Thread: A trailer

You will need one from time to time but you can hire one and saye the money for tools.

I frequently hire on from bunnings, free for 2 hours. Also a good time to grab a few melamine sheets or something.

It's easier when I don't have a place to store a trailer nor want to buy an average quality secondhand one.

Originally Posted by DaveVman

Are my assumptions about needing a trailer correct?

It may depend on what sort of machinery you want .
If you intend on searching for second hand bargains, then Yes, you need one I think, and you then will soon realize you need ways of getting machinery off and on a trailer,= more money . The money saved on the cost of machinery would pay for the trailer and lifting gear, eg an engine crane. And you will spend time searching and gathering and repairing possibly. And you will end up with Good old stuff.

If for you the Carbatec or one of the store bought machines will do the job, then they can deliver the machinery, at a cost . You'll spend more money and less time. And be cutting wood sooner.

Having the trailer will have a lot of other uses of course like scrounging cheap wood , getting rid of rubbish and delivering finished projects .

I needed a trailer for a long time and searched second hand plenty of times . I found it's hard to get a bargain with trailers , they have pretty good resale value if the condition is good and they are registered. I drove all the way to look at one I purchased ,to find the ebay seller was a liar , the thing was waiting to fall apart . The numbskull was probably hoping he'd get a buyer who wasn't going to have a look underneath. It was rusted through all through the frame .
I ended up ordering the exact size I needed and it was made up for me . I was about to move house and workshop so got a big one and it has easily paid for itself with the huge amount I shifted with it .

You may have more luck with a 6 x 4 second hand trailer though . I think there are a lot more of them about .

Rob

IF........you buy a trailer (and here I will jump on my horse again) get your drivers licence number welded onto part of it that cannot be seen easily.
Push bikes have ID numbers, boats have ID numbers, trailers na na na.
I had one stolen off the towhitch on my car, with mowers, tools etc, spotted trailer 6 months later, I had rebuilt wheel arches to suit my needs they were special, notified police with claim number etc and there response 'prove its yours', 'by the claim number', no prove to us that it is yours and not one your after....long story no ID no proof. weeks later saw a report about a car trailer that had been miissing 2 years, but he had his licence number welded on, police duly visit supposed owner remove it, have it Xrayed a bingo number had been ground off but under light revealed itself.

I will bet a years wages that all hire trilers have special ID somewhere on them. or a GPS hiding

It looks like a new single axle trailer is around $1,500. Plus rego.
A similar trailer rental for 9 hours is nearly $60.
So if I use it 25+ times then it has paid for itself.

The big advantage for me would be not needing to organise the rental.
Although it will be pain having that on the back lawn. I notice others in my area just get a clamp and leave it on the street.

Of course, if I'm honest I'll end up spending slightly more than this on options but not having to plan out a hire is a massive plus for me.
I guess I can't have things both ways.

How do other people manage?

Just remember that you are not allowed to have any part of the load outside the trailer, so a 6x4 cannot legally be used to transport an 8x4 sheet of ply.

I ended up with two trailers, one 6x4 and one 10x5. Both with lots of mods.

Originally Posted by DaveVman

It looks like a new single axle trailer is around $1,500. Plus rego.
A similar trailer rental for 9 hours is nearly $60.
So if I use it 25+ times then it has paid for itself.

How do other people manage?

looked at another way, the trailer is a once off investment that
1. needs to be stored. Where I was in Sydney Council got very grumpy with trailers stored in the street -- they'd even go as far as marking a strip of time limited parking so that they could ticket the trailer.
2. has an ongoing cost -- annual registration and maintenance.
3. if you use it 25+ times over a year or so, your hobby is towing a trailer not cutting wood. (a typical workshop tool complement would only have three or four items too big to fit in the boot of a car.)

and transporting wood.
a couple of hundred dollars would be enough to pay for delivery of a life-time's supply of wood. Several years ago I had 2 cubes delivered to my dad's place for just over $200. It would have been the same cost to have 10 cubes delivered.
and wood I purchased at the wood show (and too long to fit in the car) has typically been delivered for around $60. So in my case, $1500 plus the ongoing annual cost, is getting up to 5x what I've spent in total on wood working related transport.

