Same! Nothing wrong with high dollar fancy trailers.... but your animals will bring just as much with an older fixer uppper trailer and you can laugh all the way to the bank!
Yep - It's an exercise in restraint. I am trying to put in practice the "use it up, wear it out" mentality instead of bankrolling out of my pocket. - Peter
Nothing wrong with that. Wouldn't hurt to throw some rust killer / inhibitor on there too since you are spending the money for green treated wood. Good luck to you brother. Much love ❤️ 🙏 and blessings
I'm not the best welder there is, but good enough for farm equipment that no one else has to look at. Wish I could be the 'stacked dimes' guy, but that isn't me. - Peter
The "frame" of that type of trailer relies on a structural connection with the sidewalls to resist bending between the points of support to ground, ie; leaf spring mounts and hitch. Incorporating the sidewalls structurally -as originally built-provides a much greater "moment of inertia" or I value. It's why a 2 by 12 is not just twice as resistant to bending as a 2 by 6 but actually 8 times more resistant. The angle section steel is not meant to be a standalone frame, but rather a convenient landing for the spring mounts and cross steel floor supports. If you totally stripped the upper off the angle base the remaining "frame" would go down the road like a wet noodle.
Unfortunately, it has just rusted away in most parts, but what you're telling me reinforces the need to replace that angle steel. Super helpful, thanks for taking the time to type it all out. - Peter
Takes a lot of steel to compensate for not being able to incorporate sidewalls in the load-carrying structure, My 7000 lb gvw bumper- pull flatbed weighs 1800 lbs and has frame rails between the hitch and forward tandem axle consisting of 2 layers of 3 inch wide by 5 inch high by 5/16 inch thick angle stacked and welded together for a total of 10 inch section height
@@haycreek There is tube stock in 4 spots tying the sidewalls to the load carrying structure. I'm assuming that's what you're referring to. I still tied in the angle into that tube stock and the side walls. I'm going to take it down the road and see if there's a shimmy in it. - Peter
You won't detect anything towing it empty down a road. Imagine what those lower side rails will experience with say a 1000 pound load centered in the long span between the forward spring mounts and the front bulkhead. Realize that a vehicle moving on a bumpy road is not a static situation. The effect of gravity plus shock can be double the static weight. Think of the sidewalls as a particularly deep (tall) form of truss.If you remove all the welded full-length sheet metal instead all you end up with is a ladder frame laying horizontal on edge.. The long rails are tied together by the rungs and have only double the resistance to bending deflection as a single rail. Replace the sheet metal and the lower rail is exclusively in tension when loaded and the upper in compression while the resistance of the whole structure to bending is proportional to the distance between them (lower and upper rails) to the third power (cubed). Test it out with a rickety old wood ladder horizontal, on edge and supported on sawhorses 8 feet apart. Load the midpoint between the sawhorses with a weight, bag of feed, or spring tension scale and measure the deflection from unloaded.. Then C-clamp or screw a continuous 8 foot piece of 1/4 inch plywood to the upper and lower rails and repeat with the same load. The difference in deflection will be dramatic.
I had to read this a few times to get what you were saying. This is really good info. I think I've done it in a manner you've described. The only piece of metal I've replaced beyond some tin is welding bar flat to hold the timber down. Really appreciate the detailed response.
Same! Nothing wrong with high dollar fancy trailers.... but your animals will bring just as much with an older fixer uppper trailer and you can laugh all the way to the bank!
Yep - It's an exercise in restraint. I am trying to put in practice the "use it up, wear it out" mentality instead of bankrolling out of my pocket. - Peter
Nothing wrong with that. Wouldn't hurt to throw some rust killer / inhibitor on there too since you are spending the money for green treated wood. Good luck to you brother. Much love ❤️ 🙏 and blessings
Hey thanks, that's not a bad idea. I am planning to paint the mild steel to keep the rust off, but maybe address the frame too. - Peter
I had to do that last spring
I'm not the best welder there is, but good enough for farm equipment that no one else has to look at. Wish I could be the 'stacked dimes' guy, but that isn't me. - Peter
@@TheBurkelFarm im not the stacked dimes guy but every project gets you closer.
The "frame" of that type of trailer relies on a structural connection with the sidewalls to resist bending between the points of support to ground, ie; leaf spring mounts and hitch. Incorporating the sidewalls structurally -as originally built-provides a much greater "moment of inertia" or I value. It's why a 2 by 12 is not just twice as resistant to bending as a 2 by 6 but actually 8 times more resistant. The angle section steel is not meant to be a standalone frame, but rather a convenient landing for the spring mounts and cross steel floor supports. If you totally stripped the upper off the angle base the remaining "frame" would go down the road like a wet noodle.
Unfortunately, it has just rusted away in most parts, but what you're telling me reinforces the need to replace that angle steel. Super helpful, thanks for taking the time to type it all out. - Peter
Takes a lot of steel to compensate for not being able to incorporate sidewalls in the load-carrying structure, My 7000 lb gvw bumper- pull flatbed weighs 1800 lbs and has frame rails between the hitch and forward tandem axle consisting of 2 layers of 3 inch wide by 5 inch high by 5/16 inch thick angle stacked and welded together for a total of 10 inch section height
@@haycreek There is tube stock in 4 spots tying the sidewalls to the load carrying structure. I'm assuming that's what you're referring to. I still tied in the angle into that tube stock and the side walls. I'm going to take it down the road and see if there's a shimmy in it. - Peter
You won't detect anything towing it empty down a road. Imagine what those lower side rails will experience with say a 1000 pound load centered in the long span between the forward spring mounts and the front bulkhead. Realize that a vehicle moving on a bumpy road is not a static situation. The effect of gravity plus shock can be double the static weight.
Think of the sidewalls as a particularly deep (tall) form of truss.If you remove all the welded full-length sheet metal instead all you end up with is a ladder frame laying horizontal on edge.. The long rails are tied together by the rungs and have only double the resistance to bending deflection as a single rail. Replace the sheet metal and the lower rail is exclusively in tension when loaded and the upper in compression while the resistance of the whole structure to bending is proportional to the distance between them (lower and upper rails) to the third power (cubed).
Test it out with a rickety old wood ladder horizontal, on edge and supported on sawhorses 8 feet apart. Load the midpoint between the sawhorses with a weight, bag of feed, or spring tension scale and measure the deflection from unloaded.. Then C-clamp or screw a continuous 8 foot piece of 1/4 inch plywood to the upper and lower rails and repeat with the same load. The difference in deflection will be dramatic.
I had to read this a few times to get what you were saying. This is really good info. I think I've done it in a manner you've described. The only piece of metal I've replaced beyond some tin is welding bar flat to hold the timber down.
Really appreciate the detailed response.
Looking good! It’ll feel good when you have animals in there, using it. How it looks won’t be on your mind at all
Yep - i'll be moving between the two properties often, so it's an important bit of equipment.