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...