Manky Monkey Motors

I was given an old trailer recently, well more precisely, the fella i got it from had just bought a new one and was going to scrap his old one, so thinks i, i`ll ask him for it and see what i can do with it, if its beyond reasonable repair then i`ll sell the suspension units on ebay.
I think its had a fairly hard life (havent we all  ;D), and as you may be able to see, its no longer straight and true.

And it`s undergone several repairs.

So my first job is strip it down and dispose of the rotten wooden bits, which is ALL the wooden bits.

Then i have to remove all those patched up repaired bits, so its out with Mr Grinder, fitted with a cutting disc, and now i`m left with the original chassis.

Although the chassis has faired fairly well, it is only made from angle iron, or angle steel to be more acurate. Now while the angle iron is ok, its not the strongest stuff in the world and would be fine if i was just using the trailer to take grass cuttings to the tip (recycling centre as i believe its called these days), but i don`t do gardening so that`ll never happen!
The long rails and the plates that hold them onto the axle are good, so i`ll leave them and run some box section along them to strengthen it all up and pull them back true, i`ll also run some box section across the width to hold the new wooden base.

Good thing about trailers is that they don't have to be straight and true, otherwise mine would be going to the scrap man. ;D

Me'thinks a slot to the rear of the trailer chasis Mr.T, to take a trike front wheel, might prove invaluable at some future date!!should you have a "dead" tricycle to move......Morrag

Theres nothing wrong with a `weathered` look, all that means is you`ve been making good use of it  ;D



Thats a good idea Morrag, worth bearing in mind for anyone making a trailer  ;)

Twenty minutes spent with a tape measure, chop saw and some 3/4" x 1 1/4" 2mm wall box section steel, gives me the 2 main rails and 4 cross rails, still need to cut 2 more cross rails but you get the idea.
This will give a nice, strong base to lay the bed onto.

"Theres nothing wrong with a `weathered` look, all that means is you`ve been making good use of it" 

Not weathered just twisted :)

them axles are pretty dear to buy,think youve done good there.

My thoughts exactly  ;D

Interesting watching this, as I hope to do the same soon!!!

BTW, does anyone know of a good towbar fitter in the Hamps area? (Sorry to kind of hijack your thread buddy!! :D)

Clive

A good first project to put your newly acquired welding skills to Clive.

That's what I was thinking too!!!!! ;D

Clive

Give Trailertek in Micheldever, Hants a ring Clive. Very helpful guys, (the owner's a bike fan). We rent trailers from them to take our unfinished projects to the Basingstoke Transport Festival each year -so tell 'em we sent you cos we'll need another one in a few months.  ;)

http://www.trailertek.com/

Clive, when you come to do yours,check out the trailer lighting regs thread. Oh you also need a secondary coupling device fitted. Have fun with buddy  ;)

Time to move inside, so after emptying the shed i wheel the chassis in and lay the long rails in place, followed by the first cross rail. I make sure its square then weld it in.

Square off the other end and apply a blob of weld there too.

Then carry on fitting the cross rails every foot or so.

I also weld the long rails to the axle mounting plates

Then carry on with the rest of the cross rails

With all the rails now welded in, i decided to weld the front 3 to the drawbar, the drawbar on this chassis attaches to the axle via a single bolt, so welding the cross sections to it will strengthen it a little.

With the base completed, i ground down the heads of the top welds so i had a flat surface to make a start on the sides. The sides, i made up by simply welding some u channel uprights between 2 long sections of box, one for the top and one at the bottom, i finished the rears off with some 1" square box section, this is where the tailgate will locate. I could have welded the bottom of the uprights directly to my frame, but found it easier to keep square by making them as seperate panels.

The side panels are then welded to the long chassis rails

Still need to finish the welding on the bottom of the side rails, but this is how its looking so far

That's one deep trailer! :)

Yep those side panels are nearly 2 feet tall, too tall for a trike trailer but fine behind a car  ;)

That's one deep trailer! Smiley


I thought it was a sheep trailer ;D

that's going to be a nice trailer tbone

what are the dimensions.

They used to use one of those to take 'Aristos' to the guilletine in Revolutionary France..... a tumbrill I ttink!!!

 :D :D its a ,,cage,, trailer =========for keeping kids in  ;D ;D ------------or the mother in law  ;) ;)

No good to me then,mother in laws gone,and  kids have long flown the nest,thank god.

I thought sheep too  ;D

Its 3 feet wide and almost 5 feet long.

Rain stopped play today, all i managed to do was tack in the front panel!

Front panel now welded in and time to look at the tailgate, before we do though, here are the last 2 cross members in place. This one i did a few days ago....

And this one at the front, i did today

When its open, i dont want the bottom of the tailgate sitting proud above the floor level, below the level will be fine. This means i have to think carefully about the hinge location. Being a tight ba*****d, i re-used the old hinges and positioned them using a strip that is the same size as the bottom tailgate rail.

Then i welded them to the frame

Did the same on the other side before laying the tailgate in place and welding the hinges to it

Working my way around the contour of the bottom rail, i bent the hinges to shape, welding them in as i went

I didnt see the point in having the full length of the hinge, so i chopped them off. Then i made a slit accross the width, level with the top of the rail and bent them around the upright where they are welded to it, all the way around

So now i have a working tailgate.
Still need to work out a latching system for it, then weld in the mounting plates for the lights and number plate, and then i can move onto the mudguards and the secondary attachment device, before prepping it all for paint.

closed

Been out spending my hard earnt cash this morning and now i`m the owner of 2 new lights and a new trailer wiring plug

So i spose i best get on and attach them......
First job then is to make up a mounting plate, as the lights also illuminate the number plate, it makes sense to have it all in a straightish line. Some 1.5mm plate is cut to width and clamped in place

And the lights will be bolted to it

A bit of prep work, then its welded to the tailgate and and the other half added to it, could`nt do it all in one cos i didn`t have a long enough sheet of steel  ::)

Whip the covers off the lamps and hold them up to the plate, mark the holes, then drill the mounting holes and the hole for the cable.

then bolt them on either end of the metal plate, and add the number plate in the middle

To comply with the trailer lighting regulations, i need 2 triangular reflectors too, so again position them, drill and bolt

And the second one. Why is it thats its soooo much quicker to say than actualy do  ???  ;D
So thats the lights fitted, next i`ll be running the cable to them.

