stock trailer to flat bed

blue924.9 · Feb 17, 2014

looking for a little bit bigger trailer than the old tired out 16 foot homemade carhauler, noticed that you can get a livestock trailer for a lot cheaper than a flatbed. idea hit me what if you cut off the sides and top of the livestock trailer, would that work or remove to much support from the trailer, figured i would come on here and see what you guys though, thanks

rrlund · Feb 17, 2014

I don't think they have much of a frame under them. A travel trailer is the same way. Pretty light underneath.

mkirsch · Feb 17, 2014

There's a reason you don't see it done. If you could do that, EVERYBODY would be towing around cut-down stock trailers and trailer manufacturers would not sell anything else.

The whole "cage" of the stock trailer is part of its strength. Maybe not the "straight pull" strength, but certainly most of the twisting strength.

Animals also distribute their weight over a much larger area than a piece of equipment. Take a bunch of hogs vs. a skidsteer for example.

The hogs will be distributed all over the floor of the trailer. The skidsteer will be siting on four spots in the middle of the trailer.

While the PSI of any hog hoof may be higher than what the skidsteer puts down, they will be in contact many with more floorboards and many more cross members than the skidsteer. The hogs will utilize most every floorboard and cross member, while the skidsteer will only be touching 4-5 floorboards and 3-4 cross members.

old · Feb 17, 2014

A normal flat bed has a heavy frame but if you look at a stock trailer you will see that the frame is a lot lighter. The stock trailer uses a uni-body design like the car do now days so cutting one down means a lot less frame so likely to fold up on you

blue924.9 · Feb 17, 2014

ha ha kind of figured that but didnt know for sure lol, well looks like its time to scrap that idea

Goose · Feb 17, 2014

I went to a Chief Industries auction several years ago. They must have had 50 bare double and triple axle frames with axles, wheels, and tires for 26' to 30' gooseneck campers.

They would have made beautiful frames for flatbeds, but the metal was simply too light. They depended on the campers built on them for some of their strength.

Tx Jim · Feb 17, 2014

Some brands of stock trailers including Gooseneck(Bryan,Tx) for one built a few stock trailers that the top rack could be unbolted and lifted off to accomplish exactly what you desire. You need to come to Texas to buy a GN lowboy trailer as they're cheaper than a livestock trailer the same size.

ericlb · Feb 17, 2014

i agree its a bad idea, i once cut down a travel trailerafter a concrete wall fell on it i wanted to use it for a utility trailer, got the body cut off and was amazed how little frame these things actually have under them ,stock trailers are the same way to a degree, they have small light weight frames, some have torsion suspension which is not real good for any other uses, by the time you buy all the metal to beef up the stock trailer to hold a load you can buy a real nice ready to roll trailer thats designed for what you want it to do

Mike (WA) · Feb 17, 2014

Had a client, a general contractor, contract to put in a "railcar bridge" for a customer. He found a cut-down boxcar and put it in. Customer sued him, said he should have used a flatcar, and came up with specs that showed a cut-down boxcar had only about half the strength of a flatcar of the same length. The GVW capacity of the two were similar, but the rest of the strength came from the boxcar structure that had been cut off. My guy ended up refunding about $6,000 of the $9,000 contract, and of course, the customer never took the cut down boxcar out, just pocketed the money.

DoubleR · Feb 17, 2014

I just brought a new Corn Pro 16 ft bumper pull livestock trailer. The tag on it says max load is about 4500lbs.
I got a 16 ft. flat bed I brought new that will haul allot more then that. I brought it for about 1/3 of the price of the cattle trailer.
I would take a good look underneath a cattle trailer that you would be considering converting. I don't think they are built as heavy in allot of cases.

Eldon (WA) · Feb 17, 2014

(quoted from post at 13:30:33 02/17/14) looking for a little bit bigger trailer than the old tired out 16 foot homemade carhauler, noticed that you can get a livestock trailer for a lot cheaper than a flatbed. idea hit me what if you cut off the sides and top of the livestock trailer, would that work or remove to much support from the trailer, figured i would come on here and see what you guys though, thanks

Here's the best use I have found for an old travel trailer. I found this frame for $100 on CL and added the wood. Much easier backing in a shed than a hay wagon....

Anonymous-0 · Feb 18, 2014

depends on the style. on some stock trailors, the walls are the frame. if you mess with them, you could be messing with the weight limitations of the trailor.

stock trailer to flat bed

blue924.9

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rrlund

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mkirsch

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old

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blue924.9

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Goose

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Tx Jim

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ericlb

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Mike (WA)

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DoubleR

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Eldon (WA)

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Anonymous-0

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