Thread: tilt car trailer build

Originally Posted by mid life crisis

hi all
i posted ages ago about building a new trailer for our race car . well good news is work has started so just to refresh the trailer bed is 15ft 6inches long x 6ft 6 inches wide have 4 inch drop axles and 10 inch electric brakes on one axle.

trailer frame is made from 75x 50 x 3 mm rhs and been a car trailer it will have 600 mm wide runners down each side for the wheels to sit on this is 3mm ally checker plate .

the trailer will tilt to enable easier loading of the race car hopefully i can link this to photo bucket and share the pics so far .

cheers dean

Question. Why put brakes on only one axle?

no other reason than every other car trailer ive had in the past has only ever had one braked axle and all the factory built car trailers of this size only seem to have one braked axle . the race car only weighs 1000kg and i thought electric brakes were meant to work better than the old cable or hydrulic style on the tow hitch.

but if i find it needs more stopping power i have no problem fitting the axle with electric brakes also . i do have a question tho what brand brake controllers do people recommend to use ?.

cheers dean

Originally Posted by mid life crisis

. i do have a question tho what brand brake controllers do people recommend to use ?.

cheers dean

tekonsha p3

thanks for that sircol i will go do some research on that model now . as this is my first electric braked trailer i want to get it right first time around .

cheers dean

Another vote for Tekonsha. Whether you use the P3 or another model (I have installed dozens of Voyagers), you can't really go too wrong with any of the Tekonsha range.

If this is your first Electric Braked trailer, you'll never want to go back to over-ride brakes again.

Generally brakes are fitted to only one axle due to cost, and legally, they're only required on one axle if the trailer is registered at under 2000Kg GTM. However, the optimum braking capacity for one pair of brakes is around the 1500Kg mark, and even less for the smaller over-ride brakes.

Just wondering how is it going to tilt? If it's just going to have a pivot on the draw bar and rely on the weight of the car as you drive it on and off to tilt the trailer up you might have a problem getting the door open to get in while it's on the trailer. That's assuming it's not an open wheeler or something with the doors welded shut, in which case you'll need to climb in or out anyway.

Mick

Originally Posted by mid life crisis

thanks for that sircol i will go do some research on that model now . as this is my first electric braked trailer i want to get it right first time around .

cheers dean

check out flea bay

Originally Posted by journeyman Mick

Just wondering how is it going to tilt? If it's just going to have a pivot on the draw bar and rely on the weight of the car as you drive it on and off to tilt the trailer up you might have a problem getting the door open to get in while it's on the trailer. That's assuming it's not an open wheeler or something with the doors welded shut, in which case you'll need to climb in or out anyway.

Mick

nah no doors it's a dirt circuit car full space frame chassis ve commadore fibreglass body and sprintcar diff trailer is been built to suit the car wont be lending it out ....one of the reasons i went electric brakes ...sorry mate ya dont have a brake controller in ya car ? gee id love to help ya but caltex hire them down the road lol

alloy floor arrived tonight so it's getting there and i decided how i am going to mount the tail lights as well .

next job prob on the weekend will be to start making the draw bar and the pivots for the tilt
cheers dean

talk about things come in threes lol
1 run out of argon for the mig
2 cant find and rods for the arc welder
3 get bottle of gas for mig weld 2 seconds and run out of wire ever had one of those days back to super gas again tomorrow

well ramps are made and mounted onto the back of the trailer pics to follow soon. getting closer to painting the whole thing soon

cheers dean

hi all
just a bit of a update now have the draw bar mounting points and pivots tacked in place and brackets welded in to bolt the alloy floor in place .ramps made and mounts on trailer and it even tilts lol so most of the big jobs have been done and its the smaller fiddly bits that seem to be taking up the time but its all falling in to place .
but in reality it's only taking 2 of us 3 weekends and few hrs sometime during the week if ive felt inclined to go out to the shed .

so far its been a great learning experince and when we build the second one after this one is finished im sure it wont take as long due to what we have learned building this one so far .
as a point of interest we have been having a side bet with each other on what it will weigh when completed so i borrowed a set of hanging scales and loaded the bed of the trailer up with everything needed to finish the trailer including the can of paint lol . i reckoned it would come in at 615 kg and my reckoned it would come in at 680 when we weighed it it come in at 624 kg .so will be intersting to put it on a weighbridge when completed at see the final figure anyway a couple of more pics
cheers dean

a bit more work out in the shed and a bit more done so we decided to hook it up to a car drag it out the shed and just drive a car onto the ramps and see if it tillted ok .well it worked a bit too good so we have to limit how far it tilts so the back does not hit the ground by about 3 to 4 inches so it wont start crunching number plates in the process .

i must say i was impressed by how easy it was to reverse it back up the long drive into the shed when we was done it just went back straight with hardly any correction so was happy with that .

anyway more pics for those who have been following the thread
cheers dean oops pics are wrong sort of file will post soon

hi all
once again i am after a bit of advice how much clearence do you have from the top of your tyres to the mudgaurds the trailer hardly drops with the weight of the car on it would 50 mm be enough or should i go more ? mounting the gaurds is this weekend's job along with the side rails and jerry can holders .

thanks once again
dean .