My toy hauler thread

[supermanotorious]

I'm building a "suspended cradle" to keep batteries in between frame rails. This will reduce tongue weight and make theft way more difficult. It will be more difficult for me to monitor and top off battery fluid but I'm ok with that given the benefits.

The motorcycle jack shows where the batteries will be. I'm aware it reduces clearance but we should be fine.

 

[supermanotorious]

also making my own drop / lift shank, way more affordable than buying from anywhere

 

[supermanotorious]

getting the angles to mate was kinda of a PITA but it was also kind of fun, that is the fabricator's conundrum! pics might be a little misleading: the bars are perfectly parallel and the ends are of identical length and exact same angles

i'm SO on the fence with this project, this box will certainly hang low and i cant tell you if it's too low or not but i'm afraid it might be, the problem is my driveway slopes away from the house and the trailer is backed in, so the rear of the trailer is close to the ground while the tongue is several feet above so it sits level in these pictures and when it's level on level ground, this box will be closer to the ground

i'll continue making this cradle, at least tacking the rough frame together then hitch it up for a test drive, a big indicator will be simply having the tow vehicle wheels come off the sidewalk on to the street, if it bottoms out then, it's not good

since i was concerned, i decided to re-weigh the tongue, with the 2 batteries on the tongue i'm at 1,172 lbs, with out at 1,100, i'd really like to be under 1,000 as a basis then adding weight before/after the axles to fine tune afterwards, at a minimum this tells me i can not add more batteries (weight) to the tongue

if the cradle doesn't work for clearance reasons, i'll consider some vented boxes in the rear most part of the only storage compartment although that will still require some tongue weight measurements, first world problems i guess

 

[supermanotorious]

my littlest helper approves of the progress so far

 

[chancer]

"Mooooom she touched me!"
"No I didn't"
"You kids be quiet and stop Fighting".... "Or Ill make you ride in the Battery Rack"

 

[supermanotorious]

well, I lowered the tongue so the trailer was parallel to the driveway as if it was level on level ground and the cradle is 10" off the ground whereas the axles are almost 12".

I'll still have to hitch it up and see what's up (or what's low ;-) and go from there

if I like it, more cross-bracing and some sheet metal facing to come

oh, and check out those bevels on the drop shank waiting for multi-pass stick welding! and waiting for the 3/4" HSS bit to show up from the interwebs!

 

[supermanotorious]

I can not wait for that 3/4" bit to show up! but I guess I'll have to, I plan to hitch it up and take some measurements before I start drilling, then will need to cut off the excess from the 2" square height

I did screw up a little, I meant to make the horizontal bar 2" longer, and weld the vertical piece to the end of it, you can see in the image my sharpie line which represents the receiver's edge, barely enough room for the gusset, which was supposed to be wider and had to be cut to size

the gusset is just for safety anyway, there will be many, professional passes in those bevels for solid penetration, I dont think the gusset has to be there but it will

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

Not once have I ever said that I shouldn't have built something less sturdy. We built a drop seat KZ1000 for my brother that I named Gus because of all the gussets. Sadly it was lost in a shop fire.

 

[supermanotorious]

well over-building it didn't save it from the fire now did it?

j/k

at any rate, one of my besties, he ALWAYS overbuilds crap, over the years we've gotten in several arguments over it

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

Yeah, there's a fine line between overbuilt and overkill. I rebuilt a 72 shovel that was in a house fire, but that was because it was a round swing arm shovel and not a Kawasaki.

 

[supermanotorious]

gonna take a test drive and shoot some video today before I make any more progress on the rack

 

[supermanotorious]

I think it's a GO!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN9tBAjk3Qc

 

[supermanotorious]

this is a sad little bunch of core exchanges for the 6V's I'm going to buy today but Costco employees just dont know any better

 

[supermanotorious]

just as expected, costco didnt even look at or count my core exchanges, I'll take that $60 credit all day

the clerk made a silly face when I said each 6V better have the exact same date stamp, his face got serious when I said "I'm serious"

 

[supermanotorious]

ah, I just learned about battery watering systems!

definitely on the wish list!

https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Rite-RV2000-Pro-Fill-Battery-Kit/dp/B001FCAXT0

 

[pRoFiT]

For a non go kart thread i just had to read it all. Great posting so far.

I've wanted a trailer for about 6 years now. Got the hitch and connections for my Tahoe then.....gave up i guess. i should start looking again. Maybe this summer! Looks like a lot of work though

 

[supermanotorious]

thanks for checking it out, well you can buy new and avoid a lot of work, but there would still be things you want to add or modify and you just paid a $h1t ton of money

going used saves Yuge! but requires more work, anyway, avoid impulse! look at many before you buy

 

[supermanotorious]

from wish list to same-day free delivery, holy whack unlyrical lyrics! I love Amazon

battery watering system, check!

battery monitor will be here later this week https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013PKYILS

2/0 gauge wire for run, check!

and all just in time, spring break is looming and when you try to raise your daughters to be epic, you better be epic yourself and darned if we haven't started an annual Griswold vacation to major national parks, this year- Yellowstone (I figure we'll do them in reverse alphabetical order)

between winch orders and motorcycle rides I gotta finish the cradle and wire this all up then pray it works as I hoped

 

[pRoFiT]

your not heading out to King of The Hammers this week! get your camper ready and go. it's desert race time. only 5 hours from you.

 

[supermanotorious]

if there was only time..