Aluminum Bolt Together Frame?

[Chris C]

The main point I've not seen mentioned is the known fact that aluminum trailers break down a lot quicker than steel. Aluminum fatigues at stress points. I've known many a horseman who are on their 3rd or 4th aluminum trailer because of the stress fatigue failures. The only advantage of aluminum is weight. Longevity is not it's plus factor. Personally, I'll stick with steel................but as mentioned, a tear doesn't need a trailer built like Fort Knox! Plywood, in itself, is a marvelous structural member and with the floor, trailer sides, and top all made of plywood and all fastened into one integral unit, very little is asked of the trailer other than to carry the weight.

[Salivanto]

If weight is the issue, you can build a steel trailer that a lot lighter than most of the ones built on this forum. Look at how commercial pop-up trailers are built, they use a minimum amount of steel, and last for years.

Here is the underside of a 1960's Apache pop-up that I have, notice how basic the frame is, and it is made of very light steel:

Cool! I'm using a 1968 Apache as the starting point for my tear. I hadn't considered that I'd run into that model elsewhere. I think my bottom looks quite different from yours -- torsion springs, bars going parallel to the sides -- but all still bolted together. I don't have any pictures of the bottom but the side view is there in my avatar.

I'm not sure how much it weighs now, but my best estimate is 450 lbs which includes the frame, wheels, wooden floor, and aluminium popup body (roof and all insides have been removed.). I plan on removing the body and building a wooden teardrop body on the floor.

[JunkMan]

Thomas,

I'm sure that mine weighs a lot less than that. I can flip it on it's side very easil. Alll of the sheet metal is aluminum, the steel on the frame is very thin, and the plywood that is on top (was under the matress) is only about 3/8" thick.

I was planning to make a trailer for my kayaks out of it, but haven't really decided what to do with it. If it was a torsional axel unit, I would probably use it for my tear.

[Salivanto]

JunkMan wrote:

> I'm sure that mine weighs a lot less than that.
> I can flip it on it's side very easil.

So I take it yours is gutted much like mine is, then. We're putting the trailer to work a little bit before starting the conversion. We took 800 lbs of scrap to be recycled. We'd estimated the total weight (trailer plus scrap) at 1250 by weighing both ends with an industrial scale rated up to 1000 lbs. Assuming everything was calculated correctly (and that the steel shop was being honest with us when they weighed us in and out), that makes the trailer 450 lbs empty. I've never tried rolling it over, though. My hunch is that our estimate is at least close and that it'd be too much for me to roll over on my own without a major effort.

I just picked up a bathroom scale at the Salvation Army. If the trailer is around 450, I should be able to roll one wheel onto the bathroom scale and get a reading of around 200 lbs.

> If it was a torsional axel unit, I
> would probably use it for my tear.

I've heard good things about torsional axels but I'm fairly new to all this. I can't get it out of my head that 36 year old rubber has got to be totally dry by now and that the suspension has got to be shot, but it seems
to work okay.

[JunkMan]

I can't get it out of my head that 36 year old rubber has got to be totally dry by now and that the suspension has got to be shot, but it seems
to work okay.

You would think so, but there are several large highway busses from the 50's and 60's still on the road running torsional suspension (some Flxibles & all Eagles used toralastic suspensions). Since the rubber is encased in steel, it is protected, and is not affected by ultraviolet rays, which are probably what breaks rubber down the most.

[asianflava]

Ozone is probably 2nd behind UV.