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This is a long, boring, tedious post. Please skip it if you don't have patience for digging into a creative mechanical problem.
As a suburban dad, some 5 years ago I embarked on a project to build a deck and other things on the back of our house and as a part of the project, one critical tool I bought was a Harbor Freight 4x8 folding utility trailer. I figure I'd need a way to move materials to complete the project without ruining my almost-new Wrangler Unlimited. Turns out I have used this trailer a whole lot since then. Just this last week we used it to haul gravel, dirt, mulch, and concrete paving stones. In the past two months I've used it to haul junk from my garage cleanup project and two loads of tree branches and brush from the snowmageddon fallout, plus bringing home my gigantic tool chest. I basically use this for anything most of you would use a full size pickup truck for, but I prefer it over a truck because it's much lower to the ground and of course I don't have a truck. All this to say, this particular trailer has been the right one, the right size, and very usable for us. But now that it's about 5 years old, it's time for me to do some rebuilding and refurbishing so I thought I'd ask the smart folks here for some input.
Here's the crux of my problem. Our house sits about 10 or 12 ft above the street grade. Our driveway is about a 20% grade. That's steep, y'all. Given our HOA rules, I have to store the trailer out of sight. So I use the folding feature to store it upright and folded against the privacy fence on one side of the house. The routine for me to get the trailer down and use it is to roll out on the casters in folded form along the paved walkway out from the side of the house to the first big flat paved spot, then set it down and unfold it, and then by hand I have to haul it down the driveway and finish assembling it on the street (putting the sides on, etc.). When I am finished with it, the reverse, which includes pulling it by hand up the driveway at great effort. It's just heavy enough with only the decking on it (3/4" PT plywood) that it barely doesn't run me over going down the driveway and even though I am pretty strong and fit, it is just almost my limit to pull it up the driveway. I can't do this if the driveway is wet, my feet can't get enough traction on the pavement to take it up or down.
OK. So there's a problem I am trying to solve. My opportunity to solve it is at hand since I need to take it apart to service the wiring, replace one broken light, wire-wheel some rust, replace some rusted fasteners and repaint it. I will probably replace the decking while I am at it, since I will have to take the old decking off and might as well put something new on there.
To make it easier to handle getting in and out of the back yard, I already upgraded the casters to much larger ones to roll more easily over the paving stones in the side yard where it sits. I think if I could reduce the weight any at all it would greatly improve my ability to move it while it's folded.
OK so here is the project list where I would like some input:
Sorry for the drawn out post.
As a suburban dad, some 5 years ago I embarked on a project to build a deck and other things on the back of our house and as a part of the project, one critical tool I bought was a Harbor Freight 4x8 folding utility trailer. I figure I'd need a way to move materials to complete the project without ruining my almost-new Wrangler Unlimited. Turns out I have used this trailer a whole lot since then. Just this last week we used it to haul gravel, dirt, mulch, and concrete paving stones. In the past two months I've used it to haul junk from my garage cleanup project and two loads of tree branches and brush from the snowmageddon fallout, plus bringing home my gigantic tool chest. I basically use this for anything most of you would use a full size pickup truck for, but I prefer it over a truck because it's much lower to the ground and of course I don't have a truck. All this to say, this particular trailer has been the right one, the right size, and very usable for us. But now that it's about 5 years old, it's time for me to do some rebuilding and refurbishing so I thought I'd ask the smart folks here for some input.
Here's the crux of my problem. Our house sits about 10 or 12 ft above the street grade. Our driveway is about a 20% grade. That's steep, y'all. Given our HOA rules, I have to store the trailer out of sight. So I use the folding feature to store it upright and folded against the privacy fence on one side of the house. The routine for me to get the trailer down and use it is to roll out on the casters in folded form along the paved walkway out from the side of the house to the first big flat paved spot, then set it down and unfold it, and then by hand I have to haul it down the driveway and finish assembling it on the street (putting the sides on, etc.). When I am finished with it, the reverse, which includes pulling it by hand up the driveway at great effort. It's just heavy enough with only the decking on it (3/4" PT plywood) that it barely doesn't run me over going down the driveway and even though I am pretty strong and fit, it is just almost my limit to pull it up the driveway. I can't do this if the driveway is wet, my feet can't get enough traction on the pavement to take it up or down.
