No drive-over fenders.... Quick solutions...?

[shady]

I bought a new trailer a while back. I love it all except it doesn't have drive over fenders. I do plan to make a set. But what can I do to get my truck on and off for now?

These are the best current pics of what I got

 

[SpeedlabDan]

Make em removable. Just a matter of cutting them off and putting 1" angle on them to pin down. Imho that's better than drive overs

 

[Justin V]

Stack 2×6's along the fenders (inside) so they re ramped for and aft and also taller than the fender. The tires will ride on the wood and not the fender.

Couple screws into the existing decking to secure the stack.

 

[shady]

And a question about making them. When I get the stuff.

When I do make them, would 1"x 2"x⅛" rectangle tube stood up edge wise be strong enough for them?

This is a fast, not to scale, drawing of what I had in mind for later.

 

[shady]

Stack 2×6's along the fenders (inside) so they re ramped for and aft and also taller than the fender. The tires will ride on the wood and not the fender.

Couple screws into the existing decking to secure the stack.

That's a pretty simple solution

I screw the stack all together right.? That wouldn't be too bad really...

 

[shady]

Make em removable. Just a matter of cutting them off and putting 1" angle on them to pin down. Imho that's better than drive overs

That doesn't hurt the trailer tires if your driving over/scrubbing them?
That I have the materials to do now actually.

 

[SpeedlabDan]

That doesn't hurt the trailer tires if your driving over/scrubbing them?
That I have the materials to do now actually.

I wouldn't drag machinery over them but if it's for your trail rig you won't hurt them tire on tire. You do worse off road. My buddy's trailer came with removable fenders that looks just like yours. I hauled my blazer back from Richmond VA and my Dually back from Erie PA with it. I guess it's a preference thing

 

[skunked]

Stack wood on the inside of the fenders like @Justin V mentioned

 

[shady]

I think I'll look at converting them to removable for now. I would like to make them drive over eventually just because they are weak as hell now. I busted 3 welds bumping them with my Crewcab when we unloaded it, and I'd like to be able to stand on them too.

I plan on taking the family out within the month. So ill use the 2x6 thing probably if I have them... I think there's enough stuff in the shop. Just because it's faster. Then make them removable until I can get the stuff for drive-overs, which may take quite a while.

 

[Justin V]

In reality the solution that works best is personal preference. My way means that small short cars are harder to haul. Removable fenders can be noisy and may break free if a tire lets go at speed. Building rails can add weight and may twist the existing frame rail over time if not properly braced. No one perfect solution here.

 

[sweetk30]

1 length of C-channel .

cut 2 sections out for the fenders . cut pie pieces from the sides and heat and bend to form 2 fenders .

weld these on .

add a good size gusset in the middle between the 2 tires and then paint them .

 

[shady]

Pretty much took care of the short term question I had .. thanks guys.

My only real wonder about the removable fender idea is possibly popping a bead on a trailer tire .
They have enough pressure in them that it would probably be fine though.

 

[skunked]

If you have to drive over the fenders it looks as if your trailer is too narrow too.

 

[shady]

Center of wheels is fine. But the bulge out past the rim would get into the fenders by an inch or 2 each side

 

[shady]

It has 9" wide rims with 0 offset and 13.5" tires.

The crewcab has stock steelies and tires. It had about 1"-2" of room on either side. So it'll be close, but enough to bend up these fenders. They are made of metal about as thick as a squarebody door skin lol. They barely hold me standing on them and even say not to right on em.

 

[SpeedlabDan]

Pretty much took care of the short term question I had .. thanks guys.

My only real wonder about the removable fender idea is possibly popping a bead on a trailer tire .
They have enough pressure in them that it would probably be fine though.

I seriously doubt that you would have a problem. In my experience you'll be fine.

 

[nvrenuf]

I'd go with the stacked lumber option. You could screw the lumber stack together but not to the deck, drill a couple of holes at each end and drop long 1/2" bolts through the bottom board (no nuts, just acting like a pin) and the deck to hold it in place but it would still be removable for other vehicles.

 

[Desert_K5]

If you can bend tubing just run a tube over both fenders and weld them to the fender mounts that come of the trailer?

 

[shady]

I thought about that option, but if I went that far I'd just make the ones I want.

I still need to mount my bender in the new shop, and I want to stand on them yet to.


The stacked wood will get me out to play this month. And I can look into other options later.

With the width of my truck after thinking about it, drive overs would set to wide for me to actually drive over anyway. It'd be more like "smoosh-betweens" lol. That would definitely destroy my current fenders though.

 

[6.2Blazer]

My temporary solution that became a permanent one was stacking wood 4x4's on the inside of the fenders. On my trailer 3 of them stacked were the perfect height to be just a tad higher than the fender, then I just cut each one off at an angle to make a decent ramp to drive over. I ran two lengths of 2x4's vertically on each side and screwed it into the 4x4 to hold them together, then ran a couple of bolts through the 4x4 and into the fenders to hold them in place. Having some sort of drive over fenders or ramps is a lot quicker and easier when loading and unloading versus having to remove fenders each time. On my 18' tandem axle trailer the weight distribution works out perfect if I drive the front tires over the fenders and pull the rears right up against the 4x4's.

The only downside to the drive over fender option is if you break something as it could be much harder to get loaded or unloaded. I've broken the steering (sheered all the bolts off the steering arm on the knuckle) and it was kind of a pain to get loaded as you need to be a little more precise to bet on the ramps, but even worse was breaking one front axle and being in 3wd. Got it loaded okay but had issues being backed off the trailer. When reversing you have to pull the front tires over the fenders/ramps and it would spin and slide the rear axle over to the side, finally had to pull it off the trailer with another truck. Overall my recommendation would be to have drive over fenders but also have the option to remove the fenders all together if needed.