Cattle hauler goosneck conversion on the cheap.

[Andrew]

I found a decent deal on a gooseneck cattle hauler a few weeks back. I decided to try to turn it into a car hauler with possibly a small sleeping space on the front.

The trailer deck is 84" wide by 16' long. It has dual torsion 8 lug axles.

Although, its far from an ideal goosneck chassis, I decided to give it a go.

I sold my 6x12 utility trailer I built and picked this up, pretty much a trade.

 

[Andrew]

The wall panels were junk at this point in its life, and its rear doors literally needed to be strapped shut, as the panels were to bent to close correctly.

I started the teardown, and pissing off of the neighborhood. Most of the work was done via sawsall. I didnt own my oxy/ace setup yet.

I left the last foot or so of paneling up for a bit, too give it some sort of minor support on the tongue.

 

[Andrew]

At this point, the trailer was pretty floppy, as to be expected.

I talked to the local welding shop, and ended up raiding his REM pile, and bought two sticks of 2"x2"x1/4". I asked for 16' out of each stick, and give me the drops.....what I ended up with was 15/5s......not sure how that got crossed up.

I ran some 3" C channel and a few 2" C channel down from the 2x2 rails to the trailers existing "frame" The frame consists of 3" channel, with the same runners accross.

 

[Andrew]

I ended up making some basic fenders out of tubing and 14g plate. I like flat fenders on trailers because it gives me a surface to work on, or set stuff, although they arent as asthetically pretty as stamped fenders.

 

[Andrew]

At this point, the basics are done. Lights, backup lights, fenders and basic structure. I loaded up the 1800 pounds of steel I cut off, and headed to the scrap yard.

Much nicer than a tongue haul. I live in a very rural area, and anywhere you want to go is a curvy, hilly route. The trailer tracked great.

Next, I need to add inner fenders, and a front wall, and re do the trailers last crossmemeber "bumper". Its a bit tweaked from dragging, then figure out a camper setup.

With the way the front 2x2 angle supports go, I cant set a small tent trailer sideways on the front deck like I am considering. So that leaves me with setting something on top of the gooseneck arms, or building something from scratch.

It wasnt the ideal chassis to work with, but supporting a YJ and a small 800lb camper should work.

 

[Andrew]

Well, I had approx 13klbs on it yesterday, and didnt kill a bus load of nuns. So I guess a YJ will be fine