Knurled wrote: Still waffling on the box. I found the perfect one, but I simply don't want to spend that much money.
I would not buy that box for use on a trailer! We have one on the patio that we use to store patio furniture cushions and bird seed in. It works very well for what we use it for. However,it is assembled from separate panels(front, back, sides, etc.) by sheet metal screws into the plastic panels. I don't think it would stand up to the flexing when mounted on a trailer.
What about a truck toolbox? They make them rectangular to fit in a bed instead of on the rails that should suit your need
In reply to Hal:
Yeah, I realized that when I got to Lowe's. I was picturing heavy drivetrain parts bashing around in there making it come apart. There's a Tractor Supply about a half hour away, I'll just get the slightly-too-small box because it's proven to not die.
Hey, progress happened again!
I got tired of waiting for a day that was both not rainy and not windy and finished painting the tongue in 15-20mph winds. Maybe a quarter of the paint actually made it to the metal. Then the wind picked up the edge of the cardboard I was painting over despite putting my reciprocating saw on it as a weight, and slapped the cardboard down over the fresh paint. sigh Oh well, racing stickers will cover that up just fine. I also marked out my plywood for cutouts to clear the fenders and the rear lights, then discovered that none of the outlets in the garage actually supplies power to anything.
I did not tackle the wiring yet. I am debating on whether I want to convert the trailer (and my car...) to 7 pin instead of 4 pin. My eventual Plan is to have a 12v battery slung under the trailer, which will power up an onboard inverter that I can use to recharge things during the course of an event. (I also have a minifridge that I've been aching to use) I'd like to be able to charge the trailer battery with my car while I tow. This is one of those things that I need to decide soon if it is practical to go for, or a case of projectitis.
Speaking of which, after I mounted the tongue, I went to mount the trailer caster. HAH. It's longer than the tongue! So that is a definite no-go. I think I have a good home for it so all is not lost. Trailer Stand Plan A has been reactivated.
I still have not bought a trailer box, but I did note in the thread about cordless impacts that Sears was holding a megasale on their C3 19.2v 1/2" impact. I picked one up for $91.x out the door with tax. It doesn't have a Li-Ion battery, "just" NiCads, but it will still be far better than what I have been using.
Mr. Suddard, I do see what you mean regarding the flimsiness of the rear tongue mount. I can flex it with hand pressure. I spent the last bit of daylight today staring at the problem and I think I've come up with a simple workable solution.
Our story so far: $410.70 Minus $10.80 (tongue caster that will be diverted elsewhere) Total: $399.90
Sounds like a retail price, doesn't it? 
Okay, I made my decision already. I am going to NOT convert to 7 pin. I'll go with the flat 4 pin connector and a separate two-pin battery positive/ground pin. There are several reasons for this:
That last one, actually, is critical. I have all of the parts, technically, to tow tires right now. I can still heft tools and junk in the car even if I don't have a box on the trailer yet. However, I do need the trailer to be functional by Saturday at way-too-early-O'clock because of a rallycross. And my rallycross car is currently broken. Again. So minimizing stuff I have to do to the trailer means I can focus on trying to patch up the rearend. Again.
Y'know, I really do think it's 9" time for that car.
I reinforced the tongue on my trailer with some L-shaped steel. Mainly so I could run the front wheel of a scooter or motorcycle up onto it, but it may help prevent a catastrophic failure. I'll try to dig up a pic when I can, EvanB has already seen it.
So I basically forgot about this thread until now. Got two letters from the BMV, one thin one for Oktavia (is due for e-check) and a big thick one for my non-emissions vehicles. SMVxxxx... what is SMV? Do I have to lose the RX-7's Bicentennial plate? Was that the plate number for my GTI?
...Oh, it's just my trailer. $39.89 annual registration, for posterity's sake, and its official weight is 157lb.
Where we left the thread, I was waffling on a box. Then I bought the box and lost the receipt. So I can't do an official running tally anymore. I'd like to say I spent $85 at Tractor Supply. Trailer cost a hair under $500 from having an empty driveway to a finished and road legal product.
On to the pictures!
