Friday 8 January 2010

DIY Enclosed Trailer

After years of loading and unloading station wagons enough was enough. I needed an enclosed trailer so that I could simply hitch up and head of for some TOW. I looked at what was available on the market and nothing really suited my needs which were...

  • Take all of my gear each time I go sailing.
  • Fit everything inside rather than the boards being on top racks.
  • Allow the possibility to sleep inside.
  • Have a low drag body for minimal fuel consumption.
  • Have the same track as my sedan.
  • Not sit too high above the roof line of my sedan.
  • Have a long drawbar for towing stability and ease of reversing.
  • Transport building materials when doing jobs around the house.
Here are some shots of construction and the finished product.
I have a lot of experience in composites and have made 10 or so boards so building a trailer was the way to go. After looking at several different fabrication type construction methods such as steel and aluminium I decided I would use a similar contruction to that used in wooden boats. This method was also different to anything I have seen(in trailers) so I wanted to give it a try. An outer shell would be glued to a wooden framework that was to form a self supporting structure that would be bolted to a welded steel chassis. This was going to be more labour intensive but would give me the seamless result I was after.

I started sketching and modelling forms that were aerodynamic, utilised the materials strong points and maximised internal storage volume. I also added a few features such as "frenching" the tail lights and pumping the guards. I will post each stage of the build process seperately. The stages are...

  1. Design
  2. Chassis
  3. Body Frame
  4. Skin
  5. Finishing

8 comments:

  1. Great looking trailer Tim! Very interested to see the steps invovlved and some price comparisons. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Maximus, I will have to dig up all the reciepts. I am a little scared of how much it actually cost!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tim can we get some more detail on the build I am halfway through building a traditional trailer but I don't want to just bolt metal cladding on to it. I am looking for something different to do with it, maybe a wood composite skin?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love reading through your blog, I wanted to leave a little comment to support you and wish you a good continuation. Wishing you the best of luck for all your blogging efforts.
    Box Trailers

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for your encouraging words Prolix!

    Busy with house reno's but hope to do more on the trailer build sometime soon.

    Regards, Tim.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really appreciate this post. I’ve been looking all over for this!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Every one of our cargo trailers, custom toy haulers and car haulers come with a 5 year manufacturer’s warranty. Buying an enclosed cargo trailer or motorcycle trailer could not be easier.

    ReplyDelete