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a bit off tundra...first timer rebuild of a flatbed trailer

Discussion in 'Towing & Hauling' started by nuclearlemon, Feb 1, 2020.

  1. Feb 1, 2020 at 4:50 PM
    #1
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    my trailer has spent a ton of time behind my tundra the last year (if you pay attention to the what do you tow thread, you know) and it was already well worn when i bought it, but a trip from cheyenne to denver said 'now it's time to rebuild' when a five foot chunk of the deck was missing after my two hour trip :O

    for those that may be looking forward to a trailer rebuild, here's my experience as someone who had never done this before. it started out with a lot of research and reading before going to town and ordering everything up. my plan is the same as my tundra...do it right cause i don't want to do this again and i plan on running it until i die.

    20200104_132434.jpg

    the trailer actually hadn't been used much before i bought it, it had sat for over a decade, but colorado sun had taken it's toll on the exposed wiring and the deck and trailers aren't known for good wiring jobs anyways.

    fortunately, tear down of the deck went super simple with all the screws coming right out.
    20200124_172111.jpg

    from there, i stripped the lights and wire brushed the frame and sprayed it with phosphoric acid. i had used it years ago on farm equipment and it still seemed to be a good way to go to stop surface rust and convert it. the acid takes a day to dry, so i jacked up the trailer, pulled the wheels and went to town motivating the right fender back into a fender like shape (it got a little crunched helping a friends friend with a jeep on fullsize axles that had lost the steering). then i pulled the drums and checked and cleaned up the brakes before adding a bit of grease to the bearings (somewhere in a previous life, they had just packed the bearings and hadn't added any more grease than that) and snugged the spindle nuts back up (more than the finger loose that they were) and called it a night

    i thought a windy wyoming night would've been enough to dry the acid so the next day, i started rattle canning the frame with sos paint, along with relocating the license plate to the fender so it won't keep getting bent under and installing the new led lights

    20200126_143614.jpg
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    Prostar 190 and jewsNbrews like this.
  2. Feb 1, 2020 at 5:06 PM
    #2
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    to make the license plate legal, i did the led bolt lights to hold the plate. time will tell how well they last or if they get knocked off.
    e.jpg

    i started running the new 7-way wire and hooking up lights. i've had issues with the rear lights not working, but the front markers never had an issue. the only reason i can think of why is that it appears that at some point mice were nesting in the frame where the wire ran and that must've been enough to keep the wire from shorting out.
    20200130_170032.jpg

    then work happened. so i was on hold until today, but a nice day in cheyenne meant i could get most of the wiring done. all the right hand lights are wired, i have a general plan for the left hand lights and brakes and have made any jumper wires, just need to actually splice into the wiring harness, the new breakaway battery is mounted and wired and i used a junction box mounted under the front of the deck. my hope is that any corrosion that happens within the pigtail harness will be kept separate from the trailer harness. i have spent enough time with borrowed trailers to experience the green corrosion monster.
    20200126_143631.jpg
    20200201_150801.jpg

    even though i'm a woman, i'm enough of a gearhead to know scotchloks SUCK, and i already admitted i know nothing about building trailers...here's proof. no scotchloks, but a lot of glue style heat shrinkable butt connectors. hopefully this will also help keep the trailer a bit more reliable.
    20200126_154911.jpg
     
  3. Feb 1, 2020 at 5:20 PM
    #3
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    tomorrow i will finish getting the wiring done, then i'll move onto the main deck. then, the big test...hook it up to the truck and cross my fingers. the trailer still will have a few more things that need to happen. i finally got a spare tire and will be adding a spare tire mount. also since i haul a lot of vehicles and a lot of them don't run (not a problem when i could use the bf's truck with rear winch, or his trailer with a winch, but i hate using a come along to get dead rigs up), i picked up a horrible freight winch during their new years sale. those will be a bit down the road as my new house doesn't have 220v outlets in the garage so the welder is out of commission for a bit :(

    in the meantime, here are a few things i learned.....
    the ospho (phosphoric acid) started drying last weekend, but even the evil winds of wyoming were not enough to dry it in one day...i still have white popping up and have to keep spraying sections of the trailer

    i should've paid a little better attention when i mounted the junction box as it's a hair too high and i'll have to leave the boards back about an inch or relocated it downward

    drilling the frame sucks and sharpen your bits before you do it

    you won't find torque specs for the spindle nuts

    the proper way to measure a 5 bolt lug pattern is from the center of on stud to the space directly across which is between two lugs, so when i thought i have a 5x4.5, i actually had a 5x5 rim.

    i always had a hard time seeing the trailer in the mirrors in the dark, so i added 3/4 led lights which should help out, but the fenders are more stout than a cheap holesaw and you will even have a chance of getting a crap quality holesaw from a name brand company, so just get a step bit and be done with it.

    20200131_172023.jpg

    toyota follows one of the most common wiring patterns in their plugs. unfortunately, trailer suppliers don't follow either common wiring patterns or colors for that matter. i wondered why i had a hard time figuring things out on the plug....because they used the red for the trailer brakes and the blue for the ground for the trailer brakes....wtf?
    20200126_162633.jpg

    hope this helps anyone considering doing a major overhaul on their trailer. and happy towing
     
  4. Feb 1, 2020 at 5:51 PM
    #4
    TruckyTruck

    TruckyTruck Dumbest Username

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    I guess I'll have to go check out what you're pulling on that thing. I like that trailer and the fact that you are a lady doing the work! It's not really that women aren't capable, it more of the fact that 99% don't have any interest in that sort of thing. Nice job!
     
    nuclearlemon[OP] likes this.
  5. Feb 1, 2020 at 6:56 PM
    #5
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    thank you and trust me...if the bf and i were still together, he'd be doing this and i'd be cheering him on . here's a few shots of my toys that i've hauled.

