I Bought The Cheapest Step Deck Trailer I Could Find On Marketplace

All right there YouTube Welcome Back to the channel. I'Ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off this morning, so I didn't get a chance to film a proper introduction to this video. But we are on the road here and we are heading to go pick up. A new equipment purchase, I'm guessing by the thumbnail there. I'M guessing you already know what it is, but we're gon na go pick up a flatbed, trailer and haul it back to the shop here all right. So we are hooked up here, we're on our way back to the shop driving on down the highway foreign. Is here it's been raining, I haven't had a chance to wash it yet it was raining this morning, but here's the trailer it's a little ugly, but it's nice heavy duty, well-built trailer, triple axle, really looking for a trailer with the beaver tail and ramps on it. But this one does not haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do there. This is set up for pen on ramps, but I think I'd rather have a beaver. Tail might do that. Might this one here has got a little bit of weather, checking it's going to need to be changed and I think the inside one. On the other side there as well underneath here we've got some new slack adjusters. It'S got all new airbags on it. They replace some of the airlines. It'S got new brake cans on it. Brake shoes still plenty serviceable, probably about half lace, no need to change those. Quite yet s. Cams and bushings are all tight. All that's pretty good! Oh! This is an extendable deck trailer. You can see it's got different pen holes here, it's very heavy duty. This is probably close to an inch thick steel here got an air valve here, switch that pulls the pins out, set the brakes on the trailer and then the front half and the back. Half of the trailer will either slide together or slide away. You guys got a deck here that he made uh fill the Gap at the 50 Foot setting seems fairly well built. I don't really like how it's attached - you're - probably gon, na - probably going to use this deck, but I'm going to change how it's attached, probably also going to fill the Gap in there in the middle and replace the wood in the center here. So I have a full wood flat deck. What up front here is pretty solid, yet there is one hole right there, but other than that. The deck's pretty solid same thing up top here, also set up set up for, pin on ramps to go up to the upper deck. Here too, I do believe this was a winch truck trailer. One time you see the uh front, there looks like it's set up to hook a winch to it, drag it up on the trailer and on the back here. This is there's no tail roll on it, but I want to be surprised if it had a tail roll on it at one time, because this is like three quarter inch thick Steel on the back here. So very very beefy came with a few good used tires here, so we'll take them, it's got 22.5 Bud wheels on it. You can see. The square here means that this is a lug centered Bud wheel and we're running 255 75 or 70 R22 fives, and it looks like we've got a deck height of three foot, one inch so at the current setting we're at 40 feet on the bottom deck with A 12 foot Upper Deck so that currently puts this trailer at 52 feet all right, so I got about half a day today. I can work on this and I want to try to make this trailer as functional for me as I possibly can in the least amount of time. So, as you can see, this ramp is set up or this trailer is rather set up for pen on ramps. I just picked up a set of pin on wraps sir you're gon na put those on see what our angles kind of look like. Hopefully, that's going to work out for now, quite honestly, here, probably in a week or two, I'm gon na need to move that fuel truck that you saw in the last video or a recent video. So I kind of want to get this trailer set up. So I can do that if I've got a trailer, I don't want to borrow one. So let's go ahead, get these thrown on here and see what it looks like foreign take the grinder to these freaking things to get them to fit in these ramps, but foreign foreign, okay! So there's that on there I can tell you right now. This is not going to be a permanent solution for one thing, these are serious pain in the ass for another. It'S not a great loading angle. I thought I'd see. Maybe if this Duramax here will drive up that, if that truck with its ground clearance, can make it over that, I think we'll be okay. I can always find a hill to back into when I got ta load stuff, but not a permanent solution. These will probably mostly be used to put up Drive stuff up to the top deck. Once I get my beaver tail and stuff built back here, but see what it looks like if we try to drive up there now you see that there there's a problem. We bought them out before the rear tires are start climbing. Now, if I were to back this into a hillside here, get the ramps flatter. That would work, but not ideal, so to try to illustrate that point here got my little Toyota here. It'S much shorter, wheelbase higher ground clearance, obviously, but I think that you see that it's not going to drop near as much in the center, because the rear tires are going to start climbing sooner foreign foreign. So next on the agenda here is, I want to get some deck boards in the middle here picked up a hundred dollars worth in two by sixes. This is not ideal. Trailer deck, that's just pressure treated 2x6 Lumber. This is not the best trailer decking material, but it will work. That'S what the deck on this trailer is made out of here. Actually, except this wasn't even pressure treated, I just mopped it with engine oil and this decks. Oh probably going on seven eight years old. Now and it's still in pretty good shape, so I think we'll make do first thing I need to do here is where we've got some: the old screws that are broke off that are sticking up. We need to grind those down flat, so the board can sit flat on these cross members. So let me knock that out here, quick foreign, all right, so you know there are some days you guys really got a question. Are you very smart? Yeah today is one of those days, so