Hooray it's finally done!!!

Here it is outside the galvanisers just after I had finished assembling it. The nickel is still nice and shiny!

The loading ramps need a little adjustment as I forgot to account for the light board on the back. Not difficult to fix though. I towed it home, about a 40 minute drive, and it towed fine.

I need to replace the tyres as a matter of course before I use it to carry a car (they are the original caravan tyres and I don't know how old they are, although there is loads of tread on them, I want to change them as a precaution).

Here's what it cost me in total:

Chassis - £62 from ebay

Steel - £150 from ultimate steel, Cardiff

Nuts and bolts - £15 from FES, Cowbridge

Galvanising - £170 by Cardiff Galvanisers (very poor customer service - I will not be using them again)

Light board with 7m cable and fog lamp - £15 from ebay

Jockey wheel - £12 from ebay

Winch - £12 from ebay

So all totalled that's £446, bargain.

(the only parts not accounted for are the loading ramps, as I made these from materials I had in the garage already, and they were given to me for free, or bought as part of larger batch for another project)

Went down again yesterday, guess what, STILL not done.

Really fed up - will never use Cardiff galvanising again, could not reccomend them to anyone.

Their level of customer service and organisation is truly abysmal.

Ok it's now Friday. I called the galvanisers last night to check that the order would be complete and ready for collection this morning. A manager came on the phone and assured me that this was so.

I towed the bare chassis down there this morning (it's about a half hour drive) and duly paid them for the work they had done. When I went into the yard to collect my steelwork, first, they couldn't find it. When they finally did, they had only galvanised the chassis parts, but not the main decks. Not happy is an understatement. They have now assured me again that they will be done today and ready to be collected tomorrow.

So while i was there, I assembled the chassis parts (crossmembers) onto the chassis, added the light board, and towed it home.

The quality of the galvanised parts I have is really good, the quality of service I have experienced though, is not. In case anybody is reading this and wondering who I'm talking about, it's Cardiff Galvanising. I'm sure they are wonderful to their regular, high volume customers. My order just isn't big enough to be important.

Again, maybe tomorrow???

Steelwork not ready today.

Had a call from the galvanisers to say they has found some tar-like substance on the bottom of one of the decks. I wasn't aware that it was there. They tell me they will have to shot blast it off, which is going to cost more money.

Not happy with them right now, but I'm sure I'll feel much better about it when it's all done and i can go pick it up.

Maybe tomorrow?

Ok loads of progress since last week.

I've made the ladder frames, completed both decks, and this morning taken everything to the galvanisers down in Cardiff. I even had time to have a major clear out of the garage.

It's all going to be galvanised today so hopefully I'll pick it up tomorrow or the day after, reassemble the trailer on site and tow it home. I'll take loads of pictures and post them up.

Ok so far off that last list I have trimmed and welded on one of the mudguards, then I ran out of welding wire. I'll pick up some more today and hopefully get it finished over the weekend.

I have also fabricated the loading ramps, and ran into a problem with them. They were too long to fit in the metal folder I have access to so i had to cut them down, also they don't seem to be sufficiently strong, so to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak, I am going to make a small ladder fram to support each one, and this will also reconnect the sections I had to cut off.

The other achievement I have done this week is secured the use of another car transporter trailer to carry all the steel pieces down to the galvanisers in Cardiff.

I have so far this week finally got hold of the steel plate i need to make the wheel arches/mudguards. I was lucky enough to be able to get them pre-cut to size, So i only had to put them through a metal folder to form them into shape.

Last night i welded them up, now they need fitting to the decks, trimming to fit properly and welding down.

I have also recieved some parts i ordered, 4 weld on hooks for securing ropes/ratchet straps to hold the load down, a long lighiting board and a 1.2ton hand winch.

last night after fabricating the mudguards, I made a mount for the winch and welded it onto the forward crossmember and also drilled the rearmost crosmember to accept the lighting board.

My to do list grows ever smaller, here's how I see it at the moment:

1. Trim, fit and weld the wheelarches
2. Drill a hole in crossmember 2 for the brake rod support bracket
3. Fabricate the loading ramps
4. Weld on retainers for centre boarding.
5. Get all parts galvanised (except the loading ramps as they are aluminium)
6. Re-assemble and test tow.
7. Buy and fit 3/4" marine plywood to centre of trailer.

Well I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. I have finally got myself into gear and got some work done on the trailer.

I dug out my old gasless MIG welder so i could weld outside where I have much more room. I made the second deck in a couple of hours. I then drilled all the holes and fitted the 2 decks solidly with bolts.

Next job was actually to take it all apart again, because if I had left it all outside it would rust as soon as it rained. All the bits are now safely tucked away in the garage waiting to go to be galvanised. Below are some pics I took before I dismantled it.

Not much left to do to be honest, get it galvanised, make the ramps (easy peasy), buy and fit a light board and winch, reassemble it and job's a good'un!

I have recently welded on all the equal angle on the first deck section. This just needs the mudguard fabricating and welding on and it's done. I'm still waiting for the plate I need to make them from at the moment.