When you get the gorilla installed it will look the biz. Mr. T ::) ::) ::)..Morrag

YOU WANT ME TO GET IN THERE?

Before i can run the wire, i need to attach the plug. For trailers and basic towing generally, you use whats known as a 12n plug and socket. The socket is on the vehicle and the plug on the trailer.
As is usual there will be different qualities of plug to choose from, but for something like a trailer, a cheap plastic one is fine. They are usualy made in one piece and open up by removing the end screw cap, pulling back the grommet then lifting back the plastic securing flappy thing.

Inside, you`ll find something like whats in the picture below. This is where the wires from the 7 core cable connect to the plug pins and the wires are held in place via small screws.

Start by stripping back the outer sheath to reveal the 7 cables inside, then strip back the ends of those to expose the wire.

Then attach the wires to the connector.
The connector will be marked by having numbers next to the pins. The numbers refer to the function of the pins, and in turn different  strand colours of the 7 core cable peform different functions too, so connect the right colour wire to the right numbered pin  ;).
How do you know what colour goes to which pin? If your an old git like me then you`ll have it scribbled down in a oil and tea stained notebook, if your young enough to think a notebook is a small laptop computer, then thankfully they print it all on the packaging these days.

The final step is to put it all back together, insert the pin block, close the case, snap the hinge closed, push the grommet into the top and screw the cap back on.

I particularly like the technical term !

Spent hours on this but very little to show for it!
Need a way of stopping the tailgate from flying open as i drive along, the simple solution is to pin it in place, had i thought about it before i could have saved a lot of work.......but i didn`t.
First step then was to cut some 10mm plate, 2 strips, 30mm wide each. HARD WORK.
Then drill a 12mm hole in each. HARD WORK.
Then weld one on each of my top rails. Not hard but tricky, very different thickness in materials.
What i ended up with is in this picture.

The idea is to now drill down through the top rail of the tailgate, then drop a pin through the hole and secure the bottom of the pin with a clip. The thickness of the pin will take out any horizontal movement and because the tailgate locates under my extentions, there is no room for vertical movement either.

The weld`s a bit holy, too windy to weld outside really but it`ll do for this.
I`m off to find some pins now, yeah i could use bolts and drill my own holes, but i may search out a very small padlock or two while i`m out  ;)

Today i have mostly been latheing around  ;D.
Decided i wasn`t gonna buy the pins to secure the tailgate, i`d make some instead. Just some simple metal turning on the lathe transforms a 17mm bolt into a 11.5mm pin, and here was me thinking the only way to round off a bolt head was by using mole grips on it  ;D. Only rough cut cos i only have 2 lathe tools and one of those is a parting tool  ::)
I`ll shine it up then cross drill it to take the r clip.

Today i drilled the ends of the tailgate out and then drilled my pins to take the newly bought clips

The pins are then dropped into the holes and secured underneath with the clips.

And to make sure i never lose the pins, i slipped them onto a ring attached to a small chain (an old dog choker to be precise), then welded the other end of the chain to the trailer frame.

With the back now finished, i turned my attention to the front. Since (i believe) 1997, all unbraked trailers have to have a Secondary Attachment Device, this is simply a way of keeping the trailer attached to the vehicle in the unlikely event the towing attachment fails, it also needs to be able to keep the trailer nose in the air, to stop it bumping along behind you.
The ones i`ve seen are purely short lengths of steel wire with a hook on the end, since i have to have one, it may as well be duel functional and serve as an anti-theft device too. So its out with some spare chain which i welded to the neck of the trailer, once i`ve trimmed it to length, it`ll wrap around the towbar and hook back on itself, when the trailer isn`t in use, i can use the chain to padlock it to something solid so it wont be nicked  ;)

Another pic, just because i have it really.
Almost finished now, still have to mount the mudguards, i have the pair that were fitted to the old trailer, but they have seen better days, if i cant do anything with them i`ll have to buy another pair  :(

Hi TBone would the chain be more secure under the tow hitch on top of ball that plate looks a bit thin to keep it upright in case off hitch failure

Hope TB dont mind, but I will answer that, them plates are to stop you damaging the bumper/bodywork of your car when hitching up, they are thicker than you think and are very strong, also it has a waisted bit (Where TB has put the chain around, this will stop it from jumping off.
You should not put it around the ball hitch as sometime its this which breaks off (It does happen) so you might as well not have one.
 

I don`t mind at all Tony  ;)

Fitted the mudguards today, these ones are plastic and came with the trailer, not the best looking things in the world but hey, its only a trailer. A little bit of platic welding (melting them with a soldering iron) and they are back in one piece, then a quick coat of paint makes them look slightly better.
Very straightforward to fit, put them where you want them, drill some holes and bolt them in place.

Just a little bit of tidying on the chassis to do then i`ll be ready to paint and fit the base in, or i may do the base next, we`ll see.

What are the guards bolted to TB? Brackets or through the back edge direct to the trailer frame?

The pastic guard has a small steel frame on the inside so it was a simple matter of drilling through then bolting directly to the trailer frame.