I threw my camera on the charger and I was just kind of working away at this. I haven't been at this for very long and maybe 45 minutes into it. It'S going pretty darn quick, so I knew when I measured. The width of this section I had to fill in here figured I'd use a two by six, so I took that width divided by 5.5. I came up with five in a fraction, so I knew okay. Well, I'm gon na have to get six boards and I'm gon na have to rip the last one down make it fit. So I got my five boards down here: grab my tape measure. Well, how wide do I need to make this hmm okay, so I should have got five two by sixes and one two by four imagine that well, I'm not gon na take time to go, run back and get a two by four, so we're gon na go Ahead and rip this last board down anyway, foreign foreign - that's probably about all I'm gon na have time for here today. I need to get everything picked up here and cleaned up probably go ahead and pull these ramps back off, probably stick them up on the top deck there and chain them down still need to get a piece of diamond tread to go in here all right. There YouTube here we are another day. Another two sets back on working on the old trailer here. It really didn't think I was going to get this done this soon, but fortunately enough we're able to so. I think you guys can see what we're doing here we're starting to build a beaver tail on this trailer. I'Ve got main outside box of it done here. I'Ve got one of the center beams cut and just tack welded in place here, and we're gon na keep plugging away on this and I'll bring you guys along for some of this here. But I think first thing using my neighbor's bandsaw to cut the final angles and dimensions on these. I'M going to go ahead and get the other one of these set up in the bandsaw. There got that started, cutting and then I'll start welding. This one in all. Right so once I got my angle figured out here, the deal will set the fence up here. So it's nice and repeatable quick, easy done deal. Those first cut not too critical. Here I mean. Obviously the angle is critical, but we're a place here is not too critical. Yeah the steel shot cut these a little long. So I mean I got a pretty good drop off the end, so go ahead and get this saw started up. Get this thing started cutting. I think this Blade's a little dull, so it takes a while but get this started and then uh get back over to the trailer foreign yeah. That'S not too shabby got that one to do. We are going to preheat the back of the trailer there because that's like three quarter inch thick steel there all right. So we got this one positioned and tacked in place. We'Re gon na get the bandsaw set up to cut our next pieces start cutting up. While we weld that in just like, we did a minute all right now, I don't remember exactly where I left off on recording on this. I know I had a time lapse going or I thought I did and when I went to turn the camera off. I had never realized I'd, never turned it on in the first place. So here's where I was at when I had to take off here yesterday and take care of some other things. I'Ve got all the structure in I've got some triangulation underneath help make this from being quite such a lever. I'Ve got both sides of all my angle, iron cut and placed really took far longer than I really anticipated kind of put me behind her. I was really kind of hoping to have all my fabrication done on this yesterday, but the majority of these are just tack welded in right now I still got to cut the rest of the center. I'M probably not going to worry about placing them right now, just because I'm getting behind, but I need to I'll go ahead and get those cut out while I'm welding the rest of this in, I ran out of gas for the welder. While I was attacking these. So we're down to stick welding here now, so we're gon na stick weld pretty much the rest of this. I might do some flux core on some out of position stuff here, but all these angle, irons, I'm just going to stick weld them in. So, let's get after it, foreign yep, and now we have a rain delay, making good progress. So we got both the sides. All the angle, irons are completely welded in working our way up the middle okay. So the deck is finished here. That was a heck of a lot of welding took a few hours. So next thing I need to do here is: I need to make something I can set these ramps onto, and I think this is what I'm going to do here. Basically, just like a rub: rail, except I'm gon na Center - these here and here and then set this one down a little bit and then that's going to weld onto the back. I'M just going to use a dovetail here is a Welding Table the well. This seems how it's already grounded foreign foreign foreign rather than screwing, on with that PIN on stuff yeah. It just sits right on there that ain't going nowhere foreign all right. So I got all my lights installed, except for the Corners. I want to wait till I get the wiring run before I go ahead and cap the ends of that and put my corner lights in and all the sun's in the way wrong direction. Probably washing you guys out here, but there is a plug on the back of the trailer here. So my plan here is to take the old light pigtail from old red and we're gon na plug that in there run it into here and wire up the light. Okay, so the lights are all wired and working, it's kind of foolish to think that plug would actually work, but didn't take a whole lot of tanker and got everything working okay, so I am done fabricating on this beaver tail. I got my Center section of tread plate in here, and I made a hanger for chains just so much easier to grab change when they're hanging you can grab both ends at once, pull it right out. They don't get all tangled and stuff. I am going to put a chain box on this thing eventually, but that's a whole lot better. Nothing for now got the old Mac hooked up. I'M gon na go park. This thing back in the yard - and I get everything from underneath here - cleaned up yet tonight, I'll tell you I'm quite warped. It'S been a been a pretty good sized project here. Getting this done all right. There YouTube So today we're gon