new project
- Thread starter RATWOOD
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Grinding One
Established Member
Home made trailor??
PowerTool
Established Member
Putting a castor on the back of the cab section,to make it into your own Smart van ? :lol:
Andrew
Andrew
RogerS
Established Member
Tuk Tuk?
DaveL
Established Member
How about a kiln, using the van body? :-k
Night Train
Established Member
Interesting project. Looks like fun. I did think about this but then I read up on the legal implications of trailers.
What are you going to do about the brakes? To be legal you will need to have auto reversing brakes on the trailer. You will also need to have a trailer VIN plate to show unladen weight, maximum gross weight and year of manufacture.
Also, given how far back the axle is you will have a lot of nose weight. Most vehicles can handle a nose weight of around 75kg. More then that and you risk over loading the rear axle of the towing vehicle and/or affecting the handling.
You will also need to make sure that it is within the towing weight for the towing vehicle.
This is one of my trailers. It is based on a coil sprung trailing arm caravan suspension with a 50 x 50 x 3mm box section chassis and 3mm aluminium sheet up to a Land Rover roof fo rthe roof and the front panel. ULW is 400kg MGM is 1300kg.
This is my second trailer. It is based on the same suspension but with a 60 x 8mm angle iron chassis and a telescopic drawbar. The body is made from two folding pallet crates. It stretches from 2.4m to 4.5m and will have a self loading crane on the drawbar. The weights are the same as the first trailer.
I am working on a third as a low loading flat bed.
Everything used in my trailers were recycled from the scrap yard except the brakes and the tow hitch for safety.
The first cost about £150 and the second cost less then £100 plus a small crane and a winch at £60 which are yet to be fitted.
What are you going to do about the brakes? To be legal you will need to have auto reversing brakes on the trailer. You will also need to have a trailer VIN plate to show unladen weight, maximum gross weight and year of manufacture.
Also, given how far back the axle is you will have a lot of nose weight. Most vehicles can handle a nose weight of around 75kg. More then that and you risk over loading the rear axle of the towing vehicle and/or affecting the handling.
You will also need to make sure that it is within the towing weight for the towing vehicle.
This is one of my trailers. It is based on a coil sprung trailing arm caravan suspension with a 50 x 50 x 3mm box section chassis and 3mm aluminium sheet up to a Land Rover roof fo rthe roof and the front panel. ULW is 400kg MGM is 1300kg.
This is my second trailer. It is based on the same suspension but with a 60 x 8mm angle iron chassis and a telescopic drawbar. The body is made from two folding pallet crates. It stretches from 2.4m to 4.5m and will have a self loading crane on the drawbar. The weights are the same as the first trailer.
I am working on a third as a low loading flat bed.
Everything used in my trailers were recycled from the scrap yard except the brakes and the tow hitch for safety.
The first cost about £150 and the second cost less then £100 plus a small crane and a winch at £60 which are yet to be fitted.
Night Train
Established Member
Have a look at the NTTA site about braking requirements.RATWOOD":ws1jtfw5 said:
You won't be able to use the hydraulic brakes on the exisiting Transit rear axle unless you fit a hydralic master cylinder to the coupling but won't give you any auto reverse. As you reverse coupling it will just apply the brakes harder. However the hand brake will satisfy the parking prake requirements in this case even if the service brake won't.
You could change the brakes for auto reverse ones if you can find ones to fit the transit axle or you could change the whole axle for an axle with the correct brakes on it. That would also reduce the unladen weight by removing the big old Transit drive axle.
You can search on Ebay for a suitable, braked trailer axle that can be modified to fit.
Alternatively something like an Alko caravan axle with built in rubber suspension may do the job and you can lose the steel leaf springs too.
Again you can find these on Ebay, sometimes still with the caravan chassis attached, for not too much money.
If you go with the caravan chassis route then you will get the towing coupling, A frame and braked axle all in one to take the transit body. That makes the job simple.
