Fabricating my own trailer cage

[J & D Greens]

Well I have finally started on my tool cage for my trailer. (I built my drop gate last season and posted some photo's of it in some one else's thread a few weeks ago) I am building since my trailer is home made and smaller than the regular 4x8's or any other regular measurement. Here are some Photo's of it so far.

[Coastal Lawn Maintenance]

it looks like you might need a bigger trailer that a real small trailer

[J & D Greens]

That is where I was as of last week, Here is some more shots of my progress.

[J & D Greens]

it looks like you might need a bigger trailer that a real small trailer

Maybe in a couple of years, but for now it holds everything I will need. I am going to put a plate over the spare tire for my Sthil back-pack blower, it holds two 21" mowers side by side and when I do my clean-ups I fit my Snapper in and pull my Billy-Goat Vac up backwards next to it, (I use the Snapper to suck up the rest of the debris after it is all raked up. And I use my Vac for all the concrete patio's and garden beds, ect. ect. ect. I don't have big yards and can get in and out with this tiny trailer attached to my Ford
F-150. Some day I will go for broke but for now I will make things as efficient as I can with minimal cost. David

[STIHL GUY]

looks good

[J & D Greens]

Thanks, I have been wanting to do this since the beginning but I just got my Mig Welder this winter and wanted to wait until all the taxes where dealt with before I jumped in.

[2brothersyardcare]

i wish i could weld but i get to learn next year

[Lawn Freak]

Looks like you do some good fab work. I agree with the others though, you need alot bigger of a trailer, you'll be amazed with all the options it opens up! But if it works for you thats cool too man, have fun!

[KrayzKajun]

thts alot of extra weight added to tht trailer!

great welding though:waving:

[Jason Rose]

Yes, that's a small trailer!

Yes, your cage looks good! Nice fab work!

And the biggie... Didn't anyone else notice the FENDERS on the trailer??? I have NEVER seen that done before, pretty ingenious I must say...

[J & D Greens]

Yes, that's a small trailer!

Yes, your cage looks good! Nice fab work!

And the biggie... Didn't anyone else notice the FENDERS on the trailer??? I have NEVER seen that done before, pretty ingenious I must say...

Ya isn't that the kicker. When I went to get this trailer it was the 2-1/2 ft.
sides and the fenders He had put on by cutting a wheel-barrow in half and
putting them over the tires. My buddy took one look at them and said that
they are not legal in Colorado, Maybe Nebraska but not here :nono: But I can't
complain $200.00 and it is rock solid for a small equipment trailer.

[4.3mudder]

Looks good, notice you have the same tripper trap rack as me. I hate those black pads the handles wrap into, they just don't seem to hold up. I finally got around to using electrical tape instead. lol

[Looking Good Lawn Service]

great ingenuity! You did a great job welding that cage together, when you are ready to get a bigger or better trailer you can build almost any option you want on it with your welding skill! Good luck with your new lil trailer

[J & D Greens]

Looks good, notice you have the same tripper trap rack as me. I hate those black pads the handles wrap into, they just don't seem to hold up. I finally got around to using electrical tape instead. lol

I went to my trusty Ace Hardware store and bought a half yard of pliable rubber about 1/8 inch thick.
and cut to fit replaced the hard plastic with it.
On the edger I needed it to be thicker anyway so I just added it to the existing one.
I like the rack a lot. David

[J & D Greens]

great ingenuity! You did a great job welding that cage together, when you are ready to get a bigger or better trailer you can build almost any option you want on it with your welding skill! Good luck with your new lil trailer

I was going to be eligible in a year, but with the economy the way it is
the company I work for is pushing to modify the Golden Eighty I have been
working 30 yrs. to get. so I'm not sure when would be the best time to
make move my move. My son starts high school next year and my daughter
college, we have discussed waiting four years until he is going to college
himself. With my sons' diabetes I don't want to spread myself to far away from our area.
I think in that amount of time.
I will have learned a lot on the business end of things.
I will feel a lot better when I know how to manage the $$$$$ that flow through this small venture.

