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building a home made trailer out of truck bed?

moturbopar

moturbopar

1/2 ton status
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Feb 9, 2005
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mesa az
Anyone here built a trailer out of a truck bed and frame? I am considering doing this with my junk 73 GMC. The only problem is I dont know if its legal to build these anymore in AZ. I figure this would be a good use for my 2.5" blocks and extra 33/12.50.
 
Cmoe has one . Looks nice too .

I know you can fit the 33 without lifting it , since its a rear . Lifting it would give more departure if you take it down trails for some odd reason though .
 
I'm in the process of doing the same thing with my '80 long bed. I got a new bed a couple years ago so it's in good shape. The cab was completely rotted. The frame is decent.
 
wat about a chopping the back of a old suburban then u wouldnt need a cap for rainy days and make it longer then a log box.



"keep on truckin"
 
Mine is a 80 Chevy Pickup bed and I've had 35" on the trailer with no problems. I like the long bed thing since it's long enough for sheets of drywall. I've been using it for over 6 years now and love it.... Just wish I didn't have to park it at my mom's house. No place to park it here.... you can look at it on my home page
 
I had/made quite a few...

I have made at least 3 of them,and bought some,and had a few given to me..I have a 1962 GMC 3/4 ton 2wd frame with the 8' flatbed and crane off my 74 K20 I junked out in the yard now!..it has an eaton FF axle,but it has COIL springs and trailing arms,that are pretty rotted and patched up with angle iron..I might swap leafs into it,or make new trailing arms out of square tube someday..I hardly use it,its not registered at the moment..

The suburban idea is good,but they are HEAVY!..put a lot of junk in a trailer made from a burb and towing it with a 1/2 ton is a bad idea..:eek1:

My brother and I made a trailer from a 79 G10 chevy van we got free with a blown motor..we cut it right behind the front doors and put plywood in the front for a "wall"...it was great for hauling our swap meet junk,and being able to just lock the doors and walk away,rather than have to unload it all from his truck and put it away after every meet was a real labor saver..:laugh:

We towed it with a 1 ton 4x4,it pulled it like nothing..I used it once behind my 81 G10,it pulled it ok,but it nearly pushed my van sideways during a panic stop..:eek1: ..it would have been much wiser to have had the brakes hooked up somehow (like a surge brake setup). ..many people loved seeing my van and an identical one behind it as a trailer(both the same color too!)..looked like a train and a caboose!..my brother still has it,and we made it in the late 80's!

One warning though..I'd make the tounge a bit on the long side if your using a pickup frame..just cutting the frame near the engine and bending it in works,but it makes it hard to back the trailer up with a short tounge,it will always wag from side to side,rather than back up straight..thats the only thing I disliked about many of the ones I had..we used 5' of channel iron on the van's "tounge",and it backed up and tracked quite nicely..the van trailer makes an awesome harley garage!..:crazy:
 
I have one. I don't have any registration or title for it, I just pull it around anyway.
 
Mines titled and has permanent registered. I need to eather replace the bed or find a piece to repair the left rear portion of the outer skin......
 
PIC WHORING :crazy: :haha: :haha:
No lift,2wd frame and bed,36" tires:laugh:
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twoslo4five0 said:
were did you get the paint for the trailer and how much did it run you???
Click to expand...
Here in Sweden :doah:and it cost nothing :wink1: but I guess shipping to you would cost a lot :eek1:
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Me and a friend are in the planning stages of a suburban camper..
We haven't thought it all through yet and haven't decided for sure but..

Find an old parts suburban with front end damage or missing front pieces..something cheap. I got the idea from a craigslist burb missing the front clip, drivetrain, front doors, but the rear axle still intact..

I would first swap the 14bsf with my jimmy since the one i found was a 2wd 3/4 ton for 150$

Cut between the front and rear doors..top down Through frame.. Weld in a thin wall, boom.. Instant redneck camper with 2 doors with roll down windows, and a tailgate(tailgate party anyone?). We figured 4 inch lift with 35s-36s.. Open diff.. Maybe swap in an old trailer axle because of the braking issue, move over any related items.. Wire up the lights and blinkers.. Find a way to make it more aerodynamic on the front..maybe just a flat shield at an angle? Or make the welded wall at an angle down onto the looong trailer arms(to help with weight distribution)..and side weld-in walls.

Would make a great trail rig camper when completed. Would be hauling it with a 98 Chevy K1500 extended cab. I think it would do fine as long as we kept the tongue weight down.. truck has add a leafs, 3.73s and 285/75/16

Anyone else done a project like this, with brake suggestions..whole 9 yards?

I know how to make it legal in my area so no worries there. Just gotta have the sheriff inspect it!
 
only thing that soudns bad about teh burb camper project is the tow vehicle. No matter how you do that, there will be a lot of tongue weight the way you are describing it. I would say too much for your 1/2 ton, but maybe not......
 
Id have to see the burb in person first to see how the weight ratio is front vs rear.. But i think with the proper length trailer arms it should do fine..If not, my family has been thinking about getting a 96-99 K2500 Suburban with a Vortec 454.. That would be fine, right? I think the trailer rating of the Z71 is about 500 pounds tongue, and 5000 ish for the total trailer weight which the suburban should be under. Usually its safe to exceed the rating by a little even though it wouldn't be.

If the tongue weight is too much..load all my sh** into the very back of the suburban :D
 
My inlaws have pick up truck Dump trailers with hydrolic lifts. Just run electrical cords around to the battery and lift away. Very easy to unload.
 
MISF & I built one from a 3/4t IH p'up frame and a CUCV bed. We took a square spline D60, cut the housing ends off & stuffed them in a slightly larger tube. Some seam welds and 8 Rosette welds later we had an 8 lug axle. Cut the axle shafts off the drive flanges (cone washer type) and used those for the bearing 'caps'. I put a fill & a drain plug in the tube and now that axle has about 3 gallons of 90wt in it. I think those Timken's are good for life!
His S-10 project donated it's spare tire carrier, which is now mounted under the rear of the bed. The drive for the spare winch is a lug nut the same size as those on the trailer.
We built a rear bumper from sched 80 steel pipe & forged 90's, and included a receiver socket for hanging a m/c carrier off the back, or a "wheel-less trailer, or whatever else it might be useful for.
Eventually the 40 gal tank out of my old '79 Sub will find it's way under the front of the box, with it's filler located in the stock bed location.
The tongue has a box with a combo lock on it. Inside is the coupler, safety chains, and various electrical patch cords. On the side of the tongue is a 7 pin light socket.

I deliberately designed it with a long tongue. I've been told that it is stable up to at least 90 mph.

The trailer was conceived as a "community" trailer. Anyone who knows the box's combo can borrow it. The deal is if you know the combo you can borrow the trailer, but if your tow rig has a trailer socket that the trailer does not yet have a patch cord to fit, then the price of borrowing the trailer is to build the patch cord.

In KA a trailer has to have a plate (that's a hinged & lit Scout II plate holder on the tailgate), but it's a permanent registration kind of thing. To get a plate we had to take the trailer to the DMV for inspection. We were all concerned that we had to have all the lights working & everything perfect. Turns out all they wanted to check on was if it had a serial number. :doah: Had we known that we could've given it some cool s/n instead of the State's sequential serial number. Oh well.......

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Has anybody made a "car hauler" style trailer out of a heavy duty truck frame? What about grinding the frame smooth off of a duece and a half that has basically been parted out and hanging some trailer axles underneath it, welding the trailer provisions up front and build a flat bed on top?
 
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