Updating my old trailer

[Gary_in_Indiana]

After reading some posts about people shopping for new trailers I decided to make some upgrades on my old gal. It's a 26' model with 22' of diamond plate floor. The bed tilts via an electric motor running a hydraulic pump. She came with only five D rings for tie down points. As you can see here it now has eleven D rings. The new ones are unpainted.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Here you can see where the old 2000 lb. swivel farm skid jack was removed and the new 7,000 lb. square drop jack installed. The new jack is attached to both the 1/4" plate I added on top of the rails and a piece of angle iron on the bottom. I also put on a new coupler and reattached the safety chains.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I added new amber side marker lamps which also are wired as turn indicators. These have sixty LED's in them and are incredibly bright. They're designed for semi tractors. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I installed new red filament side marker lamps for the rear, too. I put protective trim on these as they're the most likely to get bumped. I went with filament lights here so as not to be so bright as the LED brake/turn lights.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I was able to put my new LED tail/brake/turn signals in custom aluminum casings courtesy of a machinist friend. These are really bright. There's my new outlet for power to my magnetic base towing lights. I put those on the rear of the second vehicle when I'm moving two at once. I can also plug in a work light to aid in seeing what I'm doing at night. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Here's a closer pic of one of the new D rings. Of course, they'll all get a coat of primer and paint tomorrow. Actually, a lot of this will get primer and paint while I'm at it.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Here's another angle on the new square 7,000 lb. drop jack supported by welds on two cross members at the top and bottom of the side rails forming the tongue. As you can see, I didn't want this going anywhere. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I'm now confident I can load and unload the old gal even when it's not coupled to a tow vehicle. Of course, I'd have to winch the load on rather than drive them on but I could offload one or both by driving them off.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Here's the trailer as seen from the rear. The platform you see swivels at the center and allows me to drive the front or rear wheels of a second vehicle up there and secure them with basket straps when the back of the bed is tilted down. When I level the bed the platform is lifted and the second vehicle is towed as though on the wheel lift of a tow truck or on a car dolly. It's really a neat set up. As you can see here, I still need to do some cosmetic work filling some of the old holes and priming and painting any bare metal.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

These lights are forward facing at a 45 degree angle. I started with LED's here, too, but had to revert to filament lights as the LED's were just too bright in my outside mirrors.

 

[njrqs]

<font color=blue>and the second vehicle is towed </font color=blue>

Ahh

Is that legal over there??

Cheers

PS - Nice looking trailer indeed.