So I got bored and designed a trailer

[Karnage]

So if the market isn't car transport, what is the market that can justify a $28k car trailer to replace their existing plant trailer/float/truck?

Seems like you are just adding cost to the product?

[PLAYA]

Trailers for that are already built and sold, people buy 50,000 dollar watches and a 10 dollar Casio does the same job.

[Karnage]

Yeah you're right, heaps of people will want to buy an unknown brand trailer to impress the social set with their "fashion sense"

It's a genuine question, I don't see a genuine market, a serious racer would rather drop 30k on a fully enclosed gooseneck, a steel plant trailer can be bought for half the price and will be higher rated.

[PLAYA]

You think any product started started with a renouned reputation? Go do some research into the area or stick to giving quality advice on a forum.

Do you have a news letter or blog I can subscribe to? Your positive outlook and business prowess astounds me. I put this up for people's interest, because I am an engineer and I enjoy what I do, and if I can make myself probably the best trailer you can buy for the price of the competition maybe make a few dollars while I am at it. That is good enough for me.

I replied before I seen your edit, if you go look at a nevco add the cupboards, winch, jerry can holders, tyre rack, wireless control etc it is about 26 or so plus gst and they sell.

[Karnage]

No not at all, Kudos for having a go. I simply asked who you think will be genuinely interested in your product? No need to get all butt hurt about it. On the subject of research have you had a look at what $30k will buy?

*EDIT: Please don't confuse negativity with rationality, If your suspension is far superior and it is the selling point over similar products of basically 10% the price then maybe a patent is in order?

[PLAYA]

Yea maybe I know a patent attorney but then if it has been done before etc it's no good. Like I was saying similar stuff is already sold for the coin so I can't see how there is no market

[Karnage]

I just looked at the Nevco site, And I see you are comparative. Having said that I reckon the market would have to be pretty small when you have a look at what's available for similar money, you're up against new enclosed trailers etc. I hope it works out for you.

[PLAYA]

Enclosed trailers don't really help you if your car is too low to go up ramps etc, that is the point of the trailer. Anyway my new task is dfma to pull the cost out as much as I can

[Commotion]

Once she is all finished you can more acurately access the cost and see where changes can be made. Same with suppliers, once they have made the bits for you they know their cost and can more acurately quote the next lot.
Is it all finished yet?

[PLAYA]

I am waiting on a few parts to be shipped to me, I just finished the folding number plate holder, and I am thinking about the easiest way to build the cupboards for the front, we are going to make them from aluminium so they are light but I need to integrate a steel holder for the trailer spare and also the tyre rack. I was thinking of buying one of those pulse migs but they are like 5k plus.

I had some nice bulkhead jic hydraulic fittings machined so I drill a 20mm hole in the rail and I can weld this in to get the lines through the trailer rather than under it.

I am in qld at the moment when I am in Adelaide next week I will get some pics

[Commotion]

With regard to the cupboards, could you build a steel frame and clad it in aluminium, just to avoid aluminiums tendency to fatigue crack and also make it easier to integrate your tyre holder.

So the off the sheld bulkhead fittings wouldnt work? have your sourced your Hyd powerpack? I remember designing some hydraulic 1t scissor lifts a few years ago. Hydraulics are a wonderful thing.

Here are some pics of the hydraulic pipework on the earthmoving thing my old boy is building, there is a lot of cost in the hydraulics in that thing. One day ill update the SW model to have all the hydraulics modelled but wouldbe very time consuming.




Edit: I just realised when i posted the pics that this thing has a cushioned hitch which means it has a hydraulic cylinder connected to an accumulator to act as a shock absorber/damper. It wont have the cyclic frequency of a trailer at highway speeds but will be working much longer hours than a trailer will.

[PLAYA]

I need to learn more about this accumulator idea I think it would work really well, do u have specs etc I can have a look at?

I run a spx power pack on this thing, not bad price for what it is, I looked for off the shelf bulkhead fittings but was cheap enough to get them machined when u talk even small quantities of 20 or so.

Hydraulics look awesome on that stuff you designed.

