Welding Trailer 101... time for a ck5 critique

[camiswelding]

This is my second welding trailer,,, using the mistakes I made on the first one this one better fits my needs... Im close to finishing now,,, some wiring and a second knack box and it will be ready... It took me about 3 months to build it out working part time on it

It has
A ranger 9 gas driven welder
An LN25 GMAW box setup for both innershield and solid steel wire
A stick electrode stinger
250 feet of working cable,,, 250 more in storage
A 12hp air compressor,,, just like my shop one except this ones gas,,, good for 175psi
Reels for air and oxy acetelene
Jerry can for gas, 5 gallon backpack fire pump, lots of fire extinguishers (here in the dry areas welders seem to start a lot of fires and burn down houses)
Oxy/ Acetelene/ Arg-Co2 bottles
Tool boxes with enough stuff to fab anything anywhere
Racks that can hold 20 foot long pieces of material
12 volt lights, 110volt floods, wired for 110v with plugs on all corners... setup to plug into external house power or the ranger 9
The one knack box has drills/saws/tube bender etc etc etc
The second one (not currently installed) will hold the ln25 and some welding stuff

Its wired and setup for a rear hitch to tandem tow,,, and for a handy attachment point for the bender

I still need to make a steel rear deck to weld on...

The trailer is 14 feet long, 3500 pound tandem axles with brakes on all wheels... lots of side and backup lights because at night everything seems to jump out and crash into me

I put the weight over the axles,,, it tows like its not even there

So men.... time for critique... did I miss anything???

Flame on

Welderman

ps I weighed the thing BEFORE it was outfitted,,, that saved on dmv

 

[UseYourBlinker]

Make sure you lock that up!!

 

[neverendingproject]

Yes its a POS, and im gonna come get it out of your way.

But really, that is one of the nicest rigs ive seen. Really good work. Just add a bottle opener on the fender and your ready to go.
Two thumbs up from me.

 

[protechk5]

Make sure you lock that up!!

yeah whats ur address so i can check it out

 

[85burbanator]

deffinatly park that thing inside. looks really good and clean. did you build the actual trailer as well? looks cool.

 

[camiswelding]

yep... built the trailer,,, that was the hardest part....well except for like a mile of wiring.... I looked at trailer designs for months,,, my first one was single axle, 8k pound axle,,, it was scary to tow because I didnt get the weight right,,, I had used a service body and put a frame under it... some old farmer saw it and bought it immediately for a shop rig for his ranch

Theft would be a problem if I left it anywhere... the knack/tool boxes will lock up the good stuff... I used high security bolts on the bottle rack and all the bolts holding anything on are tacked.... theyd have to take my truck too... and damn if Ill ever be far from it if the trailer is hooked up
and it stays in my shop...

I really built it to make some money fabbing locally... just ck5 stuff... it would never be out of sight

 

[afroman006]

Where will you put full 8x4 sheets of metal?

 

[camiswelding]

the rack up top is spaced to fit 4 x 8 sheets... with tie downs... then I can forklift them off pretty easily

good obs!!!

thanks

cam

 

[diesel4me]

Real nice work and setup!...

That looks like a lot of time and effort went into it,and a fair bit of planning too!..only thing I see you could add would be sides,a roof,and a Porta-Potti. .---and of course the beer opener!..maybe you could use the compressor's gas motor to also run a 110v generator,if your welder lacks that feature..or a 12V GM altenator to charge batteries, and jump start other vehicles..

I have a huge 2 stage 2 cyl. air compressor with a 7.5 hp 3 phase electric motor,that puts out about 50 cfm..I tried putting a 25 hp Onan twin gas motor on it,but even that didn't seem to have enough power to run it right..it was going to be a bit complicated to make a gas engine work right on it..(and no 3 phase power available on my street,and I couldn't afford to pay the electric bill even if there was!).

I was going to make a portable sandblasting rig on a trailer out of it,but I ended up putting the electric motor back on it,and I'm going to sell it instead..I looked into the sandblasting bussiness more closely..its easy to make a lot of cash fast,but you also need to pull permits,be insured,etc..decided not to pursue it..I'd love to have it just for my own use at home,but I won't use it enough to justify making it..

..NICE JOB on your setup though!..

 

[GotBoykins]

If I win the lotto, Ill take that off your hands. That is dang nice!

 

[cybrfire]

Looks pretty awesome!

 

[perp]

is that a lift gate on the side?

Looks good to me!

 

[perp]

Doah! knack box, i saw the triangle and the rack rail and oops. no lift gate, still real cool though

 

[kgblazerfive]

Spare Tire?

Really looks nice though sounds like you planned it out well

 

[cbbr]

That looks great.

 

[camiswelding]

Havent mounted a spare... yet..
the front tongue is still wide open.... I was waiting to weigh it before I put a tire there... but seat of the pants says no problem... I could also mount one on one of the rack uprights...

Can you imagine leaving that thing on the side of the 5 freeway with one flat...when you came back everything would be gone but the flat tire

good feedback... thanks

cam

 

[steve_kibbe]

Might want two spares

I'm curious as to its current weight, let us know when you weigh it.

 

[surpip]

Just add a bottle opener on the fender and your ready to go.

haha for what?
his soy milk bottles?

 

[botboy]

Looks nice, damn nice, way nicer than the setup I have built around my Ranger 10-LX. Only a few things I'd add:

- Reels for welding cable - I know live reels are expensive, but with reels for air/ox/acetyl I'm sure I'd get lazy, and reels are nice to have. If not, dead reels just to wind up cable faster. I plan on making a set of my own for my rig at some point in the future (prolly after I get my miller tig setup working right)
- transformer, so the welder can run the 12V lights around the trailer if the truck isn't hooked up/turned on
- Lots of 120V cord & maybe a couple power strips
- a dual 500W tripod light in case you can't get the floods close enough to the job.

That said, looks kick-ass and blows mine out of the water. I wish I could make enough with my welding rig to justify something along those lines...but for now I gotta finish up my 22' car/truck hauling trailer (based around a reinforced 4-pl snowmobile deck, towmaster T-14 axles/brakes)

Also, I'm planning on throwing some LED lights over the front of my ranger to light up the control panel at night since I do a lot of fab work after my day job, and the sun goes down pretty early here in MN, and I can run LED's off the welder battery without posing a significant drain.

 

[camiswelding]

led lighting is definately the schnizint way to to...

I purposefully set the rig up with a trailer connector from the tow rig to the trailer that powers its 12 volt source... (used 6 ga plugs)... this way I can use the vehicles batteries (which are wired not to go below 12 volts drain) and not have to maintain a third battery on the trailer... also keeps knuckleheads from trying to start the machines if I dont want them to do so.. and from asking if they can just borrow it for a "small job"

The ranger provides 10k /50 amps ac power...

I carry about 250 feet of 12 ga 3 gang electrical cord.. the same in single... if Im any farther then that I probably dont want to be doing that job.... I cant see fabbing on a rolled truck 500 feet down the bottom of a canyon :-)