trailer pic,s

[welderman]

First i'd like to say hello to every one out there.
Just thought i'd show some pics of a trailer i built for my brother, it is about 13 feet long,nice and light weight easy for 1 person to move around and quite ridgid,, enjoy

[wldrman]

Nice job welderman!

From the other wldrman.

[MintSScout]

Looks good. Did you stick weld it or flux cored it?

[harcosparky]

Hey thanks for posting the pics, we want to build a few trailers and it's nice seeing others build them as it gives us ideas.

I gotta admit, I like the jack stands ( plastic buckets ), are they welding rated? What's thier duty cycle say while welding over them with 160 Amps?

I got those same questions when I threw up a makeshift welding table, 2 plastic saw horses with 8 square feet of 1/2" plate on them. I gotta say the plate caused the legs to buckle a tad, but the horse held up the plate.

I notice you are using boxed tubing, I was thinking of using something along the lines of 4" - 5" C channel = 14 foot long bed with a good spring and axle setup. Maybe even dual wheels for hevier loads.

Thinking about then buidling an aluminum box 14' long, 6' high and as wide as trailer that can be installed or removed as needed. ( this is obviously in the thinking stages as the trailer has to be built first.

[monte55]

Nice trailer........But I have a question. You notched out the front cross member and I assume welded both sides all around. I'm just wondering if that
could have changed the temper of the steel making the joint more prone to fail at those weld joints. I have read when welding, say on a truck frame never weld vertically on the frame. Ok horizontally to weld. I think it's because of all the additional heat in one area makes that area more brittle
and subject to cracking. I have seen them put a patch on the side of a frame
weld top and bottom but never the ends. When it fails it always seem to be at the vertical weld. The tongue carries great stress loads at times and it needs to flex without cracking. You might check it out with a pro as I am not in that area. If it were mine I'd add a piece of sq tube on the side or bottom
welding only with the length of the splice. I'd like to hear back and see what you found out.

[SkidSteerSteve]

Just from looking at the pics, I don't think I would worry too much about the tongue on such a small trailer, although it would be a good idea to keep that spot in mind when doing maintenance and pre-trip inspections. Correct me if I am wrong, but it looks as thought that area is set slighty lower than the main rails, without any welding on the lower portion of the tounge. This is a good thing because tension forces are the highest on the bottom of a vertically loaded, horizontal positioned beam. Personally, on larger trailers I never do anything to compromise that point. I've made a lot of repairs on cracked tongues in that very area. Case in point, I saw one that the builder actually notched the flanges of a 6" channel at the front crossmember in order to make a bend and run the tounge rails straight back. That put all the leverage from both ends consentrated at that point. Goes without saying it failed - almost catastraphically. By God's grace alone nobody was hurt. An old trucker told me something about equipment that still rings true today....an extra dollar spent in the shop is worth a hundred on the road. SSS

[welderman]

Thanks every one for the positive responce,

Well lets see the trailer was built so me brother could use it to move and to serve as means to transport his carpentry tools to his various jobs.the trailer was constructed out of 3by4 and 2by2 HSS. Its difficult to see but we used 1/4 by 2 inch flat bar down the outside frame rails to serve as tie down points . The entire trailer was welded with stick mostly 7018 LA rod. The axle is a 2500 lb model but the trailer wasent expected to carry much more than approx, 1000 pounds. we did actualy have a pail failure lol but it was remidied easily lol. I to was a little concerned about sinking the tongue into the front frame rail becouse of the stress factor,but brother wanted a narrow profile.So far there hasent been any stress cracks reported to me and its been in use for about 4 years now. yes the tongue was set 1 inch below the top of the outside frame rails for two reasons, 1 becouse i dident want weldment on the bottom of the tongue, and 2 to allow for 1 inch plywood decking. the reason we used HSS for the trailer was so we could run the electrical wiring inside the frame this gives it an added measure of protection from the elements. we also used a short piece of HSS added to the bottom of the rear frame rail to support the licence plate kind of like a small skid plate.
Well i guess thats all for now, i hope i've answered your questions, i have asked brother to send me some resent pic's of the trailer specifically the tongue area , when i get these i'l post them so we can have a look .