My attempt at making a off-road trailer.

[looknlearn]

I look forward to seeing it loaded. The toung concerns me and I think your balance needs to be a bit forward. Typical on a road trailer is 60/40. at that I can pick up the toung of my woods trailer when it is loaded with wood and move it around (if I dont pile it heavy in the front) I figure I can lift 100lbs easy enough. Not sure what tractor u have but 200 lb of toung weight is just getting warmed up.

To each his own while I may not agree with the design tour craftsmanship looks good.

Thanks for that ratio, :thumbsup: I was trying to remember what it was and couldn't remember where I had seen it.

Does the design of the tongue look questionable or the size. I am gonna weld that orange 2" box tubing on where I have it setting and if I find more I'll continue it back to the axle.

My tractor is kinda small for this trailer (Link to pic) but if I get a bigger tractor the trailer won't break.

 

[Milton Burro]

I figured since it was a low speed trailer it wasn't crucial so since I didn't have some I did without. Do you think it will be fine?

Off road, behind a tractor, low speed, yeah. I couldn't tell if it had torsion bar or not. Nice project.

 

[looknlearn]

Looks good so far.

The way it appears though, the trailer is going to be built MUCH heavier than either the axle or the tractor will handle:thumbsup:

Yes, I often get carried away with how beefy to make something. You can see I started smaller (the tongue and the axle) and got heavier as I went. I did add a lot of strength to the axle with a large piece of angle iron so the bearings is what would give out first.

And you dont need a suspension for a off-road trailer for behind a tractor.

Here are a few pics of our wood hauling trailers. 10-15 years of abuse of hauling 3/4+ cord of wood and no problems yet. They do have truck axles though, and large tires to help them float/roll when conditions are less than desirable. No tilt though:confused2:

Nice trailers. I don't normally get around to painting my work but I am really hoping and planning to paint this one.

 

[looknlearn]

Thanks guys for the comments and recommendations:thumbsup:

I didn't get anything done on it today. It finally warmed up and quit raining so there is more work to do outside.

 

[Rio_Grande]

it will be ok as long as u dont overload it

 

[looknlearn]

Got a little work done on it yesterday and today. Here are some more pictures.

When I get some more 2 inch box tubing I am gonna cut the small box tubing back about a foot from the end of the larger and weld the 2 inch on the bottom out a little further and either use a pin hitch or a ball hitch on the end.







Does the hinge look alright. That is a 5/8 bolt and 1x2 inch steel.

The upper weld looks terrible cause I am bad at out-of-position welding. I can't keep it from drooping and almost dripping.








Does the welding look alright. I am self taught and have been welding for about a year or two. I haven't had anything fall apart yet although I am lucky cause in the beginning I didn't have any concept of penetration. Now I try to get max penetration without burn though. Sure is fun to stick metal together.:thumbsup:


Comments? Suggestions?

 

[mrcaptainbob]

Shame on you if you DON'T over load it!! >

 

[looknlearn]

Got some more done today.


I set some boards on that we had sitting around and it looks like it will work great. 13 2x6x8 with no cutting. I left clearance so I can put larger wheels on in the future.

This next one shows the angle iron I am putting around the edge.



I drilled and tapped for grease zerks on the hinges and gave it a few pumps.








It's coming along nicely.

 

[looknlearn]

I am waiting for money to get the floor boards and material for the sides so there may be a short wait for it to get finished. Maybe if I can find some paint I could give you-all something to look at in the meantime.

Today I used it. Threw some scraps of particle board on for the bed and picked rocks. Works great. I didn't get any pictures but I know there is one pic that my sister took where you can see it in the background empty. I could probably post that one up tomorrow.

 

[dex3361]

Looks good and I am sure it is going to sreve you well.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I am waiting for money to get the floor boards and material for the sides so there may be a short wait for it to get finished. Maybe if I can find some paint I could give you-all something to look at in the meantime.

Today I used it. Threw some scraps of particle board on for the bed and picked rocks. Works great. I didn't get any pictures but I know there is one pic that my sister took where you can see it in the background empty. I could probably post that one up tomorrow.

Check your local paint store for mis-mixed paint. Sometimes you can get good paint cheap because it was mixed wrong or the customer returned it. If you're not too particular about the color it could be a good way.

 

[looknlearn]

As promised here are the pictures my sister took yesterday. She happened to get the trailer sorta in a few.
(sorry for the size, I am on a different computer and don't know how to reduce them.)




Riders view.

 

[ultrarunner]

Built something similar years ago and modified a camper jack to tilt the trailer... a little slow but way easier to off-load rock and dirt.

My first car trailer has no suspension... it was professionally built in 1964 and I still use it...

Simple trick from the factory manual says reduce tire pressure to 18 psi when trailering empty and inflate to max when loaded... it's worked well this way for 46 years and not having springs gives it a nice low profile for easy loading.

Nice project!