A yard trailer

[Nat]

I went to Harbor Freight last week and saw that they had so wheels and tires on sale. I bought the last 4 4.00 X 6 X 13" OD tires/wheels they had. I brought them home and since our daughter has Vickie's lawn trailer, I figured I'd make me one. I used 2"x2" x 1/8" angle for the frame and 2"x2"x 1/4" tubing for the walking beams. It has treated 1/2" plywood for the floor and the 16" high sides. It pulls great behind my golfcart, so I started trimming some of the 1000's of lombs that are to low now, and hauling them to the burn pile.

[Pat]

Cute trailer! I'm not familiar with treated plywood. How well does it stand up to weather. Do you have to seal the "end grain" at least or do you need to paint the whole thing or what? Every plywood structure I ever saw that wasn't sealed delaminated. In fact, most that were supposedly sealed, delaminated.

Recall the DIY DOME HOMES fad that Buckminster Fuller started? Many were made from plywood but problems sealing the end grain where different sections of plywood came together caused many of them to literally come apart at the seams. Maybe some of those designs could be revisited with "treated" ply if it is weather proof. The only wheather proof plywood I ever saw, previously, involved the WEST system of epoxy saturation.

Are the tires a standard size that is readily available should you ever have to replace one? I have never bought any of those but I have been buying a lot of their caster wheels. I had a coule of their 330 lb rated caster wheels fall apart spilling the ball bearings all over. Another wheel failed under a small side load when the rubber tire broke away from the cast iron wheel and about 20% of the tire fell away from the rest. I'm hoping to have better luck with the large quantity I bought but haven't used yet. I'm trying to make most of my fixed position shop machines into wheled units to allow spur of the moment rearranging of the shop.

Congrats on your neat looking trailer!

How about a shot or three of the underside detail?

BURN PILE???? Dont you chip or shred and compost?

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

Pat, I helped one neighbor build a wheelchair ramp for another neighbor who was paralyzed in a tractor accident, and we used the treated 3/4" plywood. I haven't had much experience with it myself. However, your post reminded me of when I was a teenager and bought a sheet of "marine plywood" and made a surfboard to pull behind the boat. I cut it 30" wide by 60" long with a rounded front end, but then finished it with varnish. I don't recall hearing of or seeing "marine" plywood in many years. Do they still make such?

[Pat]

Bird, The big box stores sell "EXTERIOR" grade plywood. Marine ply is still available but you have to go to a REAL lumberyard. ABX is a decent substitute if you check the edges for voids. What makes marine plywood MARINE plywood isn't the glue (same as exterior grade ply) but the quality of the laminated veneers. Marine ply has no cross sheet voids which would be stress risers if you bent the ply where the void was. Marine ply is like exterior ply but with smaller defects allowed in the plies. Marine ply accomodates bending to follow the desired hull shape when regular plies might have a big interior defect and break where bent.

Sorry but you probably wasted $ on your "surf board."

Did you ever try wake surfing? Get a tow from a boat, position yourself on the forward face of the stern wake and when you achieve a state of ballance, turn lose of the tow rope. When you do it right you can surf the stern wave of the boats wake and follow the boat untill you get tired, bored, or make a mistake (or the boat driver messes up.)

This works best with a relatively powerful boat whose outdrive or outboard motor can have its thrust angle aimed way off so that the application of power tries to sink the stern and creates a pretty nice stern wave. You can have a "surfer" on each side and go as fast as you want so long as you make a big enough wave. The surfers can "slide" in and out on the wave a little ways without losing it if the wave is big enough. Really big waves take powerful motors and gulp a lot of gasoline but it sure is fun and a lot cheaper than a weekend in San Diego (or Hawaii.)

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Nat]

Pat, you brought up something I have preached for years. I live near a pretty large lake/mud hole, called High Rock Lake. There are tons of pontoon boats around, and when the floor needs replacing most people buy the vastly overpriced marine grade plywood, when in fact on the flat floors of a pontoon boat ACX is just as good. The only difference is the marine grade doesn't have any voids.
On the treated plywood, you are correct, the glue and plys are the same as exterior plywood. It will delaminate just like exterior plywood, but as I'm using it for yard waste, and mulch, AND, I'm prone to fail to clean it out when I should, regular ext. plywood will get insects, whereas the treated will resist bugs. I didn't take any underbody shots, I just made a 4' x8' rec, frame and put crossmembers every 2'. The walking beams are 18" long and I drilled a 5/8" hole thru them for the axles. One thing I did was ream the inside hole to 3/4, so that as 1 wheel went up the axle could move. I Am not great on math, but I did draw a line on the floor to represent the axle and made a perpendicular line to represent the amount of verticle travel. At 2" in from the outside it moved less than 1/16" and the axle needed to be able to grow lengthwize by a little over 1/8". With those facts in mind I figured reaming the holes on the inside of the walking beam to 3/4" and making the axle 48 3/8" to the inside of the wheel would be OK.
I always told my kids that the smartest person was one who could express an idea with the least amount of words, wherein I fall very short. I wish I could explain things easier, I just have to stumble along. HTH, Later, Mat

[Pat]

I wish I had stock in the nearby lumber supplier. Why not buy cabinet grade while they are at it, it costs more so it MUST be better.

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the smartest person was one who could express an idea with the least amount of words

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One of my favorite Einstein quotes... "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."

I have had technical proofreaders/writers on my staff take my text and MAKE IT BETTER. Typically these PROS would oversimplify everything beyond the ability of words to express the technical subject and turn it into easily read but meaningless drivel with no ability to actually communicate a clear, consise, and unambiguous thought all the while thinking they were parading their terrific ability to the manager.

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[Bird]

Pat, I never did any water skiing or surfing of any kind, except with that board I made. Back then some places sold high priced boards that looked almost like a sled; i.e., front end curved up, for that purpose. Mine was just flat. I drilled two holes 2 or 3 inches apart and a couple inches in from the edge on each side of the board, just behind the end of the arc made by rounding the front end. Both ends of a short piece of rope were inserting from the bottom side in the rearward pair of holes and a knot tied to keep them from slipping back out. The tow rope was then attached to the center of that short rope. Another, slightly longer rope, for the rider to hold onto, had the ends inserting into the forward holes with the knots on the bottom. We used it at Lake Lavon, just northeast of Dallas, and at Lake Texoma, at lot. Usually pulled it with Dad's Texas Maid Falcon (14' aluminum runabout) with a 40 hp Evinrude, but we were also able to use it behind a buddy's brother's 14' open aluminum fishing boat with just a 12 hp Wizard. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] The one problem we found was that the boat driver had better be paying close attention because when the surfer fell off, that board dived, so you had to stop quick and wait for it to float back to the surface. I was always a little afraid in shallow water it might dive to the bottom and stick. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Bird, As far as surfing in the ocean is concerned, I prefered body surfing. Playing with boards behind a boat is a whole different thing.

Maybe there was a reason for turning up the nose of the commercial units... maybe to prevent crash dives.

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