trailer build

I was going to hold off till I got alittle more finished but it has been to quiet on here and it is going really slow. And wouldn't mind input. A couple of weeks ago my brother told me about his boss's friend selling an enclosed trailer for a good price. I kinda shrugged it off, I don't even have a truck. And i can't afford an eclosed trailer. Well it turned out to be a really good price and after thinking about it for a while i decided to go for it.

24' carmate


Only things it needs to pass inspection was 2 tires dry rotted, a fender and 2 light bulbs. But i can't make it that easy. The axles on it were only 3,500lbs axle and with the trailer weighing 3000 by the time i put a 4,000 lbs jeep in there i am already pushing it. Before I bought the trailer i priced 5200 lbs axles and springs and it wasn't that bad and still put the trailer alot under what similar trailers are going for. I Call Carmate and they said that model frame will handle the wieght all i have to do is switch axles springs wheels and tires send them a reciept and they would send me a new vin plate.

list of stuff to do:
-install 5200 lbs
-replace fenders, had a hard time finding a replacement of that style
-PAINT outside. ugly cream color. My friend calls it a giant stick of butter. rust stains from screws (wait till spring time)
-replace 1,000,000 screws
-paint inside. it is just wood inside. I want to make it so 12volt lights will be able to light it up well
-replace one floor board. It is bowed from the cars front wheel sitting on there for a while.
-add to the frame where tires are going to sit to keep wood from bowing again
-put tie downs in to the frame. the guy just had them bolted though the plywood.
-add storage for tools, spairs and fluids.
-add sleeping/lounge area
-make air tank to fit under trailer between frame
-add batteries
-what ever else comes to mind

With the axles being bigger the spring hangers had to be moved in two inches. The new axle also hits the fender tube way before full bump. I removed the bowed floor. Got the old axles out and old mounts cut off. Tacked new mounts and started to box in the tube to clearance the new axle. I have been reading that a lot of people have had issues bending the door so I also plan to add some bracing and adjust the spring to handle the extra weight.


I'll get more pics when I can get to it during day light. I hate day light savings time.

Sounds like a good plan. What brand axles did you go with? what was the total cost of axles, springs, tires and wheels? I have to do the same thing.

nice find! and what are your plans for a tow rig?

Why adjust the vin to match the new axles? The higher the GVW, The more they will charge you for stickers every year. Unless you plan on running that thing behind a commercial vehicle where you could be pulled over searched and then scaled i wouldn't worry about it.

edit: Unless you title it in Maine Then its no big issue because they'll send you a new reg. for what ever weight you want and plates that are good for ten years. Also no inspection is needed, just a pic of the trailer.

md4wheelin wrote:

Why adjust the vin to match the new axles? The higher the GVW, The more they will charge you for stickers every year. Unless you plan on running that thing behind a commercial vehicle where you could be pulled over searched and then scaled i wouldn't worry about it.

edit: Unless you title it in Maine Then its no big issue because they'll send you a new reg. for what ever weight you want and plates that are good for ten years. Also no inspection is needed, just a pic of the trailer.

i know you aren't in pa but if you come into pa (rausch creek?) the local police can and will pull over any truck and check weight and vin on truck and trailer. the local pd can and are equipped to do full dot truck inspections. doesn't matter if you are commercial or not. if they suspect you are running heavy some local pd's have protable scales o rthey will make you drive to a local quarry and get weighed. so if you are reg 7700lbs and weigh 9900lbs you will get shut down and fines out the ass! i am speaking from experience here, first hand! so in md maybe that isn't an issue but here in pa it is. just an fyi

The funny thing is the registration was for 10000 lbs. not sure how he got away with that with the Vin plate only saying 7. Maryland is not bad on non commercial drivers but I heard stories of other states being sticklers. Just wanted to do it right and not get hassled

You sold the truck? I like the trailer and the plan.

he was in an accident, totaled the truck.

Rockn93YJ wrote:

he was in an accident, totaled the truck.

Shit dude if you where in a accident that totaled your truck your lucky to be here. I'm assuming your okay since your on here talking about the new trailer.

I was towing kims buggy to RC for a race practice. On the merge onto 81 before harrisburg there was a line of like six cars that slammed on there brakes. The guy infornt of me jetted onto the the shoulder. I didn't even notice anybody was stopped till he swerved. I didn't have the brakes on the trailer set as high as i should have, so I ended up hitting a mustang which then pushed into another car. We were all already slowing down for the exit so I wasn't going full speed so noone was injured luckily. The truck wasn't that bad I don't know why they totaled it.

