Sometimes Life is A Country Western Song

 No, my dog didn't get run over but life intrudes.

I'll be back later.

Building a Horse Trailer Continued

I've finished the chassis work on my trailer. I added steps, a heavy duty bumper and put in all the reinforcements. I sandblasted it, and then primed and painted it. I also completed the electrical rough-in. I took it for a spin and was well pleased with the pull. I only noticed one bit of shudder at 50 mph that subsequently vanished above 55 mph. I rechecked all the torques and found one wheel's lug nuts insufficiently torqued, three of the bolts on the axle hanger system below specification, and the thing now glides at all speeds. I  torqued the u-bolts for the axles to 50 foot-pounds and the axle hanger bolts to 75 foot-pounds. There are some photos of the completed chassis below the break.

The Chassis Work Continues

After finishing some of the long welds on the chassis I mounted it on two supports I fabricated so I could rotate the frame as needed to get my welds down at an optimum angle. The rotating chassis is shown in the picture. That's also my trusty Ranch Truck, 250,000 miles and still running strong. 

I spent today cutting all the odds and ends for gusset plates, corner bracing and miscellaneous pieces. On Monday I get my order of steel in to build the frame for the top of the trailer. I still have to build a square tube bender to facilitate bending the roof bows. Onward.

The Horse Trailer Floor plan

I suppose I should have posted this drawing first, but here it is.

 

The Chassis of a Two Horse Trailer

I finished my design on my trailer and ordered the steel for the chassis. I did all the calculations myself but I always get a second opinion. In this case I used a web based beam calculator at Optimal Beam which gave me a free 14 day trial. Check them out, it's a really good bit of software and really easy to use. I got my steel on Wednesday and waited for 2 days. I find that a couple of days wait before starting any major project allows me to fully think through the steps of the project and make sure I have it firmly in mind. The final chassis design is below the jump.

Building a Two Horse Trailer

I've decided I want a custom horse trailer. I want it as wide as allowed, and with as much head room and length as is feasible. As always I like to roll my own so this will be a fun build. A horse trailer poses an interesting design challenge. It needs to be light, yet strong, and needs to account for a shifting load. It also needs to be able to be hauled with your average pick-up truck.

I've hauled some interesting loads, but the worst is a live load that shifts around on you. On occasion my machismo has got the better of my common sense, "sure I'll give it a whirl" I've been heard to say. One such instance was a load of ostriches for someone I knew. I had no idea that ostriches, stamp, kick, fight, squawk like mad and in general carry-on during the trailering process. Getting the damn things in the stock trailer was my first clue as to the general wrongness of the proposition, but what the hell they're in there now so let's go.

On to the horse trailer. I started with a simple beam to give myself some basic design inputs. I did the original calculations myself but there are plenty of beam bending calculators out there on the web. For the design I used a total weight of 2500 pounds for my two horses, and a trailer weight of 2500 pounds. My initial design set-up looked like below. So this gives me a starting point and I then proceeded to a more detailed design which I will describe later.

Making a Lance

I have a supply of 1080 steel on hand to make points for a variety of bladed items. I like to use 1080 because it tends to be rather inexpensive, easy to work, and heat treats easily. As usual I heat the piece to the Austenite region and then for this steel, a water quench. I follow up with a low temperature (200 C) tempering cycle to stress relieve the steel while still maintaining a reasonably hardened piece. My most recent build was a lance.

I decided on a hybrid form of a Lakota War Lance, and a Zulu Assegai. The total length of the piece including the point is just short of 6 feet. It can be thrown or used from horseback to spear game. A picture of the blade joined to the shaft is shown. I only finished the point to a 320 grit as it will become scratched with use. For a darkened blade you could use a 3-5% Nital etch.