I am planning on building my own car trailer. The ? is what size channel or box should I use for the main frame and tounge. I will be towing an 84 4runner with a 2001 Dodge 1500. I'm going to use 2 3500# trailer axles, NO NOT MOBLE HOME AXLES , with brakes on atleast one axle. Plan for now is to have the center open with diamond plate runners. I'm not sure if I will try putting a beaver tail on it or not. BTW it's going to have a 16' or 18' deck.

5" Channel seems to be standard. btw, as long as you're building it, go with brakes on both axles.

-Steve

After your done yours send one down to MD for me..........;)

Originally posted by offroadr35
5" Channel seems to be standard. btw, as long as you're building it, go with brakes on both axles.

-Steve

I found new 88" wms to wms for $93 w/o brakes and the same axles w/ brakes for $239 :eek: So for know I think I'll just do 1 with and 1 w/o. Also which axles should have the brakes if only going with 1 braking axle ?

you do realize that's only $145 and will provide A LOT of additional safety, make you legal in all 50 states, and make resale value of the trailer much higher.

-Steve

Originally posted by offroadr35
you do realize that's only $145 and will provide A LOT of additional safety, make you legal in all 50 states, and make resale value of the trailer much higher.

-Steve

I know, I'm checking now to see how much it will be to add the brakes to the other axle later when I got more $$$.

its illegal in the state you live in..... must have both axles with brakes.....

Originally posted by badassjeepguy
its illegal in the state you live in..... must have both axles with brakes.....

I think I've seen brand new trailers with only 1 braking axle for sale at dealers , I'm not possitive on that though. I guess I'll go with both axles w/brakes then.

Has anyone used the 3500# torsion axles ?

Not to throw too much cold water on the project, but before I bought my utility trailer I had planned on building my own. I ended up buying a new 16 ft with brakes on both axles, 5x5.5 lug pattern to match my Scout for just over 1100. If I had to buy all the materials on my own I doubt I culd have equalled the price much less if I had factored in my time. My only mistake was going with used tires which leaked and had to be replaced shortly after buying the trailer

ChiScouter, I have access to alot of steel :D I may only have to buy the 5" channel for the main frame ,coupler, axles, and springs. I have 6 good tires and rims from a chevy S10, 5 bolt. I will have to measure the back spacing and make sure I can use them. I may make it a deck over if I have to.

Flimmy,
I finished building mine about a month ago. Order a set of plans from www.tufindustries.com, it's worth the $25. That's what I used to build mine. A 18' car hauler locally with wood decking on the tire paths only is about $1500-1800. And they're pretty crappy. I just decided to build my own. I've got about $2k in it, but it tilts at the tongue for easy loading, has LED taillights, a 2' dovetail, torsion axles w/brakes, diamond plate fenders, full 20' steel diamond plate deck, and a recessed tool box. I don't have a good side shot of it, but it's pretty sharp. I'm running factory chrome 85 4runner rims on it since they have 5" backspacing. Load range D tires for extra capacity. My deck is 82" between fenders, I'm 101" overall, max is 102" legally. I ordered a set of Outlaw 1's for it, but they put me at 104". The main deck is a weekend project. Hanging the torsion axles is so simple compared to leag sprung ones. They ride incredibly smooth too. Worth the extra money IMO. If you wood deck it with no tilt, it's wouldn't take long to build one. A few good weekends of cutting and welding. I put a little extra into mine since I plan on keeping it for a while. I let Clifton from the board tow it out to the Hammers for the Jambo and I borrowed my boss's $6k aluminum one. It towed straight as hell and recovers well from a short wheelbase vehicle's steering jerkiness. Email me and I'll snap some pics of it for you next week.

Pat

Pat, that would be great :D btw the link doesn't work :( I saw your trailer in the background in the post for your half doors. I'm making them now.

How much does your tailer weigh ?

I thought the torsion axles would be simple to use because you don't need to make any spring mounts. Just weld plates to the frame and mount the axles :D .

