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I have a gooseneck trailer that a guy wants me to work on. Put a different hitch on where it mounts to the pickup, (the one in place now is shaky at best), add jackstands to the rear for support when loading/unloading equipment. This is a homemade trailer by someone and not sure who, and by the most part is a decent trailer. Its just a little light in some areas and needs to be strengthened. The H-beam that the main frame rails are made out of are too light and the trailer has alot of movement in it when the load is not centered, like when unloading round bales of hay or bundles of fence posts. I was wondering what will be the best "bang for my buck" in strengthening the trailer. Plating the beam is one thought to make the center web thicker, adding braces underneath between the frame in an X fashion to alleviate any side to side or up and down movement. I guess what im getting at is, short of building/buying a new one, what are my best options for strengthening or stiffening this one. Not sure of thicknesses and measurements of frame and etc. but i can measure and post them. Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks!
Reply:need pics the more detailed the betteridealarc 250/250 ac-dc tigidealarc 250/250 ac-dc tig #2 used for sticklincoln sp100hh125dual arbor grinder polisher30 yrs of hand tools52 pitch blocks 6p-26prake gauge -pitch gaugeG&D prop repair 918-207-6938Hulbert,okla 74441
Reply:Look into adding a torque tube the length of the trailer between the two frame rails. Once trailers get very long they will start to have a lot of torsional flex. You can probably search many of the trailer builders websites to see pictures of what I'm talking about. We got this as an option on our 32ft Pro-Trak and you can tell a difference between our and a trailer without it.Lincoln Precision TIG 225Hobart Handler 175
Reply:I agree that more info is needed. However I would throw out one thing I did once as a possible solution. I had a customer with a fairly large flat bed trailer. It was factory built and plenty strong except that there where no torsion members in the trailer. In hauling hay as you say the front would twist from one side to the other due to the lack of anything other than I beam or channel to resist the twist. What I did was cut holes down the center of the cross member I beams and put in a piece of 8" pipe down the center line of the trailer in the holes. I only did this to the front half of the trailer. It worked pretty well when I got through. This solution may not work for you however to resist twist you need some form of tube members. Pipe, square tube, or simply plating the open side of a channel iron all form a tube which will resist the twisting forces. They can be placed length wise like I did above or placed in a few different places across the frame like cross members on a truck. Either way will help take the twist out of a frame like that.Millermatic 252XMT 304'sDynasty 280DXHypertherm PowerMax 1250Miller Trailblazer 302 EFIOptima PulserXR feeder and XR Edge gun and more athttp://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook/index.htm
Reply:Originally Posted by jwolf. I was wondering what will be the best "bang for my buck" in strengthening the trailer. Plating the beam is one thought to make the center web thicker,
Reply:I did a hay trailer like what you described. took 3/8 plate and boxed. Now I would have used 1/4, but the customer had already bought all the material and had gotten himeself in over his head in the welding department. seems he was wanting to learn to weld as well as beef up his trailer. I boxed both sides of the beam. Lot's of welding!
Reply:Originally Posted by Scott YoungI did a hay trailer like what you described. took 3/8 plate and boxed. Now I would have used 1/4, but the customer had already bought all the material and had gotten himeself in over his head in the welding department. seems he was wanting to learn to weld as well as beef up his trailer. I boxed both sides of the beam. Lot's of welding!
Reply:I initially skip welded. a week later my boss had me go back and weld it solid. Seems the fellow wanted it fully welded and "stronger". I welded the top first alternating the each side of the beam to try and balance the side to side movement, and then after I had finished the top I repeated it on the bottom. It was a distortion nightmare and had to be flame straightened. By the time we finished the guy said, next time he would just have us build one from start to finish it would be cheaper.
Reply:Originally Posted by Scott YoungI initially skip welded. a week later my boss had me go back and weld it solid. Seems the fellow wanted it fully welded and "stronger". I welded the top first alternating the each side of the beam to try and balance the side to side movement, and then after I had finished the top I repeated it on the bottom. It was a distortion nightmare and had to be flame straightened. By the time we finished the guy said, next time he would just have us build one from start to finish it would be cheaper.
Reply:on something like that, if you leave half the welding out then it half the time welding. But, it doesn't take into account the amount of time dealing with the distortion. as for the amount of strength? I have seen engineers specify skip welding as sufficient. I am not sure if the extra welding adds any strength.In one of the shops I welded, they did a lot of oil field and most all of their stuff was seal welded. We did a lot of flame straightening there. All the floor panels on a rig were seal welded. I spoke to one engineer and he told me the reason wasn't strength, rather it was the environement that dictated the need for being seal welded. He said in most instances a skip weld is preferred due to fracture (a crack will keep running in a long weld; whereas a skip weld the crack will stop and the next weld will have to hold.) He said it is a trade off of chances. If the first weld breaks then there is more leverage applied to the second and the parent material is more likely to fail, if there is a catastrophic event. in general serves with routine checkes and repairs the short welds are easier to spot and repair if needed.I don't know if helped or muddied the waters.
Reply:The guys that have suggested boxing the beam to make it an enclosed tube are probably right. Nothing resists twist like a piece of tubing.Big misconception when it comes to strengthening beams is adding material to the web. Increased strength is generally accomplished by reinforcing the flanges. Maybe I'm wrong, increasing mass on the flange under stress accomplishes the most.And all of this aside..........just how much twist is being observed. A good amount of twist is usually present on frames. Ask anybody who's pulled a float, you have to readjust the binders a few miles down the road after you're loaded."Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:i always say "stress" when I mean "tension", sorry"Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Adding to the web doesn't help with the strength or twist in the beam, there probably is no torsion in the beam it's self, it's most likely in the trailer as a whole. Like the others have said send in some pictures of the trailer. I'm a structural engineer in the offshore structures industry, and if I can remember tonight I can look up a picture of what I did to stiffen my dad's boat trailer which had the same problems.ErnieThis cat does it doggie styleMiller Bobcat 225Miller Matic S52ACT520D TIG/Arc/Plasma
Reply:Here are some pictures of the original trailer and after a ladder was welded down the whole frame. The further apart the top and bottom flange of an I beam the stronger the beam will be. The more removed from the web the more efficeint the beam will be. This is why a truss structure is so light and stong, the webs are far aboat and there is virtually no web. Just be careful not to remove too much, and if you don't think your math skills are up to par to handle it, build it way too strong or have someone else calculate it. We all don't want to be driveing down the road behind it when it breaks in two.Ernie Attached ImagesThis cat does it doggie styleMiller Bobcat 225Miller Matic S52ACT520D TIG/Arc/Plasma
Reply:You can add the truss to the bottom also. Dont pay any attention to meIm just a hobbyist!CarlDynasty 300V350-Pro w/pulseSG Spool gun1937 IdealArc-300PowerArc 200ST3 SA-200sVantage 400
Reply:Hey guys thanks for all the input. I dont have the trailer yet to work on, so cant post any pictures. Not sure what the guys deal is. Doesn't mean i dont want to learn tho! After looking at the pictures of the 2 trailers above, i'm wondering how the truss that was added works. Does it add any stability to side to side movement or just to up and down as far as the trailer bowing or bending when under load? I also like the "torque tube" idea. Would it be as effective if pieces were welded in between the existing beams in the frame or if a length of pipe was added, holes cut in the beams and then welded solid? Thanks guys this is a pretty cool site and is definitely a helper into tapping into some knowledge that only comes from experience and not a text book. |
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发表于 2021-8-31 23:44:29