    20190805_065138.jpg
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    20191006_120733.jpg
     
  6. Feb 1, 2020 at 6:57 PM
    #6
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    and a couple of the other kind of crap i haul way too often ;)

    20191123_160051.jpg
    20191205_112146.jpg
     
    Prostar 190 likes this.
  7. Feb 1, 2020 at 6:59 PM
    #7
    ColoradoTJ

    ColoradoTJ Certified tow LEO Staff Member

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    Calibrated Power 5 Tune pack, Allison 1000 tune, PPE deep trans pan, Cold/Hot CAC pipes, Banks CAI, PCV reroute, resonator delete, S&B 62 gal fuel tank, B&W GN hitch
    Nice work on the trailer rebuild....do good work.
     
  8. Feb 1, 2020 at 7:01 PM
    #8
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    thanks. i wish i could just be done, but i really don't want to do this again ;)
     
    ColoradoTJ likes this.
  9. Feb 1, 2020 at 7:03 PM
    #9
    ColoradoTJ

    ColoradoTJ Certified tow LEO Staff Member

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    Calibrated Power 5 Tune pack, Allison 1000 tune, PPE deep trans pan, Cold/Hot CAC pipes, Banks CAI, PCV reroute, resonator delete, S&B 62 gal fuel tank, B&W GN hitch
    I wouldn't either. Seems to be about every 10 years a new deck and paint is required in the Rocky Mountain region.
     
  10. Feb 1, 2020 at 7:03 PM
    #10
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    for anyone interested, one quart of ospho was enough to treat the frame. a six pack of sos black paint. and 40' would be enough on the 7way wire but it's cheap enough in a 50' roll. keep the extra to make a jumper for someone else's trailer that is probably wired wrong ;)
     
    ColoradoTJ likes this.
  11. Feb 1, 2020 at 7:08 PM
    #11
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    this one made it almost 20, but it wasn't used for the last decade. hell, tires still had excellent tread, but were date 2001, so they went away the second day i had it. i did #1 pressure treated southern yellow pine. really wanted to do apitong, but it was 3x as much. i'll just try to stay on top of this wood and keep it treated. originally, it was 10 "8" inch boards with a 4inch board in the center. i eliminated that and will space the boards out a bit more to help keep snow from staying on the deck forever.
    not a great pic, but you can see the boards were butted up against each other (this pic was not from this project...wish i had the shop to work in still)
    20190907_183938.jpg
     
  12. Feb 1, 2020 at 7:14 PM
    #12
    ColoradoTJ

    ColoradoTJ Certified tow LEO Staff Member

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    Calibrated Power 5 Tune pack, Allison 1000 tune, PPE deep trans pan, Cold/Hot CAC pipes, Banks CAI, PCV reroute, resonator delete, S&B 62 gal fuel tank, B&W GN hitch
    I will have to re-deck mine before then, but I do dumb shit with mine. Hauling rocks is tough on them.

    CCECEC9B-13BC-42E7-953A-670DC924CC0D.jpg
     
    Prostar 190 likes this.
  13. Feb 1, 2020 at 7:20 PM
    #13
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    i haven't been that stupid yet...hopefully never will. although decking isn't bad. it's a dove tail so i don't have to cut the board to the right length and try to pop it into place...i just lay them out, screw them on and cut off the extra :)
     
    ColoradoTJ likes this.
  14. Feb 2, 2020 at 6:37 PM
    #14
    G10dra

    G10dra Not a New Member

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    Good job on the trailer rebuild, Just curious what you going to do with all those collector's items. The 3rd one FJ 40 always reminds me of building something like this
    [​IMG]
     
  15. Feb 2, 2020 at 6:58 PM
    #15
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    that's a bit of a rare 40, so definitely won't be doing that. original 1962 factory soft top (body was only made two years). the 25 will also stay stock as it's one of 53 built. the 45 is a bit of a resto mod. looks stock, but 2f/4spd, fine spline rear (still ball and claw up front tho). the pig body will go on a 80 carcass that i have in my driveway. the black 80 is done (outside of upkeep). motorcycle, who knows...probably sell it. wanted it to barhop to my favorite places, but most are gone now :(
     
  16. Feb 8, 2020 at 3:47 PM
    #16
    nuclearlemon

    nuclearlemon [OP] New Member

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    i'd like to say i'm done, but three of the four fender lights aren't working and neither are the license plate lites. i need to see if it's a power issue or cheap chinese light issue. i should have tested them ahead of time. that's a tomorrow thing. in the meantime, i got the dovetail boards cut and installed (except the two outers in case i need to get to the wiring) and i need to install the winch, but that's for a later time when i get the 220v outlets in the garage and can use my welder. also still need to check/clean/grease the left hand wheels, but i want to flip the trailer around to do that since floor jacks don't roll around well in pea gravel (need to get a concrete pad to work on stuff)

    overall, easy project. i didn't think about the fact that the trailer doesn't have power, so i should've gone with six wire, but that's a bit more rare, so money savings may have been negligable. did have to buy two new drill bits (high quality) because drilling the almost 140 holes killed the one i had. my arms and back are sore, but i'll be glad to have the majority of the project done.
    20200202_131440.jpg 20200208_162534.jpg
     
  17. Feb 19, 2020 at 6:38 AM
    #17
    plumber802

    plumber802 New Member

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    Lots of hard work. Looks great.
    [​IMG]
     

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