Building a livestock trailer

Need a new livestock trailer. The steel ones you can get are way overpriced for what they are, which is absolute garbage that will be totally rusted away in 10 years. Aluminum has its own problems, namely work-hardening and failure at the joints.

I can get a much better built low deck tandem axle flatbed trailer for about 1/3 the price. A few hundred dollars' worth of steel for a frame and roof, some 3/4 marine ply for walls, a couple of rubber mats on the floor, and some sweat equity with the welder...

Anybody ever gone this route?

Well I wouldn't.
I bought a new steel trailer in '96. Kept it in the pole barn and out of the salt. No rust on it anywhere, paint is still glossy. Yes it doesn't get used much, maybe 5-6 times a year.
How do you plan to keep something you built out of steel from rusting? You can't build one, sandblast it, primer it and paint it for what a new one costs. Never mind your labor.

I've thought about this. I cannot afford a new trailer nor does it make sense to buy one and keep it on the road for 4 trips per year. I already own a nice equipment trailer. When we get out pigs in the spring I just build a wood box out of pallets on the trailer. Works great. I keep thinking I could build a bit bigger wood box to transport full grown pigs, chickens and turkeys... It looks good on paper, but as JDSeller has said I am not sure how practical that is in real life in terms of time, material, labor...

I did it once with a positive outcome when I was raising hogs and needed a hog hauler.

I simply fabricated removable sides and ends for a 16' flatbed trailer. Made the frames out of 1" pipe and used roofing steel horizontally around the bottom, then hog panels up from there. Didn't have a roof. Had a swing gate in the back for loading.

I made the sides so they could still be removed easily to use the trailer as a flatbed. That was years ago, and I don't have a picture.

Dad took a home-made one in trade one time- said it was really "heavy built", and would be good for hauling his draft horses. Except it was so heavy built that he couldn't tow it. He borrowed my '85 Ford diesel, and it was the only pull that ever overheated that thing. He ended up passing it on to the next unsuspecting victim.

I have done a bit of fab work in my life. Whenever I pushed a pencil on such projects I came to one simple conclusion. If I could buy what I wanted new and I was using new steel
it NEVER penciled out. Actually cost more to fab it myself than to buy off the lot.

Simple answer is only reason to fire up the welder is if you just want to do it or you can't buy what you want. Have to add I really enjoy doing fab projects, there is some value
there also but building a livestock trailer to save money likely isn't gonna work unless all your materials are free or scrap price.

JM2CW

jt

Well first off this is going to get used weekly year round, so there is no avoiding the salt.

Second off, have any of you looked at the new steel livestock trailers? For $6000, they're made of cheap thin tubing for the frame, and beer cans for the sheeting. They don't last. 10 years and they're rusted completely away.

Yesterday I watched a completely rusted out 16' livestock trailer with four ancient rotten bias tires bring $1000 at an auction. A few weeks ago, I watched a 2013 Corn Pro 16' trailer with visible rust-through bring almost $4000.

A landscape trailer is built of better stuff. I see 10-15 year old examples all the time that look like new structurally, just surface rust. You can get one of these for $1000-$1500, and new ones can be had for $2500.

That leaves me with a budget of $3500 to build a cage. I bet I could get it done for <$1500. Sandblast and paint? Who needs that? Mill scale is the best anti-rust coating known to man. Heck, rust is the best anti-rust coating known to man.

IMHO, an aluminum trailer is a value compared to a steel. My 24' aluminum trailer hauls 10-12,000 pounds several times a week. Been in service for 10 years, and worth today, what I gave for it. Zero rust, zero broken welds. no wooden floor to replace.

I built one, or should I say I got one somebody else started and got tired of working on. I added the fenders and extended the sides and added a top and added onto the front of it for more head room for the horse we had. It worked out, but I did not have to put any money into any material. I just used what was laying around from other projects and got some scraps from work. I will try to post pics later, I so not have any with me right now.

(quoted from post at 15:29:44 11/01/17) IMHO, an aluminum trailer is a value compared to a steel. My 24' aluminum trailer hauls 10-12,000 pounds several times a week. Been in service for 10 years, and worth today, what I gave for it. Zero rust, zero broken welds. no wooden floor to replace.

Click to expand...

