16 foot Trailer Project

I bought the trailer in June of 1996 for $400 at moving sale on old Hwy 99. The Deck was OK but the sides and front were a flimsy combination of split 1" boards and delaminated interior plywood. 2 tires were flat, it had no spare and wiring was a mess. The deck is 7' 11" x 16' 1" and 33" above ground. In 2000 I built new sides, front and back gate (2x6 T&G bolted to 2" steel pipe) and added an old 2 speed wench. It served me well till 2005 when I parked it and put it on the to-fix list due to deck board rot.

6/17/15
The last few weeks Martin (my helper) and I have been working on my 16' trailer (Allie, granddaughter #3, helped also). It's been sitting for 10 years because the deck boards were in need of replacement. I rented a trailer to take my tractor up to Margaret's farm, now I need it here and I need it there every other week to keep the place mowed. So instead of spending almost $100 each direction on rental I figured for a few hundred I could get mine back on the road. What started as a quick "replace the deck boards" turned into a "total rebuild" - I can't help myself.

• Pressure washed Sides, Front & Back to strip off loose paint and blowout patches of rotted wood.
• Removed Sides, Front & Back and put in barn to dry.
• Stripped off old rotted deck and Pressure washed frame.
• Painted Frame with Rustoleum Hunter Green.

• Rebuilt brakes (front 2 & back 2 - mid 2 were beyond easy repair).
• Packed wheel bearings with grease.
• Demounted 4 flat tires, ground rust off rim seat and remounted, for 3 spares
  (2 of which later lost pressure).
• Painted wheel rims, hubs and mud flaps Rustoleum Sunburst Yellow.

• Welded 2x2x1/4 steel angle across back of frame then bolted 3"x1/4" steel plate inside it to get the right height for the ramp hooks to hang on.
• Cut and cleaned chains for securing the front of the ramps on deck during transport.
• Bought the Lite Product inc. ramps for $350 at a garage sale in 1998. They are 11.5' long, 14" wide and rated for 4,000 lbs each.

• Built new electrical interface box to house the terminal strip that interfaces the cable from the truck to the 4 cables that serve the trailer lights and brakes.
• Replaced all wiring including new plug for hooking to truck.
• 2 new tail light assemblies with integral license plate light.
• Built new license plate bracket.
• 2 new running lights (saved 4 old running lights).

• Remounted the winch (welded vs bolted support structure).
• Painted winch Rustoleum Sunburst Yellow.
• The winch is a very old 2 speed hand crank with releasable ratchet. I think I got it at a farm auction about 20 years ago. It has about 40' of 5/16" aircraft grade cable which feeds through a steel guide I mounted in the bottom of the trailer front.

• Built 3/4" ply tool box for front of trailer and welded 1x1 angle frame to mount it.
• Glued and screwed plywood box together.
• Drain holes in each bottom corner and aluminum "gutter" under lid joint.
• A coil spring pops straight to hold lid up (push it off-center to close lid).
• Hand fashioned padlock ring with sloping bottom lip so the hasp pulls the lid down tight as its closed.
• Hinges and hasp are from Dads stash of stuff I took over when he passed on.
• 3/4" plywood was salvaged in 1990 from Shilshole Bay marina when they were "upgrading" the Docks (replacing all the still solid old growth wood components with new inferior grade pressure treated lumber).

• New Pressure Treated 2x4's were painted Hunter Green and bolted to the steel deck joists.
• Deck boards were cut to length and painted Hunter Green (thanks Allie).
• The deck boards are 2x6 tight grain old growth fir. I bought them 18 years ago and set aside for this purpose (former flat roof decking of a very old factory building, I got them full of nails and covered in tar and tar paper - Trish and I spent weeks cleaning them up. Most of the shop upstairs floor is also decked with them).
• Cut 2-1/8" holes (5 in each edge board) to fit over the side stake tubes.
• Screwed deck boards to 2x4 joists with 3" #10 deck screws (18 per board - total over kill). Each board was clamped in position, predrilled for screws, unclamped, mating T&G repainted, repositioned, clamped to its neighbor, clamped to the joist and screwed in place.
• After all deck boards were installed the deck was de-splintered, sweep clean, blown clean and repainted with attention to filling all the screw holes.

• Replaced rotted top board of the front, painted and installed.
• Added keeper bolt to left end of the front.
• Moved left spare tire mount to center position because the tire interfered with the toolbox lid.
• Removed right spare tire mount because the tire interfered with the wench handle swing.

• Cut, cleaned, painted yellow, a new hitch safety chain.
• Painted yellow a 6' section of 2" plastic pipe to stand in the aft corner stake hole (so I can see where the trailer rear corner is while backing into tight spots)

• Replaced rotted top board on one side and 2 short sections on the other side panel.
• Painted sides and tail gate.

Final Product ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~

20 June 2015:

First haul with "New" trailer. Brought Tractor back home from Maggies Farm. Everything worked great, except one of the 4 chain binders holding the tractor came loose (hook on one end is a bit wide for the 5/16" chain I was using). The tongue was a bit light so I need to move the center of mass forward on future runs.

Update - 2024 ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~
After several runs to Maggies Farm with Tractor (100 mile round trip), I sold the farm in Sept.2015. Trailer was parked with rear gate propped open and front elevated so rain would run out. Mar. 2022 I noted hitch had fallen off blocks and nose was down. Inside was at least 7 inches of standing water and 3 inches of tree shed (not good for wood deck or sides). After clean out and new nose blocks, I built frame from PVC water pipe and covered with HD tarp. Works great.