I've got a utility bed for a pickup truck out back. I long ago decided
not to install it on the planned truck. I bought a new truck with a
utility bed instead. I've since sold that truck, and the truck I was
going to do the bed swap on, but I still have the utility bed. For a
while I've been thinking about turning it into a trailer. Something I
can load up with stuff on the rare occasion I go help a buddy doing
handy man type stuff. With the right tires and axle it might also
double as an over lander, although I doubt I'd use it that way... more
than once or twice anyway. I have an axle, actually two of them, I took
off the gooseneck last year when I installed a pair of new axles with
actual modern electric brakes. I just didn't know where I was going to
get the steel to make a frame for it. I might only use it a couple
times a year. Its not like I plan to get back into contracting.

In my scrounging for steel I didn't mind wasting to build that winch
plate project I walked around back of the shop and saw several long
pieces of C-channel laying on the back work slab I totally forgot about.
A buddy had a fire at his hotel several years back which damaged a
couple parking shades. Part of helping him clear it up was hauling off
the some c-channel. I think it was part of the no longer function
parking shades. Not functioning due to being vaporized by fire. I
totally forgot about having that channel.

I actually have everything I need to turn that truck bed into a trailer,
and being a utility bed I won't have to show a dismantling permit to the
DMV. An OEM bed is "part of the truck, but a utility bed is a bolt on accessory. Just register the whole thing as a home made trailer.

Well, there is one thing. I asked about it some time back for some
other project. How do you bend c-channel in a home shop?

The only thing I can think of is to cut notches in the flanges. Get the
web red hot, and bend it around a couple parking bollards. I have
bollards protecting the building next to my over head doors on the shop.
V it out, weld, grind flat, and weld on a truss plate over the welded
beam top and bottom.





--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff


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