New Trailer at home...

[kennyd]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Is that a co2/argon mix cylinder? and is it around 80 cu ft?
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Yup, C25 mix. 80 cu ft tank and .030 wire

 

[kennyd]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( One problem I have with mine is the ramp/tailgate sliding along its hinge pins and walking to the left as I lower and raise it. Then when I get the ramp up, the retention tabs on the gate hit the retention pins instead of passing over them. What follows is a wrestling match as I try to slide the ramp back to the right so the pins will line up. I've got an idea or two how to fix this. My assist cylinders may be at a slight angle and applying a leftward force as I raise and lower.
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I have already had this problem also, A good swift kick does the trick for me. I am interested in hearing your ideas for fixing this, I have one possible solution. I would still need the gate to be removable though.

Mine seems to tow very smooth empty, but I have only towed it home so far, about 10 miles or so.

 

[Bob_Young]

One thing I'm going to try, Kenny, is jiggering the cylinder mounts so there's a bottom-to-top rightward bias in their alignment. Before trying to weld on new cylinder mount tabs, I might just shim the existing mounts or move one end of the cylinders to the opposite side of the existing mount tabs to achieve the rightward bias. If the problem seems to decrease, it'll indicate I'm headed in the right direction.

If that doesn't work I'm going to try to put something on the back of the trailer behind the hinge pin to block its leftward movement. Maybe a flat piece of steel bent up with a lip on the end held in place behind each hinge pin with a single bolt into the back of the trailer. That way if the gate has to come off I can loosen the bolt and swing the lipped piece of steel out of the way. Haven't figured the best place to put the pivot bolt yet.

Maybe running a bolt into the back of the trailer immediately behind each hinge pin would be enough. Let the bolt head block the pin movement. Guess what's on the other side of that piece of steel the hinge socket is welded to would determine whether that would work.

Let me know what you come up with.
Bob

 

[kennyd]

Thanks Bob, The bolt and/or "L" bracket was what I was thinking also.
Will have to take a closer look at the cylinder mounts though...

Will let you know...

 

[kennyd]

Bob,
I fixed the gate on my trailer today, only took about 1 hour and $3.00 to do, I used a piece of 1 1/2" x 3/8" bar that I had laying around. Here is a pic fo the piece with 2 1/4" holes drilled...

 

[kennyd]

Then I clamped the bar to the trailer so it was touching the hinge, Drilled holes through the trailer, then installed 2 1/4" pins from TSC that have multiple holes in them, put some washers on the pin so when I put the clips in the pins were snug.

 

[kennyd]

I test fitted the bar, marked how much of the pin I could cut off...

 

[kennyd]

And the final mounting, except for painting the bar black...

 

[kennyd]

Last pic,
Top view, the bar rest's on the hing keeping it from sliding left.

I chose this fix for a couple reasons...
1. I could not put a bolt right where the hinge is, the wood deck is in the way.
2. I wanted a way to get the gate off without tools, or having to get under the trailer to find the bolt head to take it out. With this bar, I can just flip it 180* to get it out of the way.
3. I could not easily see how to manipulate the gas shocks to have the gate "pushed" right. Mine are perfectly vertical now, so I do not think the shocks were pushing the gate left. Moving one shock mounting stud to angle the shock would not work in my case, the shock body would hit the bracket.

I hope this helps some, the pics are not the best, please let me know if I can help more...

 

[Bob_Young]

Hey, Hey, Hey! You da Man, Kenny! I really like that. And it's simple enough, that I think I can do it. Terrific!

Thanks for a great solution and for taking the time to post the details. I'll be looking into this for sure.
Bob /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif