Firewood trailer refresh (and pic test)

Can’t really hammer down when I got this trailer but it was many years ago. Got my Tundra in 2010 so it wasn’t long after that. Probably 15 years or so ago. I’ve showed it absolutely zero love in all that time. Here’s some of the good loads:





2014:


Anyway..
2 things motivated this. First was the right side light was not working and second the morning of renting the boom lift, I had a mishap trying to move it. I slipped on some plastic that was wet and under my feet, the tongue slammed across my leg as I lay helpless. Really though I broke the fibula. This made me want to add a swivel jack. Decided to show it some more love than just those 2 things. The original wood was rotting, side marker lights were trashed long ago, it was moldy and rusty. Took some pics along the way, hopefully they will work.. as I found a “hack” on my iPhone to batch “resize” by saving to the files folder. Let’s see if it works;


Got the trusty nail puller out in hopes to get these out. No bueno. I had to use the grinder.


More pics to come if these look good. I wanna check em out on the laptop.

 

Looked decent enough for me..
Trip to the local ACE for stuff. I’ve had really good results with the “professional” Rust-Oleum on the underside of my mower deck so I’ll stick with it. Figured I’d try the rusty metal primer as I didn’t plan on going crazy with a wire wheel.




Used up 3 cans of black and needed another. Did the lights/wiring next.

 

Solder, tape, shrink then double shrink. OCD kicked in.


Then I remembered I had some of these fancy shrinks with solder and weather seal built in.



Next was wood replacement. Instead of buying a $60+ sheet of treated plywood, I pulled some slabs of oak out of my wood rack. These are chestnut oak from my oak honey hole. Not quite wide enough in one slab so I made two boards per side.




Sheesh, this is too nice for trailer duty. Too late.


2 wheel barrows full of planer shavings.


Next I coated them with Thompsons Waterseal. Then screwed down w/ stainless self tappers.




Only broke 3 bits.



MUCH better.

Wheel jack will be appreciated greatly!


Had to throw the bed liner back in. Hate to cover up the nice wood!

 

Looks great. A new trailer to play with

 

Impressive but covering that oak is criminal

 

Covering the wood is too bad but the bed liners do protect so well. Trailer looks great.

 

Congrats on figuring out a workaround on the pics, looks good!
And also on the trailer too...totally agree on the paint choice, the wiring connections, and the stainless screws!

 

Pics look perfect on my netbook.

Sorry to hear of the mishap. Did you get X-rays? Prolly got a good bruise?

 

How's your leg?
You did a great job on the trailer. Looks great. We need to do our little trailer, I managed to get 3 boards down, enough to hold some plywood pieces. I broke a few drill bits too.

 

We should @ least mention the price of this stuff.
$32.81 for 24 2” self tap stainless screws ($1.29ea)
$2.50 for 4 1” self tap stainless screws (for side markers) (.59ea)
$38.13 for 3 cans of black Rust-Oleum ($11.99ea)
$20.13 for the extra can I needed at TSC ($18.99ea)
$21.18 for 2 cans of primer ($9.99ea)
$35 for LED trailer light kit
$15 for the better trailer wiring kit (not totally necessary)
$38 for the swing wheel jack
I can’t find the receipt for the 4 ss bolts, washers and nuts I used on the bottom of the sides. I’ll keep looking.

 

I didn’t have it looked at. I laid there for a while tho. Never broke a bone (fractured one in my hand a long time ago) but I sure thought that was the first time. Having just got the lift home, I needed to soldier on, so I did… a lot slower for a while. It did turn light brown and a little purple. I still favor that knee a bit.

I limped a bit for a few days after. Glad my son was already scheduled to help w the lift that weekend. There’s no way I’d have been able to do the work myself after that. I’m pretty much back to normal. A bit wiser let me tell ya.
About the bits.. first self tap I tried to do, the drill part of the screw got about 1/8” in and broke. So I used an 1/8” drill bit to get through the metal first, then they all worked fine except one. I think it may have been the metal in that spot got hardened by a weld? Not sure but it was seated on the board and just as it got down the whole way it started creaking loud and got jerky. I just stopped and let it not countersunk. No way was I reversing it, or removing all the other screws to see if it broke or not. I was applying grease to each one to help.