Still waiting for the axles, wheels and trailer accessories, but they will be here soon enough. Yesterday the special order experimental water jet cut parts arrived, and they look awesome.Īll the steel is cut and ready for the trailer build. Hurray! Experimental Trailer Build Parts Arrived I have to admit, I did access a plasma cutter to finish it. It was not easy, it’s not that pretty, yet with hand tools I did much of it. The temptation was certainly to drop it off for CNC cutting at my favorite machine shop, but in the spirit of DIY, I decided to muscle through it just to see how difficult it is for someone that does not have access to high cost CNC’s or plasma cutting. Really, the right solution is a plasma cutter. Starting with a hacksaw (manual), a hack saw (pneumatic), a die-grinder (abrasive blade) and a diamond edge disk on an angle grinder. The rest was done by pulling out several tricks for cutting steel. However, since the chop saw is such a wonderful tool for removing metal quickly and accurately, I did use it from the ends as deep as the 15″ blade would go. As you can see in the image, the cut is generally along the axis of the tube, so a chop saw is not a viable option. Some designs are so simple to draw, but so obnoxious to build, and these parts are just that. I love the clash where designer meets fabricator. There are 2 special pieces for the experimental suspension that require a bunch more attention. OK, not all the cutting is as simple as above. Straight cuts go quickly, but special, and especially steep angles with left and right take time to think about, set up and cut correctly. It took 5 hours to cut all the pieces (most was spent setting up and cutting special angles). That’s great, except I don’t have space to store 24′ sticks in the garage, so the first step is to pull out the chop saw and get to cutting. Most of the steel comes in 20′ and 24′ sticks. Standard stuff for the trailer build like the steel, wheels, tires, etc come through our regular local suppliers. For those in Europe, with get you all set up. Also, Big Blue Saw manufacturers in the USA (which is good for me for shipping). I’m not a fan of internet ordering, but at a fraction of the price with twice as fast service, it’s hard to argue. Several custom shape parts for the suspension, tongue and hitch experiments come from a water jet cutter - Big Blue Saw. Anyway, I need to understand that relationship, because if Redneck is a distributor, why do they sell to me cheaper? Not sure. That doesn’t make sense unless Dexter won’t deal with smaller suppliers. I contacted local trailer parts suppliers, and found they order through Redneck with a surcharge. In a future post I’ll explain the new suspension concepts, but for now, we’ll leave it at ordering a pair of Dexter Torflex axles through Redneck Supply. First, the longer lead items (like axles and custom fabrication parts). With the design complete and the analysis done, it’s time to order parts.
These two CAD packages don’t play well with each other.) Materials For The Trailer Build
(Summary: After doing it, I don’t recommend the mix and match. The new suspension concepts are from Pro/Engineer and the frame weldments are from SolidWorks. It’s an experiment on the interpretability of working with the two together.
Project cars go trailer software#
We have found SolidWorks does very well with simple things like weld structures, squares, rounds and the like, even if the software sucks for complex geometry.įor the sake of a new learning experience, this new trailer design is a mix of both Pro/E and SolidWorks. Usually we do only Pro/Engineer, but this trailer build is an experiment on many levels, so this time it’s SolidWorks too.
Project cars go trailer full#
Completing the DesignĪll our trailer designs are done with full 3D CAD (a sort of virtual reality). Here’s the current status as of February 10, 2018. In our last post on The Economics of DIY Projects we hinted about testing some new concepts and the cost of creating them. Especially for some of the experimental new concept features. The trailer build is going well, and we thought you might have interest in following the progress.
Project cars go trailer update#
Update on building a new design specialty utility trailer.
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