So I have a big enclosed trailer to haul my Jeep and I love it. However, for very short or very long hauls and/or hauls where I'm not sleeping in the trailer, a super small, lightweight trailer would be nice.
So I've been toying with the idea of building a super short 10 foot trailer. The front and back tires would hang over just a little bit but I'm not too concerned with that. However after playing with the idea of using both aluminum and steel builds, the metal costs would be upwards of $1000 plus some axles that I think I can source from a friend for cheap.
So with the metal prices in mind, I started looking at Facebook and Craigslist for scrap steel that might work and came across the pallet rack beams. https://www.repurposedmaterialsinc.com/used-pallet-racking-beams/pallet-racking-beams-122-x-6.5/ In my quest to find information on these beams, I found this link that gives the rating. https://precisionwarehousedesign.co...ack-beam-capacities-interlake-old-style-2.pdf This specific beam is IB692 and at 120" long can carry 11430lbs per pair. The shorter IB496 is 5500lbs per pair. However, that's static loading in a warehouse and I don't know what kind of safety factor that has nor do I know how thick these things are and can't seem to find it.
So with that rambling out of the way, does anyone have any information on the thickness of the beams or have any votes for or against this? At this price, I was thinking I'd just double up the fore/aft beams underneath the tires. So 4 beams running front to back, 5 beams running side to side cut down of course, and 2 beams for the tongue. So even at 11 beams, the total cost is under $300 + axles which is very intriguing for a budget trailer build.
So I've been toying with the idea of building a super short 10 foot trailer. The front and back tires would hang over just a little bit but I'm not too concerned with that. However after playing with the idea of using both aluminum and steel builds, the metal costs would be upwards of $1000 plus some axles that I think I can source from a friend for cheap.
So with the metal prices in mind, I started looking at Facebook and Craigslist for scrap steel that might work and came across the pallet rack beams. https://www.repurposedmaterialsinc.com/used-pallet-racking-beams/pallet-racking-beams-122-x-6.5/ In my quest to find information on these beams, I found this link that gives the rating. https://precisionwarehousedesign.co...ack-beam-capacities-interlake-old-style-2.pdf This specific beam is IB692 and at 120" long can carry 11430lbs per pair. The shorter IB496 is 5500lbs per pair. However, that's static loading in a warehouse and I don't know what kind of safety factor that has nor do I know how thick these things are and can't seem to find it.
So with that rambling out of the way, does anyone have any information on the thickness of the beams or have any votes for or against this? At this price, I was thinking I'd just double up the fore/aft beams underneath the tires. So 4 beams running front to back, 5 beams running side to side cut down of course, and 2 beams for the tongue. So even at 11 beams, the total cost is under $300 + axles which is very intriguing for a budget trailer build.