We have spent the last couple of months working on our lovely old trailer, you may of seen us out with the trailer, it gets used a lot! It carries all of our coal and water when we are on the road with Victoria and when we go on a days road run the trailer can often be seen with many passengers enjoy the ride.
We decided that the trailer needed some extra strength added for when we carry our coal and water, the water cube holds a tonne of water (1000 litres) and we can have up to a tonne of coal onboard sometimes. We had noticed that when there is a lot of weight in the trailer it would bow slightly in the middle, so we thought it would be a good idea to put some more metal in to strengthen it up and while we were going to be doing that, and to make it a bigger better job, we would replace all the wood on the floor and the side boards!
The first job was to strip it down to just the axles and bed frame, that was the easy bit! Then take the bed frame off the axles, thanks to our farmer friend he did this easily with his tractor, so now we have no wood on it, the bed and axles are separated and where do we start…
We ordered some lengths of metal and decided the best way to strengthen the frame, we also wanted to add a tow hitch on the back of the trailer so we could tow our living van behind it, when we are on the road we feel that engine with the trailer and then the living van is better for safety and vision, you can’t see the trailer behind the living van on the road. Anyway, our farmer friend, David, welded and made all the extra frame and hitch and before too long we had a stronger bed frame. Next painting, Lloyd spent hours rubbing down and preparing the axles, wheels and frame and then Lloyd, Kev and Jack have spent time painting but there is still plenty more of that to do but it is starting to look lovely.
As we stand at the moment we have the frame back on the axles and the painting is continuing, next is the wood work which at the moment is in our garden, it’s been planed, cut to length and been coated in wood preserver. It’s all taking time but hopefully the finished product will look fab and we won’t have to worry about it breaking in two with the weight!
We are hoping to have it all done by the middle of May when we will be on the road to our first rally, that will be The Watercress Line at Ropley for their Vintage Vehicle Display weekend, hope to see some of you there.
We will keep you up to date with our progress but check out the pictures below to see how far we have got.
See you next time.
