"Autolycus" wrote in message
...

wrote in message ...
I've tried Google/Froogle searches but didn't come up with much, are
there any companies selling kits for build-it-yourself trailers? I
want a simple trailer that I can use in the garden (7 acres of it)
and for transporting stuff on the road (i.e. it has to be road legal).

My ideal would be one that can carry 8'x4' sheet material. It doesn't
have to have solid sides or bottom, the type made of mesh would be
fine.

Any ideas anyone?

Indespension used to do (and may still sell) a "trailer manual" which
included sketch designs and parts list, as well as much useful stuff on
trailers and towing in general. I've always found them expensive for
parts, and the service at my local branch is, shall we say, not always the
most helpful. Abbey Trailers, in Derby, otoh, are extraordinarily
pleasant to deal with. Dunno about a website, mind, I don't think they've
had the electric all that long.

Rubber-in-compression suspension units (Indespension, Avonride, Bradley,
many others) are, to me, appallingly crude pieces of engineering, but
people still buy them. Once they start failing the wheel alignment goes to
pot and they wear tyres out very quickly. Ifor Williams used to use
multi-leaf springs, and now use parabolics, but such axles and suspension
are harder to buy and to design round.

If you decide to buy secondhand, wheel bearings have a hard life, and
often seem minimally-specified. Taper rollers are usually wrongly
adjusted, inadequately maintained, and can fail spectacularly and rapidly.
Brake parts are ludicrously expensive, even simple bits like shoes. If a
trailer has been neglected (most have), the hitch can be badly worn, both
the coupling head and the shaft. Even folk who will sanctimoniously
preach "only the finest" with car tyres seem to fit any old tyres to
trailers, regardless of load rating or condition. Make sure your chosen
tyre size is sensibly available - Ifor Williams are noted for using sizes
like 145R10C 8ply and 185/60R12C, which you won't find at your average
tyre shop. The caravan accessories section of your local free ads paper
will probably have some unused wheels and high load-rating tyres, but
there are many combinations or rim width, offset, and stud spacing.

The latter points are important ... I built a trailer, after a couple of
years one the suspension units failed (constant dunking in salt water) the
replacement bolted on OK ... but the wheels then rubbed against trailer ...
the offset of the wheels required for new suspension units was different.

Rick