An old smoker gets moved over to a big boy trailer.

So after that excitement we took it easy the rest of the way.

I left home at 5 45 thinking I would get a good spot, Wrong.
They said by 6 00 there was only 3 spaces left, and the other two came in right after I did.
The cool part was that it was freaking COLD yesterday morning, 29 degrees when I got there. We had teams dressed up like eskimos trying to stay warm and then you had me, sitting in my closed up trailer with the temps inside at a balmy 64 degrees. I did have to call home and have the wife bring my giant welding blanket so that I could cover the back end of the trailer to keep the wind out.

I left it open on purpose when I built it to help with airflow in the hot summer months.

I did peak out about every half hour to make sure no one had fallen out due to the cold temps, and I didnt even feel bad wearing just a t shirt and a denim shirt. LOL

The trailer did everything I wanted it to do, perfectly.
You can see the cardboard that I used to block one of the little openings that was letting in cold air.

Here is the link to the album with all the pics. And no wise cracks about the crooked camera LOL the kids had it. I don't know whats wrong with them, taking pics of trash cans and butts.

http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o277 ... %20Spring/

Hey joel, the second line in my sig has a few links to the hosting site I use and also here is the photobucket account I use.

Shout out if theres anything you can't make out and I will see if I have more pics.

http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o277/keesfriend/

make sure you click all albums, theres a ton of um

Well life's been busy, and not much has been done.

I do have a set of 4 elec brakes, break away kit, and weight dist hitch for the trailer.

The brakes will make all the difference in the world. 

The weight dist hitch is needed since I miscalculated my weight and axle location. 

The fix for that is to load 500 to 800 lbs to the front of the trailer.

So I searched and found a 10,000 lb weight dist/sway control hitch for 121.00 delivered to my door. (What an awesome deal) Similar hitch's run around 500 to 800 bucks. Depending on what you look at.

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/rv-hitches/weight-distributing-hitches.htm

Not sure how long this price will last.



I will try to post a pic or two of the brake change out. For this trailer it was a piece of cake, the drums from the surge brakes were in good shape so all I had to buy was the backing plates. Mine are for a 7000lb axle even tho my axles are only 6000lb. A little extra punch won't hurt anything. I can always turn um down, but ya can only turn um up so far. 

I will be converting this hitch to an integrated friction style hitch with easy adjust tension jacks. The chains from the spring bars to the trailer can be a real pain in the tail. You almost always have to unhook them to back around a tight corner. 

Therefore I think I can make this conversion with scrap steel I have along with 2 new sidewinder trailer jacks.

More on this to come later.

Last night I tore into the tongue of the trailer. Since I no longer need the surge brake, it came off and got prepped for welding.

Not the greatest pic, but it works.



Here is what got cut off.



Next post.

Since I had no 4" square tube I had to make do. 

I hate this part, since with new steel I could have cut it to length and went to welding. 

As it is, I had to strip the surge mech and weld up the 6 locations where I cut it from the trailer tongue. 

I cut a taper on the tail end and also welded an end plate to the 4"x6" rect tube. 

Everything ready to weld the adj hitch channel to the rect tube.

The tube will weld up to the bottom of the prepped frame. 

Just for the record, everything is 1/4" or thicker on this and its burned in with fresh 7018 rod at 122 amps, DC reverse

BTW. I really love running the 7018's



Here is a shot of the end cap, and the old adj channel. Kinda bent up and kinda wore on the mount holes.



In the morning I will have to eye ball everything and make sure its all where I want it, then its time to weld. 

Here is a pretty cool clamp for all of you builders viewing. Strong hand clamps. 



Not my best but it works.

bmudd14474 said:

Tom,

Glad everything worked out for you. Sounds like some good upgrades you got there. I bought a brake controller with the handheld trigger so that I can activate the trailer brakes and not the truck. It saved my bacon once when I had a experience like yours.

Click to expand...

I have a tekonsha proportional controller, that has a pendulum inside which reacts to the percent of grade you are on as well as how forceful you apply the brakes and reacts in an appropriate manor. Its an awesome controller when set up proper. 

Not all controllers are equal. 

They are supposed to apply full brake force when the trigger is applied, This isn't always the case as I have learned at work. Some of the cheap controls will only apply the amount of force that is set on the control. (Something to watch for) 
 

Caution,,,,,This post is a little heavy on the pics.

Starting to line things up.

 

Side plates cut and tacked, ready to weld.
A think this was my first peeler of the day. Not a full peel but a start.


 




  

Welded up as a unit, lining up to weld.

  

A little better peel.

  

Yet another peel. I was on a roll.

  

Almost done.

  

The jack is back on and the only thing left is paint and the safety chains.

  

All right,,,,,,,Big trouble in Little China........

The weld up of the hitch went flawless.

It still didn't pull worth a hoot so....

I extended the tongue by another 5 feet.

This helped it alot, but still didn't fix it totally.

Last Sat. I decided to weigh the tongue, came out at 660lbs.

Here is where the problems start.

I make a trip to the Flyin J truck stop and hit the certified CAT scale. 

All most 9000lbs...........gotta add 660 to the axle weight,she has a weight problem for sure.

So to even make my 10% tongue weight I need to make more weight on the tongue.

I have welded up the bolted portion of the tongue to make it solid now that I know what the problem was.

I have started working on the front party patio. 4 feet by 8 feet.

Its framed and braced, now I just need to decide on how I want the rails and what type of floor I want in it.

I think I shall make the rails removable to ease in loading coolers and misc items when taking it somewhere to cook.

Here is where I am at so far. Oh yes, its getting a three burner propane stove built on drawer slides so that I can pull it out and cook or start coals.