Sarge's New Trailer Project

[Sarge]

Just picked up a new 7x16 Enclosed Utility Trailer the other day, and now I get to personalize it and set it up for car and bike hauling and the like. This isn't "specifically" a bike trailer, but until I do all the moving I have coming up this summer (PCS'ing, amongst other things), I'm getting this thing set up as a sick bike trailer.









A little background

It's a 2012 R&M 7x16' Enclosed Utility Trailer (New company, but so far is the only trailer manufacturer to become a NATM member on the first try).

Aluminum Skin
2x 3500# Axles
Electric Brakes
2x3" Tubular Crossmembers every 16"
Full Galvanized Steel Frame rated at 14,000# load
3/4" Plywood Floors
4,000# Load Ramp Door
Etc, etc...

[Sarge]

First things first, need to get something to protect the floor, and then install some tie downs.

As you can see, just testing to see if my wife's car would fit (it does) left behind fresh tire tracks and scraped up the wood a bit. To prevent this from making a mess in the future, I went and picked up two gallons of RustOleum Truck Bed liner. They had spray paint cans, which I'm using as a touch up, but for the main application the roll on "paint" product seemed best.



Had a few issues at first with the bed liner (this stuff is THICK) and the untreated wood really sucked the moisture out of it, so I had to use more than it called for on the directions. First coat here:



Stretching it out and using a bit of extra thinner, after three coats I ended up with this:



And the door:



As you can see, turned into a very nice, very thick and very hard surface, which is also waterproof. I think the inside could use a bit more in the future, but for now this is excellent. Just as a gauge of how hard this stuff is, I got a little on my jeans, used some primer to soften it up, and even minus the gritty material, just the bit of almost clear solvent that remained almost solidified the spot on my pants (6+ inches). Very tough stuff.

Front of the trailer:

[CaneZach]

If you're serious about bike hauling, I'd suggest the Pit Bull trailer restraint. I have it in my trailer for my bike and I love it. You don't have to worry about tying the thing down and worrying about fork seals, etc.

[Sarge]

Next step: Tie downs. I decided to go with a rail mount type setup, which allows for greater flexibility in the tie down placement. I have 30 feet of these Kinedyne E Track, in 10' increments rails, and Monday am picking up 8 6000# "D Rings" that fit into the spaces on these rails.

(Ignore the bag, this is a stock photo)

I measured these out to make sure they were placed evenly, and well inside the wheels under my wifes car (It's a Dodge Neon, so fairly narrow) Measured four or five more times, drilled a few starter holes, anchored the corners, drilled a few hundred more holes, and started placing screws...



Each 10' piece of this track has about 120 screws in it, and for the most part I used 3/4' wood screws (the plywood is 3/4" thick) but every 16 inches I dropped in 1" metal screws, drilled through the steel crossmembers.



I made it this far before I ran out of screws. For some stupid reason I thought 200 would be enough... I also need to cut my last track piece in half, to fill in the just over 5' gap from the end of the rails to the front of the trailer. Also, I'm about 40 screws short of the left hand track.

What I have so far:



More pics to come as the project progress.

[Sarge]

If you're serious about bike hauling, I'd suggest the Pit Bull trailer restraint. I have it in my trailer for my bike and I love it. You don't have to worry about tying the thing down and worrying about fork seals, etc.

Nice, would you say this works better than the wheel chock type ones that lock in the front wheels?

[Slo]

yes it does definitely since you don't need to strap the front end down.

Front end doesn't bounce around since the rear axle is locked into place. If the front wheel chock would somehow lock a bike in completely for transport, it still wouldn't be "as good" since the rear wheel would be bouncing left and right as you go down the road. Down fall is that the pins are bike specific. So if you need to trailer someone elses bike, then it will need the bike specific pins or straps to tie the bike down like the norm.


Nice trailer by the way.....

[CaneZach]

Nice, would you say this works better than the wheel chock type ones that lock in the front wheels?

Most definitely. The only thing holding your bike is the restraint on the rear wheel. There are no straps tightening the front down and loading the suspension, so you'll never blow a fork seal because of towing your bike. It's incredibly stable, too. You'll never have to worry about a strap coming loose or hoping your bike is still standing. Rock solid, like everything Pit Bull makes.

[TransNone13]

Dude, that's awesome. Very jealous!

[Hibs]

Very nice! what does a trailer like that run? $4-5k?

[~Barn~]

Congrats Sarge, looks awesome! When you're ready to sell this trailer, you lemme know!

[birchyboy]

Nice trailer! 3/4" flooring is heavy duty? What's standard, OSB?

[Hibs]

I got this for just under $6k. The guy at Reed's Trailer Sales (they have one in Denver, in Lakewood) took care of me. This size trailer generally starts in the $4's, but I got it heavily upgraded. Extra thick floors, 16" inch spacing between the crossmembers, all LED lights, full galvanized steel frame with enclosed 2x3" supports (look at the picture). The last one was the real price kicker, closed crossmembers and galvanized frames are more difficult to find without ordering special. The frame itself and tongue are rated at 14,000 lbs, the only thing holding me back are the axles, but my Jeep (pictured) can only tow about 7500 lbs, so I didn't bother with the axles, I don't have anything that heavy anyway, my wife's car only weighs 2,600 lbs. I do like the galvanized heavy duty frame though, as it's very stiff and very strong, so I won't ever have to worry about it. It did add almost 400 lbs to the weight of the trailer though.

