48ft Drop Deck Trailer

[Gary Chastain]

Building a 48ft (23.04 inch long) four axle drop deck trailer from scratch. Picture for inspiration. Doing an inventory search: Auslow air suspension for four axles☑️, 4 axles with air brakes from Auslow☑️, 8 sets of wheels ( I have chrome and painted))☑️, 16 matching tires from Moebius☑️, 7/17 and 1/2 styrene beams☑️, inventory of fabrication styrene ☑️. Found a couple pics for fabrication. Now the build starts.

[gotnitro?]

Looking forward to your build,  you have a good start in supplies

[Gary Chastain]

Starting mock-upup 

[Mopar - D]

Nice start Gary as you already know there’s a lot of pieces to cut and fit but it’ll look awesome when you’re done. 

[Gary Chastain]

2 hours ago, Mopar - D said:

Nice start Gary as you already know there’s a lot of pieces to cut and fit but it’ll look awesome when you’re done. 

Yes sir, gonna take awhile, May build a fixture to drill all the holes in the cross members so they all match. 

[Rockford]

Jigs are a good idea, I did a couple on the flatbed I built, makes life a lot easier and the finished job much tidier. I wish I'd thought of a few more places to use them before I got too far along. Looking forward to watching this develop. 

[Joe Nunes]

Impressive project!  Never saw a drop trailer with four axles like this; how many of the trailer axles are air lift?  I am thinking there would be a lot of tire slide when going around a corner. Neat arrangement. 

Joe

[vincen47]

This will be another great project for you. 

[Gary Chastain]

12 hours ago, Joe Nunes said:

Impressive project!  Never saw a drop trailer with four axles like this; how many of the trailer axles are air lift?  I am thinking there would be a lot of tire slide when going around a corner. Neat arrangement. 

Joe

I have four air lift axles from Auslow that I am thinking of using at this time. Been debating if two center axles should be leaf spring and front and rear axles are air, or all four axles remain air lift. 

[Gary Chastain]

I made a prototype frame to test dimensions. The main frame rails need to be increased to .750inches (18.75 scale inches) between the axles and the uprights, .500inch (12.5 scale inches) frame height for where the axles attach works. The upper platform length needs to be increased to allow turning with a three rear axle truck. I will not cover the trailer tires to allow for lifting, remaining open. 

[Joe Nunes]

Thanks, Gary. Your idea of using air lift on the front and rear trailer axles and leaf springs on the two center axles would make sense to me, and the forward truck axle could be air lift also. The truck and trailer could then make the corner turn with minimal tire slide and axle twist. The driver would be busy, eh?

Joe

[Gary Chastain]

1 hour ago, Joe Nunes said:

Thanks, Gary. Your idea of using air lift on the front and rear trailer axles and leaf springs on the two center axles would make sense to me, and the forward truck axle could be air lift also. The truck and trailer could then make the corner turn with minimal tire slide and axle twist. The driver would be busy, eh?

Joe

Just seen a newer logging truck running empty that had two of the three trailer axles picked up and the truck had all the axles picked up but the two drive axles (three up, two down). Was doing some research on these trailers and found a new trailer that all air suspension axles under it. 

[Joe Nunes]

Some pretty neat stuff out there on the road today that's for sure. It's been awhile since I spent time in the "rolling office" so I certainly would not be up to date on what is the latest go to design. Good you are doing some research for your model. What would you anticipate being hauled on your trailer?

Joe

[Gary Chastain]

21 minutes ago, Joe Nunes said:

Some pretty neat stuff out there on the road today that's for sure. It's been awhile since I spent time in the "rolling office" so I certainly would not be up to date on what is the latest go to design. Good you are doing some research for your model. What would you anticipate being hauled on your trailer?

Joe

Same here, I learned to drive in a GMC cracker box!!! One of the truck/trailer combinations I seen on the internet was hauling what looked to be a large portable power station (I think). Maybe 10 ft wide by 30ft long (guessing). It a big gray box, flat roof, doors, ladder, stuff on the roof. Another idea is the large injection molding machines. 

[Joe Nunes]

My first tractor-trailer had the International Transtar leading the way and I liked that old gal.   Always made it through the rough weather and such in good form. That portable power station thought sounds like a good idea for a load on the trailer. Looking forward to seeing what you decide. 

Joe

[Gary Chastain]

Inner frame rails coming together, set up a fixture to finish sanding 23 cross members that must all be the same length. 

[Joe Nunes]

Nice work!  ?

Joe

[Mopar - D]

Nice progress Gary. 

[Gary Chastain]

Making progress, main frame needs a little detail, cross members are ready to go in. 

[Gary Chastain]

Little progress getting 22 cross members installed after drilling three holes in each. 

[cdntrucking]

Excellent work!

[Joe Nunes]

Looking great!  ?  Very neat workmanship showing up on this project. I think that you are building a real head turner here. 

Joe

[Rockford]

Very tidy looking work there mate. Well done. 

[Gary Chastain]

On 11/26/2022 at 11:40 PM, cdntrucking said:

Excellent work!

 

On 11/27/2022 at 1:54 AM, Joe Nunes said:

Looking great!  ?  Very neat workmanship showing up on this project. I think that you are building a real head turner here. 

Joe

 

3 hours ago, Rockford said:

Very tidy looking work there mate. Well done. 

Thanks guys, long way to go. 

[Gary Chastain]

This is really time consuming but two thirds of the upper deck coming together.