Split-dovetail car hauler trailer

[buggyman1]

Holes for the toggle switches for the winch and bed lights.

 

[buggyman1]

Toggle switch on the back of driver's side tail light for the ramp lights. All three of these "switched" lights will be wired to the onboard battery.

 

[buggyman1]

Mount to store the jack underneath trailer when not in use. The rubber band is to keep the handle from flopping around. It uses the same pin as when its in use.

 

[buggyman1]

Mount and pin I made for the short jack extension.

 

[buggyman1]

I hate welding upside down and it shows. I got one of those little fireball marbles down the back of my coveralls so I like it a lot less now.

 

[buggyman1]

The winch cover I ordered came in.

 

[Scooter78]

There are more gadgets under this trailer than on top of it. Very nice work.

 

[franklin2]

When I built my trailer I looked up the federal lighting laws and what was required. Here's a link;

Trailer Poster Table for Website

If you are over 80 inches wide you need a special taillamp with side markers built in, or a separate side marker on each back corner. And you also need the 3 small lights that are close together in the middle rear.

What brought this to mind was the debate over the LED at the step. You are required to have a yellow marker light up there if you are over 30ft long. My trailer only ended up being about 20ft long, but I added them anyway. And I also went to Walmart and bought some of those reflective white/red stickers and stuck them to the side of the trailer about midway. The problem I noticed was hauling at night and pulling across a busy highway. Lets face it, when you are in a busy area and are hauling heavy, you are going to be somewhat of a nuisance to people, it's not like you and zip out in traffic like a little car can. Well when you pull out, you end up having a long dark area on the side of the trailer and people may not notice your length from a side view. That's why I added the stickers to the side, it really lights up the side of the trailer when people's headlights hit them. If you look at commercial trailers, most all of them have them stuck to the sides.

 

[Norm W]

That is called conspicuity tape and it is required now on all commercial trailers. It is a great safety feature, but the little letters DOT on it makes the manufacturer think it is "Gold Plated" from their price. I suppose that for a non-commercial trailer those little letters wouldn't matter, but proving it to a DOT cop is not a job I would want.

 

[ZAR2USA]

Can you post specs (dimensions) for your trailer build;

including your current weight,

material cost (including welding)

and your man hours for the trailer built until this point please.