I saw 2 books in Northern tool (http://www.northerntool.com/) on building trailers and was thinking about buying them.

They just opened a Tractor Supply near me and they have some good prices on stuff. Polished alum fenders are $42 ea. I didn't see any torsion axles there I saw them in northern tool. They were like $300 ea with brakes I think.

Flimmy,
That's the address of where I bought the plans, I don't know why it won't link. Just do a search on Yahoo and it'll come up. The plans you want are for the 20' carhauler. You can always shorten it to 16-18' if you want. He's got pics on his website too of what they can look like. I called the owner and talked to him, he was full of helpful info.

I haven't weighed mine yet, but I would guess 1000-1200# maybe?
I think there is a place online called southwest trailers or something where you can mail order torsion axles. Do a search on Yahoo for "trailer axles" and it'll pop up. I paid $725 with tax for both of mine locally made to order. They are 95" hub face to hub face, one has brakes, the other idler hubs. You don't need brakes on both, one is plenty.

TSC's are awesome. We don't have them out here, but we did back in Illinois. My fenders are steel with a layer of aluminum diamond plate on top of them. I made the removable so if I ever go full width it's not a problem.

The TUF plans call for 1/4" main channels and 3/16" 18" on center supports. I made my main frame rails out of 2x5 3/16" tube, my supports out of .120 2x3. It's plenty strong for my 5k# rig.

Email me at pmurf1@yahoo.com this weekend so I can send you those pics privately.

With a 1/2 ton truck go with brakes on both for sure. The torsion axles are the way to go because they ride nice but most of all they are very simple to put on. Less parts to keep up and less parts to buy. If you are going to order the books I would say go with How to Design trailers Vol. 2 pn#176222-9251 It is geared towards building not so much about buying and maintaining. You could also order the plans on how to build just what you want and the plans for an 18"X7" tandem car hauler is pn#128536-9251 or oder both. These are Nothern tool part numbers. Also they list aluminum diamond plate fenders 10"X68"X13.250" for $34.90. They don't have an inner fender to then so I think they would be very weak so I would rivet an inner fender to them if you use them. You can also get them in 14ga. steel for $33.90 and they are allot easyer to use since you can weld to them.

Originally posted by 66CJdean
With a 1/2 ton truck go with brakes on both for sure. The torsion axles are the way to go because they ride nice but most of all they are very simple to put on. Less parts to keep up and less parts to buy. If you are going to order the books I would say go with How to Design trailers Vol. 2 pn#176222-9251 It is geared towards building not so much about buying and maintaining. You could also order the plans on how to build just what you want and the plans for an 18"X7" tandem car hauler is pn#128536-9251 or oder both. These are Nothern tool part numbers. Also they list aluminum diamond plate fenders 10"X68"X13.250" for $34.90. They don't have an inner fender to then so I think they would be very weak so I would rivet an inner fender to them if you use them. You can also get them in 14ga. steel for $33.90 and they are allot easyer to use since you can weld to them.

I think I might order the book and plans. The alum fenders from NT will most likely cost the same when you add shipping. TSC also had the steel fenders for about $30 ? I was thinking of making a sq tube frame for the underside of the alum fenders and make them removable by pulling a few pins and they would just lift off.

BAJG said that here in PA you need brakes on both axles ? He's a cop so he should know what he's talking about. I do know any trailer above 3k needs to be insp. yearly.

FLIMMY in PA you must have brakes on both axles if you are over 2500lbs that is trailer and load! Which you will be! You would not be able to get it inspected unless you titled it in Maine. But for all of those children and fa,ilies that you might see on your trps you should have on both axles...

Originally posted by flimmy
[B] I have 6 good tires and rims from a chevy S10, 5 bolt. [b]

do yourself a favor and scrap the s10 tires and buy a good set of trailer tires with the appropriate load rating. i tried the regular car/truck radial tires and they are not up to it.

