Dum-Dums Trailer

[Dum-Dum]

Back in June last year I really thought it would be useful to have a trailer (having just killed my first pick up truck I missed the load carrying capacity) I wanted a braked one so there was a little more potential for carrying heavier items as I can see myself wanting a 1tonne bag of sand or pallet of bricks at some point.

I scoured ebay looking for a bargain and after a few weeks managed to win an absolute shed of a thing from the arse end of nowhere for twenty quid. It was so covered in leaves in the advert it was hard to tell it's condition but I was promised the tyres held air and the wheels rolled.

Here she is on the way home, the bed is 4ft x 6ft which is a nice size and there is no weight plate on it.

   




I drove it home and as you can see the ply is rotten to f*ck but it manuvered easily
   




Both tyres are f*cked, like I can get my finger in the cracks where the tread has split although a year on they are still holding air
   




I ripped all the wood off by hand TBH it practically fell off it was that bad and showed the metalwork didn't look particularly brilliant but it was hugely thick like 3mm on the upper and 5mm on the lower.
   




I priced up what it would cost to sort, decided I couldn't be arsed and then dumped it in the corner of the garden and forgot about it until yesterday when I decided I'd clean up the rust and paint it using some of the many cans of Hammerite that are rusting slowly in my workshop. I also chopped the ladder rack from the front as I didn't like the look of it.
   




Doesn't she look lovely in multi colours
   




It made a lovely workbench while I chopped up a sheet of 18mm structural ply for the floor, front wall and half the tailgate
   




I used a whole £18 tin of black hammerite for the top coat, it's amazing how much there is to paint, and she looked pretty smart if I do say so myself.
   




And the wood is currently receiving it's first coat of yacht varnish which apparently needs 24 hours before it can have it's second coat so doing both sides is going to take me 4 days but should mean that it is waterproof and lasts at least as long as the original stuff.
   



I've got no idea how old the trailer is but I'm certain that the top is more recent than the actual frame and axle as the welding isn't the best and more obviously it isn't straight on the frame. The wheels are a very small 4 stud pattern that isn't anything I'm familiar with like 4x4", 4X100 so I can't work out if it's car bits or just old trailer bits.

[Magenta Sunset]

needs a jockey wheel

[cully]

looks like a cut and shut caravan axle with a angle iorn frame welded to the top of it

you cheated! I built my trailer from scratch

[Dum-Dum]

needs a jockey wheel

You wouldn't believe it but I have literally just flicked back to the forum after looking at jockey wheels on ebay.


I'll probably do the jockey wheel and make the sides and then forget about the trailer for a while till I get a chance to sort out lights, wiring and tyres.

looks like a cut and shut caravan axle with a angle iorn frame welded to the top of it

you cheated! I built my trailer from scratch

I would have built my own if metal wasn't so expensive to buy.
Personally I think it's a bit small to have been a caravan, it's just too narrow.

[cully]

its easy to make a caravan chassis narrower, your favourite tool the angle grinder comes into its own

[C2K]

4x100 is rover 200 fitment and several old Honda if thats actually the size you mean?

[cully]

old British layland was 4" PCD which is 101mm minis on 10" or 12" rims Maxi and allagro 13" wheels
Vauxhall Victor F, FB, 101, FD
Vauxhall Viva HA, HB, HC
Vauxhall Magnum, Firenza
Hillman Imp
Morris Minor


4x100 may fit but being tight

BMW 4 stud, Daihatsu, Honda 4 stud, Kia, Mazda 4 stud, Mitsubishi 4 stud, Nissan 4 stud, Seat, Skoda, Subaru, Renault 4 stud, Vauxhall, Toyota 4 stud & VW

[procta]

Dum dum, from what my dad was told, when my dad went to have a look at a old trailer, that had been lying around. As he took the wheels down, for the garage to have a look to see what the story was. They said that minis and ford escorts were the favourite, for the drum setup on these. So the chances are it could be mini if the stud patten been that small.

[Dum-Dum]

I had it at less than 100mm diagonally though so cant be any of the above. I will re check though.

Think I might just buy a second hand caravan axle in better nick with a more common stud pattern and adapt that to fit.

[Orta]

I've wanted a little trailer like this for a while as well. How have you found driving with it?

[Dum-Dum]

Measured the hubs, between the outer edge of diagonally opposed studs is 124mm and between the inner edges of the same studs is 104mm so the stud pattern is 4x114mm or more likely 4x4.5"


I knew it was outside of the range that is common on 4 stud wheels LOL

I've wanted a little trailer like this for a while as well. How have you found driving with it?

Not fun when its empty as it bounces and tugs about but once it's got a couple hundred kilos in it's solid. I have the brakes locked off so haven't tried it braked yet.

It's easy enough to reverse but any turn isn't one turn of the wheel, it's left right left and that's every time you want to change the direction of the trailer when you are going backwards.

[HDIkyle]

Nice work! Mine that i came down to yours with is very simular 6x4 braked from an old caravan. Currently sat full of wood on the garden waiting for a refurb. Needs new wood and some welding for the mudwing brackets as i lost one on the way home from derby at 80ish. What stud pattern wheels does it have?