[J & D Greens]

I finally got the chance to work on it more. (too many relatives visiting) so here it is, I still need to put my locking system on it and the back-pack blower plate with locking bar over the spare tire, also want to have something right between the trimmer heads and the cage for trimmer line. I know it's small but for me very practical. What do you guys think? David

[IMAGE]

looks good. Rock Solid!

[flatlander42]

I have one thing to point out...
Did you bevel where you welded? Because if you didn't, you may have ground off most of your strength. When you butt the angle like some of it is there is not much room for the weld to contact both pieces. I'm sure it will be fine, but usually that's why welds are left alone.
Good work otherwise! Looks great, and like it will function great for you!

[J & D Greens]

I have one thing to point out...
Did you bevel where you welded? Because if you didn't, you may have ground off most of your strength. When you butt the angle like some of it is there is not much room for the weld to contact both pieces. I'm sure it will be fine, but usually that's why welds are left alone.
Good work otherwise! Looks great, and like it will function great for you!

In some but very few places it was very hard to see the edge that I wanted to weld together. Those places I let cool a little while I took care of other welds, came back over them but didn't want to leave it to unsightly so I cleaned those up a little. I learned welding on ark-welders, I like the convenience of this mig-welder but it is some times very hard to see around the tip. I'll really have the hang of it once I'm done, but I won't need to weld anything for a very long time. I didn't take any chances on whether I got good penetration so for it's intended purpose it should do. Thanks David

[mowerdude777]

looks great

[Premier landscaping south]

Looks good my friend. I fab full time at a shop that builds chassis for varius NASCAR teams here in SC and I like to see people fab on thier own to save some bucks. Just a piece of advise on material. I'm not sure if you were just trying to match up trailer angle with your cage or you thought you need that much strengh. I would go with square 3/4 (.065) if you were going to try this agian on a future trailer. It will be plenty strong once constucted and would be less weight and cost less. My cost on a stick would be $13.60 for 24'. You might be looking at $25 or so retail, just a guess though. Hope this helps and keep up the good work my friend.

PLS

[J & D Greens]

Looks good my friend. I fab full time at a shop that builds chassis for varius NASCAR teams here in SC and I like to see people fab on thier own to save some bucks. Just a piece of advise on material. I'm not sure if you were just trying to match up trailer angle with your cage or you thought you need that much strengh. I would go with square 3/4 (.065) if you were going to try this agian on a future trailer. It will be plenty strong once constucted and would be less weight and cost less. My cost on a stick would be $13.60 for 24'. You might be looking at $25 or so retail, just a guess though. Hope this helps and keep up the good work my friend.

PLS
The reason the angle iron is this heavy is because I was using the cheapest stuff I could get. The metal place out here is also a recycling place, they have a used yard and you can buy new also. when I bought for my tailgate there was a lot of angle iron there in the recycle yard. At 20 cents a pound you can't go wrong. (for most of the angle I paid about $30.00 for what I used on the tailgate and enough for half of the cage.) the unfortunate thing was running out and they had no more used. It was $20 per stick for the new. Nice thing was they sold the expanded for $50.00 new. I figure that on my trailer the weight will actually stabilize it more than hurt it. Even though it is home made it is heavy duty for it's size and I don't for-see overloading it. It will mainly be used for my equipment. But I will use your advice on future projects if I can afford to use the best size for the job. I feel like Tim the tool man Tailor some times when I take on a project and go a little over board. If you look at my post on the tail-gate you will see I wanted it strong enough for any mower I might use in the future. Hey thank you for everything, David

[J & D Greens]

Oh buy the way the door to this where actually already put together as one full piece that my neighbor found a thought I could use on this. I just had to cut it in to the two sizes and take a piece of angle iron and cut it to fit the open ends. I think it may have been more work than making it from scratch but I do like the way it turned out.

[4.3mudder]

Looks awesome to me!

[J & D Greens]

Looks awesome to me!

Thanks, I was hoping that you won't mind me stealing your color scheme on your truck & trailer (Hunter Green), when I expand.

[4.3mudder]

Thanks, I was hoping that you won't mind me stealing your color scheme on your truck & trailer (Hunter Green), when I expand.

