I grew up in rural South Carolina, in a small town called Sharon. Growing up in a “lower income” town compared to a richer suburb or downtown allowed me to see how people improvised to make ends meet when they couldn’t afford the luxuries of life. Where I am from, most of these people are referred to as Rednecks. To me being called Redneck is an offensive term, however growing up in the midst of this lifestyle has taught me numerous things about building the trailer for this project. So I write this blog to impart some of things leading to decisions made of the designing and building of the trailer.
Welds are meant to hold the trailer together, a weld is not art.
When welding the trailer we are building, the most important thing is that it can travel down the interstate at 70mph (well 80 more than likely). If a weld is pretty but not structural it does you no good when it breaks and our screen ends up on I-26 in Columbia. My take is the overall form of the trailer will be beautiful, but the welds may not be. No disrespect to the pros, because I know they can do both. This is not saying that all of our welds look like a kindergardener coloring on the living room wall did them, most actually look pretty good, but that’s not our main focus. We just want the trailer to function.
No tire is too big, ever, period.
Tires come in all shapes and sizes. Traditional tire sizes for a trailer usually are a lot smaller than the tires you find on your standard truck pulling it. The main exception for this on the highway is the wheels and tires on big-rigs or 18-wheelers. This makes sense due to the weights of the materials they are carrying and the amount of driving they do. In comparison we are using tires that run the same size as the ones on your SUV or Truck. This was planned the amount of weight we were carrying, it wasn’t just dumb luck like the next point suggest.
You can always find a use for the tires in your backyard
I happened to have two wheels and very new tires that I took off of my Jeep Grand Wagoneer (not a redneck car it’s a classic). These sizeable wheels allow for us to build a heavier and more stable trailer that will be more level with the SUV or Truck pulling it. So no matter the size, condition, or age; you can always find a use for that tire in your backyard.
The strongest Axle is always better
We went with a stronger axle because our weight of the structure keeps increasing as the days progress. Because of the location of our tires and the width of our trailer, we had to purchase two half axles (or torsion stub axles). These hefty gems weigh in at over 60lbs a piece and were custom built for us with a 6 lug hub for our fancy wheels. The axle is rated to a little less than twice our trailer and structure weight, because if something was to break on our axle, then we would be stranded with no way to move the trailer.
Always paint it the same color as your favorite NASCAR driver’s car.
This is the most important, we will be painting our trailer to match my favorite NASCAR drivers car. So come November 18th be ready to check out the most awesome trailer paint job ever. Literally I am not joking about this.
Again I don’t consider myself a Redneck, but to me the life skills I have learned from people around me deemed as this is invaluable. So to all my friends in Sharon, South Carolina lifting their trucks and racing their lawnmowers I salute you and thank you for the knowledge imparted to help in the building of this trailer.
