Model "A" trailer update

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Good morning fellow Bitogers - thought I would give you an update on trailer activities in these parts.

You might recall in the not too distant past, I posted a thread about this trailer - My uncle was a welder by trade. Back in the late 30's/early 40's, he built a trailer using the frame and front axle from a Model "A" Ford. My Dad and my uncle used this trailer to haul farm equipment between groves in Central Florida during the 40's and 50's and early 60's, then it got parked in my uncles grove, (he had a small orange grove behind his house - about 10 acres), where it became a farm trailer. My cousin still has this trailer and told me I could have it for free if I wanted it. Finally, this past week, I got some time to go check it out.

The good: The frame is in amazingly good shape. Surface rust, but nothing serious. I simply cannot get over how well the frame is preserved. It has always sat outside, never ever under cover or in the barn, yet the worst I could see was simply rust on the surface of the rails, frame and axle.

The bad: The trailer has sat in one spot for about twenty years way on the backside of my cousins property. During that twenty year period of time, an oak tree grew up and around the back part of the frame. The tree had grown big enough that it "swallowed" part of the frame. We took a chainsaw and cut the tree down and then slowly chewed away at the stump till there was just a little bit of wood left which we knocked off with a hammer and chisel. The tree "stained" the metal, but didn't seem to damage it.

The ugly: My cousin had warned me the wheels and tires were rotten. What he didn't tell me was that the tires and wheels were half gone. The trailer had sat so long in one spot that the tires had gone flat and the part of the tires that sat in the dirt rotted away - as in they were totally gone - not even chunks left. They looked like big donuts someone had taken a bit from. I've never seen a tire rot like that, (btw, they are the old 6.00 x 16 inch tires). Likewise the wheels. They were the old Model "A" spoke wheels which like the tires, were half gone. The part of the wheel that sat in the dirt was completely gone all the way to the spokes.

The wheels still had the old Model "A" hubcaps, (the ones with the "V-8" stamp). We popped those off, removed the lug nuts and jacked the trailer up. As soon as the wheels cleared the dirt, the hubs turned with ease. I was afraid they might be locked up but they spun with no problem at all.

My cousin has a tractor with a front end loader, so we wrapped a chain around the trailer and hoisted it into the back of his truck and hauled it to my parents farm where I keep all my shop tools and equipment. Soon, the restoration will begin with much less work than I thought would be needed.

One thing does concern me however. I had some old Ford wheels with tires at my parents property. The bolt pattern is exactly the same, but the studs in the old hub are short. Apparently, the old Model "A" wheels used thinner metal than later wheels and while these Ford wheels bolt on, the lug nuts are flush with the studs. Once we got the trailer unloaded, I bolted these Ford wheels to the trailer and pulled it around with the tractor. While it works well behind the tractor at five miles an hour, I'm a little worried what it might do on the highway, so I'm debating replacing the studs, especially as these old ones are so old (metal fatigue).
 
One very cool thing about all this, (at least I thought it was cool). My Dad is 94 years old and is suffering from dementia. His mind and memory is almost gone. Yet when unloading the trailer, (we used a hoist on an oak tree limb to hoist it out of the truck), my Dad came out to see what we were up to. He looked at that old trailer and said, "you've got Jeff's old trailer!" He then started telling us some stories about the trailer, one of which included a huge rattlesnake which he though he killed, (he said it had 18 rattles and a "button"). After he thought he killed the snake, he put it on the trailer to take home to show it off. He was driving the tractor down the road pulling the trailer and turned around to see if the snake was still there. He said it had come back to life, was coiled, shaking it's rattle and aimed right at him. He jumped over the front of the tractor right as the snake struck. The tractor bounced down the road a bit and then into a ditch where it bounced around and all his tools fell off the trailer before it finally stopped. "What happened to the snake?" I asked. To which Papa replied, "He went one way and I went the other."
 
Enjoyed the story.
smile.gif

Good luck on the rebuild.
 
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Wonder if the tires were natural rubber and what if any belts were in there. That would explain the funny rotting. Synthetic rubber got big around WWII.
 
Great story about the snake!Keep us up to date, & get some before & after photos to post here if you can.

When I was a boy, Dad had an old home-made boat trailer that had those steel spoked wheels & V8 hubcaps- he said they were from an old Ford. It wasn't much of a boat trailer, but I always thought the wheels & hubcaps were pretty cool.
 
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