2007 Red Trailer 4X8 Utility Trailer

[sgtsandman]

The paint work is complete.

 

[ericbphoto]

The paint work is complete.

Where is it?

 

[sgtsandman]

Where is it?

Some portions of the trailer do have a tendency to disappear now, depending on the lighting conditions. I imagine it will be even more so out in the woods, except maybe in the winter months now.

 

[CrabGuy]

Nice work! You could hide a missile launcher on it. Can you get pressure treated plywood where you live? It's available and a must have on the Oregon coast, but I cant find it locally in Sacramento. My 3-paint coat exterior plywood floors are rotting after only 3 years on mine.

 

[ericbphoto]

Nice work! You could hide a missile launcher on it. Can you get pressure treated plywood where you live? It's available and a must have on the Oregon coast, but I cant find it locally in Sacramento. My 3-paint coat exterior plywood floors are rotting after only 3 years on mine.

You might try marine grade plywood. Check with places that sell boat building supplies.

 

[sgtsandman]

Nice work! You could hide a missile launcher on it. Can you get pressure treated plywood where you live? It's available and a must have on the Oregon coast, but I cant find it locally in Sacramento. My 3-paint coat exterior plywood floors are rotting after only 3 years on mine.

I can here. All the wood parts on the trailer are pressure treated wood. I took the extra step of installing aluminum angle along all the edges of the plywood and used paintable acrylic RTV between the angle and the wood to prevent water intrusion and protect the edges from damage. The original plywood rotted from the inside out last time and I didn’t want that to happen again.

Marine grade plywood is better if you can find it and it might be lighter. Pressure treated wood is heavy, even after it is completely dried.

The wood on the trailer has been on it for about 5 years now and has held up well. One item of note. Wood needs to breathe. So painting is fine and deck sealer might be ok but bed liner will eventually peel off. I’ve been dealing with that issue for a while. The paint stays on fine. The bed liner was money misspent.

 

[sgtsandman]

So, I finally got around to weighing all the panels on the trailer. I knew they were hefty, intentionally so since they have tie downs in them to hold cargo in place and/or act as a ramp to load and unload things on wheels. But I had no idea how heavy they actually were individually. I did have the trailer weighed empty but with all the sides on it earlier in the year. The trailer weights in at 1,200#. Ok, great. How much of that is in the panels? I have no stinking idea! So I got out a scale and weighed myself first since I don't have a suitable scale to weight just the panels by themselves.

The front panel/ramp end weighted in at 52#. The left side panel weighted in at 101#. The right side panel with the brackets to hold the bows for the cover tarp, 107#. The tailgate/front ramp section with the short support legs and tailgate support bars, and license plate weighted in at 75#. And finally, the middle ramp section that stows under the trailer when not in use, 60#. And the support legs for the middle section are 8#.

With that information, I can now check the tongue weight in both the configuration with the ramps and without the ramps and see if the trailer stays in spec. Before, I didn't have a clue. I do need to reinstall a license plate bracket on the left side if I do run the trailer as a true flat bed since the plate is currently mounted on the tailgate where it is protected from damage. I may need to drill some extra holes in license plate to clear the load jacks but I think I already did that before I moved the plate to the tailgate.

 

[sgtsandman]

Yep, Field Drab would have better.

 

[ericbphoto]

Looks OK to me. Bit I don't know much about camouflage. The military vehicle I rode in was black on the outside.

 

[sgtsandman]

Looks OK to me. Bit I don't know much about camouflage. The military vehicle I rode in was black on the outside.

The Field Drab is a lighter brown and would work better with the tarp and the general terrain. The light green will work for now but could be better. The sand might be a bit too big, making the pattern too bright as well. Than can be fixed easy enough when I can spring for the Field Drab.

 

[ericbphoto]

The Field Drab is a lighter brown and would work better with the tarp and the general terrain. The light green will work for now but could be better. The sand might be a bit too big, making the pattern too bright as well. Than can be fixed easy enough when I can spring for the Field Drab.

I feel drab every time I go to work.

 

[sgtsandman]

I feel drab every time I go to work.

Same here. 0430 comes around too soon. Especially if there is a unit exercise or inspection and you are working 12+ hour shifts.

 

[sgtsandman]

Ok. Next project. Fix my miscalculation on the spare tire mounts so when the back of the trailer drags, it drags on the slide rails I installed instead of the bottom of the spare tires.

Before desealing the bolts.

After desealing. Remember, I do this for a living. It took me maybe an hour to do both sides.

The mounts are off.

The 2"X2"X0.250" angle is to make the brackets so the spare tire mounts themselves can be raised up. They've been sitting on the garage floor for a little while. So have seen better days but they will get the job done. I need more than 3.5". With the way the bolt holes are spaced, it is going to give me about 5.5"

I just need to clean off the sealant and drag the drill press up from the basement to start drilling holes. I picked up a set of transfer punches to make the job easier and more accurate this time as well.

 

[sgtsandman]

Preparing the angle iron. There are five holes that needed to drilled out in all four of the piece of angle. Starting from 1/8" and stepping up along the way to 1/2". Before moving on to the next step.

Due to clearance issues with the side boards, I had to go with tapered head machine screws for the top four fasteners. The irons are going to have spacers between them and the blocks that mount to the frame and the skid rails as well but when one is working with side boards that weigh a little over 100 pounds each, any forgiveness in lack of fineness while trying to remove them or put them in place has to be accounted for and standard bolt heads or button head machine screws are going to chew the crap out of the wood and paint if given the opportunity.

Mock up complete. Interior view.

Exterior view before rounding off the upper, interior edge and cutting the outward facing pieces of the angle iron to a 45 degree bevel.

Final test fit to confirm that what I came up with will work and before moving on to the right side bracket. I am going to do something with the forward upper bevel so the para cord doesn't get chaffed from road vibrations. Since flat paint isn't exactly smooth, perhaps a relief cut since that spot isn't a critical structural section.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Just a heads up on drills and cutting. Its unclear in your post if you did this but using progressively bigger bits is wrong. That will wear out the bit way quicker and much more likely to chip the outside. Best is use a pilot drill that is the size of the chisel point of the big drill. Two drill sizes for one hole, not 4 or 5 drill bits. If you need exact hole size then a reamer is used for the last after a slightly undersize drill bit.