Originally Posted by DaveVman

It looks like a new single axle trailer is around $1,500. Plus rego.

You can buy a brand new single axle 6 * 4 box trailer in Melbourne for $ 530. In addition that size trailer does not require registration in Victoria if thr trailer is under 3 metres in lenght and not wider then the car towing it.

Makes it a better case for owning one. I bought one 30 years ago and never regretted it as it paid for itself within a couple of year. Also the convenience of having it ready to use is great.

Ofcourse I have enough room to store it out of the way.

Peter.

Originally Posted by DaveVman

I want to gradually get into this hobby. It seems to me that one of the first things I will need is a trailer. This is a financial blow because by the time I buy a trailer it will be another long wait before I can afford my first major woodworking machine.I had a quick look for 2nd hand trailers but the asking prices didn't seem worth it to me. These days I only have a medium size sedan car. 2.4L. The seats fold down and I can fit a couple of items up to 1.8m. However it does no favours to the leather interior!! Plus I can't do a lot of things. Like pick up some pallets.From memory that car limits the tow to 750kg.So I am thinking I'll have to focus on single axle trailers.Are there particular features I should focus on?Are my assumptions about needing a trailer correct?

I bought a beat up second hand garden trailer with lots of rust for a couple of hundred dollars through the Trading Post and it lasted me for for 15 years before I sold it on ebay for about the same. For occasional use, fairly short distances and light loads it was fine. I replaced the electrics when I bought it, and that's all it needed.

My 2c worth. I reckon you've got the problem back to front. It's not that you need a trailer, you need a different vehicle.

Myself, I have a vw Caddy maxi. Drives like a car rather than a van. large capacity in the rear. I can seat 5 in mine as I have an extra row of seats, I can put 6m on the roof legally with a flag at the back. To me a trailer is just a burden for the reasons outlined above. I generally have no drama delivering furniture to customers. When stuff is too big, them I hire a trailer, or use a local removalist. I work in with their program and it's quite cheap really. Bugger having that money tied up in something I need once, maybe twice a year.

Cheers
Bevan

One thing that I always recommend to people when I was making trailers, was to have a drop down tailgate front and rear, allows you to legally carry a 2400 X 1200 sheet with in the trailer. Drop rear tailgates also allow to easily remove rubbish from the trailer.
Kryn

A few comments.

Hiring
It's a PITA.
You have to go pick the thing up and then run your ring raw getting it back on time or be up for another days hire.
If you do that 25 times a year that would have been a week per year lost in time not to mention the stress.

Storage
Since we got the van it takes the spot where the trailer was and I have store the trailer at my sons place which is as far away as the rental place.
DOH!

Size
I had my BILs 6x4 with a cage on loan for many years but it was nearly always too small.
So I bought a 8x5 which fits full size 8 x4 sheets inside the trailer.
I bought it mainly to carry up to 2.4 m long x 1.2m wide timber slabs
Mind you that has not stopped the mens shed doing this.
2016-01-14 11.30.05.jpg

Can really attest to having the right vehicle as well as I have a HiAce Van.
It works hard for the mens shed as it can carry full size sheets on edge tilted on their side, 3m long things on the diagonal inside the van.
Theres a small door in the HD grille between the drivers compartment and rear that can be opened up so that 3.5m long (lightweight) objects can fit.
And 6.5m long stuff like pipe on the 4 railed roof track.

IMG_1939.jpg

The van is used mainly to carry milling gear .
This is my old van - the log rails are ~4m (expandable to 6m long) go on the roof rack
dingoloadingrails.jpg


Room for couple more chainsaws and slabs
van.jpg

Slow down a bit guys. Of course the problem is the vehicle but I'm trying to figure out how to get the money just for a single axle trailer!

BTW I wasn't suggesting I would use a trailer 25 times in one year. I was suggesting that after a few years when I pass the 25 uses mark it would start to pay for itself.
I've hired a trailer 3 times this year just cleaning up the yard. Plus used the free one from Bunnings twice. So if I was picking up wood etc it would be easy to use it over 30 times in 3 or 4 years. Last time I had a trailer it lasted a lot longer than that.

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