My $1000 Crawler Hauler Build

[suisuki]

Thanks for sharing the build. The price seems good, glad that you are able to stay under your mark for now.

I have had trouble with low cars on a beaver tail. They get high centered pretty easy. It is great for 4x4s, but not ideal for imports, race cars or classics. They go for a tilt bed when they are lowered.

yeah I've had that problem too, I hope my 15* drop isn't too much, also if you notice I'm mounting a 8000# drop-leg jack with this i'll be able to tilt the deck quite a bit with the trailer on the truck, and with 5' ramps and the dove my effective ramp length is alomost 7'.

 

[suisuki]

Ok, I finally had a couple hours tonight to work on the trailer
I got the front stop bar on, and mounted the jack
stop bar is 2x3x3/16 tube I had left over from another project $0.
and some 2x2x1/8 I bought the other day $25.00
running total $911.00 getting close
I could't resist welding on a couple of the 5/8th D-rings

 

[suisuki]

mocked up my spare 'cause I wanted to be sure I had room to operate the jack without hitting my hand on it.
do you think this will hold?

 

[suisuki]

whoops I ment do you think THIS will hold
I hope my jack foot isn't to low. It hangs down below the channel about
2.5-3" which makes it like 9-8.5'' from the ground when the trailer is level

oh well I guess I'll find out when I tow it, If it scrapes I'll just cut it off and move it up, p-cutters are sweet
man I've been really tempted to wire up just the tail lights and tow this thing around just to see how it does, probably just a wast of time though
guess I'll wait 'till it's time to go pick up the decking, it'll be easier than loading the 16'ers in my truck.

 

[suisuki]

man now that this trailer is off the jack stands I'm noticing it's really low, I here the lower the deck the better they tow (c.gravity thing) but the bottom of the dove is only 12" from the ground (I guess all the mass prodution units are about this high/low)
anyway, I'm sure it will drag thru dips, does anyone have any experence with rollers/casters on the back of these?
I know I've seen casters on motorhomes
should I bother with these or just plate the frame where it'll hit and drag it around?

 

[moabrangler]

I have a 20 ft Trailer, it DRAGS in most driveways. I would like to put wheel on the back end. Glad the axels worked for you.

 

[suisuki]

yeah, thanks agin I'm glad too, I was thinking of some solid steel rollers that ran on some 3/4" round bar but, seems like alot of work, plating the frame is looking better and better.

 

[erocrocks]

I would think that plating, or making slides would be better, in dirt, or gravel, also if you put casters on there, they hang DOWN even more

I have no experience, just a wild imagination

 

[I Lean]

Casters hang down too low, and just scrape and wear flat spots. Make sacrificial skids.

 

[Brad J]

the bottom of the dove is only 12" from the ground (I guess all the mass prodution units are about this high/low)
anyway, I'm sure it will drag thru dips,..... should I bother with these or just plate the frame where it'll hit and drag it around?

My trailer is from Lone Peak (18' dove tail) & they put angle iron on the back but hanging down. Clearance was 9.5" unloaded and I scraped EVERYWHERE!!! I took it off and used 3/8" plating and now its at 13.5" clearance & I don't think I've scraped yet.

BTW nice trailer. I'm into mine about $3k

 

[suisuki]

roller/casters out, sliders in

found a small piece of 1/4" plate in the shop that looks like just enough to make some sliders(about 7" of 5"x1/4" plate). The reason why I'm concerned is that in the rear with the 4" tube along the side and the 5" channel at the rear the channel hangs down 1" below the tube and presents a flat vertical surface right where the trailer will likly drag, looks like a curb grabber
if I don't make sliders here I bet that channel will hang up and get jacked

Wish I would have done this when the trailer was still upside-down, oh well.

 

[suisuki]

a little more tonight,
got the ramp attachment done, cut the holes out for the clear lights, and got the one slider on
then I ran out of sheiding gas, I think praxair is open in the morning on sat.
I hope so........

 

[mbryson]

.........I think praxair is open in the morning on sat.
I hope so........

I think 'til noon.

 

[suisuki]

GOT my gas, Burn on!

 

[suisuki]

Finally had a day off to work on the trailer, here's what I got done,
got the ramps done, made out of the 2x2x3/16 and 2x2x1/8 $ added in earlier.
got the ramp storage done, the 4" tube was scraped as mentioned earlier and attached to it was a bunch of 3x3/16 strip (you can acutally see where it was if you look at the old paint and ground off welds) so I used this 3x3/16 strip to make the ramp storage rack $0.00 I did buy the hinges for the door $5.00, and some reverse lights $30.00. Also got the sliders done, and the rear decking support.
running total $946.00

 

[suisuki]

I also cut out some sheilds for the lights (out of some 18ga I had) I don't want rocks and crap hitting my lights and wiring.
Not only do I not want to listen to stuff jingling around in the frame I also don't want to listen to my ramps banging around over every bump, so at the rear of the ramp rack I put a piece of strip angled down so as the ramps are pushed back the are also pushed down, allthough the ramps still go all the way to the back of the ramp without geting pined under , so removal is still easy. I'm still hinking about puting something on the door to hold them on the other end.

 

[high_roller]

Looking good, nice work

 

[suisuki]

The pre-fab fenders that I looked at were either what I call "floppy dick" (flimsy/cheesy), or way too much $$$$.
I wanted to have some strong fenders that could house some marker lights, and occassionally be used as drive-over fenders.
so I started with the remaining 2x2x1/8 square tube at the base, then used some, 1x1x.080 (i think it's .080 didn't measure but it's way thick for 1" thickest I've ever seen) and framed up some fenders I think with some more bracing they'll be fine for occasional drive over use (my rig won't be this wide so not really nessesary for me).
now I just need to skin them, I have enough of either 20ga steel sheet or 16ga aluminum Diamond plate, which do you think I should use? Remember my last trailer was stolen so at this point I'm kinda leaning toward the steel as this would keep the trailer more low key.
Got my decking, Untill today I didn't realize that a 16' piece of lumber is actually 16'1" Doh...
I'll cut them off nice and even after they're screwed down.

 

[suisuki]

Looking good, nice work

THANKS,

hey I bought those air shocks from you, thanks agin can't wait to get 'em on the 'zuk

 

[suisuki]

Ok so at this point you may have realized that with the decking $130.00 and the stuff left to buy, Paint $30.00 and wiring $30.00 I'm over budget by $136.00 well I came close and I could have easily done it for less but I thought that while iIm building It I Might as well build it to suit my needs and to last a long time. That being said here's where I could have trimmed and still had a crawler hauler:

2000# tounge jack instead of 8000# drop-leg savings $50.00
no stake pockets savings $32.00
only four 5/8 D-rings instead of eight savings $30.00
open deck center using only 4 2"x8"x16' and one 2"x10"x8' savings $70.00
no ramps since i won't need them to load a crawler anyway savings $50.00
no reverse lights savings $30.00
total savings $262.00

so I could have had it made for $874.00
on the other hand, I have been buing extra and saving scrape steel for about a year so I had quite a bit on hand that most probably wouldn't but, with the extra $$$ saved If I hadn't had these materials on hand maybe I would still be about $1000.00