Here is a "name brand" 6'4" x 12' trailer I bought to use around the house and for my brother to tow his Yamaha Rhino. It did the job for a while until a tire blow out ripped most of the fender and brake light mount off. Before the accident, I really wanted a more rigid trailer than what a commercially made flimsy angle iron trailer could provide so once again we got carried away with a "rebuild"!
When I purchased it, it came with a newly replaced 3500lb EZ-Lube axle, new 13" tires, bent railing, red house paint and crappy lights (all trailer lights are crappy, right?!) The day I bought it:
The plan is to strengthen the trailer by adding a 2"x3/16" square tubing rectangle frame under the main angle iron frame rails and by replacing the thin angle iron cross rungs with 2"x1/8" square tubing. Square tubing resists bending and twisting simply because it has a higher moment of inertia. Angle iron and even channel cannot compete with tubing as they only have one sidewall/web in the vertical plane whereas tubing has two. We also decided to add a second axle to further benefit from the added rigidity. Besides a tandem pulls easier than a single axle. Also a 6x12 trailer rated at 7000lbs is not common practice, therefore we decided to limit the spring capacity to 4000lbs. This will prevent any overloading as we can now visually see the trailer squatting when carrying heavy loads.
Some shots of the embarrassing quality of this large well known "name brand" manufacture after removing the rotting floor planks:
Here we start the tear down by cutting off all unnecessary brackets and cross rungs:
Next the square tube rectangle is cut and welded together and then welded to the frame:
After the frame is structured, new leaf spring hangers for dual axles are installed as well as the new square tube cross rungs:
The tongue was not lengthened, however it was braced more substantially than what the manufacture designed. We tied it back to the front spring hanger:
Next, the fenders, fender braces and top railing braces can be installed. Also added was our brake light protector buckets made from 6" square tubing:
Attention was next focused on the gate. It needed straightening and re-welding as the previous owner tried to drive a fork lift onto the trailer! Also we added two rows of 3" channel where the tires of the Rhino follow. This will help reduce any crushing of the expanded metal:
After all welding and fabrication was finished, it was time to clean the metal and prep. for primer:
Nothing works better than Rustoleum red primer for non-automotive applications :
Again, nothing works better than Rustoleum for non-automotive applications. This time Regal Red:
15" wheels are the way to go so we got 4 new triangle spoke wheels made by Dexstar. The spare is a used round hole "Mod" style also made by Dexstar. Even though the wheels were new they needed some cleaning up. None of us liked how all white trailer wheels seem to come with red and blue circle rings. We are all very patriotic here but feel this just isn't needed on trailer wheels!
Final assembly after getting 4 new Carlisle radial tires mounted. Genuine Bearing Buddies are going on next. The trailer now has very respectable LED brake lights and thus results a very nice finished project:
This page was last updated: 08/26/2012
