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Need advice for a trailer for hauling a car
The only thing I would differ with Jeff's excellent advice on is the floor.
Your comment referring to a "car restoration project" makes me think you'll be hauling more than just a single item with 4 wheels under it. Wood floors are really light and make transporting things like fenders, doors, etc. a breeze. You can screw blocks down where needed in minutes and remove them just as fast.
I would go with a full plank floor.
Best of luck.
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Need advice for a trailer for hauling a car
Ken, you haven't said what kind of car you're looking at restoring, but, if it's a small'ish car you might want to consider a trailer that is substantially made from heavy angle iron.
Aside from the possible problems caused by the needed raised rails around the deck for structural strength, they make it really handy to screw wood (plywood or planks) to them to form low sides.
I made onesuch trailer for a friend a few years back. It has proved quite handy since.
Basically it's a 7' x 16' box trailer.
This makes it both light & handy.
Best of luck.
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Need advice for a trailer for hauling a car
No Ken, you're misinterpreting what they are saying.
You really only need to use the WDH (Weight Distributing Hitch) to balance up a load. You wouldn't apply any load if the trailer was empty, only once you've loaded the trailer.
Bear in mind, most of these WDH's are intended for RV's where the weight of the trailer doesn't vary much.
I wouldn't be too worried about a WDH in your case though. The trailer will be ~1,750 pounds empty, you say a small car of ~2,200 pounds, that's still only ~4k pounds, about 2/3rds of what you truck is rated to pull, and easily balanced because of the relatively short wheelbase.
Not that I am in any way recommending them, but the link below is to a trailer along the lines of what I am think of.
BTW, in the way of a little background, in the period 1986-1992 I had a 1986 Toyota (4 cyl.) 4Runner and used to pull a similar trailer as this on a regular basis. It would usually have ~3k pounds on it. No WDH, no problems.
Best of luck.
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Need advice for a trailer for hauling a car
Ken, there isn't much difference between tube and angle as long as it has the upper rail which forms a sort of truss.
Of course the one advantage of angle is that there's no interior to worry about rusting. Most tube rusts from the inside (unpainted) out usually caused by moisture held by accumulated dirt left when mud settles. Open angles can't collect mud. Plus you can keep putting on paint as it gets blasted off by sand & stones.
Best of luck.
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Need advice for a trailer for hauling a car
Ken, it's not whacky at all. In fact if you dig back through archives you will find where I describe using shipping containers on sites where we have to leave machines unattended for the winter contracts.
We use them both for security and shelter from the weather.
Unless you leave the machine running with the doors closed there isn't much worry of fumes. We back in so the exhaust is blowing out the door also. Mostly we do this though because it's easier to walk past the front wheel to get out than it is the back ones.
I wouldn't recommend a trailer though. They can be quite unstable when not hitched to a truck.
They are also far more expensive than a used shipping container.
Best of luck.
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Need advice for a trailer for hauling a car
Ken, you live in a forest. Spend $5k on a small sawmill. The shop won't be far behind!
We have a small mill that puts out a lot of lumber. It's paid for itself countless numbers of times. I couldn't tell you the number of buildings it's wood created over the years.
A tree as small as 9" at the butt will make 2" x 6" lumber.
Best of luck.
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Need advice for a trailer for hauling a car
Frank, nearly all the "intermodal" shipping / trucking companies sell their decomissioned containers, usually pretty reasonably too.
The last couple I bought were 20' aluminum ones, they were $1,500 each because they were insulated & watertight. They also had $750 steel ones that were a little banged up.
The 40' ones were double that price, but are of little use to me because they're akward to move around. The 20' ones go on our roll off truck.
Best of luck.
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Need advice for a trailer for hauling a car
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Are there any tricks to moving a 5000 lb. container with a 32hp tractor?
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As a student of Archimedes I can tell you without doubt, leverage and hydraulics can allow a small thing to do great work.
A small hydraulic cylinder will easily allow the raising of one end, remember, a 5k pound container doesn't sit on just one point, lifting one corner or end is a lot less weight.
We use a surplus mobile home axle on a jig that catches the standard mounting / lifting points on the container at one end, and a tongue that similarly catches the points on the other end to just convert it into a trailer.
However, we've also moved them quite a ways by just jacking them up and rolling logs under them, instant rollers!! As you pull it stop when a roller comes out from under the back, and put it back in front. Likely 4 or 5 logs is all it would take.
Best of luck.
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Need advice for a trailer for hauling a car
Ken, gravel is actually one of the easiest things to roll on.
The edges lock it together and prevent the rollers from settling in. This is why it's used on roads in the first place.
I think if you do the math you'll find that even using relatively small rollers the load per square inch is surprisingly low.
Best of luck.
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