Don't forget to fit a couple of triangular reflectors on the back of the trailer to keep you legal.
Found you at last - yes folks, blame Chris, he got me onto the site!
Like the idea (especially pmsl at the last photo)...
I cut a 2 berth caravan down, horizontally, to make a trailer, recycled the top half, leaving lights etc in the base, took it home, parked it in my garage, which was admittedly, the other end of my cul-de-sac, only to find a week later, some oik had pinched it! :evil: SO, left it at that, wish I'd had it insured...
Like the idea (especially pmsl at the last photo)...
I cut a 2 berth caravan down, horizontally, to make a trailer, recycled the top half, leaving lights etc in the base, took it home, parked it in my garage, which was admittedly, the other end of my cul-de-sac, only to find a week later, some oik had pinched it! :evil: SO, left it at that, wish I'd had it insured...
Night Train
Established Member
Well, technically it is if the towing vehicle is classed as a road locomotive, unable to carry goods and is limited to 12mph.RATWOOD":3ddwegxy said:I take it this is not legal then
:lol: :lol:
The one in the photo would fall foul of the Constructions and Use regs which carry greater fines and penalties then it would incur for ordinarily towing two trailers, for being able to carry goods and for, when it is runing, going over the speed limit.
There is also the slight problem of it not having regulation lighting and rear reflectors though that could be got around IIRC if the trailers were only to be used in the hours of daylight and were manufactured pre some ancient date. :wink:
Also the number plates don't match.
Night Train
Established Member
Seriously though, do check what the towing weight limits and nose weight of your LWB Transit to make sure that you don't get pulled and weighed. It is a safety issue as it greatly affects safe road holding.
And make sure the brakes are sorted as you will be sharing a road with the rest of us.
ETA One more thing, it will need front marker lights due to it's width.
And make sure the brakes are sorted as you will be sharing a road with the rest of us.
ETA One more thing, it will need front marker lights due to it's width.
That's an impressive extending trailer, NT. But won't that also have issues over nose loading when it's fully extended?
Do you get these constructions VIN plated, and if so, how/where?
Do you get these constructions VIN plated, and if so, how/where?
Night Train
Established Member
You only have to make or buy a plate and stamp on it the max weight, the unladen weight and the year of manufacture. You can also add the nose weight and the axle weight if more then one axle. The Police can then compare the details on the plate to the legal requirements of your vehicle and trailer to make sure that it is legal.dickm":beam8mf2 said:
For mine my car can only tow 1300kg so I stamped the MGM (maximum gross mass) as 1300kg. The unladen weight I got from having it weighed at a friendly scrap metal merchants.
Blank VIN plates can be bought from Ebay.
On my extending trailer nose weight would be a problem if I fully loaded the entire length, but it was intended for moving the occasional very long planks. I can have up to 5.5m of timber flat on the trailer with a 1m rear over hang or I can have 7 meters if I have 1m over hang at the back and the rest over hanging the front over the roof of the car.
It beats having long lengths on the roof rack flapping about at each end.
I will need to make the crane removable anyway as that on its own adds up the nose weight.
It all began as a mad project to save my sanity and to prevent me from buying something like this on Ebay to play with.
It may quickly become redundant anyway as I have plans to make a small two wheel dolly that I can use to move long timber.
Basically I want to strap a tow coupling to one end of a stack of planks, the dolly can go under the planks maybe 2/3 the way along and then a trailer board can be strapped to the end with side marker lights if it is over 7m long.
The dolly will be made from small indespension units and the whole thing can then be less then the MGM of 650kg for an unbraked trailer on my car. That would produce a set up that can be carried in the boot of the car to the timber merchants.
Having said that, I have only bought this length of timber twice in my life. :lol:
The other thing I have is a third roof rack bar that mounts on the Witter cycle rack mounting on my tow hitch to help support long lengths on the roof. I want a forth bar that mounts at the front somewhere but can't find any existing mounting points I can use that won't require changing the car or affecting the crumple zone.
