One thing about building your own is the customizing you can do. A
friend of mine just finished his trailer a few weeks ago, built to haul TWO
vehicles....you can find one-car trailers, and 3-car trailers, but finding a
two-car trailer is damn near impossible, so he says...so he bought a MIG
welder ( $1,500 ) and a chop saw for cutting the steel beams off precisely
and evenly ( $800 ), so he had more in tools than what he MIGHT could have
bought a new single-car trailer for ( not counting the MATERIALS for the
trailer, too)....but he got a 26' footer made and built, wired, and titled
inside of 3 weeks. Then hauled 4 WWII era Jeeps back on it inside a couple
weeks. So the moral of the story is, if you want something no one else makes,
then it might be worth doing it yourself, but if all you want is a single car
trailer, then purchasing a used one can make sense...however, alot of the
used ones around Virginia seem to be made of GOLD, as many my friend went to
look at needed brake or tire work, or were really rusty, and by the time you
spent the hundreds of dollars to bring them back to safe specs, you could
have bought a new one! It's ridiculous what some people think a used trailer
is worth. That's one reason why he wanted to build his own, he could make
what he wanted. He used diamond plate across the whole bed, so that made it
more expensive as well, but he now has what he really wants, so that's what
matters to him.
Anyway, I'm looking at a "free" trailer...it needs EVERYTHING, bed wood
is rotted, hitch lock-down is missing, has split-rim wheels, really
rusty...but it's Heavy Duty, and the guy just wants to get rid of it. SO,
with my friends welder, we can fix the hitch problem with a new one, and
then it'll be spending money on the wheels, see if the brakes even work,
rewiring it, etc etc etc. I'm not so sure it's really worth it, BUT...it IS
free! LOL. I don't know yet. I'm still pondering. OH well, that's my input,
if you really need a trailer NOW, then buying one makes sense, if you can
afford to wait, then maybe constructing your own to your specs would be
better. Good luck!
Jerry
wanting one, but not "needing" one ... yet!
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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