Trailer Refurb Project

I bought a small camping trailer on EBay at the end of last year for £50, with the intention of performing a complete refurb and conversion to a 'more appropriate' trailer to be pulled along behind Tallulah.

The main chassis/frame and hitch is all solid although badly rusted in places, and the wooden base and sides are long past thier best. The suspension and bearings look and feel sound although could do with a proper service and the tyres look very old.

Despite all that, it has already more than paid for itself, saving the cost of at least one skip during some recent building work and has been used to collect and deliver a few loads of fire wood.

With the weather looking good and no immediate need to use it for anything, the refurb project has now started.

Day 1: I began by removing the wooden sides and base, these were held in by a combination of bolts, screws and rivets although as the panels are so old (and no longer needed for anything) a few hits with a lump hammer and they were history.

With the panels removed I could get a good look at the frame and the full extent of the rust, it's not pretty, but the main weld joints and central strength looks good, so no major concerns there.



The next job was to grind off all the rivet heads and remove the worst of the rust with a wire brush.



Next, I removed the wheels and wheel hubs so I could access the suspension and everything else with the wire brush.





It turns out the trailer has classic mini rear hubs and wheels 4" PCD.

Day 2: Went to Halfords for supplies, a selection of wire brushes that fit on a power drill or angle grinder and a pot of Hammerite zinc oxide rust treatment, primer.

The plan was to simply replace the bearings and seals, but the hubs themselves look past their best and I found a pair of replacement hubs on EBay that I won for £30 so I will put new (reconditioned) ones on, then eventually clean the originals up and sell them on without bearings.

Did some online research into replacement wheels and tyres, need to take some precise measurements to make sure the ones we want will fit with enough clearance from the frame - learnt all about wheel offset measurements which was nice.

To be continued.....

it looks at much work in the future for the projek. have fun with it.
best to you all, michel

Spent a few hours on the trailer this afternoon, a wire brush attachment on a power drill makes short work of cleaning off old paint, rust and pretty much anything else that gets in its way!

Should be cleaned up ready to paint with some Hammerite zinc oxide by tomorrow, the new wheel hubs should arrive soon too.

Found some nice little 'extras' for making it look the part too, you can find pretty much anything on eBay!!!

Tallulah wrote:

a few hits with a lump hammer and they were history.

Hell yeah! Now your taliking my kind of language

Top job

This might be a cheap idea Towsure

absquatulation wrote:

This might be a cheap idea Towsure

Thanks absquatulation, but we already know what wheels we want, I just have to make sure they have the correct offset so that they fit.

kiteman wrote:

Tallulah wrote:

a few hits with a lump hammer and they were history.

Hell yeah! Now your taliking my kind of language

I find an angle grinder quite satisfying too!

Update:

Days 3 & 4 - continue to remove rust and paint using various power tools.

Day 5: trailer now cleaned up and re painted with red oxide. Two coats on the underside and all the rustiest areas, 1 coat almost everywhere else, ran out of paint.



Now bought some regular black Hammerite and will give everything another coat over the weekend.

The new wheel hubs arrived today however they have bearings to fit a 1/8" smaller stub axle so consequently are not the ones I need - they will be resold on EBay in due course.

Meanwhile the search begins (again) for replacement hubs that will fit, at least I now know what doesn't fit which apparently includes classic mini rear hubs.

Don't know whether this will help Tallulah, but it may be cheaper to find bearings with OD to fit your new hubs, with an ID to fit your stub axle, somewhere like this.


http://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/Bearings-.-Wheel+Bearings/c3_4474_4598/index.html

Good point Dizzy, nothing wrong with the new hubs themselves, just wrong size bearings. Just need to find bearings with the same OD and width with an ID of 1", providing the complete unit fits length ways on the stub axle which is 2" long.

Still no joy sorting the new hubs, but I am getting closer and will be ordering a pair this week that I have been told will fit. On the plus side, the hubs will have a different PCD which will mean I can fit bigger wheels.

However, I did buy a small sheet if 9mm hardwood ply - enough for the rear panel - trimmed it to size, marked out the position of the light clusters etc and cut them out.

Tallulah is home this week so I'll pop over to B&Q to pick up a larger sheet that will be enough for the base and other sides then get busy with the power tools and figure out the best way of attaching them all.

I've also drawn up some rough plans for the lid, trying to be a bit creative without making t too difficult to actually build.

It's all coming on nicely!   

The new hubs arrived on Friday so I greased them up and fitted them to the trailer between showers today.

New hubs plus original washers and castle nuts (nicely cleaned):


First I needed to clean up the shafts and give them a light grease, a small piece of wire wool cleaned them up a treat:


Then I greased up the inner bearings and fitted them to the hub, slid the hub onto the shaft, loaded it with grease and fitted the outer bearing, washer and castle nut.

