Thread: Build or buy

There's been a few of those builds in these pages, I did one myself! From what I've seen, most of us have started with an old ute or one tonner tray and built the rest to suit that. Those tray sizes you mentioned are probably a bit bigger than the usual run of what you can generally find, so if you aren't able to adapt your requirements to a smaller commonly found tray, then a full build is what you are looking at. I must say I'm pleased with how mine turned out, not rocket science, but the suggestions from the experienced builders here certainly made life easy.
(Those springs sound a bit heavy if you are going for a light trailer, no doubt there will be better heads than mine to advise you about that.)

The reason I've gone for that width is that I drive a BA Falcon (1868mm wide according to the specs) and I want it slightly wider than that so I can reverse on mirrors.
My trailer in WA was a 30 year old Polmac the family had owned for 25 years and it was a pain to reverse because you couldn't see the damn thing.

I guess one option would be to go 8x5 and have a slide out arm each side for reversing.

The reason I'm inclined to build is that what I see being sold seems cheap. In WA trailers are legal with a single safety chain which to me is rubbish.
Cheers

Slight hijack but under the same topic; Buying vs building - costs material wise.

I'm looking for a heavy duty single axle 8x5 box with 300 sides and fold down front and rear tailgates. I was quoted $1200 for the basic trailer but after adding electric brakes, removable ladder racks, longer draw bar and galvanised the price jumps to $4300. Now the scrooge in me starts looking at making ( I have a MIG and have done a bit of welding over the years but this would be the biggest job I've considered)

So the main question is it worth the effort cost wise or would I be better scaling down my requirements?

The problem with a trailer manufacturer is once you start going away from the norm and adding custom stuff that take time to set up, you're paying $60-100 per hour for the privilage. However, $3000 is a bit rich, even at that rate.
Firstly, the cost difference between Hydraulic and Electric is not that much. The brakes are dearer, but the coupling's cheaper. And the longer drawbar would be $50 tops in extra material. Ladder racks... depends on how you're setting them up and how neat a job you want. This can be a bit fiddly and time consuming. Galvanising will be the biggest expense in that, and would be the thing I'd find out about before deciding on building your own.

If you did build your own, and were really fussy about putting a zinc primer between every overlap joint, then zinc primer the whole trailer before a few good coats of Hammertone, there's no reason why the trailer wouldn't last the next 20 years or more. Alot of trailers you see rotted out have either had grass and vegetation kept in them until the next tip trip, or the mass produced ones blow on a really light coat to colour the bare steel. Hammertone is designed to go over bare steel, but usually with a layer more than a few microns thick.

I agree on the quality aspect.
The regs say one safety chain is acceptable and most places build them this way. To me that is rubbish, so if I buy a trailer the first thing I'm doing is welding on a second chain (with stripping paint and repainting) so I figure I might as well build my own - I'd enjoy the building and I get exactly what I want.

The regs (16.2) say up to 2,5t, only one chain is required, greater than 2.5t, then two chains are required. But does not say that you can't put two chains on even the smallest trailers you can buy.
Two trailers I've had made for me, one a 7x4' offroad box come specified with only one chain. I wanted two, the dealer was insistant that only one was required and even pulled out the documentation as per the web link to point this out. I said that doesn't stop you putting two on, he was pretty insistant that only one was required. So when I took my cheque book up and stood up to turn around and leave, then he relucantly agreed to add the second chain. Then with my replacement boat trailer, from the boat manufacturer advised trailer comes standard with single chain. Again I said I wanted 2nd chain, yep no worries, made no bones about it, and importantly no increase in price (boat trailer was worth $4.5k then).

Technical Requirements

Cheers,
Wahoon.

Exactly, the regs say only one is required and most places build to this spec because of cost.
Personally I think a single chain is stupid and would always have two on any trailer I own.

On the subject of safety chains.....
I keep my chain 'tight' so that if the trailer does come off, the pointy end will not drop onto the tarmac but will be suspended. Most set-up I see have the chain dangling quite loose and if the connection did come unstuck I can imagine all sorts of problems. What are your thoughts?
Just as an aside, last weekend I saw a trailer off the road and quite literally impaled into a tree. It looks as though the drawbar has separated at the back of the coupling and the car has continued down the road with the coupling and safety chain still attached but the rest of the trailer has continued on its way until it met the tree. The collision caused the trailer to buckle in the middle with the drawbar a couple of inches into the base of the tree. Just as well it was a right hander where the separation took place.

Hi guys,- Although I am not a metalworker, I have owned an assortment of trailers over the years,- all secondhand, and always made sure every one of them always had two safety chains attached, as having grown up on a Yorke Peninsula farm close to a main road with complete with a deadly intersection to catch the unwary, I have seen first hand the dire consequences of trailers, caravans, & boat trailers only having one fitted safety chain.
Even these days now living in the town of Port Vincent I marvel at some vehicle owners who drive past towing a caravan, boat, or ordinary trailer complete with the safety chain/s dragging on the road. One day when talking to our local Servo owner a caravaner pulled in with his safety chains almost completely worn through simply by having them dragging on the road surface

Here in my street there are two Magificent, " Spoon Drains," - absolute rippers to say the least at a street intersection Us locals know about them, and are wary. Out of towners on the other hand nearly always come unstuck I have lost count of the number of boaties, caravaners, jetski trailers, etc., that have hit and come adrift, and have the nose of the A-frame either plough into the road, or into the rear end of the towing vehicle, with an almighty," Crash," simply because someone either hasn't got things coupled up correctly, or has very loosely fitted safety chains, and naturally when they hit both spoon drains, especially traveling at round 60 K's along the street,...........................
( One spoon drain is at the," normal ", 90 degree angle,- the second one is at about a 45 degree angle, for some long gone road construction reason. Like I said us locals are wary of them for a good reason )
One morning someone driving a low-slung expensive imported sports car, also made the error of tearing straight across the same intersection,- the car's motor sounded rather sick afterwards,- complete with a trail of engine oil all the way down the street.
Several months later,- same car drove very carefully, and very, very slowly across the intersection.
Roger

1868mm wide according to the specs. Assume thats the widest point ie outside of mirrors, the widest part of a car of course. MUst get off my ar*e one day and measure the XH. Always a source of frustration on the roads for me. "No luv u r not driving a Mack truck, your mini will easily fit thru that gap at the lites, if your mirrors fit the gap so will you!!!" I realy must install a megafone in the ute one of these days. Long story short, I really do like a trailer thats no wider than my mirrors, easier to navigate round town and the city, but thats just me. I dont tow cars so no probs for me.Have fun with the project.

Hi Paul
I built a tray top trailer it was 1.8 x1.8 the width is the same as my tray on my ute it's really easy to see & reverse I would't go wider if not needed
cheers Mick