Crawler Hauler build thread

[Whitey1303]

just went and picked this up today. took me 17 hours when it was supposed to take 10 due to a tire locking up and me tearing into brakes in a gas station parking lot haha. paid 360 dollars after the auction fees. its a 37' 11" trailer that I want to be able to haul 3 vehicles when is all done, heres the start, this build may be slow but ill update as we get things done.
thanks for looking, ENJOY!

Auction pics

 

[Whitey1303]

Bringing it back!

 

[88LS2K5]

Do you know what the fire was caused from? I've heard of a lot of buses/RV's catching fire due to the water heaters. I guess thats not a bad idea for getting a good sized flat bed on the cheap.

 

[Whitey1303]

no clue what caused it. have barely even looked inside.

 

[sweetk30]

are thay built diffrent these days ?

last i recall all the trailers for campers are much lighter frames over TRUE flatbed trailers.

keep us up to date with pics.

 

[blazinzuk]

If he paid 360 bucks for it, well worth it.

You couldn't get the axles wheel and tires for 360 bucks at all. Not even close.

Those good windows are worth some too. Buddy bought an older one and was really surprised when he parted it out that the windows were worth more than anything else

 

[y5mgisi]

No ****! At $360, you are going to make money off that thing i would bet! Gotta be enough scrap/ salvageable stuff on there to at least brake even on the purchase.

 

[Whitey1303]

are thay built diffrent these days ?

last i recall all the trailers for campers are much lighter frames over TRUE flatbed trailers.

keep us up to date with pics.

ive heard that too. but the frame looks like 10" I-beam. I don't know yet though. I have steel and plan on reinforcing quite a bit anyways.

If he paid 360 bucks for it, well worth it.

You couldn't get the axles wheel and tires for 360 bucks at all. Not even close.

Those good windows are worth some too. Buddy bought an older one and was really surprised when he parted it out that the windows were worth more than anything else

that's awesome. im glad to hear that, Im excited to tear into it. and I could part in out and make a bunch of money. so im super happy with it.

No ****! At $360, you are going to make money off that thing i would bet! Gotta be enough scrap/ salvageable stuff on there to at least brake even on the purchase.

it has a lot of scrap in there. but so much stuff that has to go the dump. but its a win all day long!

 

[WyoSquareMan]

subd

 

[jekquistk5]

Looks like the one down the road from me. Sat Burnt outside for almost a year. I had the same idea. My current car hauler was a 22 foot nomad camping trailer. Now it's a 18 foot car trailer and I get compliments on it all the time. I bought the camper for 200 from my dad and have about 400 into it in wood, steel and tires. In to see how this turns out as I would like to have a 36 footer as well.

Gonna convert to gooseneck or leave it fifth wheel?

 

[WyoSquareMan]

Any progress made? What's going on?

 

[GWeakland620]

Missed this one too.

He hasn't been on since a year ago.....

 

[WyoSquareMan]

Damn I really like the idea I wanted to see how it came out

 

[doubletrouble]

Camper trailers are not set up to handle heavy loads. They are built to have the load distributed evenly across the whole span. My dad wanted to convert a 5th wheel camper to a car hauler a few years ago, I looked at it and told him no. I have owned several campers from old to new. The cross braces are to far apart and are usually flimsy. Most of the time they sit hi which means the deck height of your trailer would be high, for off road vehicles it wouldn't be so bad. In my opinion they don't make good car haulers with that being said I am converting our old bumper pull camper into a flatbed utility trailer. It is only 16 feet long and I am still having to add a lot of supports for strength. We had a 25 foot bumper pull camper that we bought brand new in 2008 within two years the frame was cracking in several places and we traded it in. I think if you look at a well built flatbed trailer then look and compare the structure to a camper you would agree. Just my input, I've seen some scary set ups on the road.