On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 09:09:07 GMT, Gunner
calmly ranted:

On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 20:32:31 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 10:25:15 GMT, Gunner
calmly ranted:

With the good graces of our esteemed colleague Leigh from MarMachine,
Im now the proud owner of a Real Trailer.

My old and very tired 4x8 box trailer was on its last legs when Leigh
called and let me know he had found a 5x10 tilt bed single axle
trailer for me rotting away in some fellows back yard.

Cool. Let's give her a trial run. Pop a small, inexpensive
vertical mill on that puppy, run it up to me, and I'll put
all new wiring and lights on it for you, no charge.

Chuckle...where were you when I had the small inexpensive vertical
mill for sale? The Index?

Self-employed and in the Famine stage of Feast or Famine, of course.


Depending on what you want to do..I may be selling off my Gorton 3-Z
pantograph. It does a good job of small milling with a 12x16 or so
working space and has a knee. Ive used it as a small miller and it
works very well with cutters up to about 1/4" . It will be quite
cheap. I never could find any fonts for it that I could afford and the
plan to have the disable missus make some pocket change by doing key
chains and pool cue case labels has gone by the wayside..and its now
pretty much in the way. Id make you a hell of a deal on it. Runs
like a champ and even the paint is good G. A couple of the local
boys have made quite a few RC airplane parts on it.



The trailer was commercially made and at one time pin striped and
probably painted red..but now is pretty much a solid sheet of very
thin rust.

Trailers are like that. Yeah they are.


Probably the best thing to do is find a tank blaster and have it sand
blasted, but other than a cup brush and a day grinding the rust off,
are there any other options? Some chemical or paint that will stop
the rust and coat existing rust? Its very well made with lots of
angle iron and channel and its gonna be a real PITA to wire wheel it
clean.

In the interim, HF has a 50 lb. sandblaster on sale for $40
right now. I got the catalog yesterday.


Some of the brush-on Rustoleum primers are made for pre-rusted
metal. I redid my front wrought iron railing with it 3 years
ago and it hasn't shown any sign of rust yet. I used their
black brush-on over it.

I think Ill try that. Ive made some phone calls, and none of my
buddies has acess to a tank sand blaster anytime soon. Seems to be
something of a shortage of them currently. No one is sandblasting oil
field tanks at the moment. Ill scrounge up someone willing to do a
brother in law job, but winter and the rainy season is coming. The

Bwahahaha! Rain in SoCal? OK, it drizzles a bit from late Nov.
through Feb.


trailer is not all that bad, but was stored near the ocean so has that
sort of rust on it. Hard to tell how much exactly as the trailer was
originally painted red..shrug.

Near the ocean? My F-150 spent a week at the seaside (Carlsbad)
while being repainted (Well, the half that Ford paid for, anyway.)
All the trim came back corroded and I could see visible rust on
the frame which wasn't there the week before. I was absolutely
amazed at how corrosive salt air was in such a short time.


210 whole pounds on a forklift? Gee, pushin' it, aintcha?


Chuckle..the bed has internal smooth sides, but the ends are pocketed.
So I cut my 1" plywood to 1/2 the bed width (5'x12') sheets per Leighs
most excellent suggestion and then cut them to .25 less the total
inside length of the pockets. I then stuck one end into the pocket at
the rear of the trailer, and strung a rope around the plywood about
1/3 the way towards that pocket, and lifted it with the forklift. I
then stood on the other end and as the plywood bowed, my weight
allowed me to stab the other end into the far pocket. I then had a
fellow drop the forks and it went flat, with both ends neatly in the
pocket. I repeated for the other half and voila..very neatly stuck in
the pockets, the center seam is straight and tight. I used the
forklift to pull the rope back out as it was wedged in pretty good.

The open sides are 13" tall, so the remaining strips cut from the full
sheets are to be trimmed to the proper width, and will be bolted to
the open side trusses and this will enclose the trailer, adding
strengh and keeping Stuff from bouncing out.

Bueno.


Im trying to figure out a good way to add a bit more strength to the
front rail, to allow me to mount a winch or big D ring to attach a
ComeAlong to, to pull Stuff up into the trailer.

HF often has their boat winches on sale for $10-15, and one
of those should do the job. Weld on a pair of brackets and
bolt 'er on.

I may..may also weld
in a longitudnal stringer as there are a couple larger than I like
open places in the frame that are over the tilt portion. I didnt
notice them until I tilted the trailer this afternoon.

Um, not even with the paneling removed?!? You weren't paying
attention. It would have been much easier then.


Shrug..that 1"
ply is tough stuff, but Id hate for it to carry a load that might go
through in the distant future.

Grok that.


Anyone know how difficult it is to retrofit a stock axle with electric
brakes? Ive had to do panic braking on LA freeways, and even my lil
box trailer, with a load tended to push my pickup sideways. Something
Ive been thinking about..... Shrug.

I've never done it but have seen the bolt-on kits (eons ago).
If your stub axles are bolt-on, the backing plate/hub/stub
can be replaced.


The trailer has a crank up landing gear welded up in the V next to the
hitch, and somewhere in the past it had been dragged on something and
bent backwards, so I chained up to the rear of the trailer and used a
come along to bend it back into place. Only problem with it being
there is it doesnt allow me to open the tailgate of the pickup. I
need to find one of those folding ones that fold horizontally next to
the tounge. Ive had trailers (boat usually) that wouldnt allow the
tailgate down..and it drove me crazy.

Sheetmetal is easy to cut. Just put a couple holes in the tailgate to
let the jack comes through and you're done! bseg BTW, tongue is
spelled "tongue". Yeah, backing things around is much easier with
the gate down. You might want a ball and hitch on the front of
the truck, too. That makes stabbing the trailer into a little hole
much, much easier.


Next thing to do is figure out what the 5 lug bolt pattern is, and get
a spare tire and wheel. Ill weld a bracket on the side near the
fenders and mount it there. Thing is perfectly balanced. I can pick up
the tounge one handed and move it around easily, so would like to keep
it balanced. I want to mount a small tool box also, to keep the
tiedowns and chain binders and whatnot in, so keeping it balanced is
pretty important, while not making it look like a gypsy wagon G,
else Id simply mount a crossbed pickup box on the tounge end.

I'd see if I could mount the box and spare just in front of the
wheels if it were mine, but leave enough space to get the holddown
straps/hardware between it and the wheel/box. It would give you the
least tongue weight (though you want 100+ lbs. when you're on the
road). And I'd use a wheeled swing-away trailer jack. You can buy
those, which bolt on, from places like J.C. Whitney for $50, or HF
for $20 or for $1+ on Ebay. =:0


Have you read "Imperial Hubris" yet? My library has me 6th of 17
on the waiting list now. grumble, grumble
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/...s/03949394.asp


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give me The Luxuries Of Life * http://www.diversify.com
i can live without the necessities * 2 Tee collections online
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