Slunnie's enclosed trailer build

**Slunnie** · 26th February 2021, 06:47 PM

A little bit more done. I've changed the hilux splitties out for 17" hilux steelies. The offset is quite a bit different between the two rims, with the 17's sitting a fair bit further inboard. I don't think the clearances are enough between the tyre and the chassis so will be putting the splitties back on. I do want to run the 17's on the trailer and to save the set of splitties for a future project, I'll have a think about which way I want to approach this though. Safety chain is on, coupling is in place but not bolted down yet, I'll do that after I get the jockey wheel.. hopefully tomorrow! The flip lid, I've added a cross-member into the middle of it to support where the sheets will go, hinges have been welded on (3x). The hinges are HD gate hinges which come in left and right orientations, they've been stripped and combined so they're all the same and fold in a way that allows the top to fold all the way down. They have been welded in so that the top is not removable, hopefully that will save any accidents, injured people and a damaged trailer. In the rear corners I have also cut out the beginnings of light boxes, just 2mm hot rolled that has been cut to width and a 25mm fold in the top. It will get boxed up a bit more a little later and used to brace the wall from flexing around.

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**John_D4** · 26th February 2021, 10:21 PM

Why 17” rims? I personally thought that was an unusual pick.

**Slunnie** · 26th February 2021, 10:55 PM

Originally Posted by John_D4

Why 17” rims? I personally thought that was an unusual pick.

It is a bit. A local bought a set of 5x 17" Hilux rims, kept 2 to replace the wheels on his box trailer and then I bought the remaining 3 from him with the intention of fitting them to this trailer, being single axle plus a spare. It just happened that they were 17", but with the trend towards larger rims on 4WD's it really didn't worry me too much and I didn't mind to bring that more modern design element into the trailer even if trailer design hasn't evolved much beyond being steel boxes.

The 16" Hilux splitties I have as a set of 6 and so I wanted to use them for a tandem axle build with a spare.

**Slunnie** · 27th February 2021, 09:47 PM

Today, borrowed a jockey wheel from our components supplier until stock arrives, and installed it. Welded the top of the coupling plate to the draw bar and installed the coupling, splitties swapped back on again.

Framed up the rear doors. To do this I installed the hinges onto the carcass, they are set so the door isn't removable. Measured and cut 50x50x2 RHS door uprights and 50x50x3 EA for the top and bottom rails. Measure with the hinges in place and setup with an 8mm spacer underneath between the door and the trailer floor and an 8mm gap between the doors so they can swing open. The gap between the doors and the carcass is whatever the hinges generated. The top gap is about 10mm. Trailer bodies are quite flexible and these gaps will allow it to move around without rubbing, wearing and bending everything, its not good to have tight fits. Everything was spaced and clamped into place, tacked and then the doors removed and fully welded before the external welds were ground flat so a skin could be sheeted on to it. Once the door frames were finished, they were reinstalled and checked, fortunately they stayed square and didn't twist. The hinges were then tacked in place and these are now ready to be fully welded before the rear door skins go on.

Still... waiting on 20NB and 50x5 flat.... argh!

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**Tombie** · 1st March 2021, 09:36 AM

Looking very nice there Slunnie...

**Pedro_The_Swift** · 1st March 2021, 10:10 AM

Looks like something could transport livestock......

**Gav 110** · 1st March 2021, 12:36 PM

Maybe goats

**shwza** · 1st March 2021, 12:56 PM

That's awesome. Thanks for putting up the build it's been a great little story to follow

**Slunnie** · 2nd March 2021, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by Tombie

Looking very nice there Slunnie...

Thanks Tombie, its a bit of fun and it's motivating the kids to get cracking on their projects.

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

Looks like something could transport livestock......

It is very stock trailer at the moment isn't it!

Originally Posted by Gav 110

Maybe goats

Home to papa!

Originally Posted by shwza

That's awesome. Thanks for putting up the build it's been a great little story to follow

Thanks, it's my pleasure. I hope its mildly interesting, maybe a few others will build also.

**Slunnie** · 2nd March 2021, 09:21 PM

Bit more progress. The drawbar crossmember to mount the spare tyre is now in. The tyre is just sitting there though. Behind the trailer the sheet has all been cut so that it can be skinned when it is up to that stage. The skin is all 0.95mm Gal.

The guards are 2.1mm checker plate. I scabbed around and found enough to make a set of guards. These were cut to length and then were cut to width. They are a L & R set. The outer edges were folded at 45 degrees at 1" from the edge and then 2" from the edge. Then they were measured for overall guard width, cut on the guillotine and a 90 degree bend in the panbrake with a 1" fold on the body side. That forms the section profile of the guard. Then where the bends are needed I used an angle grinder with cutting disc to cut the folded sides and tapped the sides to misalign for folding the guards into an arch. Into the panbrake and set to 45 degrees (+ springback of about 15 degrees for this which was abnormally high!) and the guards were shaped. Trimed where the sides overlapped, tacked and welded. Boom, matching checker guards which will hopefully be a bit more interesting and wont bend when I walk over them!

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