Lawn trailer modifications

[OldRedFord]

With all the hand tools I have bought lately I wanted somewhere to lock them up besides just having them lay in the bed of my truck. Just too easy for stuff like that to grow legs. So I decided i would build a cage for the front of my 6x12 trailer. The cage is 54" tall and 80" wide. The cage part is 24" x 24" x 80." The whole thing sits atop the 12" tall side rails on the trailer and is secured with grade 8 bolts. The hinges I used for the door are tamper proof. Today I finished welding up the frame for the cage. Everything was nice and square until I decided it needed more welds. Should have left it well enough alone. The door bows in along the bottom now after I welded the hinges to it. Also has a bow at the top where I welded up the hasp for the pad lock. The legs are twisted at the bottom from side to side so the look like \ \ from the top. The odd part there is they twisted equally from front to back. So that at the front of the cage across the trailer you get 80.5" and from the back of the cage across the trailer you get the same measurement. The cage is mounted to the trailer with four grade 8 bolts. As far as putting the mesh on the frame of the cage... That part went well. The only hick-up was I miscalculated how much I would need to box in the two 24" x 24" ends. I had to use two pieces to do those on each side. 19" x 23.5" and 5" x 23.5." The largest scrap pieces I had were not wide enough to get it in one piece. After all that I painted it semi-gloss black to match the trailer.

[Hedgemaster]

Lawn care business tips

That's awesome. I don't even HAVE a trailer yet and I've been thinking of stuff like that. Putting it "off the floor" keeps that space available - I like it.

[MountainViewGreenskeeper]

Seems a little high but might be for the better. Did same thing but also put 4ft sides on the rest the trailer.

[Steve]

That is awesome! Have you road tested it yet? Does it feel like there is more drag or does it sway at all?

If you could re-do it, what would you do differently?

[workdog]

Great job!

[LawnMoore]

The first thing i would do, is use some paint skills on that picture of your license plate.. We dont want anyone having that information.

So just a reminder, attack the picture with paint the program on cpu. and then resubmit it. If you have any problems lmk and i will help ya.

And the trailr box is excellent, what it cost you in materials?

[Chachi]

Nice job. saved a lot of money making that yourself. Wish I had a welder lol.

[OldRedFord]

I have about $230 in materials. Two solid afternoons of work in it.

I added a pretty slick feature to it today. I went down to Lowes and got a bunch of eye bolts. I was just using bunjee cords and hooking them into the holes in the mesh. They were hard to remove so I needed a better way. So with the eye bolt, I have a nut and 1" wide flat washer with a 1/4" opening on one side, then on the other side same flat washer again, split washer and a nut.

Now I have the ultimate in unlimited choices to put hooks in the cage to tie things down.

[DillonB92]

That looks really good! Where did you get the mesh and the frame pieces?

[Hedgemaster]

OK, don't laugh - blatantly noob question, but what do you (anyone) do when it rains? Just let your stuff get soaked?

I'm assuming the answer is "yes", otherwise everyone would have enclosed trailers.



Also, thanks for posting the pics. It gives me something to think about (in regards to what equipment will fit) knowing that yours is a 12' trailer. I was thinking of an 8' or 10' to start with.