Rebel 824 Posted January 13, 2021 Report Share Posted January 13, 2021 Hello, I'm looking for some advice please. I have a dog trailer the body is made of timber and is in good condition and well made. I'm looking to replace the axle and wheels. My first question is should I build a steel frame and bolt the timber body to it and then weld my axle/bracket to the steel frame? Or could I bolt two lengths of steel to the body of the trailer on the side and weld my axle/bracket to that. I was looking at using the suspension axle. It looks like it might be handier to fit. That's my second question is the suspension axle better than the leaf springs? I hope I'm making sense. Thanks for your help. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
neil82 1,003 Posted January 13, 2021 Report Share Posted January 13, 2021 depends on how much you want to spend, my ideal route would be new indespension units bolted to a standard "T" frame and the woodwork bolted down to that with mudguards screwed to the wood, your not looking at much weight so that should be ample, leaf springs are a pain, they increase ride height and unless you use a swing shackle on the trailing end it WILL eventually snap the ends off (building trailers is not economic, factor in time and components and you better off picking up a cheap halfords unit and modifying that to your needs, built many over the years but only due to having specific use for them Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rebel 824 Posted January 14, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2021 8 hours ago, neil82 said: depends on how much you want to spend, my ideal route would be new indespension units bolted to a standard "T" frame and the woodwork bolted down to that with mudguards screwed to the wood, your not looking at much weight so that should be ample, leaf springs are a pain, they increase ride height and unless you use a swing shackle on the trailing end it WILL eventually snap the ends off (building trailers is not economic, factor in time and components and you better off picking up a cheap halfords unit and modifying that to your needs, built many over the years but only due to having specific use for them Thanks for the reply Neil. I appreciate it. I was looking at a 350kg indispension unit. For a small light dog trailer do you think that would be sufficient? When you say a T frame, what do you mean by that? Is it steel going to the pull bar and then across the middle of the trailer to bolt the indispension unit too? What would be the best steel to use? Apologies for all the questions and thanks again. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
neil82 1,003 Posted January 14, 2021 Report Share Posted January 14, 2021 Suspension Beam (350kg) Caddy 430 (towsure.com) something like this with the drawbar welded directly to it will be enough for your needs and compared to the price of individual indespension units it`s cheap, mils steel is fine as long as you understand dog piss is very corrosive, you`ll either end up replacing it again at some point or end up repainting it every year Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rebel 824 Posted January 14, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2021 3 hours ago, neil82 said: Suspension Beam (350kg) Caddy 430 (towsure.com) something like this with the drawbar welded directly to it will be enough for your needs and compared to the price of individual indespension units it`s cheap, mils steel is fine as long as you understand dog piss is very corrosive, you`ll either end up replacing it again at some point or end up repainting it every year Thanks again. Is that a complete unit with the stubs? Welded to the drawbar and a couple of wheels and ready to go? Or am I missing something? Would you get away without some form of suspension Thanks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
neil82 1,003 Posted January 14, 2021 Report Share Posted January 14, 2021 3 hours ago, Rebel said: Thanks again. Is that a complete unit with the stubs? Welded to the drawbar and a couple of wheels and ready to go? Or am I missing something? Would you get away without some form of suspension Thanks. complete, only thing you need to add is wheels and some sort of mudguards, only way you could get away with a solid trailer would be to use wide, soft low pressure tyres, not practical if your going to do any road work and your dogs would`nt like you pretty sharpish Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rebel 824 Posted January 14, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2021 3 hours ago, neil82 said: complete, only thing you need to add is wheels and some sort of mudguards, only way you could get away with a solid trailer would be to use wide, soft low pressure tyres, not practical if your going to do any road work and your dogs would`nt like you pretty sharpish There's suspension built into it. It's cheap. I should have had a look before brexit. I haven't seen them over here. Thanks again for all your advice it was great to get it Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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