NEWS PARTS JEEP & 4x4 ATV & UTV

Farmjeep- Listen Up! Re: Tlrs.

606 Views 18 Replies 4 Participants Last post by **DONOTDELETE**, Mar 2, 2000

CJDave

Discussion Starter · Feb 28, 2000

4

/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif Ok, Farmjeep....here is your PhD home course in trailers from someone who has more hours in front of trailers than you have hours breathing! #1. Forget ANY kind of wheel-axle combo that isn't the same as your Jeep. I don't care IF cousin Leroy said you could have the axle off the old Gehl Forage Blower, DON'T USE IT! Use ONLY the Jeep bolt pattern, and the latest, most common spindle/bearing set there is. Five years from now, you want to be able to go into Lem's Auto Parts in Squeakyhill W. Va and get bearings off the shelf. #2. STRAIGHT AXLE ONLY. Forget that dropped axle B.S. #3. Spring UNDER axle....best way to go...period...DON'T argue! #4 Axle width is to be so you can JUST SEE the bottom edge of the tires in the Jeep side mirrors. Nothing like having a narrow trailer and pulling it twenty miles on a flat. #5. Frame is just two rails of 4" channel with the spring hangars welded on the bottom. Frame is just as long as the box, and no more. #6. Front end is a tube-fabricated "TEE"....4" tube across, 3" tongue. No braces except small triangles where the 3" tube punches through the 4" and welds up. Notch the channels to take the 4" at the corners. Tongue length to be such that the Jeep can jacknife to 90 degrees and not hit the trailer. #7. Use a 2-5/16" ball and coupler. Take the ball in and have the neck reduced so the trailer coupling can get more tilt angle. That ball in it's reduced form is still stronger than a 2" stocker. Use the 1" shank on the 2-5/16" ball. #8. Rear crossmember is 4" channel. No braces required. #9. Make the box and floor to your own desires. If you deviate from this design you are just setting yourself up to be a screwed poochie at some later date. trust me on this one, kid./wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif

CJDave
I never believe any statistics unless my moonguys /wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif made 'em up themselves.

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1 - 19 of 19 Posts

New_Toyz

· #2 · Feb 28, 2000

Since I too am interested in building my own trailer, and I have a lot of hours breathing, but I still need a bit of instruction from time to time. Would the single axle trailer you have described here by heavy enough to carry a small vehicle, ie my other flatty or similar? TIA

Brent & Sons
49-CJ3A, 51-CJ3A

G

· #3 · Feb 28, 2000

I've towed light vehicles on single axle trailers & don't care for the handling. IMO, single axle is for light-duty stuff like carrying some extra gear that won't fit in the Jeep (like what farmjeep has planned). With twin axle, you have the option to get 4 brakes instead of two & if a tire blows, you're much more likely to be able to keep it under control. Just my $.02.

TEX

/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif Got Mud?
G.U.M.B.O. Mud Racing

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CJDave

Discussion Starter · #4 · Feb 28, 2000

4

/wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif TANDEMS IS NICE......but there is a penalty....can you guess what it is? Yep, you guessed it. If the axles aren't PERFECT, they puke away fuel. The two axles have to be PERFECTLY aligned, and not bent, and the spring length and shackles must be perfect. We are going to be building a Jeep trailer later on for the QT CJ7 SNOJEEP, and it will be a hump-over, straight-axle design, where the Jeep climbs up and over. We will use super singles....like the eight-bolt 3/4 ton pickups have. The ramps will BE the frame, with just a "TEE" in front to pull with. MINIMUM trailer weight. Our CJ weighs close to 4K with everything in place I think; we haven't weighed it yet, but on a 2000# U-haul, it was a real load for our '97 ZJ 4.0 The trailer I spec'd for Farmjeep is a lightweight box trailer to haul "stuff" in on a Jeep trek./wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif

CJDave
I never believe any statistics unless my moonguys /wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif made 'em up themselves.

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G

· #5 · Feb 28, 2000

I certainly don't want to be a screwed poochie...I'll take it straight from the horses mouth on this one. Do you think it would be OK to use an AMC 20, or should I just buy regular trailer spindles with more common bearings that have the right bolt pattern to match the jeep?

Measure once, cut twice...or is that the other way around?

13337

· #6 · Feb 28, 2000

You're giving us pooch screwers a bad name CJ Dave....