I agree that aluminum is a good value. My 16' stock trailer is about 15 yrs old, I bought it used, it is used about 15 times a year and has no issues. It does have a wood floor that still looks new, we do have a mat over it, or most of it. Wish I had started out with one, had a smaller CornPro that was starting to rust on the sheet metal, frame was fine, but sold it for about half what a new one would cost at the time I sold it (more than half what I paid for it new). The guy who bought it expected a rusted out hulk and took it for full asking price after seeing it. So if kept clean they do hold the value better.

My suggestion would be to go the middle road. Go to a place that makes trailers and have one of their stock models custom built with upgraded/heavier duty components. Usually if you negotiate well, this can be done for a little more than the added cost of the materials used to upgrade.

Totally agree, an ALU trailer would be terrific and for your needs there's a factor of buy once / cry once so doing it right might hurt bad but only one time.

Agree with other poster, having priced out custom build before, it's almost impossible to beat a similar spec pre made trailer.

If you buy a true pro-grade trailer with upgrades and then have it customized, I cannot see how bad you'd have to abuse it for it NOT to last 20 years. Obviously, if you buy a "weekend horse hauler" for the hobby rider that likes to play cowboy 3 times a year, you're going to have a trailer that looks like busted @ss in a year. They make different grades for a reason.

If you're hauling stock weekly, IMO a home built trailer like you posted won't be any better. Treated plywood comes unlaminated if left exposed to the sun, moisture, and barnyard acid.

Grouse

I've got a 16' low deck car hauler style flatbed, we replaced the rotted wood floor with thread plate, we have a set of slide in cattle racks made from 1" square tubing.
It takes two people to slide them in, maybe one with a good back but two is better.
I drilled the racks bottom tube and side flange on the trailer at each corner so that four 3/8" bolts holds the racks in place.
It does a decent job and so far has keep me from financing a standard stock trailer.
It does have 3 issues that I'll list.

(1) utility trailers have a higher floor height than stock trailer, several times we've had cattle balk at stepping up into the trailer from ground level, hogs would try to go under so some type of loading chute is needed for easy loading of live stock.
(2) my trailer is the standard duty car hauler with 3500 lb axles (7000 lb gvw), 5 lug 15" wheels and tires making it very easy to overload, 8 1000-12000 lb cows will easily fit or 15-18 500-600 lb calves, this puts combined weight at around 10,000 lbs.
A trailer rated at 10-12,000lbs would be better but cost considerably more, stock trailers I've been looking at are rated for 12-14,000 lbs.
(3) in my case the steel thread plate floor gets slick and stock has trouble standing during transport, some type of rebar needs to be welded to the floor or a thick rubber mat to prevent falling.
This adds more weight and for me I'd want the mat removable to keep the floor from rusting or rotting out quicker.

One can find a good deal on a used flat bed trailer but needs to find one with weight rating equal to comparable stock trailer.
I found 16' slide in racks on the web for $2000-2500 so depending on trailer cost one can come out cheaper with a better built chassis, but you still have to deal with the extra 6-8" height when loading.

I'll have my new disc mower paid off next year, baler the year after that, at that point I'll probably get serious about a real stock trailer, although I hate spending money on a specialty trailer that will only be used 4-5 times per year.

Wish you lived closer to me. My brother has a 18 ft goose he used hauling cattle before he got his aluminum one. Just needs new steel sides and a floor. I am ready to give it away, but he will let it go for 500.00 Stan

(quoted from post at 11:39:14 11/01/17) Wish you lived closer to me. My brother has a 18 ft goose he used hauling cattle before he got his aluminum one. Just needs new steel sides and a floor. I am ready to give it away, but he will let it go for 500.00 Stan

Click to expand...

Darn : Why are all of the good deals to far away.
Wait a minute, how far away are you, I've been known to travel fair distances for a good deal.

I can tell you that if you are going to use
it and have it a long time buy a
commercially made top line aluminum trailer
and n e done with it. Even a used one will
be better than a home made one. The doors
will work and the floor will be right as
well as the loading issue will be better.
The only way making something of your own
comes even close to the value of one made
on a factory is if your time has no value.

And don't forget that even a slide in
extention take a lot more designing and
engineering than most folks think.

Every used aluminum trailer I've looked at is all busted to heck and needs a bunch of welding. They may not rust, but the welded joints seem to work harden and break.