I got the axles, springs, rims and hangers from trailerparts.com for about 1100. shipping would have been 300 bucks but I had it shipped to work with a loading dock and saved 100. My brother found a place local that were a little more for the axles but didn't charge shipping. This was for drop axles so if you are getting straight axles it should be cheaper.

twdjeepgod wrote:

md4wheelin wrote:

Why adjust the vin to match the new axles? The higher the GVW, The more they will charge you for stickers every year. Unless you plan on running that thing behind a commercial vehicle where you could be pulled over searched and then scaled i wouldn't worry about it.

edit: Unless you title it in Maine Then its no big issue because they'll send you a new reg. for what ever weight you want and plates that are good for ten years. Also no inspection is needed, just a pic of the trailer.

i know you aren't in pa but if you come into pa (rausch creek?) the local police can and will pull over any truck and check weight and vin on truck and trailer. the local pd can and are equipped to do full dot truck inspections. doesn't matter if you are commercial or not. if they suspect you are running heavy some local pd's have protable scales o rthey will make you drive to a local quarry and get weighed. so if you are reg 7700lbs and weigh 9900lbs you will get shut down and fines out the ass! i am speaking from experience here, first hand! so in md maybe that isn't an issue but here in pa it is. just an fyi

I heard that pa is a little more stringent on dot laws for all people. MD DOT is really hard on commercial trucks and is unbelievable light on non commercial trucks. There are some highways in MD i will not take my comercial trucks and trailers down just because of the probability of getting pulled over for a spot check. (97, 2, 10, and the bay bridge are major ones) But amazingly ill take a non logo truck down loaded and not get two looks.

I lived in PA or 5 years and to be honest i really never had to much of an issue with the DOT compared to maryland. granted I made sure i didn't give them a reason to pull me over I.E. lights or other blatant things to get the ball rolling on all sorts of unheard of fines.

As for the GVW thing you used to be able to change the GVW on the reg to make it what ever you want. But they changed that a few years ago to only going by whats on the vin. as the minimum weight. The reason I know this is that I had a 32,000 gvw truck reg. at 26,000 making it a non CDL truck. after they changed the law it became a cdl required truck. Now with the new law you can change the GVW higher just not lower. My one truck vin states 14,500 and I bumped it up to 18k to be safe when i have to run it across the scales with weight.

Well I have been slowly but steady working on this. I got the axles finished awhile ago. Got the inside walls and floor sanded and painted. Decided to replace the floor closest to the door because it was a little rotted. I got the door reinfroced and found that it was already bent a little. I picked up some cabnets from a friend for free. I haven't put them in yet though because they need to be cleaned up. The tires look close but they don't hit the fender. I am still having issues finding replacement fenders. I might end up making them

are you sure the tires won't hit after you get the weight of a jeep and tools in there and the springs flatten out?

Dude you need to get a strobe light, fog machine and big speakers. Then we can call it Club Matt for big dogs. Will full width axles be able to fit?

You can't get an enclosed trailers any wider. The outside of the trailer is right at 102". It is 83" between the fenders. I might have to narrow the 60 but my rims have a lot of back spacing so it won't have to be much. I won't know till i get tires and mount them on the rims. So that project is on the back burner for a while. My jeep fits with a few inches on both sides.
Bill, it is something that has me concerned so I am going to keep an eye on it. My only options to fix it would be to cut the brackets off and put in a spacer, which I don't want to do. Or trim the fenders. In the picture the jack on the front is all the way up so most of the weight of the trailer is on the back tires. So it is closer than normal. I took the front tires off and had it just on the rear tire and it still didn't touch so I am hoping that will be good enough. but we will see.

I took a loose measurement of the CJ and I'm at 86"

or carry two sets of rims. I think stock tires with stock rims or h2 rims it should put you under 83". I have a stock set of roller rims if you need them.

or build up some 2x10's to drive over... or add some square tube to drive over...

Its not tall enough to drive over the fenders. Narrowing the axle isn't that big of a deal to do and I am very comftable with how stable my rig is now so I don't really feel I need it full width. I am lazy so switching tires around is not somthing I really want to do every wheeling trip. The whole point of this trailer is just so I don't have to set up a tent anymore How much do you want for the rims. I may need them for other rigs.

I had an idea about lifting the trailer but i am not sure how it will work. The old brackets were all the same size and there was a tall swing shackle (not sure what it is called). The new brackets have a taller middle bracket and a short swing shackle. If I would put the old tall swing shackle on the new tall bracket it would lift the trailer a little. But how would it affect the suspension? would it be bad?

What if you welded a kind of sub frame ( maybe 4x2 box a few feet long) to the the trailer then mounted your suspension to that?

Yeah, thought about that but then i would have to cut the suspension off.

and???

Why don't you fab up your own fenders? From the looks, seems like it wouldn't be too hard to do. (???)

How's the trailer coming along?