If Chris Columbus "Discovered" America (with 25 million already here), Can I Go "Discover" Florida?

CJDave

Discussion Starter · #7 · Feb 28, 2000

4

/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif If absolutely nothing else, go over to cousin Clem's farm and blow the front spindles off his Ford pickup and forget using that Mod 20. You'll thank me later for this advice. When I wuz a kid in Hi Skool, everyone built trailers in the Ag Shop. It seemed like they would scour the countryside for the oldest, most obsolete thing they could find then use that to build a trailer that chances are would last into the next century. I have seen guys drag in the front axle out of a 1922 Essex to use under a cow trailer. SHEESH!/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif

CJDave
I never believe any statistics unless my moonguys /wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif made 'em up themselves.

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CJDave

Discussion Starter · #8 · Feb 28, 2000

4

/wwwthreads_images/icons/laugh.gif TR...don't you know it's risky for me to laugh THAT hard?/wwwthreads_images/icons/laugh.gif

CJDave
I never believe any statistics unless my moonguys /wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif made 'em up themselves.

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G

· #9 · Feb 28, 2000

I really would look at after market trailer spindles and make my axle out of
pipe. Keeps the lbs off gives more ground clearans[sp] if you do hang it on a rock and bend it just go get another pipe.
I forgot go for the 5x5.5 bolt pattern will make life so much easyer AND
put the same size tires on the trailer as the jeep. I would put a spair tire
carrer on the trailer to so always have a backup spair.

G

· #10 · Feb 28, 2000

Sorry CJDave,

I haven't met that pooch yet and the trailers been there and back. I've been to lem's, cousin clem's, uncle billie's backyard boats, autozone, wally world and just about everywhere but rite aid I guess, and haven't had a problem with getting bearings or seals. One thing I learned as a kid from seeing all the broke down trailers on the side of the road was to be prepared and thats what i am, always. just don't take this the wrong way, whatever everyone uses for a trailer, just be prepared. One last thing, I went over your list and i did just about everything but the bolt pattern. Later.

If a dog has no tail, how can you tell he's glad to see you?

G

· #11 · Feb 29, 2000

FarmJeep -
I can add to all of this just a little. I've also, like CJDave, done a lot of trailers and survived most of them. He is right, don't even think about using a rear axle assembly from anything. For $250 or thereabouts, you can get the whole axle assembly from Dexter. Or just go to the salvage yard and get the front axle from a Cherokee two wheel drive and have the hubs drilled to match your Jeep and so on, and so on, and so on.
What has not been mentioned is brakes. If you build a small trailer you may actually use it to haul a load. I'm not talking camping stuff here. Lawn chairs, tents, sleeping bags and a cooler or two are light and almost nothing else you will use a trailer for is light. It doesn't take long to get 1000 pounds or more. You know, just a couple more sacks of feed, etc., etc. If you don't brake the trailer, then your gonna need more brakes than what you have on the Jeep. Build what CJDave described (and I think he is right on) and it will weigh 300 to 400 pounds and then with the feed ..........?!

The upshot here is make darn sure of the brakes on the Jeep if you are not braking the trailer.

(And you thought it was a simple trailer project! NOT! We won't let you!)

sln

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CJ7Taz

· #12 · Feb 29, 2000

OK Dave, that's twice. Yesterday you called me a liberal and today you attack my drop axle trailer
comment as B.S. and I doubt you meant Bachelor of Science. I don't recall Farmjeep mentioning how
much weight he was going to carry or the terrain he wanted to pull the trailer over. If the load is heavy or
if we're dragging this trailer out rock crawling, I agree, no drop axle. Otherwise, dropped axle is fine if
done properly and if you really need the low floor, say for a camper trailer.

I've gotten a lot of laughs by telling people you called ME a liberal. Hey, I want donations to the Michigan
Militia to be tax deductible.

CJDave

Discussion Starter · #13 · Feb 29, 2000

6

/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif There are some good items posted which would add to the "ideal" Jeep trailer design. Now remember this is for the tail of your Jeep and it has to follow the Jeep wherever, so the straight axle is a must, and KEEP IT LIGHT. HOWEVER.....slnewcomb did bring up a point...... What is the great weakness of Jeeps with large diameter tires? Yep....you guessed it....the BRAKES. So...a little dinky trailer like this which would normally be OK without brakes might(key word is MIGHT...depends on what you have plans to do) just benefit from having some. This trailer wants to be little, high, simple, inexpensive, have lots of articulation ability(reworked ball as specified), and share the bolt pattern of the Jeep wheels./wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/laugh.gif

CJDave
I never believe any statistics unless my moonguys /wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif made 'em up themselves.

