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Strength

Trailer Suspension Mounting – Misdirection !!

May 28, 2022May 14, 2022 by Mechanic
Suspension Mounting Too Close

Shopping online is both a boon and a bust.  It’s great access to a wide variety of components, but it’s a bummer when misleading info causes extra work and frustration.  That brings us to this Customer Story of misguided

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Categories Customer Stories, News Tags Customer Story, Customize, Measurements, Steel, Strength, Trailer, Welding Leave a comment

Car Hauler Trailers — New Trailer Plans

May 28, 2022March 5, 2022 by Mechanic
Looking At Car Hauler Trailers

Where do you get plans for true, tough, Car Hauler trailers.  After a ton of market and product study, we are stepping in and stepping up.  Our niche is engineering better plans for DIY, so read on to learn about our approach to Equipment Transport

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Categories News Tags Build, Calculation, Car Hauler, DIY, Plans, Strength, Trailer 2 Comments

Car Hauler Design – Trailer Research

March 5, 2022February 25, 2022 by Mechanic
Car Hauler Design Research

Prior to starting new plans, we do research to understand the landscape, then look for opportunity to improve and make a better product.  That is certainly the case with our upcoming Car Hauler & Equipment Transport Trailer design.  New plans are coming soon.

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Categories Adventures Tags Analysis, Calculation, Car Hauler, Strength, Trailer Leave a comment

Easy Gantry Crane Lift Conversion

January 31, 2022January 22, 2022 by Mechanic
Gantry Crane Lift Feature

The beauty of a gantry crane is the beam overhead, and the clear access for lifting things.  To make them more useful, telescoping legs put the top beam at a height appropriate for the job — in your garage, or outside, or wherever.  One of the challenges

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Categories News, Plans Info Tags Conversion, Customize, Gantry Crane, Plans, Safety, Strength Leave a comment

Trailer Hitch Class Ratings

October 27, 2021October 22, 2021 by Mechanic
Trailer Hitch and Drawbar Classes

As a convenient way to help with safety, trailer hitches, balls, and receivers have categories or load rating groups called classes.  Each trailer hitch class has ratings for how much it will carry.  A look at the ratings for each component

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Best Practices, Hitch, Safety, Strength, Tips, Tongue Leave a comment

I-Beam Shape Choices: Is it I, S, W, M or H?

May 13, 2022September 7, 2021 by Mechanic
Which I-Beam Shape?

When is an I-Beam not really an “I” Beam?  While it’s common to use the generic term “I-Beam” for any beam with an I shape section, there are actually variations with different letter designations.  And, there are advantages for the various shapes

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Best Practices, Bolts, Force, Gantry Crane, Strength Leave a comment

Why No Plans For Aluminum Trailers?

March 4, 2022August 23, 2021 by Mechanic
Example aluminum trailers

This question comes up often — because there are not many good plans for aluminum trailers out there.  We have great trailer plans, but none for aluminum.  Why?  As one of our Frequently Asked Questions, this one deserves a good answer. 

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Categories Plans Info Tags Aluminum, Cost, Plans, Steel, Strength, Trailer Leave a comment

Bent Tongue — Judging A Weak Trailer

July 5, 2021 by Mechanic
Bent Trailer Tongue

When buying a trailer, how can we decide if it’s well built, or just cheap?  How do you know if it’s strong or weak?  While there are always tale-tale signs, we’ll use this example of a trailer with a bent tongue to illustrate.

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Categories Adventures Tags Analysis, Best Practices, Customer Story, Failure, Safety, Strength, Tongue, Trailer Leave a comment

Who Says Welding Doesn’t Affect Strength?

March 4, 2022June 17, 2021 by Mechanic
Fracture at Edge of the Welds

I love seeing failures.  Not that anyone wants things to fail, of course, we always try to make things that last.  However, when a failure pops up, I love to look it over and understand the “how” and the “why”.  It’s an excellent opportunity for learning, and I love to learn.

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Fixture, Force, Steel, Strength, Welding 2 Comments

Good Ways To Shorten A Chain

June 28, 2021April 20, 2021 by Mechanic
Need To Shorten The Chain

In previous articles we discuss the importance of trailer safety chain length.  If the chains are too long, what can you do?  Yeah, odds are you won’t need them, but what if you do?  Long chains can complicate things quickly, so how can we safely shorten a chain?

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Best Practices, Safety, Strength, Trailer Leave a comment

Dangling By A Single Trailer Chain

March 9, 2022March 22, 2021 by Mechanic
Saved by Trailer Chain

If you ever doubt the sanity of safety chains, then see this example of where a single trailer chain literally saved lives.  The story is amazing from all angles –

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Categories News Tags Best Practices, Safety, Stability, Strength, Trailer 2 Comments

Are Aluminum Trailers Good or Bad?

August 30, 2021February 11, 2021 by Mechanic
Aluminum Weld Adjustments

I’ve heard different opinions, so let’s look again at the Engineering and clear up some facts.  Maybe we can also debunk a few misconceptions.

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Categories Mechanics Tips, Plans Info Tags Aluminum, Best Practices, Build, Steel, Strength Leave a comment

Engineering: Welding Trailer Spring Brackets

June 15, 2021September 24, 2020 by Mechanic
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

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Axle, Force, Safety, Spring, Strength, Welding 7 Comments

What Bolts For DIY? – Bolts 101

October 13, 2021November 12, 2019 by Mechanic
What Bolts for DIY?

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?

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Best Practices, Bolts, Safety, Steel, Strength 3 Comments

How To Choose Bolts

August 23, 2021November 12, 2019 by Mechanic
Understanding Bolt Choice

This is Page 2, continuing the Bolts 101 article.  Here we discuss choices for bolts for an application.  The previous post, Page 1 of Bolts 101, gives a ton of background info, so we recommend reading that first,

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Best Practices, Bolts, Safety, Steel, Strength Leave a comment

How To Make A Trailer Longer

December 29, 2021May 11, 2019 by Mechanic
How To Make A Trailer Longer

Sometimes I wish my trailer was longer.  Is there an easy way to make a trailer longer?  Is that even possible?  And, what are the limits

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Categories Adventures Tags Aluminum, Customize, DIY, Force, Steel, Strength Leave a comment

Gantry Crane Failure Modes

February 19, 2022April 17, 2019 by Mechanic
Gantry Crane Failure Modes

There are a lot of ways to abuse a crane.  We won’t go into those, but let’s do take a minute on crane failures and what they look like. 

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Categories Adventures Tags Cost, DIY, Gantry Crane, Safety, Strength Leave a comment

Practical Safety With A Crane

June 18, 2021April 2, 2019 by Mechanic
Spring Foot for Gantry Crane Safety

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 the context of this gantry crane safety article. 

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Force, Gantry Crane, Plans, Safety, Strength Leave a comment

How To Make A Trailer Wider

August 31, 2021March 1, 2019 by Mechanic
Ways to Make a Trailer Wider

So, I have this trailer, but it needs it to be bigger.  Is it possible to make a trailer wider?  Can I make it wider to carry more?  And, what are the limits or problems with making it wider?

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Categories Adventures Tags Build, Strength, Trailer, Welding 3 Comments

Choosing The Best Trailer Frame Material

March 4, 2022February 11, 2019 by Mechanic
Analysis of Trailer Frame Material in Main Beam

What materials should I use for building my trailer frame?  It’s a common question with strong biases for Rectangular Tube or I-Beam or C-Channel.  Also, choices of Aluminum versus Steel. 

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Analysis, Calculation, Steel, Strength, Tongue, Trailer 13 Comments
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