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Building a trailer II
In a former life I owned a fabricating company that manufactured trailers and truck bodies for a number of years.
We ran into this on a pretty regular basis, people would come to us with a store bought set of plans and ask for a quote to build a (from mildly to wildly) customized version of it. The plans were always held out as "DOT approved", on more than one occasion I asked about that, in all cases I was told that meant the trailer, if built according to the plans, would meet or exceed the minimums set out by the DOT.
Most people don't realize that DOT spec's even include such things as minimum & maximum height of lights (including markers) and amount of reflective surfaces and a lot of detail most people would never even think of.
Also, in every jurisdiction I've seen there is a way of registering (usually including a self-declaration that it meets DOT standards) it as "self-built" and getting a VIN and title to it.
The big problem comes when you go to sell it. You legally go from being a handyman to being a trailer manufacturer.
You can however, if you really want to be careful, have a licensed engineer sign off on the plans and construction, and then have the welds inspected & signed off on too.
As an engineer & fabricator, I usually advise people to limit their handyman skills to things that won't leave their own property.
Best of luck.
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Building a trailer II
For short local moves there's a couple of other options most people never think of.....
First, if the moves are short and very seldom, a tilt & load tow truck is a great option, especially for things like trips to the dealer for service. Load it up and hand the driver the keys in an envelope with your name & number written on it. No need to do anything but speak to the dealer on the phone, no trip required if you don't want to or don't have the time.
The other option is to just drive the tractor there. I road my machine back and forth to my airport all the time, it's about a half hour drive one way. I started doing it because I had 2 stops to make along the way to do 5 minute jobs at friends places, then realized I wasn't really saving any time by trailering it. By the time I hook up to the float, pull it out into the yard and load, chain the machine up, drive to the airport and unload, it still took a half hour!
Best of luck.
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11-28-2007, 10:24 
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