Thread: Building an Off-Road trailer

Those independent trailer axles appear to be well (if a little over) engineered. Just the thing for hauling along behind the Mog.

That mint 4 hundy with all the bling either doesn't get ridden much, or has a fastidious owner

My 5 hundy was the old twin shock model.

Originally Posted by Mistral

Anyone of you engineering/fabrication types had much to do with ally trailers? I've seen some big boats, around 7-8mtr on ally trailers, what's the thinking on how well they last? And it's life includes getting dragged around off road by a Unimog.
It's not going to be a winch truck, but we won't be babying it either.

Mistrial,

If it was me for an offroad trailer I would go with steel framing. Steel preforms better in cyclical loading and long term fatigue life, less prone to cracking.

Aluminum although lighter and way better for corrosion doesn't have an endurance limit and will be more likely fatigue crack , especially if it gets repeating high loads/stress (think driving over potholes). In addition welding also affects/weakness the properties of Aluminum more so than welding steel.

Even though boats and aircraft frames are made from Aluminum they don't tend to be loaded to max cyclical load range and aircraft frames are typically riveted not welded.

As we use Aluminum more I am sure design will catch up and allow for the shortfalls, the Aluminum boat trailers I now see on the road all have larger structural members than equivalent steel trailers.

Cheers FBD

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Yeah thinking ally was probably a lazy way of saving a bit of weight. With 900nm of torque the Mog doesn't notice a bit more trailer.
Maybe I'll suck it up, use chrome moly to make it a bit stronger & lighter. Buy once cry once.
I'm always looking for lighter for off road, but having a trailer that is fragile isn't the right path!

If you can afford it, Chrome Moly would have to be the way to go. The amount of abuse the 15kg chrome moly frame of my enduro dirt bike can take with 130kg aboard over all sorts of humps and jumps is truly mind numbing.

Have you seen the kaweka black ridge chassis on tm?

Originally Posted by blip

Have you seen the kaweka black ridge chassis on tm?

Yeah had a chat with them, it's too lightweight for what I'm after.

Mild steel then get hot dip galved best possible way to go strong can build it reasonably light or heavy depending on the design and hot dip means like what 20years corrosion free if you hose it down after use. It's by far the best way to go.