Also, my Tekonsha Brake Controller should be here any day now, I'll be sure to add that install to the write up as well.

I've got the digital Tekonsha Prodigy, I think the P3? on my 2005 GMC Envoy, LOVE IT. Have used it to pull my 18" car trailer with vehicles on it many times and it works great.

[Sarge]

That's what I have ordered, the P3. Tekonsha also has the plug in wiring harnesses, one specific for my vehicle, which was Pre wired at the factory, so it's literally plug and play, as the connector is located right at the top of my parking brake under the wheel, just have to mount it.

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

Nice! A suggestion: I bought a cheap front wheel chock from Harbor Freight, and made a wooden platform for it so I could throw it in the back of my (now gone) pickup, or a trailer, and then roll the bike into the chock, then use tiedowns. If you make something similar, it'll give you an easy way to secure the bike before/while you get the rear Pit Bull system locked. An easy one-man operation. I've used mine a couple times, both in my truck and in my trailer, and I'm glad I made it.

Best of luck with it!

[CaneZach]

You're going to have a really sweet trailer when you're all done!

[Sarge]

The PitBull stand is a ways off, still allowing the wife to recover from the trailer purchase. However, in the mean time I found out more about those Kinedyne track pieces, and they're actually pretty nice. I think I'm going to get a few more pieces in 2, 5 and 10 foot lengths, as they're rated for 50,000 PSI when installed properly, and run them the length and one or two rows across the walls as well. Each piece is only some $10 or so, and Kinedyne both makes straps and things such as hard rails for securing cargo and even making shelves when you install the vertical rails. I'm trying to get this thing set up as a serious hauling trailer, and I can rail the entire thing for like $100.

[dirkterrell]

Very sweet setup, man!

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

The PitBull stand is a ways off, still allowing the wife to recover from the trailer purchase. However, in the mean time I found out more about those Kinedyne track pieces, and they're actually pretty nice. I think I'm going to get a few more pieces in 2, 5 and 10 foot lengths, as they're rated for 50,000 PSI when installed properly, and run them the length and one or two rows across the walls as well. Each piece is only some $10 or so, and Kinedyne both makes straps and things such as hard rails for securing cargo and even making shelves when you install the vertical rails. I'm trying to get this thing set up as a serious hauling trailer, and I can rail the entire thing for like $100.

If you're interested, I can send ya a pic of the chock I built, for probably less than $75, and a day's labor in designing and building it.

[Sarge]

Haven't made much progress in recent weeks on this, but as I was out of town for the last two months all expenses paid, combined with the fact that I have to been moving next month, I've finally gotten around to Part 2 of Sarge's Trailer Project.

As of this update, I hadn't changed a thing. Still had the truck bed liner and the two E-Track rail pieces. Having used the trailer to move a Mustang and haul my bike to the track a few times, I've really worked out what was working and what totally sucked.

First things first: The truck bed liner.



Yes, that's a dog footprint.


This was chain lube and possibly brake cleaner, ate right through it. Obviously not working out.

[Sarge]

On top of that, the placement of the E-Track really just wasn't cutting it. As I showed you on the first update, it was placed nearly two feet inside of each wall. The intent for this was to get it placed inside the wheels when a car was loaded, but after having transported a car, as well as my bike more than once, it turns out this was one of the most terrible locations to mount these things, and effectively completely worthless.


(Original shot) The worst part about this was that I had to place the bike tie-downs far in front of and behind the bike, and I couldn't use my canyon dancers because it was too tight in the front, and I had issues not crushing my muffler in the rear.

So, needless to say, this had to go:


I went and pulled everything out, having planned a new layout and finally have gotten my hands on more of these, as was my original plan:

[Sarge]

Over the last few weeks, while away from home on Temporary Duty in preparation for my upcoming move to Pennsylvania, I went ahead and planned out and ordered many of the parts for the phase of this project. I've already shown you most of the E-Track. (Stuff is cheap, but the shipping is EXPENSIVE.) I also picked up a number of other goodies, which I'll go over later, but the real issue I was having was with the location of the existing E-Track combined with the terrible surface. So, to solve this problem I decided it was time to lay some commercial grade vinyl flooring.


Lowe's had all sorts of pretty options in stock, but they only had two colors in the "commercial" offering. Not quite black and not quite white.


This stuff was however the thickest, "toughest" and cheapest of their product offerings in stock, which was all that I was looking for.


Toss in a big 'ol tub of vinyl flooring glue, and we're go for launch.

[Reyven]

We used a deck sealer, similar to rhino liner, but made for wood. It's called Deck Restore (or something similar). It was amazing and indestructible. It has the same texutre as the rhino liner.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/i...69&cagpspn=pla this. comes in lots of colors too!

[Sarge]

Well, having never once laid any type of flooring in my entire life I was struck with a certain dillema: How the heck to lay everything out.

I started by simply laying some tile to see what things looked like:


As you can see, there was some overlap, and having no artistic ability for the most part I was dreading the idea of having to cut these things to fit.

[Sarge]

I also had to consider that I needed to install the E-Track over the top as soon as I was finished with the flooring.





I spent a good 20-30 minutes expirementing with placement, and for a time even entertained the idea of simply "centering" the tile, and covering the exposed flooring with the E-Track itself.




I finally decided this was a bad idea as all sorts of things could get trapped under the E-Track and soak into the exposed wood.