Travel trailer, cargo trailer or.....

[BirthChazz]

I have trailer envy.

Love this thread.

[FIGJAM]

I have trailer envy.

Love this thread.

Got trailer yet?

[BirthChazz]

I had to give up the dream for this year, do to lack of storage and building space, but still lurking in the hopes to make one for another year. Keep inspiring me!!

[Bob]

The desire to pull a bulky trailer with an underweight, underpowered vehicle seems to hold an hypnotic power over buhrnurz, until they jackknife and try to kill you.

[gyre]

A good, small, lightweight trailer can be pulled by anything.
It is still the most useful thing I ever bought.
I built mine to pull with an 1800 pound sports car, and it worked too.

It does get more complicated doing a shelter.

I don't know why more people don't do single wheel trailers.
Can't beat the control.

[FIGJAM]

I think the trick is to stop adding every whim in your garage on the trailer so that it gets overloaded and dangerous.

[Elliot]

Two Ton Tricycle on trailer behind my Mazda Miata, cirka 2001. (Front wheel not finished.)

[FIGJAM]

See Elliot, you loaded what you needed and didn't add 2 anvils, 2 compressors, and 10 sections of railroad track, just because you might use them.

[Elliot]

My own railroad track!

*starts searching on eBay*

[catinthefunnyhat]

:!:
My own railroad track!

*starts searching on eBay*

Mister Coyote?

Mister Wile E. Coyote?

You, sir, are so busted!

[Elliot]

Moi?

[FIGJAM]

ACME: made in China.

[Kire]

FIGJAM you are an absolute inspiration! When I have a place with room to build and work on things I'm sure I will draw on your contributions for help and ideas, keep up the good work.

[FIGJAM]

Somebody asked bump.

[Minxy]

I'm about to start working on a swamp cooler and I'm using your pictures and instructions...thank you, Figjam!!!

[FIGJAM]

There's still time.

[FIGJAM]

Bump!!!

[FIGJAM]

[BirthChazz]

Private messaging seems to be on the fritz! Just wanted to say thanks again, Figgy!!

Will have to wait until next year for my own creation, but had a ball reading and learning. xo

[FIGJAM]

Come by H on the 5 spoke and see how easy it is!

[BirthChazz]

Marked you on my Map, Figgy, see you in the dust.

[gyre]

Have a good time out there, Birthchazz

[FIGJAM]

piehole bump.

[FIGJAM]

bump

Everything worked as designed!!!









Wind was about 25mph when these pics were taken.

Plenty of time to build for your burn!!!

[Ugly Dougly]

I've rented trucks from different agencies and the danger is always from them looking down their noses and asking "You're not taking this across state lines are you??? To the desert???? You're not going to Burning Man with this are you???"

I wonder if they are as particular about rented trailers???

[unjonharley]

bump

Everything worked as designed!!!









Wind was about 25mph when these pics were taken.

Plenty of time to build for your burn!!!

[Canoe]

This year, I finally got the white elastomer roof coating on the utility trailer. I forget the brand, but the pail was $120.

With my car breaking down on the way to BRC, I had to leave both car and trailer behind in Nebraska and get to BRC in another car.
But, I did get to test the trailer out in temperatures of 95F to 100F in the day, with down to the 40s and 50s at night.
Trailer: 8'x5' half-inch plywood, two coats of paint (inside and out), no windows or skylights, shade structure, directly in the sun, not air tight but close to it. No swamp cooler.
By using a cheap indoor/outdoor temperature reader with a min/max feature and an outdoor probe, I found:

• once the sun got up, the indoor temperature lagged around 5 degrees behind the rising outdoor temperature (with me in it or not),
• even with it in the sun, the indoor temperature usually matched the peak outdoor temperature, and only on a few days got 1 or 2 degrees above it,
• as the sun went down and the outdoor temperature dropped, the inside temperature dropped along with it, lagging by 8 to 10 degrees, and took typically twenty minutes to match the outdoor temperature once that stopped falling.

I was amazed that in the sun the closed plywood box didn't act like an oven. I can certainly see how a shade structure keeping the direct radiation from the sun off of such a painted trailer would perform so well.

So these conditions had similar air temperatures to those at BRC, but didn't have the same really hot sun-heated ground that we have radiating heat all around at BRC.

[Canoe]

Here's what I ended up with.

Old 8' x 5' utility trailer. Painted white with the roofing paint to seal the water damaged plywood construction.

old utility, painted.jpg

Add a 1/2" plywood roof, framed with 2x2", hinged to the trailer at the front, with plywood sides that hang down beside the trailer sides.

roof down, after main trim tiny.jpg

Roof up, with back open.
Roof held up by bolts from the inside through the trailer sides into the roof-side panels, which have holes and T-nuts. Used 3/8" for easy of use. One pair of bolts at the rear easily takes the whole load. Four bolts on each side secure the sides against wind.

top up, back open, tiny.jpg

[Canoe]

And here's the end result, with the upper back section screwed into place. It also is hinged in the middle for an upper door, like the lower door.
These end sections are framed with 2x2" and skinned with 1/2" plywood. No problem taking the entire load of the roof with the weight of the roof sides.

DSC01154 tiny.jpg

For the roof and roof-sides, 1/2" plywood is way heavier than required. Very very heavy to lift up into the "up" position.
For the roof, 1/2" only if you're going to pack/load stuff on it or stand on it, otherwise I'd say 3/8" is fine.
For the roof-sides, 3/8" is plenty; and with the end pieces able to carry all of the roof load, I'd say 1/4" plywood would be fine for the roof sides.

With the top down, the roof-sides are secured to the trailer sides for road travel by screws with washers going through the T-nuts into the side of the trailer.

top down, sides secured.jpg

[FIGJAM]

Very nice!