Enclosed Trailer Add-on's

woodbutchr

I have a 26' enclosed trailer that I gotta build some cabinets in the nose/front of it. Some shelfs on the sides, insulate the roof & cover w/lauan. The thing that I have questions about are the 7' drop down beds I gotta build. Ya reckon I can get by with regular 4 1/2" door hinges or use something like a piano hinge? There is a BIG ole boy that will sleep on one of these beds!

AtlanticWBConst

I would not even trust a piano hinge arrangement for that...

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woodbutchr

So maybe 4 door hinges mounted on a 2" x 4" that's mounted to the wall? Piano hinge sounds to me like too "light" weight too.

Kgmz

Way back when I used to race motorcycles, I had a enclosed trailer to haul the bikes, tools, and had a couple of fold down bunks to sleep on. Now I have a motorhome to haul our enclosed trailer for the snowmobiles and motorcycles.

But what I did was basically make a heavy duty piano type hinge. I got some 3/8" steel rod and some steel tubing that the rod could fit in. The bunks were made with a angle steel frame with pieces of tubing on one side. Then I made a angle plate the length of the bunk with pieces of the tubing welded on that was bolted to the wall. The pieces of tubing were alternated on the bunk frame and the wall mount like a piano hinge. Then the rod was slid through and had holes in the end for clips to hold it in. This way the rod could be pulled out to remove the bunk if neccessary. What held the bunk up and down, I had a steel plate on the wall above the bunk where the bunk latched to when up and I had chains that were attached to this plate and to the outer edge of the bunk and thats what held the bunk up and when out with the chains at a 45 degree angle. The rest of the bunk was piece of plywood that fit in between the angles on the frame. Also the piece of angle on the wall was about 1.5" or so with the 90 degree angle at the top so it would kick the bunk out a little so a pad would fit when the bunk was up.

Tom F.

They make industrial grade piano hinge. It comes with no finish, just raw steel. I don't think it is too expensive. It would be plenty strong. Local steel supply, or maybe McMaster-Carr.

woodbutchr

Here's what I got so far, still gotta make the door's & some shelf's on the side. It's a buddy of mine, he's just hauling 4 wheeler's & drinkin' beer. Gotta have somewhere to fall down.

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woodbutchr

A few more

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FramingFanatic

throw some tools in there and you will have one very nice trailer

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IslandConst

Great pics, that helps me plan my trailer retrofit. Thanks for posting.

Actually it was this subject/thread that brought me to this website.

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woodbutchr

Cool, welcome

Norrrrrrrrrrrrm

That's funny. I stumbled across this site way back when, when I was looking for enclosed trailer options as well.
I haven't left since.....mild addiction.

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trav007

Looks like luxury camping to me. Nice job. I have a question though.... Excuse my ignorance but.......For the bed hinges would it not be stronger to have the hinges mounted to the bottom rather than the side? That way the weight would be transferred to the hinge itself rather than relying on screws....or did you use through bolts? Just curious.

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woodbutchr

Trav, good point, I didn't think about it to tell ya the truth.
Here'e it is finished. Before y'all start in on the Oak frames w/Pine doors, it was just what I had layin' round in the shop. Tried to do it as cheap as possible. Also the shelf spacing was at his request for specific things.
Now that being said, fire away.

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AtlanticWBConst

Where's the widescreen TV? & the Beer Tap?

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woodbutchr

BEER??!!
That's why I left about 20" between the rear bed & the rear door, for the coolers.

woodbutchr

I can't believe y'all ain't got any opinions on this? Or should I say "ya should have done this way" comments??!! Say it ain't so? Did I pass the "I would have done it this way" test?

Veith@toast.net

First nice looking trailer. One other way to make some hinges is to weld some pipe to some flat stock steel Working it up just like a hinge. Last one I made like this used ¾ pipe with a ½ bolt if I remember right. Of course you need a welder
David Enterprises

72chevy4x4

did you build a place to store the mattresses? looks good!

woodbutchr

Nope, no mattress storage, that's his problem now. There is only 6'- 6" headroom in that thing as it is so I don't know what he gonna do. They were hung by the ceiling w/bungie cords but now I've covered the ceiling w/lauan so.........

IslandConst

Thanks!

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