---

has a removable tailgate so i am fitting some LED lights to the sides and swappable plate holder

[Dum-Dum]

Nice work! Mine that i came down to yours with is very simular 6x4 braked from an old caravan. Currently sat full of wood on the garden waiting for a refurb. Needs new wood and some welding for the mudwing brackets as i lost one on the way home from derby at 80ish. What stud pattern wheels does it have?

has a removable tailgate so i am fitting some LED lights to the sides and swappable plate holder

As above, mine is 4x114/115 or 4x4.5 inch. Something really uncommon at any rate which I think has spured me on to change the axle

Mine has the removable tailgate too and I don't want to lessen the useability of that but I also don't want the lights really low down at the bottom so I am going to get a set aftermarket clusters to go either side of the trailer and run vertically. I think I'm gonna still mount the number plate on the wood at the bottom though to keep it out of the way


On the subject of the axle I think I'm gonna get one of these axles:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191826694808?_...EBIDX%3AIT

It's 4x100 so will take corsa wheels and you can get 13s with tyres for about a tenner each whereas I'm having trouble finding decent 12" tyres for a sensible price as they just aren't common enough. It also should be just wide enough and looks fair beefy, it might even let me get the trailer a little lower.

[1616six]

Loved this when you came up to mine. This thing had a moped, washing machine & a load of other scrap in didn't it?

[procta]

Dumdum have you not thought about asking a proper mini dealer? As they will have some old tyres from minis with 12" rims, if its metric tyres that's will be fun trying to find those mind!

[Magenta Sunset]

Measured the hubs, between the outer edge of diagonally opposed studs is 124mm and between the inner edges of the same studs is 104mm so the stud pattern is 4x114mm or more likely 4x4.5"


I knew it was outside of the range that is common on 4 stud wheels LOL

I've wanted a little trailer like this for a while as well. How have you found driving with it?

Not fun when its empty as it bounces and tugs about but once it's got a couple hundred kilos in it's solid. I have the brakes locked off so haven't tried it braked yet.

It's easy enough to reverse but any turn isn't one turn of the wheel, it's left right left and that's every time you want to change the direction of the trailer when you are going backwards.

consider getting an anti-snake kit fitted. I did, much better behaved - less airborne over bumps.

---

" home from derby at 80ish. "

I hope that's kph you're quoting - - -

[Dum-Dum]

Loved this when you came up to mine. This thing had a moped, washing machine & a load of other scrap in didn't it?

Yeah, it went well with that lot in.

Dumdum have you not thought about asking a proper mini dealer? As they will have some old tyres from minis with 12" rims, if its metric tyres that's will be fun trying to find those mind!

I have but "proper mini" prices won't be cheap and it won't solve the problem of not knowing what the axle is off.

consider getting an anti-snake kit fitted. I did, much better behaved - less airborne over bumps.  

I'd consider it but that's never bothered me.

[procta]

Dum dum, you maybe best of going to a caravan and trailer place. just to get some info, whip off a hub and see what the brake shoes are off, as my dad had to do that with the brakes off the caravan. I looked on ebay to see what they were, and they turned out to be some odd ball company.
The tyres on our caravan, had to be ordered in off kwift and they said that size was off a van, If you can find the tyre profile on Ebay your laughing. Don't bother changing the wheels. unless you want to switch the full hub and drums for a car.

here is where we got our replacement shoes from,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200919251320?_...EBIDX%3AIT

[Dum-Dum]

Cracked on with the trailer a little today and got one side cut and the other made half size from the off cut and got all the wood bolted on. It definitely fits through the gap once I've removed a fence panel to get it into and out of the garden. Sadly in trying to bounce it over I have cracked the gravel board at the bottom of the fence so I need to make a couple of ramps for it.

   
   
   





And she managed a very successful trip to the scrap yard with 400-450kg of scrap 206 on board.

   

[allye]

christ thats loaded! Lucky mr plod didnt see you.

Paint the wheels....please!

[Danny Wideboy]

Mr Plod was driving.

[Dum-Dum]

14 months since I updated this. I have no idea how but the tyres that were ruined 3 years ago STILL HOLD AIR! I haven't even pumped them up and they are apparently tubeless. It means the trailer has been running trips to the scrap yard and the tip, it's all very exciting LOL
Anyway I digress, I'm looking at a potential house move so I need all of my projects to be functional and working and not lashed up.


This means I bought a jockey wheel for the trailer to make hitching it a little easier when it's loaded. Amazingly the holes lined up.
   
   
   




I also spent some time considering my wheel and tyre choice, I decided to trust my measuring that it was 4.5" PCD. Turns out alot of shit from the far east uses that PCD so I bit the bullet and took the punt on ordering a Daewoo Matiz wheel and tyre. Test fitted and it was perfect bar being a lower offset and sticking out the arch. I'm praying that the 2 wheels doesn't make it wide enough it doesn't fit out the gap in my fence as it was bloody close before. On the up side 10mm wider tyres and a wider stance can only help stability.
   
   
   




I've got some cheap LED clusters off ebay here but I'm not sure I like them so might just adapt my broken light board to fit low down underneath.

[Dave]

Why is one wooden panel only half the height of the side of the trailer?

Looks good otherwise nice one

[Dum-Dum]

Why is one wooden panel only half the height of the side of the trailer?

Looks good otherwise nice one

I was only willing to pay for 1 sheet of ply at the time so the short sides are off cuts.
I will actually be able to put an update on this as soon as I fix my soldering iron as it now has lights fitted and the wires are ready to solder but the iron just won't heat up.