angles to properly match the bed. Both gates will have most likely cables to hold them in the open position. The cables will be removable, from the gate. The more I think this thing over the more I change it. I do this all the time. Decide how I am going to build it, then find a dozen reasons to do it differently. For instance, I have thought of not even making the front gate removable, not sure I need to any more.

I do want the rear to swing out from the bottom, as well as the top though.

As for cost, let me think a bit. I will take a wild guess at $350-375 WHEN complete. I have right about $300 in it now, and the rest depends on how much the sheet metal costs for the gates, plus I have to buy another 3/8" rod.

 

[handirifle]

Oldpath05
I re-read an old post you made on this thread, and this is a trailer I made some years ago for our Jeep. I used the entire rear axle assembly from some Dodge that was front wheel drive. This had the torsion bars, and shocks all attached. I got it for about $90 in a junkyard.

It was quite versatile. I had a pop open tent on top, a rack to carry my canoe, and the tongue extended 3ft to accommodate that. I late changed the axle to a leaf spring with wheels that matched the Jeep, but in retrospect that was a mistake, because it rode glassy smooth with the other axles and very bouncy with the leaf spring.

This shows the canoe on top, but the tongue is not extended here.
Th 5 spoke wheels are with the new axle.

 

[handirifle]

I changed the axle because the torsion bar ends stuck out in front of the tire preventing a different tire, or type of tire from being used, and I got concerned with the tire's ability to hold up off road. As I said, it was a mistake. I tend to overthink stuff sometimes. MY hope was to have all tires and wheels the same size and type, to enable using only one spare for all. Or in extreme case, the trailer's tires for the Jeep.

 

[handirifle]

The top of that trailer lifted up with gas struts, and had an opening tailgate as well. It was steel framed and incredibly solid. It also carried 2 5gal water containers, and all sleeping gear, food, etc, was stored inside the trailer, that was locked.

 

[Oldpath05]

If you stay under $400.00 for your trailer cost, I would dare to say your under budget, but a tad behind scheduled. The learning curve can be time consuming, I bet if you made another one like it, you could knock one out in no time.
Rear axle's from front wheel dive vehicles do make good trailer wheels with minimal effort of re-arranging. That's what I used on my tandem trailer, for a tandem axle trailer, if you buy new the cost of 4 of everything adds up fast, to the amount of 4-$500.00 just in wheel assembly's.

 

[handirifle]

Yea I considered cost, when designing. I used the tubing because the supply yard has it cheap, I like cheap. That helped keep the cost down. I sold an old riding mower for $200, and it had no mower deck, and that money paid for over half the trailer expenses.

 

[zing]

Zing
That caused me some real head scratching.
I finally decided on drawing the slot with felt pen, then drilling a hole with the drill press, the width of the slot, at each end. Next I used my 4" angle grinder with thin cut of wheel to cut away most of the straight side, and did the finish and fine cutting with my Dremmel and a 1" cutoff blade on it. The Dremmel is fine enough it allows me to tip it inside the slot to de-burr it some. I then use a 12" long 3/8" dia drill bit to clean the inside of the tubing and insure smooth operation.

The best thing I decided from the very beginning is to completely weld up the gate, ONTO the trailer frame, as I build it. I do this to insure true alignment with the gate latch parts. I do not have a welding table (or room for one) or any jigs to hold it, so I could not insure consistency any other way.

Thanks for the response. I hadn't even thought about the burrs on the inside interfering with the pin movement. Well thought out.

I also like how you welded that top bar longer than the gate, and then just cut it so you would have the tube in place for the pin to go in and it would be lined up properly. Nice trick, I will have to remember that.

 

[handirifle]

Welcome, that WAS one of my FEW bright moments!

 

[handirifle]

Well today, I finally got a chance to get back on the trailer build. Got the front gate about 90% complete. I have removable pins in the bottom, and tomorrow will work on the spring loaded latches like the rear gate has. I will post some pics tomorrow. Had to stop working and get a shower for a family BBQ at the in-laws.