How To Measure A Bolt Pattern
What is the bolt pattern on your trailer wheels? For the most part it doesn’t matter because you’re not changing wheels that often, yet when it does matter,
Mechanics Tips
These are Mechanics Tips for Construction, Building, Planning and Fabricating DIY Projects – from The Mechanic. This is where you find insights on how to build many of the things shown in the plans, details for expediting construction and fabrication, and general items of interest for success when you do it yourself. If you have something to contribute, please let us know. Or, if you want to see tips on a certain topic, please let us know that too. This is the Do-It-Yourself portal, and these mechanics tips are for you. Let us know what you want! Enjoy! – See all the Mechanic’s Posts.
Where and How to Attach Safety Chains
What are the best ways to attach safety chains on a trailer? That’s a simple question without a single best answer. Don’t you hate it when the answer starts with “It depends . . . “? Unfortunately, it does depend on other things
The Trailer Breakaway Kit
What in the world is a Trailer Breakaway Kit? If you pull a “larger-ish” trailer, you should definitely know, because it’s a legal requirement in many jurisdictions.
Wheels And Tires For Your Trailer
There are a million tires out there with a ton of classifications and designations. What tires do I choose for my trailer? That is not a silly question at all.
Successful Threads With A Die
While the Tap & Die go hand in hand as threading tools, they’re very different in the way they work. There are also different tricks for success. So, let’s talk success tips for making external threads with a die.
Engineering: Welding Trailer Spring Brackets
There is some disagreement in trailer building about how to weld-on trailer spring brackets (also known as spring hangers). Some of you have sent questions about which techniques are best, especially
Get Thread Tapping Straight
A Tap and Die set is a near must for a DIY fab shop. While the thread creating functions are pretty easy to visualize, sometimes getting the tread to start straight and run true is a different matter.
Reasonably Accurate Way To Bend Metal
There are a bunch of ways to bend metal for a bracket. Do a search on YouTube and you’ll likely find several techniques. Well, we don’t want to dis any of those because
Drill Matching Bolt Holes
So many times we need to make matching holes to bolt something on. You purchased something to mount on your trailer or your workbench or some other project, but now you need the exact
Threaded Rod For Custom Bolts
You can use threaded rod (often called All-Thread) for a million things. Make a long bolt, or just the right size fastener. It’s also good for special brackets if you weld to it. And, if you’re not careful, you can make it fail in a million ways too.
Tricks To Weigh Heavy Things
Do you need to weigh something really heavy but don’t have access to an industrial scale? How can I weigh heavy things — like my trailer frame — without a specialty scale? When we look at “Where Does The Axle Go” and other build objectives, often it is not convenient to haul things down to […]
4 Pressing Issues
A shop press is a fantastic tool, and when you need it, there’s not much that can really substitute. On the other hand, we need to keep things in order because when things go bad, they can easily go really bad in a hurry.
Does My Trailer Need A Spare Tire?
What about a trailer spare tire. Do you really need one? Some say yes, and we do see them on many trailers, but they are rarely used. What if you just go without? These are great questions — and we do see a lot of trailer “spare tires” that just dry-rot in place. If they […]
What Bolts For DIY? – Bolts 101
Bolts are an amazingly simple yet complex fastening method. They’re used everywhere so mostly we take them for granted, but why are there so many different kinds? And what bolts should I use?
How To Choose Bolts
This is Page 2, a continuation of our Bolts 101 article. Here we discuss choices for bolts depending on the application. The previous post, Page 1 of Bolts 101, gives a ton of background information, so we recommend reading that first, then this one on making a good bolt choice. Both pages focus on the […]
Recommendations For Trailer Frame Painting
(And finishing other DIY Projects.) Now you’ve invested all that time and effort into building an awesome trailer, how should you finish it? Of course we don’t want it to rust. And, we want it to last. So, here are some recommendations
Calculating Axle Position
There’s always more to it. Our previous post titled “Where Does The Axle Go?” has spawned a lot of great questions. Here is one in particular asking some very relevant info about calculating axle position.
Why Shouldn’t I Use Torsion Axles In Tandem Or Triple?
Torsion axles are awesome, so Why not use torsion axles in tandem? It’s a frequent question, along with the corollary “Why shouldn’t I have torsion axles in triple?”
What Is The Right Trailer Tongue Length?
How long should a trailer tongue be? Is there a standard or is it totally arbitrary? Let’s get some answers on this fun trailer tongue length topic.
Practical Safety With A Crane
Nothing ruins a pleasant day quite like a goose egg on your head, or a throbbing finger pinch. Avoiding those things (and, of course, the much more disastrous potential events) is