I've been looking at getting a project trailer/frame and I found a decent deal on a RV frame. It's a 5th wheel, dual axle (non motorhome axle, it has a regular lug pattern, not the huge pattern with a lip/clamp thing) 4 wheel brakes. I went and looked at it today, looks decent. It needs to be wired and have a floor put on it. Deck is about 20' long and has been cut a little in the back already. It must have been a pretty large RV so I am sure the axles are a decent rating. The main frame rails are C channel, pretty thick. If I were to buy it, I'd add a few more x members and deck it and call it good, maybe add a gusset or 2 here and there. I have read and people say that mobile home frames suck and are weak, but how about these? I'm guessing that there is a difference between mobile home frames and RV frames. It looks beefy, axles aren't mobile home axles and with some welding I don't see how it couldn't haul a rig around. What do you guys think? This was also a prodection frame - I saw a serial number on it somewhere so I'm pretty damned sure its not a backyard built trailer. Thanks!

BTW - its hard to type with 1 hand. Fawkin' shoulder srgery :rolleyes:

Any input?? I need to act on this soon...

Anything can be made to work - just depends on how much time and money you're willing to invest. If there is a S/N tag then I would try to find the mfg and contact them to find out the ratings. The other part of the equation is what do you plan on hauling?

Brian

1 rig, most likely a toyota on some 35's or so.

That's how my trailer started life. I paid $300 for 22' of 5" channel iron side rails with flimsy little stamped Z-bars every 20-40 inches. I cut six feet off of one side, notched out the channel on the other side so I could heat and bend it to turn what used to be the last six feet of frame side into the rear bumper. I took the z-bars from the back six feet and evenly distributed them to get rid of the 40" gaps. Due to the reduced length, I also had to cut off and relocate the spring mounts to get it to balance out. The whole thing went to Master Blaster for sand blasting & epoxy primer for another $450. I converted $180 into a pile of pressure treated 2x8s to build a deck, spent another $250 on 3" channel & angle iron to build ramps and a side rail, $100 for pretty stamped fenders, and $40 for a bucket of cheap black paint.

Add it all up and include $25 per hour for my time and it's $4500 to get a $2500 trailer. I also used this project as an excuse to buy a new MIG. Not counting anything for my time, it's a bargain. The trailer works very well for what I've asked it to do, but I wouldn't do it again. I'd just buy one that's already built and ready to go.