Originally posted by flimmy
Pat, that would be great :D btw the link doesn't work :(

Take the trailing comma out of the URL.

--Dan

here you go.Plans (http://www.tufindustries.com/plans.htm)

www.redneck-trailer.com for your axles.

Originally posted by badassjeepguy
its illegal in the state you live in..... must have both axles with brakes.....

badassjeepguy and TODDK , I just looked at trailers today down off RT70 near the Arnold City exit and there brand new 7000 lb. G.V.W. dual axle trailers 15' and 18' and have 2 wheel brakes. They do have an option for the 4wheel brakes for $100 more. It is worth the $100 for the 4wheel brakes , but they do offer the 2wheel brakes. Are they selling new trailers that are illegal ? I looked at the mfg. date and one said 03/02, only 2 mo. old. BTW they are called ECONO-TRAILER. They start at $1299 for a 15' open center, 5' beaver tail, 10' elec brakes,diamond runways, 5' ramps, and curb weight of 1350. The 18' has the same stuff and a curb weight of 1500 lb. The full diamond plate deck adds 250 lb for the 15' and 400lb for the 18'

Pick up the newest edition of Circle Track They built a carhauler in there.. as far as using 5" channel that is way overkill for a car hauler.. might be good for hauling tractors and like stuff though.. My trailer was built using 4 inch channel for the sides and ends and tongue with 1 1/2 channel for the runners and have routinely carried 14000 lbs on it with a broken tail light as my only problem..

This is just a thought but In general most trailers seem to put he tires too far back and yea when you get towing the trailer off road that helps with that angles but to level off trailer/tongue weight a lot times you leave a bunch of room in the front of the trailer. When i built a small trailer designed to carry 2800 lbs I built it vehicle specific so I put the axles basicly right in the middle of the trailer allowing the axles and the trailer to hold more of the weight as opposed to the tongue of my explorer. But that's just my $.02

Originally posted by flimmy
I am planning on building my own car trailer. The ? is what size channel or box should I use for the main frame and tounge. I will be towing an 84 4runner with a 2001 Dodge 1500. I'm going to use 2 3500# trailer axles, NO NOT MOBLE HOME AXLES , with brakes on atleast one axle. Plan for now is to have the center open with diamond plate runners. I'm not sure if I will try putting a beaver tail on it or not. BTW it's going to have a 16' or 18' deck.
Scott for what it's worth, a few months ago CJ Lagos in Richmond Va posted this site in Charlotte NC fo good prices on trailers. http://www.kaufmantrailersinc.com/index.htm
Didn't you tell me you had family near there. Anyway it's call for pricing, but he thought it was worth the effort.
Also if you build your own here is a website for Dexter axle:
http://www.dexteraxle.com/
They are one of the bigger axle manufacturers in the east. I have seen there 3500 lb torsion axle and it's nice, and a guy at work built a farm trailer with a pair of there regular leaf sprung 10000 lb axles.
Share a picture or three with us here if you build it, Andy

Andy, the trailers I mentioned above have Dexter axles. But there the leaf spring ones.

I believe Dexter is in GA., but I see that www.redneck-trailer.com has a location in Carlilse Pa.
Have a good one I gotta go unload a flatty I picked up yesterday, and work on getting my other stuff running. See ya, Andy

Originally posted by flimmy

I saw 2 books in Northern tool (http://www.northerntool.com/) on building trailers and was thinking about buying them.



I bought the two books. They DO NOT have plans, but a wealth of information about metal, sections, strengths. Still a good source of information in one handy place (I have about a dozen books that cover the same material, but find the two books handy). What I didn't like about the books is they constantly refer to OTHER books by the same author that you should buy to have the full picture. Well, not sure if volume three was ever printed or not.

Summary: Good for lots of useful information. If you need trailer PLANS, go with the TUFT industries (I also bought a set of eBay, good detail from a guy who builds trailers for a living).

Tom :usa: