Soo, whos built their own toy hauler? i need a 12K tandem deckover with a beavertail, and can't find one locally that is manufactured the way i want. There are no local manufacturers either. I have several designs on paper all drawn up, but i want to know if there beefy enough or not. two have 1000 lbs of steel in the frame, and the last and i think best has 1250 lbs of steel in the frame, not including axles or fenders. It has 330 lb of tongue weight empty, which should be about right and roughly 60/40 weight distribution front/rear. It has a 17'x8' deck with a 4 foot tongue. the last 4 feet of the deck is the beavertail. What do 16or 18 foot 12K trailers normally weigh? i can't readily find that on line. any who, any help will be much appreciated.
I will be building a small utility trailer soon, it will be my first. My dad used to build trailers all the time, back when he owned wis welding business. He built almost every trailer we own, from our little dinky two place snowmobile trailer to our 20ft 18K triple axlr gooseneck with outriggers and a small crane. waytogo He built our gooseneck in 24hrs. It's now 20 years old and I am excited to restore it soon with fresh paint, wiring, and tires &wheels. I am a little shady on 10-12K trailers, but figure a sturdy tandem would be around 3.5-4K. Our gooseneck 20ft triple axle that is an 18K trailer weighs 5,500lbs, and is overly stout for "only" 18K. I'm going by what our, and most, 7K tandem 17 ft flat bed and the above mentioned gooseneck weighs and am figuring somewhere in the middle.
My 10k 20' tag is supposedly a hair under 2500 lbs with a 6" channel frame and tongue, with crossmembers on 16" centers. The guy that delivered it said it's easily strong enough to be a 14k trailer and is way overbuilt for the axles that it's on (5200lb x 2). I think that to get to 3.5k to 4k weight for a 10k or 12k trailer would have to be stupidly overbuilt to acheive that weight, and the porky trailer would cut down on the capacity available for hauling stuff.
Teah 3.5k seem awfully heavy, i figure with a tool box it hould weigh in around 2600 lbs with the decking and what not i have selected. I have done quite a few calculations such as tongue weight, weight of the bare frame, weight of decking based on density, and total weight comes in cloes to 2600. i think that oughtta be rasonable considering its a deckover and will have a wider frame than a standard lowbed.
I built this 18' trailer out of a 12' dump trailer. It had a stacked ladder type frame for the trailer and the dump. I just took off the dump and spliced some of it onto the bottom section and added a 2' drop in the back. It's topped with 2" oak planks. According to the registration it is 1,500lbs and I didn't add any metal, just moved it around. I haven't had the chance to take it to the quarry yet and put it on their scales.
I guess I was way off then. I don't have hardly any experience with 10-12K trailers. I was just figuring somewhere in the middle between our 2K lbs 7K rated trailer and out 5,500lbs 18K goose. :doah:
I build trailers everyday. Work for a company called Best Trailer Inc. 90% of the trailers we build go to the rental industry. US rentals, United Rentals etc. If you live in any of the western states and have rented a trailer from any of the larger rental companys, then it was prolly built by the company I work for. waytogo
Unless you can get the metal free it's usually cheaper to buy one than make one! It's amazing how much $$ they get for steel!
Well I get Deep discounts on steel cause we go through quite a bit of steel on the crushers, loader and excavator buckets, dump bodies etc. I cant find a trailer that would fit my needs locally, so i'm pretty well left to do it myself. Jethro, Why dont you pop up on Vacation and toss it together for me, we'll go wheelin. waytogo
Not sure why anyone would think it is cheaper to buy than build but "to each their own" I just finished my 20' deckover 14K bumper pull. Construction is 10" 15lb/ft I-beam with 3" c-channel cross members on 20" centers. 10 position adjustable tongue, chain basket and 9' pull-out ramps. I have $2700 in materials, and that is with 7K Dexter tortion axles. A new Big Tex or Dunlop is about 5K plus tax and high registration. I paid $45 for one year of reg including a hommade vin tag. I think my trailer weighs in at about 3-3.5K but haven't weighed it yet. As far as tongue weight goes, when I drop in on the dualy it sags about an inch and a half. Pulls very well, loaded and unloaded.
Thanks, I am proud of it. Coupler is an Atwood 25K 2 5/16 ball hitch, I made my own coupler plate (didn't want to spend $40 on a 3/4x7x16 piece of steel with holes in it)
Wheelin66, that is almost exactly what i want to build, except mine will have a beavertail. That is a nice looking trailer indeed. Im gonna start here right after xmas. Which axles did you use? the 45* or 22* torsions?
Thanks Ben427, My axles are 45* down. I had to go wth 45* down because I wanted to keep the deck height as low as possible but obviously without bottoming out the tires. With 10" I-beam and 3" c-channel cross members and 235/85-16's it was even too close to run the 2x8's over the tires. I had to go with steel just for that little bit of extra room. You have to figure with a full 14K load plus bump there has to be 3" extra over the tires so it doesn't bottome out. The Dexter specs are real easy to follow to figure it out. Let me know if you have any questions when you start building, I made a list of do's and don'ts
45* is what i figured it was. How did the torflex's price compare to Spring suspended? I priced the springs and never thought about the torflex option, id suspect they are more but they cant be that bad.
I acturally did not compare prices. I originally bought some 22.5* up car trailer axles from a trailer mfg. I changed my design and took them back to the dexter supplier and they traded me straight across for the 45* down axles (thankfully) but I think they retail for about $500/each. I can measure the pad width for you if you want, I think it is around 60".
