DIY and/or modified utility trailers

As a journeyman welder, I'd say you've pretty well got 'er dialed in. Nice work!

 

There used to be plywood covered with outdoor carpet screwed to little tabs. I'll likely just replace it with 1/2" plywood that's coated in bed liner.

Once the decking dries out, I planned on putting a few coats of bed liner on the top. These boards were still pretty soaked with the PT so it'll likely be next summer before I can do anything with it. Just doing the top will allow the wood to still breathe and dry from the other sides. From how wet/heavy it is, it will be a solid 2 years before I can think about completely sealing it up with anything.

 

Thanks.
The cheap little mig welder I had before, the best I could ever do was booger welds.
This new welder makes it so much easier to do a good job. After I get some more seat time with it, I may even attempt a scratch build trailer in a few years. That is, if the price of steel drops. I feel like it's almost cheaper to buy a trailer than build a whole trailer from scratch at the moment.
I think they quoted me almost $100 for 69" piece of 2" x 4" mild steel angle. Add up all the steel needed, axle, springs, a few premade brackets etc,.....it's about $3k for a small utility trailer already built.

 

SINCE you opened it up to other trailers......here is mine...

No clue on year, but HF heavy duty folding trailer I bought from someone for $150...took off the original tongue and welded up a new tongue and the frame so it no longer folds. Sandblasted it, painted it rattle can red, then added a 7 pin harness to it and rewired (had this done) the lights.

Added in some rear stabilizers for loading when not attached to the truck, side mounts for ramps, Home Depot little tool box for straps and tarps. Threw some d-rings in the floor for attaching.


When I bought it:



Deconstructed:




Revamping:







Frame Assembly and lights:




Loaded with the mower:




As it sits, prior to the 7 pin being installed:

 

Very cool

 

Yeah man, the more the merrier.
It'd be cool to have a library of DIY trailer stuff for peeps to reference.

 

Btw, I'm at $200 for the lumber/fasteners, $40 for the light kit and I wanna say $150 for the wheels/tires I put on it maybe 5(?) Yrs ago.
So $400 and some work so far.
Still have to buy a gallon of bed liner. Haven't priced that yet.

 

Couldn't agree more - I love DIY'ing, always looking here and other spots for tips and examples.

Your cost is right about the same as mine. I think I am close to $600 total for everything. It's only 4x8, but it does everything I need it to!

 

Well, it works. It didn't hop as much unloaded as I was expecting and didn't hop at all with the mower loaded up. Worked great. Drove it 30 min empty and 30 min back with the mower. 50+ mph in a few spots. Everything held up.
Next I have to weld up a few spots for hooking tie down straps, then paint it. I'm not doing bed liner. The stuff worth buying is too expensive for this project. I'll just rattle can prime/paint it.

 

Here’s my cheap trailer I picked up late 2021. 5x8 with welded anchors. Only thing I’ve done so far is paint the wood black and run new wiring and lights. The floor platform needs replaced but the bolts holding it down are all rusted. Thinking of just laying plywood down over it for now.
All I ever really use it for is for my four wheeler so it sits majority of the time. Plus I have a 1 year old and my wife and I work opposite shifts. That equation equals zero free time to truly work on it lol

edit: this was the day I brought it home so it was rough and didn’t have a trailer jack. Also, all for sides pop off if I want to use it as a flat trailer.

 

@RichterScale - hard to go wrong with a HF utility trailer. I found one of the 1200lb version on Craigslist, assembled, inspected and registered, for $150 nearly 13 years ago. Only replaced the decking with a single sheet of marine grade plywood for $80. Still ready to use any given day. Easy to add walls like exampled above.

8' is just a pain to back up. Only downside.