Ohio Steel 5x8 Utility Trailer

That is a nice looking trailer.

 

Thanks! Quite an upgrade from a Harbor Freight 4x8 I had a few years back. But that trailer did serve me very well.

This one is really sturdy and well built. And not hard to find in a parking lot!

 

By your pictures it is a huge step up from the HF trailers.
My old boss had one and we put a folding gate on it and he used it for probably 15 years and just passed it on to a new owner when he bought a new trailer back a few months. For what it was it served him well.

 

They are good trailers. I had an earlier version and the steel wasn’t as thick nor the paint as good as they are now; from what I see on the display units in the store.

I bought mine in the early 200o’s for a few hundred bucks and got a good 15 years out of it. A tree fell on it unfortunately. But at that point, the frame was fairly rusty. I ended up selling the wheels/axle to a guy building his own trailer and the fenders and hitch coupler to another guy. So in a sense, it still lived on.

 

I found some rough sawn pine boards on marketplace; 1”x12”x8’….true measurements too. $10 a board; I bought three. They still need some drying, but will sit in the garage and then the shed for another few weeks until I have some time. The seller was great, located in Southington, CT. I’ll use him again should I need any rough cut lumber.

My plan is to prime them with an oil base primer, then paint them a grey color similar to the color of the rear ramps/gate. Right now, my thought is to attach them to the uprights using some square ubolts. I’m open to suggestions for other options.

The boards should be the perfect height as the tops of the rails are 12” from the trailer deck. Using AI as my calculator, should be able to haul 2 yards of mulch if needed.

 

The boards have been drying in our shed for some time now. Finally had the opportunity to cut them to size and notch out the spaces for the d rings. I used a jig saw and they came out pretty good; not finished carpentry, but good enough for a trailer.



Hit the boards with a coat of Ben Moore acrylic primer and then mounted them to the trailer using some stainless steel u-bolts from Amazon. They fit perfectly. But the threads are kinda ‘meh’ as one had to be cut off with the angle grinder after test fitting everything. Next week, they’ll get a coat of two of deck coating from Sherwin Williams; same stuff we used on our deck and bridges in VT.

 

Sides look great.
Good coatings you put on there. Both companies use Burgess Pigment products made from GA kaolin....

 

No kidding? I did not know that! Thanks for sharing.

 

Yep, I've worked here at the plant where it's produced for 36 years.
One of the products coming out of a kiln that I run...
Yep, that's some hot dirt...about 1600° hot...
We have 4 units like this and 2 different style units.
We are building a 5th unit like this.

 

Nice trailer. Usually if HD rents something it’s built tough and that trailer is. Ya know HD sells sheets of PVC that would make decent solid sides with no rot. Maybe next time

 

A couple more pics...
Trailer waiting to get a load
Part of our storage system for semi-bulk bags. Bags can weigh from 750 to 2205 lbs. Those in that rack weight 1000# each/2 bags per pallet
Another warehouse where we store 50# bags...

 

That’s a good point! Something like an Azek would last a good long while! And probably require less prep.

 

T. Jeff, now that’s really interesting! Thanks for sharing. A lot more goes in to paint than I realized. How cool that it came full circle like that. And to think, the paint/primer/stain we’ve used up here has been through the kiln you run. Small world!

 

Yes sir, it is. Remember the show "This Old House" with Bob Villa? About 34 yrs ago, I watched an episode where they were painting a house, he said "let's go see how painting is made"...he goes on a tour of a Sherwin Williams plant up there. I'm really watching it now, and sure enough when he goes to where they are adding ingredients to make a batch, the guy starts opening 50# bags of Burgess "Optiwhite-P"...I'm like ...I might have put the kaolin in those bags...it was packaged on the bagger I worked on...

I'm proud of our small company, we have about 130-140 total employees, yet compete with some huge companies. Still family majority owned, been in business for 77 years.
On my end of the plant, we have 3 packaging lines/warehouses.
The above picture with the racks of 50# bags can hold 770 tons of normal pallets of 50 bags/pallet, some loads get 60-65 bags/pallet.
Other 2 warehouses can hold more.
This section can hold 450 tons...
total storage of the 2 is 1992 tons.
We also lease 5 off-site warehouses for storage space...
I'm glad we could be a small part of your project....

 

That is beyond cool! I bet that episode is kicking around somewhere online. I’ll have to look it up!

Most certainly is neat to have you as a part of this project! So funny the connections we all have; but may never realize!

 

Got the boards stained/painted and mounted up. I’m really happy with the results! It matches the gray on the tailgates, so a nice look overall.



And since I can’t resist a good Dad Joke, I had this custom sticker made and applied it.

 

Very, very nice! Trailer looks great and appears to be quite well made. So handy to have a trailer like this, will get used a lot, I bet.

 

That’s one heavy duty single axle trailer. Designed to last. Fenders are a little low IMO. Careful backing it off the roadside. My license plate has been folded and unfolded numerous times LOL. I even hung it on a rubber flap and it still gets bent up. You’re going to enjoy having that around. Mine hardly ever comes off the truck anymore.

 

Thanks guys! It is a really stout trailer. And good point on the fenders. Luckily, the plate is mounted to the rear of the frame. But the lowness of the fenders is a key point when doing a little off reading (which is mainly our lawn…lol).