OK. So there's a problem I am trying to solve. My opportunity to solve it is at hand since I need to take it apart to service the wiring, replace one broken light, wire-wheel some rust, replace some rusted fasteners and repaint it. I will probably replace the decking while I am at it, since I will have to take the old decking off and might as well put something new on there.
To make it easier to handle getting in and out of the back yard, I already upgraded the casters to much larger ones to roll more easily over the paving stones in the side yard where it sits. I think if I could reduce the weight any at all it would greatly improve my ability to move it while it's folded.
OK so here is the project list where I would like some input:
- Decking options lighter than 3/4" plywood. The frame has openings that are about 2' x 4' with no reinforcements between, so whatever I put here has to be strong enough to span those spaces without undue bending or breaking. I would seriously consider galvanized expanded metal mesh but I am afraid it would bend over the 2x4 ft span, although I could reinforce it with angle if needed. At a minimum I think I am going with 5/8" or 1/2" plywood next time. I'm open to other ideas.
- Sides. My current sides are 16" high made from 1/2" PT plywood with PT 2x4s to fit in the pockets on the edges of the trailer. They are warped and a huge pain to use. The corners don't hold together well. There's no good way to do the "tail gate". I need a whole new idea. Here's where maybe making one foot high sides from galvanized expanded metal and some angle like you use to hang garage door openers for framing would maybe work very well, hooking them to the trailer using hinges that can be easily separated. Remember I have to completely remove and install these sides every time I use the trailer, and like the trailer they are stored up the hill on a storage rack at the back of my house.
- I need to add some hooks to the frame to attach ratchet straps. When I build new sides I will put hooks on to attach a cargo net. Suggestions for what kind of hooks will work best for this?
- I have a big plastic tool box I want to mount to the trailer on the tongue, but it needs to be a quick release on off kind of thing. Ideas for how to mount something like this? Again, we're concerned with adding weight to the trailer.
- Pretty sure I am going to get a trailer dolly to help me move this thing up and down the driveway, but I need a more complete solution.
- There's no way a powered trailer dolly would have enough traction on the driveway to be useful.
- Mounting a winch to the floor/wall of the garage to pull the trailer. The trailer is rated for about 1100 lb so the entire thing loaded would only be 1500lb or less, and pulling that on wheels up a 20% grade is only like 300-400 lb of actual load on a winch. A 1500lb ATV winch would work perfectly for this. Problem is steering it.
- Before you guys suggest I just learn to back it up the driveway attached to the Jeep, the problem with this is that there is no flat spot large enough to unload the trailer with it attached to the Jeep. I'd have to back the entire trailer into the garage, which only has one-car wide openings and doesn't have enough empty space to put the trailer in. When I pull it up manually, I have to turn it 90 degrees so it's perpendicular to the garage door opening. I can't do that with a car. And I still am not sure the hitch could handle the articulation necessary to make the breakover angles on and off a 20% grade.
- Trailer mounted manual winch would require someone to crank it and someone else to steer the trailer dolly. Electric winch would add too much weight. I would consider a way to temporarily mount an AC-powered electric winch like on a 1-1/4" receiver bolted to the front frame of the trailer, running on a long extension cord. Then I could hook it to anything and pull it up, like a ring on the fence post or the garage floor.
- Any other ideas, I'm all ears. I would be able to use this trailer a lot more if it was not such a monumental effort to get it up and down my driveway.
- Of course I would consider trading this for a different trailer. I'm tempted to just sell it as-is and buy an aluminum 4x8 trailer with permanently attached low sides and just modify it to make it possible to tilt it to its side and roll it into the back yard. I could even just build some kind of dolly to hold a trailer in this upright-sideways position and pull it along, kind of like a stretch limo version of a garden cart.
Sorry for the drawn out post.