na do something not the right way, but we're just gon na get a little bit of paint on this beaver tail. Get it some temporary cover. Just keep this thing from totally rusting now, in reality, what you'd really want to do is actually sand blast. All this new metal get all the mill scale and stuff off of it before you painted it, because otherwise, what's going to happen is the mill scale is going to pop off underneath the paint and the paint's going to come off? No, I need to paint this entire trailer we're already getting into October here, there's not going to be much weather remaining! That'S going to be able to. Let me do this, so I just want to get something squirted on it here, so that they get some cover for this winter. Basically, I've already just wiped this down with uh solvent get any oil off of it. I'M going to run over it real quick with the wire wheel, just pop off any loose Mill, scale, surface, rust and then we're going to squirt some primer and paint on it. Foreign. Thank you. Foreign coats of primer, two coats of paint back here got my lights. Popped back in, I had a little bit of paint left over, so I went ahead and just popped. The lights out on the sides here ran the wire wheel down that real quick shot, a little paint down there, and you know what that looks so much better. I think I'm gon na go full Ritchie Brothers. On this thing I got ta go grab some conspicuousy tape anyway, I'm just gon na go ahead and wire wheel. This frame rail, both sides, real quick, grab, another quart of paint, just if I can shoot it, it is what it is. It'S probably not going to last very long, but it's going to look a heck of a lot better for now all right. So this is what I've been using for paint and primer use. Some of this Rust-Oleum rusty metal primer going with gloss black. Then it was some mineral spirits, so it shoots out of the gun a little bit better. I don't do anything exact or per se's, just bent it by about a third or mix that up get to shooting all right, so I'm gon na show you that's done. Who knows how long that paint job will hold up? The prep was pretty suspect on it, but you know what looks a hell of a lot better than it did, and I really didn't spend very much time on it. Even if the guy had to redo that every few years that wouldn't be so bad, I got our conspicuousy tape on it. I should have put this underneath the rub: rail, where it's not going to get all chewed up same thing there, but you know whatever. I did one side like that to start with not thinking about it, so I just did the rest of it like that. The rest of the trailer here put all underneath it doesn't look fantastic. It doesn't look awful sure a lot better than what it did all right now to show how much of a difference this beaver tail makes got the truck in the same spot or the trailer, rather in the same spot, we're going to try to drive this pickup Up on here again now, if you guys remember this, pickup would not go on this trailer before we put this beaver tail on here. With that same set of ramps there, you go easy peasy right up on no dragon, no scraping. If you guys remember right, we hit right in here right on the back corner of the trailer before and she just went right up. Thank you foreign. So every single grease fitting took Grease, which is nice, just got. Ta. Stick all 12 of these tires here. Real quick put a little more air in that one much better. So every single Tire on this trailer was between 75 and 80. Psi got them all set at 105. Here now, honestly, he was probably running it about that pressure on purpose uh. What the glass guy was hauling with this trailer was pretty light loads if you needed the deck space more than the weight capacity, but and what I'm going to be hauling today isn't anywhere near the weight capacity of this trailer either. But I'm not going to sit there and change air pressures every time they haul something different, so got them all set at 105. Now the oil and all the hubs were good. I think we're ready to hit the road here. Yeah. This thing actually does pull pretty nice pulls nice and straight down the road right's good. It'S only until it's a little bit heavy for an empty flatbed, but an empty trailer, so yeah drilled right along back there hey! So it's a couple hours later and we're pulling up to where we got a wall here, foreign loaded up chain down ready to hit the road yeah. This thing actually pulls quite nice, going down the road between 65 and 70 miles an hour, yeah, no complaints at all, all right, so we're about an hour down the road here now she's gon na stop. You have all of our chains and binders a check here. Make sure everything's still tight foreign change check bladder is drained ready to hit the road. I wish this old Farmstead here at the bottom of the hill here was for sale. I would love to have this piece of land. Here seems how it's pretty easy to see here. I thought I'd show you guys real quick, how you can take one chain and make two points of securement, so this chain comes off. The trailer here comes around the axle hooks back to itself, with one binder got a slack piece of chain in the middle, and then you got the same thing on this side, so by law. This is Two Chains, even though it's only one chain go ahead and get all this stuff Unchained and get the trailer unloaded. Another thing you can do: is you take your chains and binders off? Just hang them on your rubware ale. If you throw them on the ground, you got to bend back over to pick them up. So just hang them up foreign foreign loaded that actually worked really well being the cheapest step deck I could find on Facebook Marketplace. There was one other one that was the same price and that one had major frame issues on it. This one was at least mechanically Road ready, so I think I did pretty good I'm pretty happy with how the trailer worked pulled. Really nice hold both of my trucks, home from the job site and ready to go for the next time and all ready to go for the next time. I need it anyway, guys, thanks for watching, be sure to like comment subscribe down below. Thank you. Have a great day,