Practically Classics Forum

I know a few people have converted cars into trailers, and I'm considering a similar exercise with some left-over panels. I was wondering where people picked up their tow hitches, draw bars, etc.; looking through FleaBay is unrewarding & confusing even knowing what I'm after...

I could be wrong here but i think you may find most make them from scratch,that's what a couple of my mate's did any way

I've never built a trailer but I have built the odd towbar- the steel used was just blagged offcuts from a fabrication place that had some heavy stuff in the scrap skip- just walked into and asked Most towns have a trailer place where you can get towballs, electrics, arches,brake stuff, etc, etc, or you could go online- try http://www.towsure.com/category/Towing Be aware though that you can't use a non type approved bar, i.e. home built, on a post '98 car.

Back in the late '60s,early'70s a popular conversion was to cut a minivan just in front of the b post, cover the front with a sheet of steel and fabricate a hitch using 2 lengths of angle iron with an over run hitch bolted to them. By connecting the handbrake cables to the over run hitch gave you a properly braked trailer. Looked good when hitched to a minivan and doubled the volume that could be carried. I am sure that you could use a Vauxhall combi van or similar using the above method. Go to a local trailer specialist and they could advise you. Parts to make up the hitch are available from Indispension ( not sure of the spelling) or as said before Towsure. Don't fit a hitch that suits auto reverse brakes as these don't work on car brakes, you need the older coupling that has a flip over plate to prevent the brakes coming on when you reverse.

I actually have a mini trailer waiting attention as part of my current mini refurb, even came complete with a "short vehicle " sticker

In the fab shop I used to work in we made tankers for silage and muck spreaders, the main thing is to have a good strong chassis or floor pan for everything to sit on.

Any back end of car / van will do providing you get the draw bar attached well, you can add an extra brace or two between the chassis legs to stiffen things up, saloons make a good low trailer with the roof chopped off and a panel or tonneu (if strengthened a little) cover. They would work o.k with the roof left on also but obviously not as much room as a van type. You would need to make sure the box sections or chassis legs are well connected to the draw bar as the main aim is to connect your towbar to the axle, the rest is really just a tub on top. Dependent on weight either an A frame draw bar or a straight centre one will do, all you should really need to buy in would be the hitch, jockey wheel and electric plug, all available from good auto factors and trailer shops along with some box section / angle / channel section to make the draw bar and tie everything in, a brace or two across the chopped front and sheet steel to fill the front as mentioned in previous post. Everything else is already in place on the donor vehicle.

Regarding brakes, I don't know if its still the case but legislation re weight plates etc used to be more stringent on braked trailers than non braked, my dad and the neighbour used to make trailers as a sideline and avoided braked versions because of this.

Maybe not quite in the spirit of the original post but how about using an ex-military trailer? You can pick them up for anything from around £150 to about £400 for a really good condition model. Forget the old Brockhouse ones though as they haven't been made for decades. Look for the Sankey narrow or wide track ones. The advantage of these is that spares are plentiful and they also have a very good carrying weight (unlike a trailer made from the rear end of a car).

Just a thought I popped into the mix

I'm after something car-derived because I'm looking at having half a car available for the purpose; Sankey trailers are all well & good but they don't look right behind anything other than Land Rovers or the like - I'd probably have to fit a tow hitch to the roof of my Allegros to match the hitch height!

I recently picked up a Sankey Narrow Track already converted to 12v for my 2003 landy to tow.

Cost under £200 delivered, but if used on a normal motor a reverse swan neck will need to be fitted to allow it to be towed from a lower level, and a duel purpouse ball and pin set up will be needed on the car.

OCO I manufacture bespoke trailers for karts, quads etc so if you have any questions I'll be happy to help. If the main querie is the drawbar it needs to be over half the width of the towing vehicle so that on full lock you don't crunch the corners. You also need to consider the "nose weight" of the trailer and hitch so that the hitch is not put under more strain than its designed for.

Be mindful that should it be over 750kg fully laden then it needs brakes and to comply legally, unlike most trailers made from the back of a car it needs to display to correct warning triangles at the extremeties. Haynes do a very useful trailer manual that should give you a lot of info if you see a cheap copy on ebay.

Hope that helps a bit but like I say any direct questions and I'll gladly answer.

Mattcortes wrote:Haynes do a very useful trailer manual that should give you a lot of info if you see a cheap copy on ebay.

Well there's my mission for the next few weeks! Thanks