3/4 oak plywood cut and mounted with 3/8 bolts and washers on all sides, tires getting mocked up.
Mounting the wheel posts. This is nothing more than 3/4 pipe and flanges, and some long 5/16" bolts. Plate is some monster 3/16" thick plate I had at work that I had already predrilled to, I believe, 26" centers. Rally tires are no larger than 25.5" so this was ideal. I'm using the plate as a drill guide.
Flanges bolted. The plate serves to support and strengthen the whole mess, steel bolts to steel with the wood merely sandwiched between the two.
And then more stuff happened and it's finished! Fully loaded and ready to go to its inaugural rallycross. And I broke an axle on the drive down, but that is another story.
Gas can fits neatly in the cubbyhole between box and tires and bounces around a little but doesn't go anywhere. Rally wheels serve as convenient cupholders since they wouldn't see any dirt this day.
Top retainers are just more flanges with U-bolts attached. I have subsequently carried six mounted tires on the trailer and could accomodate two more if flipped upside down. And given that it is just 3/4 pipe, I can make the pipes even taller or shorter if I saw fit. Or just remove them entirely if I wanted to carry a different load. Or leave them in place and use them to lash things to.
I found that I was going to have to spend an occasional night at a hotel with my tire trailer parked outside ... figured I needed some way to lock the tires in place ...
doesn't look like you've had to consider this yet ...
The guy I copied the trailer from has a lockable pipe arrangement that threads through the U-bolts for just that purpose.
Sure, someone could unbolt from underneath... or saw through parts... or unhitch the whole trailer and make off with it. They could also take the whole car too.
ok ... just wanted to make sure you had considered all that ... seems you have ... looks pretty good .. I may change the way I carry my tires to something like what you've got ... I've see that sort of setup on others .. and like it pretty well
you guys can't get permanent tags for your trailers on Ohio? I think my little trailer (and my car hauler) both have permanent tags that were a one-time $70 payment and good as long as I own them.
The most we can get is 2 year registration for cars, which costs almost the same as paying for one year twice.
I think Historical plates are effectively permanent (I recall Evan saying something about the plates from his Mini being good until 2050) but there are some restrictions to that that I would blow completely out of the water with the RX-7.
Ironically, I paid $105 last year so I could re-register my white VW so I could move it around, and I ended up driving it a total of ten miles. And I'll have to re-register it AGAIN unless I get the shop space set up before March. Ugh. I'd still rather pay that much than have to tow it, so I'm still pleased that option is available to me.
you're going to want to pull that oak and use some spar urethane or other exterior finish to coat the crap out of all 4 sides or it'll delaminate quickly. oak lasts forever. oak plywood outside or wet does not.
the funny thing is your little trailer costs the same to register as my enclosed one that the datsun lives in.
where do you rallycross around here? i say it's about time we finally meet, we live way too close not to.
You'll notice that I have no CURRENT photos of the trailer. The oak delaminated in a big way from sitting outside. Learning experience, will do better next time. I'm thinking the new decking will be boards with about two gallons of polyurethane clear. I want to redo it anyway because I've decided that I want the option to run stake sides.
Of course, I found out later that Miles built his trailer with aluminum diamond plate for decking. Live and learn!
I don't rallycross around here, or at all lately. Car has been broken for most of the year and I got by with borrowing other peoples' cars but I really don't like doing that, too much liability and I like the idea that I built what I'm driving. The nice thing about Cleveland is that WOR, OVR, and Detroit regions are all equally inconvenient!
I'd rallycross my Volvo (those wheels fit, the Volvo has a hitch too) but suspension issues kept me from wanting to run it in Ohio, and I can't run it in Detroit's table-smooth events because it has a cracked windshield and they have a supplemental rule against that. Plus, every time I have rallycrossed it, it broke.
Pressure treated 5/4 decking boards.
irish44j wrote: you guys can't get permanent tags for your trailers on Ohio? I think my little trailer (and my car hauler) both have permanent tags that were a one-time $70 payment and good as long as I own them.
different states ... different ways ... Tenn. and, I think SC, offer perm. tags ... though here in NC I don't think they do ... would make me more likely to actually tag my tire trailer .. as opposed to just relying on my VN vet bumper sticker on the back to get me through a traffic stop ... 
