After looking at the prices original westfalia trailers go for (£400+) and not liking the aluminium ones halfrauds sell i decided to build my own version of the Westfalia Essen, though making it 5ft x 3ft instead of 4ft x 3ft. Hence the Westfakia. I got given a couple of those indespension torsion bar suspension units and a pair of 10" wheels and tyres a few years ago so thought i'd make use of them and give it a go. Heres the basic bottom frame made from 40mm x 40mm steel angle with the suspension mounting beam welded into place. The tongue is made from 50mm x 50mm box as thats the size my coupling fits. I love welding thick steel. so much easier than body thickness stuff.
I reckon i've got just £100 invested in parts and its gonna weigh about 80-90kg empty. No idea what a westy trailer weighs though i assume its something similar. I'm making it 5ft long so my missus' mobility scooter will fit in it as even disassembled it takes up a helluva lot of room in the camper. Should be enough space to carry awning, chairs and BBQ too. Got some nice stainless steel tie down rings off ebay. Gonna mount one in each corner of the floor to tie stuff to to stop it trying to escape. Eventually i'll make one of these covers for it but for now a tarp will do. Why is it all your drill bits end up getting blunt just sitting in the box? Is it the garage fairies at it again? Can't find my drill sharpened either.
They aren't too bad if you've got some sort of frame at the front end you can actually see out of the back window though. Got a bit more of the frame welded up today. Its starting to look a little more like a trailer now. The uprights are 18" high to keep the proportions looking right. I seem to have managed to put a twist in the frame while i was welding it up. One corner is about 12mm out when its on a flat surface.
I got screwed by the bloke i bought it off, so i've got the concrete walls and nowt else as the trusses and door got scrapped instead of him delivering them to me. I can just about afford to lay the concrete but not build new trusses or buy a door.
Got some boards (actually an old pallet from british gypsum) for the floor and gave them a coat of wood preservative. They've turned out good enough for me. Wished i'd worn gloves though as that stuff stinks. I'll be using WBP ply for the sides stained in a dark colour to contrast with the light grey metalwork frame.
Zeb dude have you got a hitch and a light board for it? If not then ive got some spare here you can have as ive just bought a second hand trailer and im cutting my old one up
i've got a garage door thats coming off soon if its any good to you,standard up and over jobbie. ulverston south lakes
Thanks for the offer but I got given a lightboard a few years back so have disected it for the light units and triangle reflectors. Hitch was only a tenner on ebay. How big is the door? I think i'm looking at just under 9ft between the door posts.
door measures 83inch or 2.1mtr x 77inch or 1.96mtr and then the frame of about 2.5inch its just up and over and not much use to me, standard height bus prob would go in but i'm putting by-folds on instead with a frame on outside of wall.
I think it might be a little small but its difficult to tell when the garage is just a pile of panels sat in the corner of the garden. I don't believe anything the seller of the garage told me about sizes either. Suppose i'll have to wait until its build before i go looking at getting a door for it. Thanks anyway.
I got the hitch, the wheel arches, suspension and wheels fitted today. And drilled a helluva lot of 6mm holes to bolt the wood sides on through. I'm not really happy how the arches look ( I would have prefered curved steel ones) but at £12 delivered for the pair i can't complain too much. Paint next.
Coming along nicely dude I saw a trailer the other day that had arches made from an old tyre cut in half and was quite impressed by the cheap and simple yet effective idea
Picked up the last of the steel angle for the tailgate this morning so can get that bolted on. Gonna raid my inlaws garage for some woodstain while they are away. Doubt they will miss it, theres gallons of the stuff. I really should return the pile of my father in laws tools i've been 'storing' for the past couple of years too. I couldn't find any light grey paint locally so the frame is gonna end up being gloss black instead like this one: I found out the wheels i got given have a PCD of 101.6mm, the same as an old mini, so i can fit slotmags, minilites, cosmics or some other 70's alloys to it if i fancy a change.
