kristap

I'm in the market and still looking for a 20' (or 22') enclosed trailer and looking for some pointers. My budget precludes aluminum so I'm basically looking at plywood boxes. The wood seems kinda thin and I wondered how people mount tire racks and cabinets. If I recall correctly, 3/8" is the standard thickness which doesn't seem all that thick. What do people use? Just mount to the frame conduits?

Any suggestions on forums or websites with tips & ideas on improving the trailers: flooring, paint, something like rennlist for trailers?

I've found Pitpal.com - any other suggestions for comparable accessories?

ltc

www.rbcomponents.com

I've used both PitPal and RB.

RickBetterley

I am not sure what you mean by plain wooden boxes (Do you mean a steel trailer with unfinished wooden interior? An aluminum trailer with unfinished wood interior? I doubt(?) that you are referring to a plain wooden box, but perhaps you are).
Anyway - nothing wrong with an unfinished wooden interior to save some money. I think you will find that there are studs behind them to fasten to.
Also - you can wait on all the (expensive) goody-mounting devices that you can buy for a trailer.
Tires, tool chests, jacks, etc. can be strapped down to the floor or you can make inexpensive brackets for them. Or carry some in the tow vehicle for awhile.
Or - how about a used trailer?
Hope this helps.

pmason

I have picked up a number of items for my trailer from http://pitproducts.com/

VERBOTN

In my most recent trailer I elected to buy off the shelf instead of fabrication. I used pitpal (pitpal.com) which makes aluminum bits. Regarding the tires I use commercial trucking e-track (in my case aluminum) and shoring beams at the rear of the trailer to hold as many sets of wheels as I want to carry. Simply connect winch cable and car rolls under beams. PS any idea where I keep my first aid kit?

kristap

Sorry, wasn't clear. I was thinking of the unfinished wooden interior in the pace & haulmark trailers being considered.

Had started looking for used but there are a couple of good deals on 'new' ones here at a local dealer. I'm taking my time and thinking about how to tackle some interior finishing. Nothing fancy - tire rack & couple of shelves.

Thanks for the suggestions on RB & pitproducts!

kristap

Very nice! Thank you for the pictures!

F350Lawman

I just bought a 24' used trailer that was unfinished. I used an epoxy garage floor kit (grey with colored flecks and sand mixed in for grip) on the floor/ramp and used an opaque white stain on the walls and the center of the roof. Then I secured 2 roll on Craftsman mechanic's tool chests, some hooks, secured a few storage bins and now it is a functional and nice looking track setup.....on the cheap

M758

Anybody ever swap 3500lbs axles for 5200lbs units to increas the load capacity of the trailer? Seems like a very easy swap especially with leaf spring type axles. Yeah sounds crazy, but I might able to get nice unit for a great price, but with 3500lbs axles instead of the 5200lbs ones. I figure I needed I could swap to bigger ones and at this price might still come out ahead if it do it myself.

RickBetterley

Very nice looking trailer; I use the same system of shoring beams to carry tires, though over the hood of the car. Looks like you have a bunch of tires, as I see (at least) 4 beams.
One comment - I too use ratchet straps to hold the tires down onto the beams. Coming back from VIR last year, I did my usual check inside the trailer, just to see if anything had loosened up. Much to my surprise, one of the straps had chaffed through on the wheel hub, and the tires were free to jump off the rack and wreak havoc.
Happily, they had not, and were sitting nicely on the rack, though a bit tilted.
I was very lucky that they didn't fall off; if they did, they could/would have done some serious damage.

VERBOTN

Rick
Thanks for the tip, I usually set the beams rather far appart so the tire/wheel sits down in them so far so good. I also left a cup of coffee on the workbench when loading and to my surprise it was still upright and full when I arrived 3 hours later at my destination crazy

RickBetterley

Wow! Smooth roads?

F350Lawman

Anybody ever swap 3500lbs axles for 5200lbs units to increas the load capacity of the trailer? Seems like a very easy swap especially with leaf spring type axles. Yeah sounds crazy, but I might able to get nice unit for a great price, but with 3500lbs axles instead of the 5200lbs ones. I figure I needed I could swap to bigger ones and at this price might still come out ahead if it do it myself.

I thought about the axle swap. On SOME trailers the only difference between the 10,000lbs.lbs. gvwr unit and the 7000lbs. gvwr unit is the axle capacity. Just look at the rating on the trailer hitch, the size of the frame and cross members and the distance between each. If all those things are identical to the higher rated trailer, I would go for it. Prices for axles are pretty reasonable and the job looks fairly straight forward.

M758

Well,
Looks very much like I will be getting this one. Price is too good pass and I found website that sells trailer parts. Heck enough parts to build your own trailer if you want. So I figure for $1500 in parts I maybe able to swap axles to the 5200lbs type. There seems to be no difference on the actual trailer construction. The price of this trailer is such that even adding $1500 I come out better than most trailrs I see locally. Heck I may not even need 10k rating so it is good to know I can upgrade if needed.

F350Lawman

My 24' bare bones trailer weighed right at 3650, so even with a 7000lb limit you still have room for 3350 of car and cargo. At 2800lbs of car, I feel fine with 550lbs of gear as my limit. If I want to be a pack rat, I always have the rest of the crew cab, the locking bed mounted tool box, and the 8' truck bed if I go really insane.