I need to pick up two new collet pins to finish the job - quick trip to Halfords in the morning - but other than that I'm very happy with the new shiny hubs, much better than the cream crackered old ones!



With the hubs fitted I can take some measurements and order some shiny new wheels with an appropriate offset to make sure they fit.

I've been looking at the hitch on the trailer too, and according to Uncle Google they stopped making them in the 1950s! I could also do with slightly more clearance between Tallulah and the front of the trailer so I think I will remove the existing hitch, pick up a piece of 50mm box section and attach it where the current hitch is fitted, then fit a shiny new hitch to the end of that.

If I get time I will pick up a 4 by 8 sheet of marine ply tomorrow too, then wait for a dry spell to get my power tools out again.

Had a whole weekend to work the trailer so I've now cut all the side panels to shape, drilled all the holes in the frame to fit them and pilot holes in the panels and given them a coat (white) both sides of sealant - Sandex 10yr guarantee!

Here they are before painting/sealing, held on with clamps:


The plan is to give them a light sand and another coat, then I will be applying a top coat colour - now what colour should I choose......

I'll be building an internal frame using 1x1 and 2x1 baton and attaching the panels to that through the existing metal frame. This will add a bit of extra strength as the panels - except for the rear are only 6mm ply (the rear is 9mm).

New wheels are due to arrive today too, need to sort some tyres then measure up for mudguards.

Looking great. All this to carry your unicycle!   

We hired a trailer (from Indespension round the corner) for our recent trip to Wales. We were taking more 'stuff' than normal including our kayak and associated items and wanted to trial using a trailer on a longer run in advance of the French trip.

The hired trailer a Daxara 148 with locking hard top, was quite a bit larger than the one I'm refurbishing so we filled it up leaving only bedding clothes and food in Tallulah. Once on site in Wales, we arrived quite late, it was simply a case of unhitching and setting up for sleep mode, done in minutes!

Everything remained securely locked in the trailer until needed the following day. I also removed our bike rack and locked that and the bikes to the trailer too.

It made quite a difference and having testing using a trailer, and once our trailer is ready, I can see us using it quite a bit for the added convenience it offers.

Tallulah wrote:

We hired a trailer (from Indespension round the corner) for our recent trip to Wales. We were taking more 'stuff' than normal including our kayak and associated items and wanted to trial using a trailer on a longer run in advance of the French trip.

The hired trailer a Daxara 148 with locking hard top, was quite a bit larger than the one I'm refurbishing so we filled it up leaving only bedding clothes and food in Tallulah. Once on site in Wales, we arrived quite late, it was simply a case of unhitching and setting up for sleep mode, done in minutes!

Everything remained securely locked in the trailer until needed the following day. I also removed our bike rack and locked that and the bikes to the trailer too.

It made quite a difference and having testing using a trailer, and once our trailer is ready, I can see us using it quite a bit for the added convenience it offers.

Thank you for that Which? report. Now you've got me thinking about it again!

Completed a few more jobs over the weekend.

I sanded all of the panels and gave them another coat of the white sealer. One more even lighter sand and they're ready for a top coat.

I also cut the various lengths of baton that will be used as the internal frame for the panels so aside from painting the panels with a top coat, everything is ready to be fitted together.

My new wheels arrived last week, have now been fitted with some tyres and are now on the trailer.

We're at CamperJam this weekend so not long left to get it finished as the plan is to use it for the France trip.

Things still to sort:

Fit and seal all panels
Mudguards - I have a plan....
Electrics - I have light clusters but still need a number plate light along with some suitable cable and a connector, might find something suitable at CJ.
Misc reflectors and other bits and pieces for legal compliance.
Need to find a spare wheel too, 13" steel rim with a 4x100mm PCD if anyone has one, again in might find something suitable at CJ, 4x100 PCD is standard for older golf and a few others.

I will also be building a locking lid but no chance of completing that before the end of the month so I'll attach some bungee loops and pick up a suitably sized trailer tarp.

You have been a busy boy Keith.. I'm wondering how many bottles of wine you'll fit in on the way back from France?   
Great work , see you at CJ

Massive project mate!

beakyboy wrote:

You have been a busy boy Keith.. I'm wondering how many bottles of wine you'll fit in on the way back from France?   
Great work , see you at CJ

If I empty out the kayak and other bits that will be in there then the answer is LOTS!

Or..... I move even more stuff into the trailer and load Tallulah up with bottles!  

Like your thinking Keith..   

Arrrrh! Paint paint paint, which colour should I choose...?   

Cutting, trimming, shaping, drilling, polishing and edging.

Newly made mudguards and sleepover auction purchased mudflaps now all ready to be fitted to the trailer.



We bought that last few bits we needed at CamperJam last weekend so I've now started on the electrics and got them ready for the 'final fit' of the panels once the top coat of paint has hardened off enough.

I also need to made a few small brackets to attach some 'special' bits at the back.

Getting close now!