Building an Aluminum Gooseneck Trailer

[KenB925]

A couple months ago a couple of buddies and I started playing with crawlers. I got a trx6, then a trx4. One of the other guys is building an awesome crawler playground in his back yard.

I thought it would be pretty cool to see a gooseneck trailer towing a crawler behind the 6x6

So, here it is.

The perimeter is 1” x 1” x 1/8” angle, the cross supports are 1/4” x 1/4” bar. The main frame rails will be 2” x 1/8” flat bar and i’m going to make the hitch out of aluminum round bar and tube.

I’m welding it up with a spool gun, tig would be cleaner, but I don’t have a tig machine...yet...

I’m going to do some standalone lights on it.

It will be able to haul 2 crawlers, or one crawler and some beer.

 

[72square]

Looks awesome. Sub'd

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[christ0r]

I was actually wanting to do the same thing. I'll be keeping a close eye on this!

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[JacktheRipper]

Good start, looks huge on the saw horses. Not to nick pink so do not take it as a slam. Aluminum good choice, what's used to hold things together?

Look over the hitch, the design seen below helps stability and turning, backing.

https://www.gatormade.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/02hydraulicdovetail.jpg

No matter I'll will be check out the progress as build it, like the idea good one

Pep

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Welcome to the site! Very cool start to your trailer.

 

[KenB925]

Good start, looks huge on the saw horses. Not to nick pink so do not take it as a slam. Aluminum good choice, what's used to hold things together?

Look over the hitch, the design seen below helps stability and turning, backing.

https://www.gatormade.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/02hydraulicdovetail.jpg

No matter I'll will be check out the progress as build it, like the idea good one

Pep

It does look pretty big, but much smaller and I think it would look silly/not to scale, the real ones are huge.


It is fully welded, part of the reason I decided to do this is to weld aluminum again (it has been about 15 years since I have done any aluminum welding).


Thanks for the link, I have been looking at 'real' gooseneck trailers, and I'm going to pretty much copy the real hitch set up.

 

[KenB925]

Welcome to the site! Very cool start to your trailer.

Thanks!

 

[KenB925]

I made a bit of progress tonight. I got the frame rails fitted and welded in. I made templates out of cardboard, then cut them out of aluminum.

I clamped it back into the jig, i used a piece of 4” channel to set the spacing between the rails and keep everything straight.

 

[JacktheRipper]

Looking good, coming along nicely.

Pep

 

[Lashlee]

Great looking trailer. I want to do something similar. What is your plan for axles?

 

[KenB925]

Great looking trailer. I want to do something similar. What is your plan for axles?

Thanks!

I found these on amazon, then added some wheel spacers to get where i needed to be.

 

[KenB925]

A bit more progress. I got the ride height figured out, assembles the axles with wheel spacers, did more welding and ran out of battery in the grinder and patience to dress my welds.

I made a hitch ball out of some round aluminum bar.

I had to order some bolts for the axles, home depot didn’t have any small enough.

 

[Lashlee]

Awesome, that the same axles I've looked at before. I'll definitely be following your lead later on. Keep up the good work!

 

[KenB925]

Awesome, that the same axles I've looked at before. I'll definitely be following your lead later on. Keep up the good work!

They are very nice quality pieces, a little narrow, but the wheel spacers work perfectly with them.


The bolts/machine screws they need are small, #4 (if you are shopping).


I should be able to have it functioning this weekend.

 

[Trailmonster]

I thought it looked big in the first few pics. Once I saw the trucks on it and the axles under it I think it looks fantastic! Very true to life appearance. I’ll be watching to see the finished product. I’m also impressed with your progress, I have a hard time getting enough hands on to get through a project like that as quick as I would like.

 

[KenB925]

Well, I had a couple of delays waiting for fasteners, mother’s day, my anniversary, and an injured kid. Now, back to the important stuff!

I got fully functionally assembled, I made the hitch and took it for a test drive.

I may need some denser foam in the trailer tires (not really a surprise), other then that it couldn’t have worked much better.

 

[JimInMiami]

Awesome, bloody well done!

 

[KenB925]

Awesome, bloody well done!

Thanks!


Deck, lights, and making it pretty are all thats left.


The only modification to the TRX6 is one hole in the bed, and one hole in the body mount to through bolt back of the hitch plate. The two front screws went into factory holes.

 

[KenB925]

Well, after losing interest for a little while I finally put a deck on the trailer. I was going to do wood, but this plastic will be better. I ended up heating it a forming it instead of cutting.

 

[Levi]

Looks awesome. Always nice to make something if you can. Now you just need some yeti jr's or something on it lol.