Would you trust me to weld a trailer up?

[Haywire]

Thinking about building a 6x12 tandem axle trailer if my metal contact is cheap enough. Should find out tomorrow. Here's an example of my welding, 1/8 7014 fillet weld on 1/4" plate. My wife said, "If it breaks, just fix it." My reply was, "What if it breaks at 70mph on a crowded interstate with 4000lb of firewood on it?" She didn't like that scenario. Neither do I.

 

[Shield Arc]

Looks good to me, going around something like that is hard to make look perfect, takes lots of practice.
Maybe work on filling your craters a little more.

Have you done much destructive testing of your welds? Only way to know if you're ready to build trailers or not.


I'd be floored if you can buy the material and paint cheaper than buying a new trailer.

 

[Haywire]

I've got a source for wholesale prices. I've not done any destructive testing on my welds.

 

[Shield Arc]

I've not done any destructive testing on my welds.

Well, you got a really good welder in the PowerArc 200. Remember 7018 is your friend. :thumbsup:

 

[Haywire]

It's probably a moot point anyway. Like you, I suspect that the metal and paint will be cost prohibitive. I was going to use 7014 since I have no way of storing the 7018 right and read something about brittle welds with improperly stored rods.

Ian

 

[Shield Arc]

Don't worry too much about that, unless you're going to be doing multiple pass welds. Which in building a trailer I don't see that happening. Just keep the rods dry as you can. Remember I did all those fillet weld break tests? 7014 broke at 10-blows. 7018 that had never seen the inside of an oven broke at 18-blows, where as 7018 right out of the oven broke at 23-blows.

I ran this 7018 open root overhead weld this morning for another site. I didn't like the results, so I was going to break it off, and do it again. I just placed the plates in my vice and hit it with a 4-lb hammer. I thought I was going to break my vice!

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Just a thought: Commercial trailer manufacturers hire and/or qualify their welders to a DOT approved procedure and they must qualify for certification. Your liability going down the road with a home shop built product is the same as the manufacturer or certified repair facility. Off road; who cares.

 

[dstig1]

You know what the answer would be if you posted that over on WW: Can you do xray quality welds in all positions, every time? If so, then yes. If not....

Well that, and Sunshine would find something to hate on

 

[Shield Arc]

Just a thought: Commercial trailer manufacturers hire and/or qualify their welders to a DOT approved procedure and they must qualify for certification. Your liability going down the road with a home shop built product is the same as the manufacturer or certified repair facility. Off road; who cares.

I think that depends on the state, and inspector.
Few years ago it was a big thing in the North East to register trailers in Maine, a flat fee of $5.00 I think. Evidently it didn't matter your mailing address either.

In the early 1980s I bought a boom truck in California, brought it up here. Remember when the DMV was in auto center? Boy did I get the inspector from he!!. The boom truck had a 7 1/2-ton Pitman crane setting on a F-750 truck. Pitman bolted 1/2-inch plate to the truck frame under the crane. The inspector was convinced I did that! Had to get a letter from Pitman stating the 1/2-inch plate was factory installed.

 

[Gary Fowler]

From the welding I have seen on trailers, I can only imagine the "test" that they gave a welder to do that. Most of the welds are undercut, undersized and overly ugly. I would trust my welding a he!! of a lot more than anything I have seen from a trailer manufacturer. If you are building a tandem 3500 lb. axle trailer, there is not much pressure on each individual weld per square inch of welded surface. Your welding looks plenty good to hold a trailer together if you do them all that way. I recommend you toss those 7014 and get some fresh 7018 if you plan to build your own. I have found the 7014 to break much easier than 7018. We a little help from overhead crane or FEL you could make just about every weld in flat position so the welding should be easy.
I, like shieldarc, doubt you can buy steel, welding rods and paint for price of manufacturered trailer. You would likely get a better trailer is you built it yourself as you would probably put more steel into than commercial built ones, I know I would. I would surely love to have a cheap outlet for structural steel and I would love to build another trailer but my pricing from local supplier was more than a new trailer just for the steel, not including the axles, tires, welding and painting. If I built it it would get a good sandblasting prior to painting to get a good profile for the paint to adhere to which would cost more than the commercial guys who maybe wipe it down with a dirty rag prior to spraying it