Knurled wrote: The most we can get is 2 year registration for cars, which costs almost the same as paying for one year twice. I think Historical plates are effectively permanent (I recall Evan saying something about the plates from his Mini being good until 2050) but there are some restrictions to that that I would blow completely out of the water with the RX-7. Ironically, I paid $105 last year so I could re-register my white VW so I could move it around, and I ended up driving it a total of ten miles. And I'll have to re-register it AGAIN unless I get the shop space set up before March. Ugh. I'd still rather pay that much than have to tow it, so I'm still pleased that option is available to me.
Yeah, Antique/Historical plates are permanent for cars 25+ years old. But any trailer (personal, business, big, small) CAN be either registered yearly (like $25/year) or permanent (about 3x that, but usually the best deal since people don't buy/sell trailers all that often).
For cars, Virginia has vague language that vintage tagged cars can be driven to car club stuff, car shows, for testing, or "occasional pleasure driving" (I quote), which is pretty vague. They also have a distance limit of 300 or 500 miles (I forget) from registered address, but the law can be read to exempt that mileage limit for "car club activities" (hey, SCCA is a car club!).
Not that I'd want to drive my car 500 miles anyhow. In any case, that distance in any direction gets me out of the state, and I highly doubt that cops in OTHER states know or care about the regulations, lol.
we do have to get annual safety inspections on tandem-axle trailers with brakes though :(
Somewhere I was reading (maybe the towing thread on RallyAnarchy) that the majority of trailer-related towing accidents didn't involve overload but did involve trailers with inoperative brakes.
So given that and the general mountainousness, Knurled-approved.
Trailer anecdote: When I towed with my friend's Durango, I installed a brake controller and adjusted it so it felt about the same with trailer as without. When I borrowed the shop Sierra to haul a car to Columbus, my boss told me to set the trailer brake controller to MAXIMUM when loaded. He said (paraphrased), the trailer has brakes and the rig is meant to be loaded in tension, so really USE the trailer brakes and keep the hitch tensioned. Seemed to work just fine.
Another anecdote: I used this trailer behind a certain Miata. Following the Miata's owner down some fun steep switchbacks on the road out of one of our rallycross venues, I saw the trailer get up what seemed like a 45 degree angle. I slowed down after that 
Kinda want to build an air dam for the front to suck it down to the ground so it doesn't do that.
fyi, the old addage of using the trailer brakes to stop the car is WRONG.
look it up. The trailer brakes are only made to stop the trailer or stop it from swapping ends with you. Usually the brakes are not made for a lot of heat or use, they are mostly a pita to replace compared to the brakes on the car/truck too. The first method of adjusting so that they come on to assist but not do most of the braking is correct...
Mad_Ratel wrote: fyi, the old addage of using the trailer brakes to stop the car is WRONG. look it up. The trailer brakes are only made to stop the trailer or stop it from swapping ends with you. Usually the brakes are not made for a lot of heat or use, they are mostly a pita to replace compared to the brakes on the car/truck too. The first method of adjusting so that they come on to assist but not do most of the braking is correct...
^^all of this.
His truck, I do it his way. He wouldn't even let me run it on CNG even though CNG stations are popping up everywhere on the I-71 corridor. MPGe doesn't go up any but it's like $1.10/gallon equivalent.
Besides, if the brakes wore out early, he'd just have me change them out. They're at least as big as the brakes on a typical 1/2-ton truck and regularly serviced, and my typical driving MO is to drive so that you don't need to use the brakes. Not sure abut his, but, again, his truck, his trailer...
Minor update. I just got a notice in the mail that the trailer lights don't meet US DOT spec, and pursuant to NHTSA recall 16V597, I'm getting a new set of lights.
Knurled wrote: Minor update. I just got a notice in the mail that the trailer lights don't meet US DOT spec, and pursuant to NHTSA recall 16V597, I'm getting a new set of lights.
Got the same notice, I need to send in the postcard.
Is there any reason to actually buy the HF trailer? With all the work you put in - it's not that much of a stretch to fabricate the whole thing.
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