Wednesday 22 September 2010

On Trailer Matters............

Hi there, my neglected blog-reader………

Mind you, I doubt there is one who checks it out these days, since bugger-all gets loaded up on here from me lately. There is hope, though…….. Nanowrimo time is looming up on the horizon again, starting as it does every year on the first of November, and I’m going to try at least to write more often to this Blog by way of getting back into the writing groove again. I damn nearly said ‘every day’, but knowing how my best of intentions pretty much fall by the wayside these days, saved face by using the looser term, ‘more often’. Since once a month would technically fall under that umbrella of commitment, so that kinda guarantees some chance of fulfilling an evident promise of intent, yes?

Sat in the garden today, having failed miserably to do what any man of strength would do, and follow last night’s resolve to get Out There and carry on with The Trailer. “The Trailer?”, I hear you ask yourself in awe of what this can mean. What wondrous flurry of activity has been missed during this spell of non-communication with my fellow man (and woman) out there in Blogland?

Yup, as you suspected, I’m doing Great Works in the workshop, even though at a snail’s pace of a few hours here and there. I’ve had an old trailer of four foot wide by six foot long stuck away for something like sixteen years, and finally got around to getting it ‘done up’ to sell on ebay. It needed mudguards, tailboard with lights, number plate etc, tow-hitch, new tyres, and painting to make it sellable but, in The Thinking About It, I somehow decided to lengthen it, keep it and sell my old faithful trailer which I made about twenty-five years ago.



The old one was a bit narrow at three-foot three inches, and could do with being longer than it’s seven-foot too (that’s too as in ‘too’, not ‘two’, ok?). So, with much enthusiasm…….. ok, SOME enthusiasm, …….. I set about this old trailer I was going to just tart up and sell, cut the tail section off and welded in a metre to extend it to its present length of nine foot-three inches. (I know I don’t need to tell you girls (who may still be reading this) how much difference three inches can make.) You can see that I struggle to go completely Metric, and so mix the old Imperial and new Metric measurements, which, believe me, can lead to some bleddy Great Mistakes in making things in the workshop. It was going to be just a fraction over eight foot, but I thought “What the hell, an extra foot could come in real handy.”, and so there it is; nine foot-three inches.



As with most things in life, things aren’t as simple as you might think, and so it’s taking a while to get finished. For a start, the axle needs to be moved, or the thing will be tail-heavy, I want it to be easily as useful as the excellent smaller trailer so I’m strengthening it, welding on hooks all around the bottom, altering the tail-gate to be more user-friendly, adding a ladder-rack at the front, and am going to make provision to secure a big bike inside it, should the need arise.

Photo labeled before the bottom rail was replaced (See photo below)


Ok, that’s enough boring stuff for one day…….. I’ll bore you with some more another day, real soon(ish), and will get back to my book….. Duncan Bannatyne’s ‘Anyone Can Do It’. (I wish!) Lovely warm, sunny underpants-only day, and I’m using the justification for being sat on my ass in the sun, of it being the last warm day we’re likely to see now Autumn is pretty much here.

Wherever you are…… hope it’s all going ok. If it isn’t, chin up…… tomorrow’s another day. :o)