Well, as the girl_face and i are gettin ready to go to the Oregon Yotatech meetup and then to warshington and idaho to visit family, i spoke with my dad about borrowing his trailer...

well, its got some issues, but i have 2 and a half weeks to sort those out...

specs on the trailer...

its was a 1950something 5x7 pop up trailer...
back around 1985 it was moldy and falling apart, so my dad stripped it down to the frame and rebuilt it as a stake side trailer in a very fashionable black and red.() meh, it was the 80s... lol...

anywyas, its been used for everything imaginable. its been overloaded, the rear gate has fallen off numerous times, the tires are only 8 inches tall and 3 inches wide, the springs only have 2 in the pack, and with 300 lbs in the back it sags down to the wheel wells...

but thats all about to change... im going to rebuild it, replace those springs and get some larger tires, give it a new coat of paint and run new LED lights and markers, and new trailer plug wiring...

where i sit now...
the white boards were replacements that my dad put in a few years ago because the old ones were rotten...




the floorboard which isnt getting replaced, just painted... lots of work to do...



check out that shackle angle!!!


my dads wiring job and the wheeled jack that was installed a few years ago...



old colors...


new colors... the same sthparkley blue as my hubs and some suspension pieces for the metal and white for the boards so that it matches my truck...

 

heres a few more pics of the progress...
as you can see, im starting from the rear gate forward right now working on getting all the metal painted...
and what im hoping for is that with the white and sparkly blue it will bring the trailer up to date fashion-wise, and with the LED markers and lights, new springs, new tires, and new wiring harness it will bring the trailer up to spec safety-wise...

 

got some more work done tonight...

got the frame of it painted black onthe sides, got the old lights off, and pulled the axle...









notice the TINY "overload springs" as my dad called them...



To show what it looked like before...


Fully Painted bottom rail...

 

lol i wouldn't even trust that trailer for the 5 mile trip to the gas station

 

Good progress on the trailer...maybe a tranny cooler as a treat for the truck?

 

maybe a little bit later in life, okie, but im not sure if its possible with a 5 speed...

and elton, this trailer has served us loyaly for over 50 years, so shut it...

 

its just them little tires i dont trust

 

Awesome!... What part of Idaho you visiting? Elton I believe he mentioned putting bigger tires on. It always cracks me up when you see people towing trailers like for a golf cart or something with those tires doing 80 down the freeway. They have no clue how fast those little tires are whizzing at those kinds of speeds.

 

yea... with the 33s, figure that those little 12 inch tires are rotating at around 2.5 times the speed of my tires on my truck...

they are getting replaced with, hopefully, a set of 15 inch tires on 12 inch rims...

 

Meh, I'd put 33's on the trailer!

 

i WANT to... but the wheel wells arent large enough not is the axle strong enough...

but, i am going to gank an idea from here and do a spring over conversion...
lol... should gain me 2-3 inches...

anyways, got some more work done today... got the axle stripped and the wheel bearing crap all pulled out... gonna repack em and get em back together... then paint everything flat black and bolt it back up...

hopefully tomorrow i can also get all the boards stripped and start painting...

 

a leetle bit more work done tonight...

Spring Over Axle Conversion



u-bolts painted to match the painted axle and springs...


painted the perches and shackles...


then tore apart the hubs...






then cleaned everything and put a coat on the hub and dust cover...



Look how small these bearings are!!

 

Looks good space... I was going to suggest an axle flip to get you some more ground clearance/travel... the axles look to be in really good shape for a trailer that old... I was thinking you might want to shift the dolly a little further back because it might interfere with the hitch if you get into a tight turn/off camber situation.

 

As soon as I saw the leaf springs I was gunna say do an SOA conversion but then I read on and you already did what about adding two ubolts and making a new ubolt plate....seems a little sketchy with just one ubolt IMO. Other than that, lookin good!

 

Coming along nicely, good work.

 

hmm... im not sure what the "dolly" is that your referring to, but this trailer is going to be a strictly onroad trailer... for now...
and its funny you should mention the axle too, because if you waw it in person, its less of an axle and more of a U shaped piece of steel with the wheel bearings welded into the ends and smapp spring pads welded across the open side of the U... but, hey, it works!



LOL... beat you to it!! yea, we have to flip the spring over the axle to get a little more clearence for the bigger rims and tires...
as for the U-bolts, they were the only ones on there from the factory, and they have worked for 50 years, so im pretty sure they should be fine... and i dont have time or money for more fabrication at this point... as said before, this rig isnt gonna be towed on the trail...
Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks Okie!!

 

the pipe clamps holding the leaf packs together is a nice touch!



cool little project haha. nice work.

 

so wheres the snorkel goin?

 

Ouch about the pipe clamps... those were there from when my dad originally rebuilt the trailer back in the mid 80s... my best guess is that they were to keep the tiny over load leafs in check... but im not 100% on that...

thanks!


on my truck... when i can afford one...

 

got a little more work done...

got the rest of the frame painted...




got the rest of the boards off of the truck and the upright supports painted...