Welding trailer and Skid

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On occasion I do mobile welding jobs.  I prefer to do the projects at home where I have access to all my tools.  But that's not always possible.  I've loaded my welder, air compressor, leads, feeder, tools, ETC.....enough times to know I don't like operating that way.  I did a lot of looking on the web and forums for ideas.  I didn't find anything I really liked to copy.  My dad even tried to get me to copy his sorta skid system... His system works but there is no work surface and it is a pain to unload the truck if you need to haul something other than the welding gear.  I had access to an old Douglass service body that was left over from a parts truck.  The issue with it was, it was chopped down from 8' to 6'.  My brother had a grand idea to make a SWB 4x4 service truck.  That idea fizzled out.  Look to the upper left of this picture for the bed.  You  can get an idea of what my brother was doing.  You can also see the 302 Trailblazer and 12VS in the fore ground.  I think that picture is from the day I bought it.So the bed was back in my plans.  The tool boxes would be nice, everything would be lockable, I had grand ideas.  Here is a picture of the bed after I got going on a frame.  I didn't get  a picture of the bed before I started.  But here is one for some sort of reference.The bed was rough before my brother chopped it down 2'.  I figured I could work with rough, so I set to collecting material and axles.  I found a set of axles on Craigslist.  300$  They were too wide for what I had planned but I figured I could cut them down to fit my purpose.  The white lines are where I removed tube to get the hub face setting I wanted.
Reply:I had some tube that matched the axle tube OD fairly well so I decided to sleeve the axle as well.I tried setting up on the pipe jacks, that didn't work.  I tried setting up on the saw horses, and that didn't work.  I wanted the axles done before I started the sub frame, but in the end I started my sub frame before finishing the axles and used it to block up and hold my axle parts in place.  I was kinda mad at myself for not figuring that out earlier.  I also didn't have the table when I started.  I was annoyed with the saw horse and pipe jack system.  I had been on the look out for a good fab table for a while.  I threw the project on hold, and jumped on a Craigslist deal 5 hours away. 300$ and a trip to Reno I had a decent fab table.Two axles later, I had a rolling sub frame.
Reply:After getting my sub-frame worked out, and the axles set up.  I did some test fitting with the bed.  Attachment 536991 I fiddled and fiddled with the bed trying to get it to work.  The lines were wrong.  It was tall, it had those stupid wheel wells.  And on top of all that it was rough.  When I saw rough iI mean It had a lot of cracks.  I tried fixing them, but as I went I found more and more.  In the end I scrapped the service body idea and decided on a flat bed trailer with a skid.  More pictures of that and a continuation tomorrow.....
Reply:lots of good info for building trailers and skids here...just use the search functionNice welder ..but i'm prejudicedBacked my CATMA over your CARMA oops clusmy me  What would SATAN do ?? Miller Trailblazer 302 AirPakMiller Digital Elite  Optrel Welding HatArcair K4000Suitcase 12RC / 12 VSHypertherm PM-45Rage 3 sawRusty old Truck
Reply:With having a welding trailer, what is the purpose of having a skid? Is it so the skid can be removed to use the trailer for other purposes? I can see where having the skid be able to fit in the bed of the truck would be beneficial, for times when you need to go somewhere that hauling a trailer is not practical.
Reply:If I had the room in the truck bed to make the skid fit as well, I would.  But I don't, I have a 90 gallon auxiliary fuel cell that takes up the front of the bed.  I made the skid in addition to the trailer so the trailer is dual purpose.  I can haul 4 dirt bikes on it or two quads.  I can probably get a cord of wood on it as well with some creative stacking.
Reply:After completing the sub-frame I set to building the main deck.  I used the same 5x2x1/4 channel that I used for the sub-frame.  It was cheap on Craigslist.  I used some 3x3 square tube for cross members. The tube was left over from another project.  I had a 10' length of 3x4x1/4 angle from another project and set it into the rear of the frame to make a pipe/tube holder.  The rest of the work surface is 6"x3/16x20 from another project that I cut into strips to make up a piece together plate.
Reply:I used 2x8 to for the main deck.Attachment 538081Attachment 538091Attachment 538101My helper wanted to set the machine. Attachment 538111
Reply:I built the skid out of the 3x3 tube.  The skid sits just inside of the external frame.  I did this so I can bolt the skid to the mainframe with a few 3" mounting tabs.  I made the tabs with some angle iorn.  This is my first attempt at situating my equipment.  The white under body I scored on CL for 50$. The diamond plate box is from my brother.  It is a bit beat up but it was free, I mulled over the set up for a while and decided I didn't like the set up and set to looking for a different tool box to replace the aluminum one.
Reply:If you are going to haul anything heavy you really should put crossmembers at the center and rear spring hanger. Especially since you have the axles under the springs. There is a lot of side toque at those points and the channels can flex pretty easy there. Also for hauling quads off road you will get a lot of side to side bouncing that could flex those beams. Otherwise it looks plenty heavy duty for what you are doing. I couldn't get the attachments to work tho, it says "invalid attachment". Anyone else have that problem?
Reply:I'll look into the cross members.  I'm not sure about the attachments though.  They worked when I posted this morning.  I tried doing the pictures non photobucket, per the scolding from what looks to be a moderator.  Now it looks like attaching resized photos from the computer is not the way to go either.  I have to say I prefer to imbed the photo in the post rather than make attachments.  I did the process the same for each post and I get two different results on the post.  I'll look into the issue later.
Reply:Originally Posted by wadeclintonI used 2x8 to for the main deck.Attachment 538081Attachment 538091Attachment 538101My helper wanted to set the machine. Attachment 538111
Reply:Originally Posted by wadeclintonAfter getting my sub-frame worked out, and the axles set up.  I did some test fitting with the bed.  Attachment 536991 I fiddled and fiddled with the bed trying to get it to work.  The lines were wrong.  It was tall, it had those stupid wheel wells.  And on top of all that it was rough.  When I saw rough iI mean It had a lot of cracks.  I tried fixing them, but as I went I found more and more.  In the end I scrapped the service body idea and decided on a flat bed trailer with a skid.  More pictures of that and a continuation tomorrow.....
Reply:When I left off, before fixing the picture issues I was setting up the boxes, welder, and air compressor locations.  I wasn't very happy with the big box on the back of the skid, as free as it was it didn't sit well with me.  I didn't like the idea of having to climb on the trailer to get to tools etc.  I had been browsing Craigslist like always, and came across a high side tool box.  It was 4" too long, but for the price 120$ I could figure out where to fudge 4".  I decided to change the layout of the skid.  Here is where the layout is now.  I am working on a cylinder management system to go in between the welder and the black tool box.  I'll post more picture when that is completed.
Reply:I hate to keep pointing out problems here, but I just saw that you don't have the tongue tied properly at the bend. Where ever a beam makes a bend you need a good tie. The bottom of those channels will be able to flex when weight is applied or the trailer bounces. It's best to put in a full height crossmember, but you have a good one above so if you wanted you could just gusset down to the bottom right at the bend so it can't move in and out.
Reply:Originally Posted by welderjI hate to keep pointing out problems here, but I just saw that you don't have the tongue tied properly at the bend. Where ever a beam makes a bend you need a good tie. The bottom of those channels will be able to flex when weight is applied or the trailer bounces. It's best to put in a full height crossmember, but you have a good one above so if you wanted you could just gusset down to the bottom right at the bend so it can't move in and out.