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Have any of you built your own trailer for pulling your dogs behind your fourwheeler? Im in the process but am looking for ideas. Ive used some lower Aarms off an extra Toyota front end we had, some leftover steel we have stocked up and ordered a set of coilover shocks for a kids 110 fourwheeler. So far I have about $100.00 into it.

Rafe

got the tongue built and remounted the shocks, got the dogs in it to test the weight make sure the shocks were going to be stiff enough. Now I just need to make the side panels and a tailgate. I have a small toolbox I plan on mounting to the tongue also. I made the tongue on a hinge so I can pull a pin and fold it up under the trailer. The dogs were ready to go.




I dont get much time to work on it since Im working out of town but a little on Sat afternoon each week. Its almost there, I painted the frame and used 1/2" ply which I have painted also. I still need to make a tailgate for it, (thats this weekends project) but its ready for the road. I put some smaller tires on it and set the shocks at the lower setting to keep it lower to the grouned and hopefully less likely to tip. It is extremely light and should pull and transport very easily. Here are a couple new photos.



Ok, I wanted to have a friend who is an HVAC installer build me panels in his shop out of galv. sheetmetal but it was going to be to expensive, so I used 1/2 inch ply and gave it a couple good coats of exterior paint. I still need to put the tailgate together but the project is ready for a test run. If I would of had it to do over I think I would have just purchased some control arm joints and welded them to some square tubing and made my own arms. By using the Toyota arms it was difficult to get the arms parallel.
I think my total on the cost was around $240, biggest cost was the new rims I had to get to run the smaller set of tires I had.
Yes, I know thats not a houndog in there but he has to get involved so he can have all the attention, his Mom realy spoils him (My girlfriends dog). Reg. Australian Shepherd from a working line, shes trying to find him a good home if anyones interested. He needs somewhere he can be a dog, hes been raised in the house his whole life 4yrs old. and very intelligent.

Rafe

I like it, I have been thinking about building one.

Thanks, I think it will work pretty well, but I wish I would have made the sides so I could fold them down so it wouldn't take up so much room in the toy hauler. I think I will build another one that I can fold up and I might make it so the wheels are outside the bed of the trailer so I can keep it lower to the ground. Some of the area we go though gets pretty steep and we usualy end up with one guy walking on the downhill side of the trailer to keep it from tipping over. The other thing I might do is build a couple mounts for the front of my 4whler so I can attach it to the front and raise it with my winch so I can drive it onto the 4whler trailer.

Ill keep adding photos with my progress.

I have made one and it looks a lot like yours but it was made of 3/4" plywood. I used an old 4 wheeler axle. it works well but after using it for a year i found it to be top heavy. On flat ground its great but on side hills it wants to tip over. If I could go back and start again I would put the tires out on the sides of the box and keep the box as close to the ground as possible. Its looks like you may run into the same thing i did. Other than that it looks great. Not tring to put it down but just giving my input. Good luck, let us see the end product. You can see the one i built on here its under kennels and dog boxes "My new atv trailer/truck box" if i remember right. Mine might be a little taller not sure.

i built mine too heavy when it has 3 dogs in it with heavy snow or mud the 4 wheeler gets stuck and wont pull.

Thats a good idea. I think I will build me one.

I built one years ago using quad tires. It sat as low as I could get it to the ground and it was still too top heavy. I made it so the tires rode in the same track as the quad. I abandoned it after too many tip overs. I think the tires would have to be so far apart to keep it from tipping over, it wouldn't fit down the trail. On flatter ground it worked fine. One dog box on the back of a quad will hold two dogs so I have two quads with boxes now.

Great trailer. To bad you can't mount a couple of springs
From your quad to the front corners of you trailer. Kind of like the weight distibution camping trailers use. When you are on the side of a hill it would put more pressure on the down hill side to keep it from tipping side ways.

Good luck