I’ve always liked taking something old, tired or run-down and returning it to its former glory. So far I’ve mainly focused on furniture, guns and a couple of cars. Today though, I decided I would start a new project: My 6x4 trailer. As you can see from the images below it’s rather tired looking. It’s lived most of its life outdoors and when in use it’s been full of rubbish going backwards and forward to the dump and has carted rocks, gravel, sand, fire wood and garden soil. It’s time for some love and a rejuvenation.
When considering this project I wanted to address a couple of things that have been bugging me with it; Minor things to be sure, but things that mess with my border-line OCD nature.
The trailer is a lot narrower than my truck making it impossible to see when I’m towing it. That’s not so much of a problem but it’s very difficult to reverse when I can’t see it. When loaded up high I can see the load, but when empty it’s difficult. Secondly the draw-bar hitch is a lot lower than the trailer hitch on my truck. I have a 75mm (3”) lift on my tuck which exacerbates the issue. This means the drawbar and trailer is angled upwards when coupled up to my truck. My OCD can’t accept that.
So, to address the disparity in height I am going to invert the axle on the trailer which will give me around 150mm or 6” of lift and then put a bigger wheel and tyre package on as well. Probably another 50mm or 2” of height. That should level it up give or take a few millimetres. You will see in the image below left that the axle pictured at the top is situated above the leaf suspension pack which is factory standard. By inverting it the axle will end up sitting below the leaf pack giving additional height which is the bottom picture below left. This will also allow for a larger diameter wheel and tyre combination and even more additional height.
To address the vision problem I am going to install an ‘H’ frame front and back which will sit higher than the tailgate of my truck making it easy to see where the actual trailer is when reversing. The secondary benefit will be that I’ll have somewhere to lash my kayaks to; It’s a win/win situation.
With the trailer itself it’s simply a matter of taking it back to the bare metal. That’s done with a wire wheel on a drill. It’s a stiffly-bristled wheel that essentially scrubs the old paint and rust off the surfaces of the trailer. The whole thing will need doing which is a pretty unpleasant task. From there it’ll get a nice clean up and a coat of etch primer. This will make the eventual top coat stick like glue and make the whole job look better for longer.
Over the etch primer I am spraying a gloss enamel black on all the exterior surfaces including the drawbar. This is the same paint as used on a car exterior so it should come up looking pretty nice. After that is finished and dry I’m going to paint the inside of the trailer bed in a hammer-finish grey-black. This is a special super hard-wearing paint that dries with a texture. It will enable me to load the trailer with pretty much anything knowing the hammer-finish paint is protecting it from damage. From there it’s going to get some new LED tail, turn and brake lights and some more reflectors.
I’m pretty keen to see the end product because the current trailer is a pretty sad and rusty old thing. It’s a bit embarrassing towing it behind my nice looking truck. I’ll probably do a post on the finished product…If it turns out ok.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default.
@galenkp