[Commotion]

have a look through the pdf's on here:
http://www.parker.com/portal/site/PA...extfmt=default

I cant take credit for the actual design, that is all my old mans after years of working with them and modifying his own ones. I just took it from his basic SW model and refined it, re-ordered the assemblies and produced a full set of manufacturing drawings and BOM's so that he could out source all the laser cutting, folding, machining etc as well as build and assemble it from the drawings. Im very impressed with how it turned out considering he is very unorganised and had a table covered in drawings and no way of tracking revisions.

I love watching projects start out at design stage, going through concepts on the computer and then material orders, post processed etc and then fabrication. Its a good feeling when the actual project matches the drawings and it all works. That why i have been keeping an eye on this and watching the progress.

[SLO78U]

Good on you playa.

When this thread started I was like " this cunt is just wasting time to big note himself and make a shit product that I could do if I had the time and a rich daddy to pay for shit for me ".

But now I'm like " this is what I do with all my machining and redesigning shit products to make them better but this cunt is actually putting some real dollars on the line to develop his shit and make sure it works and is just what the target customer really wants!! "

Ignore the haters. Keep going. Good work champ.

Ps. Where the pics ?

[PLAYA]

Give me a week, I actually work fifo at a mine and do this shit on the side, I have some legend fabricator friends that are helping out as we are making three for ourselves first. When I am back I can take some more pics.

What boils my piss the most is buying shit that just doesn't work, lost count on how much shit I have had to fix.

I am just reading about these accumulators now, I think I am going to strap a video camera to a trailer and see how fast the wheel moved as they are talking 8 m/s is sorta a speed limit, I have a pretty cool idea I am going to develop also but need to think about it a bit.

[Commotion]

I have edited my previous post and put updated pics of hydraulics for you.

[Greg Rust]

If you need any custom hydraulic or pneumatic seals made, let me know as we run 3 cnc turning centres to machine piston, rod, wipers, etc. materials Nbr, polyurethane, viton, nylon, peek, vespel.

[Gammaboy]

Bilstein USA use an imperial SKF polyseal rod seal and a metric wiper on their off-road racing dampers - if there was a place you'd run into piston speed problems, it'd be there!

[PLAYA]

Worked on the trailer today, done all the mounts for the guards etc, pulled it apart as it will be going to get powdercoated in a week or two, all the arms can then be zinc coated, didnt take any pics cos it looks like it has regressed rather than progressed.

[josh_tsv]

Any updates?

[PLAYA]

Going there tomorrow, arms are all plated etc, deck needs to be welded and then it is off to powdercoaters, work has been pretty out of control so this has sat for a little bit.

[PLAYA]

So put the arms and shit back together after zinc plating, it is some 20 micron thick stuff apparently pretty much best you can get. Scott welded the deck completely and now there is only some bosses to weld on the front to support the tyre rack and cupboards. It is going for powder coating next week, then final assembly. Shit load of time in these things just fucking around.

We have come up with some new things that we will change to make the next one faster and cheaper.

Attached some pics.

[Streety]

I was just having a think about this... Now I maybe totally stupid for even suggesting this but could you enclose this trailer? I mean have the floor drop out of a fully enclosed trailer, no one has one of those??

I do love this trailer btw, we have a tilta trailer. even with a evo it is still pretty close to scraping every time it goes on.

Good luck with it

[glenn]

Where do you get the chequerplate with the holes in it? I wouldn't mind welding some of this on my trailer for tie down points.

[PLAYA]

Yea you could enclose it pretty easy, wouldn't be that much more work just the frame on top really.

The deck is all laser cut custom I couldn't find anything like it really off the shelf.

[Alex.P]

hope this don't sound like a dumb question but what is the difference between this and a Nevco trailer?

[PLAYA]

Has suspension, weighs like 400 kg less, and I wanted the challenge as I get bored lol.

[tc josh]

Coming together nicely, did the threads fit on the rod ends?

[PLAYA]

oh we tried to get them on today and they are pretty tight, would it be easy to get them on the thread mill or s cunt?

Chassis is all powdercoated and got all the arms on for the final time, hitch etc is on, tomorrow I do the hydraulic lines and it should pump up and down.

[PLAYA]