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CJDave

Discussion Starter · #14 · Feb 29, 2000

5

/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif Er.....Taz.....We're deducting our "heaters" off our income tax this year because after all, how could we do business without protection?/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif Hmmmm.. If we installed an expensive alarm setup we could deduct it right? Well...this is a different KIND of alarm. When the guy hears this alarm, the game's over./wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif

CJDave
I never believe any statistics unless my moonguys /wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif made 'em up themselves.

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G

· #15 · Feb 29, 2000

For some pictures of a trailer to match CJ7. Rubber torsion axle, lots of ground clearance, runs 32" tires and has same track width and bolt pattern as Jeep.

http://www.sleeoffroad.com/old_web/trailer.htm

Christo Slee
www.sleeoffroad.com

1981 CJ 7
1995 FZJ 80

CJDave

Discussion Starter · #16 · Feb 29, 2000

5

/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif Oh...you mean http://www.sleeoffroad.com/old_web/trailer.htm/wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif That is one FINE looking trailer....VERY professional.....very well constructed. Eccentric old guys like me would put our safety chains up front at the end of the tongue, and criscross'em below the coupler when we hook up. Gives lots of turning room, but holds nicely in the event of a breakaway. You had a good idea with the pintle hitch, how about adding the trailer swivel and make the hitch snug to reduce movement and noise like the army does it. Those rubber bushing axles are really the berries. 3500 lbs would haul any flatfender Jeep. I don't suppose you'd tell us how much an axle like that is? Hmmmm..../wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif

CJDave
I never believe any statistics unless my moonguys /wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif made 'em up themselves.

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G

· #17 · Mar 1, 2000

Thanks for the compliment. Re: the chains, actually after the pictures were takesn I did weld two more brackets to the tounge just behind the pintle and the chains now run from the back, via those and then to the bumper. I didn't know about the criss cross pattern until recently (I am from South Africa originally and we hook up trailer differently).

The pintel is noisy and a boll with a rotating coupler like the Bulldogs would be better, however the pintel does have another advantage. I can leave the trailer in my driveway without fear of 'most' people stealing it.

The axle was only $130 from a local trailer supply. It was a custom width. The reason I had to go 3500 lbs is that it was the smallest axle with a 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern. I would actually have prefered a lighter one since this one does ride a bit rough. However it handles perfect off-road.

Christo Slee
www.sleeoffroad.com

1981 CJ 7
1995 FZJ 80

G

· #18 · Mar 2, 2000

Mr. Slee -
Let me add my congratulations on both your philosophy of construction and your trailer. I admire that 'have welder, will manufacture' so much I wish I had thought of it. The trailer is simply good work.

I will build a similar trailer soon and some of the ideas I have include going to the boat supply stores and getting a pair of rectangular 20-25 gallon polyethelene fuel tanks for Inboard/Outboard rigs. One of them will be for fuel and one for water. I plan on a small battery and air compressor in the trailer with a charge line from the mother Jeep. The air will be regulated to about 2 or 3 pounds and will be valvable to either the water or fuel. There will be backflow valves there (diodes to TeamRush) to prevent the obvious. Provide a sump draw valve (aka fuel pickup) for fueling your own or another rig. A similar one for water draw and presto! you have running water! When I go to the desert, I go for several days at a time and usually alone since I don't know someone else who likes to go on expedition type adventures. If something were to happen and I were to get stranded, I would like to live long enough to write my memoirs or at least another post for this BBS. Twenty-five gallons of water ought to do the trick. And of course twenty-five gallons of gasoline will make a pretty good bonfire to guide the buzzards to the feast that will be served at my demise.
The tanks will be easily removable so that the trailer can be used for other things as well, of course.
The axle I spoke of earlier was the same as yours but I must have been quoted a bit much more than you paid. (And I got the quote from my brother!)(Hmmm)
'Nuff of this, I really like what you built and how you did it.
sln

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G

· #19 · Mar 2, 2000

To one and all
Here are four URL's that apply to the trailer business.
www.backcountrytrailers.com
www.locknroll.com
www.dexteraxle.com
www.rubiconcargotrailers.com

sln

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