trailer: secondhand or making your own?

You can make your own, but if something goes wrong - wheels fall off etc, do you want the hassle of blame?

Easiest way is to find some old van, cut it in half and weld an A frame to it - instant box trailer.

First and most obvious is make sure it's not nicked. If it's an Ifor Williams, ring up the company and quote the serial number. They keep a database of stolen ones. If the ID plate's missing or defaced, walk away. Check that the tyre ratings are up to the load. Proper trailer tyres are not cheap.

Unlikely to happen if you over-engineer everything as most of us probably would.

Ugh!

Having messed about making a few, I've concluded that trying to compromise is a waste of time. It's far easier just to buy L section steel and make the whole thing from scratch, building it to fit whatever suspension you're using. That _can_ come off an old van - eg. the axle, brakes and leaf springs off a Maestro van is a ideal.

Best one I have uses 4 Indespension units, but they're quite pricey.

The crunch is that it doesn't matter how carefully I do the work, my home-made trailers _never_ seem to tow as well as decent Ifor Williams ones.

Although they're not that pricy, some Brenderups take car tyres as standard.

Last time I needed one I gave in & bought one.

Check if its nicked. Check the rating and condition of the tyres (cracked sidewalls etc). Check all the brakes work - they suffer from seized linkages due to lack of use. Also check the hub bearings aren't shot and of course, the electrics work.

Been there done that...

I built a 8x4' twin-axle pretty much from scratch using braked indespension units and a bradley hitch. By the time it was done, with hinged rear ramp and decent lighting it cost quite a lot, and had taken *ages* to complete.

Then, a year or so later my local council waste depot banned all trailers bigger than 6x4' and single axle.

So, I sold it on ebay (at a big loss) and bought a new single-axle 6x4' Ifor Williams. I didn't have time or energy to build another from scratch! The Ifor is galvanised, weighs less than the home-built, carries a similar load, and looks far better, and tows beautifully. Although an expensive purchase well worth it as I use it frequently - and it's depreciation is far less than the home-build.

If you have plenty of time, and space to build one go for it, but the cost will be more than you expect.

I've used

many times - very good.

Otherwise, buy a used or new Ifor.

Alan.

Well, I built one on an existing chassis that had once held a steam cleaner. Works very well indeed. You need to consider how much weight you want to carry, and therefore whether you need to have a braked axle. AIUI you need brakes if the GVW is over 750kg. Mine has brakes and I've carried 30 cwt in it.

Also, I think you need the trailer plated, to be legal. Mine isn't.

Rob Graham

Nope only trailers over 1020Kg unladen need to be tested and plated

Also my caravan weighs more than this before loading and does not need testing or plating

I think that larger agricultural trailers are also exempt but not checked this

Tony

Fred used his keyboard to write :

You can DIY and there is no test needed. You can buy complete kits to build your own, or buy the bits to build your own design - take a look at Towsure.

If you need a large one for light loads, a small scrap caravan chassis could be used.

For less regular use, you can hire trailers for not a lot.

Thanks. What about the brakes, though? Is it correct to say that only trailers of 750kg GVW and above need brakes?

Rob

yep

Tony

You could try a caravan that's been crashed. The MTPM or AUW (all up weight) is on a plate under the doorway. They're always braked.

The caravan will have a plywood floor that's part of the chassis (they reinforce each other) and you should leave it attached. Just remove the caravan body and build some sides.

Another Dave

Rob Graham gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Depends on what you're planning to tow it with.

750kg is the _absolute_ maximum for an unbraked trailer, behind anything. Small to medium size cars may very well have a lower limit for an unbraked trailer.

In message , Another Dave writes

Or a trailer tent, often available on freecycle or similar.

The problem with the old van is that it will probably be rotten underneath anyway. I know, I had one, and it fell off its chassis in the end.

Better still, an old caravan chassis. I made a good flatbed from my old twin-axle, some welded struts, and 20mm shutply bed.

Clint Sharp explained :

Good idea, because caravan chassis tend to be perhaps too large for most things.

Yup, and their axles can't always be shortened. I was given one that I thought would be useful, but was far too wide. No problem, says I, I'll just cut out a couple of feet in the middle and weld it back together. Halfway into the first cut, I stopped to have a look and discovered a torsion bar running right way across the inside of the axle tube. Oops!

Yup. The chassis/plywood floor is designed to be a unit and is cunningly designed and optimised - at least that's what the manufacturer (usually Alko) says. Probably best left complete.

Another Dave

This one had a galvanised chassis consisting of two longitudinal beams, connected by the axle and two cross members at the ends making up a rectangle. With the plywood floor removed, it all became quite flexible, with only the A frame to the tow hitch preventing it all from folding into a parallelogram. So yes, the floor was an important part of the structure, but as long as any new floor was bolted in securely, it would do the job.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Harry Bloomfield saying something like:

I made a decent 10x6 trailer from a caravan chassis, by simply cutting it down a bit. The original suspension was shot because the caravan was burnt to death, but a pair of rear torsion bar suspension axles from some small French car went on in its place. It towed well and had brakes as part of the rear axle setup.