Need help fixing up a trailer

I picked this up last summer and now its time to use it.

Its mainly made out of something like 2in angle iron and has a 20ft deck. I have all or most of the railing that was chopped off by one of the previous owners. Apparently the deck was rotten so they tore it off and painted it? I donno but I bought it for $400 so whatever.

The front axle is a bit tweaked from dropping something on it but I think I can straiten it out or pick up a new one soon.

As for making it useful I was just going to weld the deck back on it tomorrow and pick up 4 2x6's that are 20ft long each. Maybe 5 or 6. Then I'd have two ramps for tires. I also was thinking of adding some diagonals or stiffeners to add some rigidity if it was still bad after I reinstalled the railing. Do I need to set the frame on some flat ground before I weld things? Its pretty flexible as is and seems to have warped a lot.

Thanks for the help GRM! It's been a while but I haven't forgotten about you guys.

~Alex

most trailers are pretty flexible without a load. If you are worried about it, put the ends on blocks to straighten it out and get to welding. Looking at the holes in the frame though, It looks like the deck was bolted on, you might want to bolt it back on as the welding of a stiff deck to a really flexy trailer could mean ripping out welds.

Personally, I have always wondered of the inherent flexiness of a trailer might not be part of it's "suspension"

When you weld the rails back on it should stiffen a lot. Plus 1 for bolting decking back on.

When you go to weld on the railing Yes put the ends up on blocks so the ends are curled up this way one the weight of the frame is back on the wheels the frame will be closer to flat. Railing and deck with stiffen.

As long as you have flat, level ground, just put four jackstands on it at the 1/3 and 2/3 marks and weld away. The railing will add all the rigidity you need. Some flexibility is part of the design of trailers. Perfect rigidity tends to break things during articulation and bumps. Its the same reason bridges bounce and sway when you're stopped on them and a truck goes by.

Well I can't weld on wooden planks now can I? So yeah that was gonna be bolted on :P

I'll use a few floor jacks to level it out when I weld the rails back on. Good idea on that. Way simpler then taking off the axles and setting the deck on the ground haha. What was I thinking?

I gotta figure out something with the front axle too, its tweaked and one of the tires is wearing badly.

Use deck screws instead of bolts. Easier and faster.

I was going to use carriage bolts, I already looked at them a few days ago when I was pricing out materials.

I've got a trailer that looks similar to that and when we replaced the decking, the lumber was just tucked under the lip in the front, bent a bit, and then tucked into the lip in the back. Other than the front and rear lip plus the boards being shoulder to shoulder, there's nothing holding the deck in.

Would it make sense to remove the tweaked axle before trying to box it up and weld it, though? Depending on how bent it is, I could see it adding some twist to the bare frame.

Wouldn't carriage bolts going all the way through the 2" square tube weaken it, aka stress concentrator? Do screws carefully located (so you find them again when replacing the wood) with some kind of cup like washer.

In reply to 914Driver:
It's appears to be entirely constructed of angle iron. I'd do the carriage bolts.

I would definitely reinstall/well the side tubing/supports and just bolt on wooden boards as the deck. They will add some stiffness, but they are much more forgiving move movement across the width and length of the trailer than diamond plate would be. The Plating would probably ether buckle or pull the fasteners right out of the trailer.

And I would tap the holes in the trailer for threads and screw the boards in. That was how one trailer I used to use a lot was done