I am about to start making my trailer in a week or so and need your opinions. I'll need it for hauling a light weight skid loader (under 4,500 lbs) and or small cars. I already have an axle set up, drum brakes on both axles, so now comes material for frame. I can get 2X4 11 gauge rectangle tubing from work which I am thinking about using. The trailer would be a 12' deck and 66" between the fenders. I'm planning to put braces on 16" centers and the deck will have 2X12's bolted down. I really don't plan on having anything heavier on it since I have access to a sweet 18' heavy duty car trailer.
What do you guys think of this set-up? I see 16' utility trailers rated for 7,000 lbs all the time on different sites and they just have a 2x2 angle frame work, so I think this will work. Any suggestions will be appreciated and looked into. Thanks

 

Check out these pics of a trailer made by someone on a welding site. The tubing is 1/8 5x2. Very nice work.

http://community.webshots.com/album/168035093UIBAws

 

Your not kinding about nice work. That is some detailed stuff going on there. That's pretty much what I'm looking to do design wise. Thanks for that link, perfect!!!

 

FWIW: Min. length for a car trailer is 14 feet, this figure I came up with by measuring various cars and vans (Crown Vic, Aerostar, Taurus, etc.). This will be from the nose to the back of the rear tires.

66" inches is pretty narrow for using it for anything other then an Escort or something.

> I see 16' utility trailers rated for 7,000 lbs all the time on different sites and
> they just have a 2x2 angle frame work, so I think this will work.

Yes, they are built like junk and are not designed as car carriers.

On the previous link, what the guy did that was very right was carrying the center beam all the way down the middle of the frame and the right angles at the front. That makes for a very good trailer.

 

You hit the nail on the head as the only car I would haul on it would be my wife's '98 zx-2. The main function would be for the skid loader but if I had to could haul the little car. I know what my buddy goes thru with people always asking to use his car trailer so the narrow width would be a heck of a good thing and plus I would be less likely to haul something big and heavy so it would be a win - win deal for me.

I was planning on doing the frame work of the trailer I'm looking to build to turn out a lot like the pics on the webshots links plus a couple of other little things that would help make it more rigid.