Int the meantime I'll get on with making the other deck. I have also looked into getting it galvanised. My local galvanisers (about 20 miles away) charges 550 pounds per ton, so assuming it weighs in at 200kg, that will cost 110 quid.

Yesterday I got some more work done on the trailer.

I Drilled and fitted the last crossmember, then laid on the first deck. I marked up and cut out the recess for it to fit around the wheel, and then marked out and rilled the holes for the existing bolts to go through to secure it down.

After that I measured and cut out the 1" equal angle pieces to go around the rest of the edge. This was easy work with my Evolution Rage3 metal cutting mitre saw.

I'll weld all this on shortly.

Mini update!

I cleared up the garage today after having a minor fire whilst welding stuff yesterday.

After clearing the area I was working in, I flipped over the deck section i have been working on and welded the undersides of all the seams, to add strength.

ran out of time, had to go to work.

Ok, so today i managed to sneak an hour of work in on the trailer. (the race car is really starting to suffer through lack of work, must get on with it!)

I laid out 2 of the 3mm steel plate sections that will form the deck and welded them together. I then found that they were very, very floppy. To stiffen them up enough to make handling them easier, I welded on a peice of the 1" equal angle down one edge. I had intended to do this much later, but it won't do any harm to do it now.

Here's how it's looking at the moment:
I'm fast running out of camera angles!

There's one more crossmember to fit, right at the front. Once that's on I'll lay the steel deck on and make the necessary cut outs for them to fit around the wheels. I have placed an order for the odd pieces of steel plate I need to fabricate the mudguards and should get them done this week. I'll explain it all with pictures as I make them.

Time for another of my famous lists...

1. Fit forward crossmember
2. Lay on Steel decking and cut out to fit round wheels.
3. Mark out and drill decking to alow it to be bolted on.
4. Fabricate mudguards, weld on to decks.
5. Weld on angle strips to stiffen decks.
6. Drill and fit brake rod suport and light board.
7. Fabricate rear ramps.
8. Dismantle everything and send for galvanising.
9. Re-assemble using ny-loc fasteners once galvanised.
10. Cut and fit plywood to fit down the centre
11. Replace tyres, test tow.

Wow, that list looked much smaller in my head. Gulp.

Picture time!

Click on each picture to view it full size.



Ok step one, take an old caravan chassis and remove EVERYTHING from it.


You should be left with something like this:

After making all your measurements and buying your steel, lay your crossmemebers over like so..

Drill through....

And bolt on.

Picture time!!!

The steel was delivered on time yesterday, and I laid out a few pieces of the box section on the chassis so i could actually see what I had been trying to visualize. they fit pretty well.

The main deck, the 3mm plate, had to be cut in 2 sections per side as the steel stockist doesn't carry any plate 13' long, so I'll weld it together before fitting it.

I'm going to make the deck the full width of the crossmembers (6'6") so I'll have to make cutouts from them where they have to go round the wheels. Above these I'm going to fabricate mudguards from more 3mm plate, and welded to the deck so they will be strong enough to be driven over, to allow me to use the full width of the trailer.

I've taken a few pics and will hopefully post them up this evening...

Ok where to start.

I have bought an old single axle caravan chassis from ebay for the princely sum of 61 pounds. The walls, roof and interior had been stripped off, leaving just the chassis and flooring. I collected it from a chap in Wiltshire and towed it the 90 miles home to Pontypridd, South Wales. It towed very nicely, wasn't too heavy and most of all, it held together.

Over the next few days I stripped off the flooring to expose the chassis. It it of galvanised steel construction with an axle rated at 900kg. This should be fine as the weight of the car (see my other blog) will only be around 600kg.

The plan is to bolt on 6 crossmembers made from 2" square hollow section steel to stiffen up the chassis, and then lay 2, 13' x 18", 3mm thick steel plates on top to create the deck for the car to roll on to. I will weld 1" equal angle around all the edges to form a lip, except where the ramps will meet the rear. The gap in the centre will be filled with 1" thick marine plywood, so the trailer can also be used as a large flat bed. Once it is assembled, I will dismantle it again and send all the metal parts to be galvanised. This process can be expensive but is far better than painting, and coats all the inside surfaces as well as the outsides, preventing rust for many years.

So as it stands, I have prepared the caravan chassis and ordered the steel from my local stockholder, which incidentally cost me 150 pounds. So the trailer so far has cost 211 quid. The steel is due to be delivered next Tuesday.

I'll take some pictures soon and post them up!

Hi everyone!

This blog is going to be the online space where I will cover the (hopefully short) process of converting an old AL-KO caravan chassis into a car transporter trailer for the "Locost" track day car that I am also building from scratch. If you want to read more about that then click the link at the top right of the page to take you there!

I'll add lots of pictures and text as I go along, hopefully in a step-by-step fashion, so anyone else who wants to can have a go at doing this themselves. I hope you enjoy reading my blogs.

Sam.