Well, you might steal it before I do. I still have not gotten i painted. I have to work on the fenders a little bit. I need to get my cage built for the front of mine. Steel is going to run around $150. But it will be well worth it.

[J & D Greens]

That is about what it would have cost if I bought new steel, but the used stuff save me a lot (just had to grind any area that I was going to weld). But I did end up short on the expanded metal and ended buying another 4X8 sheet just for about 2'X3' of it. But I will need it for the truck some day. i want to make side boards that way. Thanks for the compliment. and I won't be using the green until I buy another truck and trailer, so you win!

[4.3mudder]

Awesome, well, good luck to you this year.

[Kriz2ooo]

coolest fenders ever!!!

[J & D Greens]

coolest fenders ever!!!

Thanks, I wished I could take the credit for the but the previous owner put them on. But I wouldn't change them for the world. They are to much of a conversation piece.

[Kriz2ooo]

at least you are thinking with ingenuity in your other ideas like reusing that sign for sides and uying used scrap metal. Thats the way to make it in the business.

[J & D Greens]

Here are some photos of my cage. It is pretty much done. I just want to add trimmer line to it. I know this is small but for now it is all I need to take care of the size lawns I mow. I hope make my business larger in a couple of years.

[IHusky]

turned out real nice.

[J & D Greens]

Thank you, I was afraid after some of the comments that some guys made about using to heavy of material that it would be to much weight to add to the end of my F-150 without some thing to stabilize it. so I finally said what the heck and mounted it on. Turns out it hardly phased it and pulls nice and smooth. I am real happy with how it turned out. now the only cables I will need to lock equipment with is for the mowers. Working SOLO I need to be as care-full in securing things while making access as easy as possible. Again thanks, David

[Ben's Landscape]

The trailer turned out great David!! I really like the front box the you made. That would be a nice extra storage box for a bigger trailer. Good luck this year!!

[newjerseylandscaping]

nice trailer got pics of the other equipment?

[J & D Greens]

I really have not had time to take pictures of all my equipment until now. I will try to start a picture thread for my-self. But it might take me some time. Now that the season is done my wife just handed me a honey-dew list. I will be winterizing everything in the next week my be that will be a good time to take them. Thanks for the compliment on the trailer. It really does serve the purpose, David

[bobcat48]

Looks good.great job too you.looks great and nice equipment.

[newjerseylandscaping]

let us know when you start the thredwouldnt want to miss that

[jeffslawnservice]

I really have not had time to take pictures of all my equipment until now. I will try to start a picture thread for my-self. But it might take me some time. Now that the season is done my wife just handed me a honey-dew list. I will be winterizing everything in the next week my be that will be a good time to take them. Thanks for the compliment on the trailer. It really does serve the purpose, David

I feel your pain with the honey to do list. After finals this comming week i am of for a month and my mom handed me a list of things to get done before christmas. Looks like my season just got extended. But definitly start a picture thread, would definitly like to see some more work pics. And by the way how did your season go? Any big plans for ext year?

[newjerseylandscaping]

I got a list once, haha no i just do things all the time, im curently doing christmas lights and getting snow blower ready.

[dustinnice]

could you post up a link to the thread with the drop gate pictures in it?

[J & D Greens]

could you post up a link to the thread with the drop gate pictures in it?

I don't have any pictures of us doing the drop gate in stages, (my neighbor helped me with it and I did not take any photos. But when I take some pictures of all my stuff for my Pict. thread I will take as many photos detailing it as much as I can. I gotta say it turned out way better than I had anticipated, and by shear luck I realized a way to make the locking set-up real slick, (one lock secures both sides of the gate solidly).

[dustinnice]

will you post up a link here to that thread when it is created? or pm me or whatever. Gate looks great from the pictures you have. interested in seeing the locking setup also. nice work.

[newjerseylandscaping]

If you dont post it please pm me as well, would like to look trough it.

[J & D Greens]

I just went out and got the photos of the gate. here is the link
http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?p=3822166&posted=1#post3822166
here is another link of photos I took in more detail of the blower rack
http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?p=3357452#post3357452