[AT] Homemade trailers

Wed Nov 17 07:15:56 PST 2004

Funny you mention that Farmer. Dad has one of those trailers. I cut the 
back and made it slope down instead of the rail being square at the 
back of the trailer. It worked great for the stock car when I raced 
since you had to crawl out the window anyway. Buy not good for a 
regular car.

I can relate to the story of the WD. When I bought my WC I got a 
surprise when I loaded it. I didn't think much about it since my dad's 
Ford 801 would run up between the rails without a problem. The WC 
however is a bit wider. I scrubbed the tires until the rim bumped the 
side rails. Luckily I only had a short drive home. But at under 20 mph 
is still took a while. And even at that speed you could feel the 
trailer wanted to drive the truck. Last time I haul it on that trailer. 
I can't imagine what your buyer went through!!

Brad

On Nov 17, 2004, at 8:59 AM, Robinson wrote:

>
>
>         Hi Dave:
>
>         Son Scott got a good buy on a tri-axle gooseneck at French's 
> Trailer over in (I think) your area. It had been a bumper pull but 
> they had cut that hitch off, beefed the lower frame and built a very 
> nice, very heavy gooseneck on it. It is nice for some really heavy 
> stuff or more than one larger tractor but it doesn't get the use you 
> might expect. It is too easy to hitch on to my bumper pull tandem for 
> most things. I also like the fact that it sits so much lower.
>         Most of those low priced trailers are "car haulers" and even 
> then it better not be a big car. Almost all of them have a rail about 
> 12" to 16" high and that rail is necessary to the strength of the 
> trailer. If it is removed the lower frame must be beefed up to 
> compensate. One guy I know got a surprise that simply hadn't occurred 
> to him. When he hauled his first car he got in and drove it on the 
> trailer. Oops! Couldn't get out of the car...   ;-)   He had to back 
> it off to open the door to get out then push the car on the trailer. I 
> once sold a WD Allis (stupidly, wish I still had it) to a guy that had 
> a car hauler trailer. It wouldn't fit between the rails. I would have 
> taken time to spin the wheels in but he was in a hurry. It was one 
> that had the back couple of feet of the rail angled down to the lower 
> frame so he just drove it on the trailer with one back wheel up on the 
> rail and the other on the floor.
>         In Indiana trailers are classed by GVW (including allowable 
> load) for registration. The actual weight of the trailer doesn't 
> matter except in how much it reduces your allowable payload. Trailers 
> under 3,000# GVW do not require brakes on any axles. Most little 
> single and tandem light trailers fall in this class. If you build a 
> trailer here they want to see pictures of you building it and material 
> bills or if it is made of car parts they want to see the title of the 
> car you used. It all gets to be kind of a dance depending on just how 
> stupid and silly the particular employee you draw wants to be. 
> Sometimes if you have a problem with one if you can find out when that 
> employee has a day off you can walk back in on that day and do what 
> you want with no problems. There are two DMV offices in this county 
> and many that have trouble at the Shelbyville branch get in their car 
> and drive 10 miles north to the Morristown branch and walk through the 
> process with no problem. They now title all trailers here (they think) 
> . They didn't used to. I plan to plate my 32' gooseneck horse trailer 
> / small tractor hauler (with living quarters) as an RV.
>         I keep one 3,000# trailer plate, one 12,000# farm trailer 
> plate and one RV trailer plate. I have a lot more trailers than 
> plates...   ;-)    My farm plate is supposed to be limited in miles 
> from the farm but it has been in a number of states. Some guys I know 
> of here complain of getting stopped all the time out on the road but I 
> have seen the way some of them load and the haphazard way they fasten 
> the load down. I always use a lot more chaining than just what is 
> required and if anything hangs over or is just even with the bed I 
> flag it. A lot of being left alone by law enforcement is looking like 
> you are thinking safety instead of just throwing it on the trailer and 
> taking off. A lot of the guys that get stopped a lot attract initial 
> attention by driving fast for where they happen to be. Here except for 
> the DOT officers who are only interested in commercial stuff unless 
> someone attracts their attention (like driving too fast or running 
> stop signs or unsafe appearing loads) the regular officers don't much 
> give a rats behind about the registration stuff or even the equipment 
> stuff unless you do something stupid. I know a few of them personally 
> that "fudge" a little on trailer stuff.   :-)   Most of them feel that 
> their job is safety not bureaucratic stuff. I mentioned the guy 
> hauling the WD Allis home up on the rail of the trailer... I'll bet 
> every cop he passed on the way home looked him over...   :-)
>
>
> "farmer"
>
> I am the list owner of the following public email lists:
> Allis_Chalmers
> Budget_muzzleloading
> Cheap-Shelters
> Cheapcomputer
> Cheapcritters
> CheapPower
> FrugalFunWoodworking
> FrugalRuralLiving
> NoNonsenseHorse
> Smallfarmshop
> truck-blab
>
> Some are pretty quiet, some are very busy. Member counts range from 32 
> to 570.
> All are on Yahoo Groups and can be found with a search at:
> <http://groups.yahoo.com>
>
> Also a newly created one called "100 Acre Farming" targeting folks who 
> operate farms from about 75 acres to 150 acres. Those are not iron 
> clad numbers. Midwestern farms in this class require a full line of 
> farm equipment unlike much smaller farms but have only a little in 
> common with the much larger farms common today.
>
>
> Francis Robinson
> Central Indiana, USA
> robinson at svs.net
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
>
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Brad Gunnells                         |                    #
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