- Joined
- February 9, 1999
- Messages
- 12,050
- Reaction score
- 133
- City, State
- Vail, Arizona
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1992 XLT 4x4
Well, this isn't exactly an off-road project, but this is the trailer I'm using to take the X to the trails.. so I figure it belongs here.
I've had this trailer for a while. its an old uhaul trailer with upgraded axles but no fenders. It hasn't had fenders for many years..
Since I am planning on taking it into CA I figure I really need to get fenders on it as I doubt the CA police aren't nears as friendly has the Az cops.
I didn't want to spend any real money on the fenders so I decided to try to build the fenders my neighbor has built years ago, back in Nebraska.
Here is what we did.
Step 1, Find free scrap tires (no tread is just fine). We found the 265x75r16 6 ply tires worked the best (we used two 265x75r16 6 ply and two 245x75r16 4 ply)
step 2, cut the bead off the tires
I used a harborfreight 7.25" metal circular saw to cut through the bead.
I then used a sawzall to cut through the sidewall a bit and then cut JUST THE BEAD out. If you cut too much of the sidewall out the tire will become too floppy. I cut to about the edge of the thicker part of the rubber.
step 3, Cut across the tire on one side.
step 4, We then flipped the tire inside out. It took 2 people. One person held the rest of the tire up while the 2nd person pushed down on the sidewall of the tire. We were pushing the tire carcass (fender) on the trailer tires.
step 5, we welded 3 pieces of metal to the side of the trailer for mounts. I tried to space them evenly around the tires leaving about 5" of space between the metal and the tires. I used some angle iron I had lying around
step 6, We had to modify the center bracket. A flat piece of steel would work better here so we cut the angle iron so it was basically a flat piece (vertical) with some bracing. This was the 2nd modifcation we did, you can see an extra piece of steel I welded to the top when I was trying to acomplish the same thing.. the cutting of the angle iron made design work better.
Step 7, Drill 2 holes into the metal. The outside hole is around 2-3" from the end and the inside hole is about 5" or so inboard. It doesn't need to be exact.
Step 8, clamp the tire onto the brackets. It took 2 people to do this.
step 9, once the tires are clamped on we drilled holes in the tires by putting the drill through the metal into the tires. Then add some nuts/bolts.
Step 10, cut the excess tire off. Once we had one tire done we knew that 65" of tire was going to be almost right. We only had a couple inches to trim per side.
Step 11, We were running dual axles so we had to clamp the 2nd tire on, drill the holes and bolt it on..
I don't have a good picture yet, but here is a pic take when we were done.
You can see that the left tire looks nicer. That is a 265x75r16 6ply when the tire on the right is a 245x75r16 4ply. I may eventually re-do the 4ply fenders just to make them look nicer.
With the tires inside out and most of the sidewall still there, there isn't that much give. It doesn't look like the fenders are going to move enough to hit the tires.
I'll try to get better pics during the day tomorrow.
This was pretty cheap to do, tires were free, nuts/bolts/washers were free. I did need to replace the blade on the 7.25" saw after cutting through 6 tires (2 were experimentation) and 1 sawzall blade. I had the steel lying around, and I have a 10lbs spool of welding wire..
As an added bonus, I can hit the fenders with things and not worry about denting the fenders
I've had this trailer for a while. its an old uhaul trailer with upgraded axles but no fenders. It hasn't had fenders for many years..
Since I am planning on taking it into CA I figure I really need to get fenders on it as I doubt the CA police aren't nears as friendly has the Az cops.
I didn't want to spend any real money on the fenders so I decided to try to build the fenders my neighbor has built years ago, back in Nebraska.
Here is what we did.
Step 1, Find free scrap tires (no tread is just fine). We found the 265x75r16 6 ply tires worked the best (we used two 265x75r16 6 ply and two 245x75r16 4 ply)
step 2, cut the bead off the tires
I used a harborfreight 7.25" metal circular saw to cut through the bead.
I then used a sawzall to cut through the sidewall a bit and then cut JUST THE BEAD out. If you cut too much of the sidewall out the tire will become too floppy. I cut to about the edge of the thicker part of the rubber.
step 3, Cut across the tire on one side.
step 4, We then flipped the tire inside out. It took 2 people. One person held the rest of the tire up while the 2nd person pushed down on the sidewall of the tire. We were pushing the tire carcass (fender) on the trailer tires.
step 5, we welded 3 pieces of metal to the side of the trailer for mounts. I tried to space them evenly around the tires leaving about 5" of space between the metal and the tires. I used some angle iron I had lying around
step 6, We had to modify the center bracket. A flat piece of steel would work better here so we cut the angle iron so it was basically a flat piece (vertical) with some bracing. This was the 2nd modifcation we did, you can see an extra piece of steel I welded to the top when I was trying to acomplish the same thing.. the cutting of the angle iron made design work better.
Step 7, Drill 2 holes into the metal. The outside hole is around 2-3" from the end and the inside hole is about 5" or so inboard. It doesn't need to be exact.
Step 8, clamp the tire onto the brackets. It took 2 people to do this.
step 9, once the tires are clamped on we drilled holes in the tires by putting the drill through the metal into the tires. Then add some nuts/bolts.
Step 10, cut the excess tire off. Once we had one tire done we knew that 65" of tire was going to be almost right. We only had a couple inches to trim per side.
Step 11, We were running dual axles so we had to clamp the 2nd tire on, drill the holes and bolt it on..
I don't have a good picture yet, but here is a pic take when we were done.
You can see that the left tire looks nicer. That is a 265x75r16 6ply when the tire on the right is a 245x75r16 4ply. I may eventually re-do the 4ply fenders just to make them look nicer.
With the tires inside out and most of the sidewall still there, there isn't that much give. It doesn't look like the fenders are going to move enough to hit the tires.
I'll try to get better pics during the day tomorrow.
This was pretty cheap to do, tires were free, nuts/bolts/washers were free. I did need to replace the blade on the 7.25" saw after cutting through 6 tires (2 were experimentation) and 1 sawzall blade. I had the steel lying around, and I have a 10lbs spool of welding wire..
As an added bonus, I can hit the fenders with things and not worry about denting the fenders