101A2 Adventure Trailer

Welded some of the new supports this morning, but the weather was to nice to pass up working outside, so I am currently outside doing brakes and bearings. Pics to follow!

Today I made the new legs for the rack. I decided I liked the curved legs like the ones in the photo. The pipe I’m using was bought at auction. It is 6’ 4” long and meant to be used as a cross member or crossbar on a military vehicle or trailer.

So I bent 10 pieces of pipe. With a 10* inward slope or 80* bend at the top. Since they are short, I had to use two pieces to make one complete arch across the trailer. I had to cut them and weld them together to make 5 sets of arches.

Anyone who has done this knows how easy it is to weld pipe together and make it perfectly straight. So I made a wooden jig on my workbench to lay them out to make the cuts perfect.

Lay the other section on top and mark it.

Cut it and test for fit before I clean it and weld it.

No pictures of my pipe welding today. I won’t subject your eyes to that, or me to that kind of scrutiny. It wasn’t a good welding day. It was a good grinding day. Lots of grinding. But the jig worked really well. Only one didn’t turn out perfectly straight. The first one. I’ll sort that one out later, next time I light the torch.

I set a leg up on the trailer just to see what it would look like and since I leveled the trailer, and chopped the bottom of the legs level, it stayed, so I put all 5 up. They are not spaced perfectly, but you get the idea.

I am happy with how they turned out. I’ll finish the roof rack, mark the spacing for the legs, tack them in place, and then set the rack on top. I have a significant amount of bracing that will need to be done, legs to base, and legs to rack and a pile of design decisions that are still not complete, but so far, so good.

I use the age old saying...



Grinders and paint make me the welder I aint!


Looks good to me! Your dumb ass is going to make me do one of these frames too.

Good saying. It was true today.

Rob, my dumb ass have made lots of people do stuff they wish they didn’t. Fortunately, the statute of limitations has mostly run out on those days ... Mostly ...

Sorry you didnt get my brake handles. I got lazy and didn’t get around to removing them, then Scrapdaddy et al talked me into putting electric w/parking brakes on the trailer, so I kinda need them.

No worries man im happy with what i got!

Welded the sides on the rack. Have not welded the 1/2” spacers in yet as I’m working on the leg spacing now. Decided to make the rack the full length of the trailer. I did mention earlier in this thread that most of the plans for this are in my head right? Ok, good.

The top and the legs are going to meet up, umm ... kind of in an interesting place. Just as the legs start sloping down. I’ll have to be very careful to make all the contact points the same. This will be a tedious process to get it lined up properly.

In an effort to make sure my uprights were ... well, upright, I devised a jig by drilling half holes the size of the pipe in the side of a 2x4 that would hold the pipes at the same distance apart on each side and on the top while welding. I could have made three, but, it was unnecessary.

I placed it on one side to tack all the legs down. While using 90* magnets to hold the other side in place and vertical.

Then the other side.

Then used the same wooden spacer/jig on top to keep all the legs the same distance apart while preparing to weld the leg braces to the frame.

Once the sun catches up with my work, I’m done. I have to go inside and make some money to support my habits.

Nice work!

Thanks SD. It’s nice to see your work take shape instead of a pile a parts and promises and internet posts that it will look good when done.

Today I am experimenting with leg bracing. I have ideas, but will have to start cutting to see if it looks good and works.

Added two bars to the front of the trailer that attached to the front leg. I had two legs that were bent at 15* at 4” from the base. Which worked out perfectly for the distance from the front. I wanted a good place to mount my hi-lift jack and the two bars provided more stability for the front leg.

Once the top rack is installed, I’ll run a 45* off the front of the rack down to these bars ... hard to visualize, but it will provide more stability for the entire structure.

Just curious on how much weight this is adding
What’s your estimate?

With the top rack, legs and angle iron I’m at about 195 lbs now. And there is not much more steel to add. The pipe and angle both, weigh about 1.68lbs/ft

Ill add another 40 lbs I’m sure. Would have been nice to keep it lighter, but strength was more important than weight. I pull it with a 3/4 ton and don’t do rock climbing, or anything drastic where CG or weight is a big concern so, it’s not going to be a huge issue. Wind drag will be a bigger concern, and that isn’t even a big concern.

Plus, I can always remove it if I need to go hog wild with it.

I removed a 65 lb hitch, added a 15 lb hitch, so there is a 50lb savings. I also have some light rock crawler wheels instead of these 24 bolt wheels. That’s a 100 lb savings. Before you know it, I’m back at even! But the CG crawled up higher.

I dont plan on hauling it empty much, so, shouldn’t be an issue.

Grabbed the 90 lb roof rack and made a ... poor plan on how to slide it up on to the uprights that included 8’ 2x4s and brute stupidity (anyone see where this is headed?)

Doctor said the shoulder should heal in a few weeks. I told him that it popped back in socket right after the 2x4 hit me in the side of the head, and just before I hit the ground, still holding on to the rack.

X-rays showed the broken bones and damage around the shoulder from previous dislocations from engagements with drunken boyfriends of girls I liked and an airborne incident from a paint horse with no name (seriously, nobody named that crazy, one-eyed horse I always had to use)

I hate this “getting old” stuff.

Adventures, and adventure trailers on hold for a few weeks.

What the mind thinks it can do vs what the body can physically do used to be fairly equal when we were younger.
Now.......not so much.
That gap gets bigger every year.

Another Dr told me there are two demographics who wind up paralyzed. 18-25 year old adrenaline junkies, (duh) and the 60 + year old guys who try something they used to be able to do ... but can’t anymore.

Only, I’m not that old ... Yet.

There was a time when testosterone ruled, and we thought we were bulletproof and could do and lift anything.

Those days are getting smaller in the rear view.

You always need to remember:

Birthdays are a good thing, but too many of them will kill you.

Bahahaha ... wait, uh oh!

The shoulder is about as good as it’s going to get, so, back to work.

I put the roof rack on top of the legs. I slid it up from the side and it barely rests right on the bends. Very precarious. I didn’t have time to take a picture before it fell off. (Yeah, I know, I didn’t learn the first time) This time I wasn’t attached to it.

Hard to explain, but it just doesn’t belong up there. Too big and bulky. Too long and I don’t like it. There isn’t a way in my mind to make it work that isn’t “forcing it” So, I’ll repurpose the top rack into something, or I’ll cut it up. But I won’t force it.

I thought about it and it and decided I liked the clean look of this instead. These are just cut, notched and placed. Not tacked yet. I need to clean up some light rust that has accumulated.

This design also removes 90lbs off the top of the rack and adds about 30 lbs for a net savings of 60 lbs (which could be the difference of carrying a spare tire)

Overall I’m more pleased with this design than the previous one.

An interesting side note. The initial design and fabrication has completely been scrapped for a different one. Legs, top and all. Every single piece I initially bent and built has been replaced with a different design. Sometimes things don’t look like you think they will. This has been a classic example of that.