Amphibious walking beam trailer

[Hideous 4x4]

I know what you mean about thinner alum being a PITA! Welding thin alum is kind of like welding butter.
I like the rear ball idea. I would not have a use for it on this trailer, except if i had to drag it backwards out of a hole.
I pulled the tires off my old trailer and tossed them on the scale and got 29# the argo tires are 37# and the try-power are 44#.
This trailer used 2" sq tube and the axle and the 2 ends were receiver stock so they would slide on the tube. When we hauled the bandsaw mill in. I would swap places with the axle and the rear mount. the front and rear mount had runners on them that fit the wheels from the band mill.





This is the trailer were using now. It's sealed all around and will hold water, not sure about floating.

[Hideous 4x4]

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I had a few days to think about this trailer build and changed a few things.
I like Roc Doc's idea of the tube around the top of the tub. I think I will use 1" sq tube around the outside (I have the sq tube already), my thinking is it might
deflect water since my tub will be like coldfoots poly tub, only the angle will be in the front to help it get up on plane easier.
This is what I came up with so far. The top is 4 1/2' long x 27"wide and the bottom is 3 1/2' long x 27" wide with 21" high sides. With the tires it will be about 4 1/2' wide and around 3' high.
This is a cardboard pattern that kind of shows what I had in mind.




I'm thinking that the 9" wheels will come from Mudd-Ox since thats all I could find.

Roc Doc what size tube did you use for the walking beam, it looks like maybe 1 1/2" sq? I've seen all your videos a couple of times (great job by the way!) and you have no problem loading your Argo with some heavy loads, do you load the trailer the same? Trying to not overbuild this trailer and keep it as light as I can. My first trailer used 2x1x1/8 inch tube. It has hauled a lot of very heavy loads with no problem, second one used 3x1x1/8 inch and I offset the axles on the bottom and the walking beam pivot on the top for more clearance, if you rotated the beam 180* it lowered it for top-heavy loads.

One more question, I've searched way to long for videos of trailers floating behind 6x6's
only found 1, if anybody has a link with some if you could post them I would sure appreciate it.
Thanks again.

[Rock Doctor]

Walking Beams and Hitch are 1 1/2"sq. The trailers get loaded very heavy sometimes (whole Moose, ect), they can take it. I've never had to do a repair on any of my trailers, with the exception of one bent hitch. I don't try to kill them, but they do take a pounding sometimes.
The Axle tube is kinda special. It's seamless Drive Shaft Pipe, but it was the only stuff I could find that perfectly received the 1" Spindle Shafts. Don't remember the $/Ft, but since you only need a short piece, its not too hard to swallow.

Your trailer looks good, very similar to one a friend of mine has. He built a set of skis for his, pop the walking beams off, mount the skis and off you go again.
I like that you can remove the box and still have enough frame to haul big/long/odd loads. Looks awesome for hauling a stack of kayaks or something like that.

[Hideous 4x4]

The axle tube is probably DOM tube (drawn over mandrel), it's good stuff. Thats what we build our tube buggy's out of. Works great for sleeves and just how you used it. The internal and external tolerance's very close and no seam.

I will definitely use be looking for something lighter weight for the hitch. Trying to use metal that I have on hand, I know I don't have any 1 1/2" sq but maybe 2" sq. thinwall or maybe some 1 1/2' DOM round?
I spent yesterday working on the wheels, I decided to drill holes for the 5 on 4.5" over the 4 on 4" bolt pattern in the wheels that I had. 4 of the holes are in solid metal and 1 is just a elongated hole. Took several hours to do the first one, had to make jig to hold it centered. The next one took about 20 min.
So the trailer hubs will be the 4 on 4" but 2 of the wheels are drilled so they will fit the Max in an emergency.

[Hideous 4x4]

Took a picture of the wheel, hope it explains it better than my description.

[philipatmaxfour]

Took a picture of the wheel, hope it explains it better than my description.

nope. can't find photo????

[msafi65]

This trailer is all scrap aluminum,mostly .1". I have single axle also that changes out with 4 bolts. Had to track it per regulation changes where we hunt. "Fully tracked vehicles and trailers only"! No bearings in this one just plastic bushings cut from scrap from Adair track grousers. I made it greasable at walking beam and axles. It's designed to take two large action packer totes end to end in deep area and be level with inner tub. Floats great and tows easy.

[Hideous 4x4]

Sorry about that, I'm not very computer savvy! I deleted some photos from photo bucket and this was one of them. I had no idea that it would disappear here also.
On a positive note I took a speed typing course and now I can use 1 finger on each hand!

[Hideous 4x4]

This trailer is all scrap aluminum,mostly .1". I have single axle also that changes out with 4 bolts. Had to track it per regulation changes where we hunt. "Fully tracked vehicles and trailers only"! No bearings in this one just plastic bushings cut from scrap from Adair track grousers. I made it greasable at walking beam and axles. It's designed to take two large action packer totes end to end in deep area and be level with inner tub. Floats great and tows easy.

Sounds like another well thought out trailer. Very nice work. Thats interesting that you used bushings instead of bearings for the wheels, very clever! Being able to switch to a single axle is a nice feature also.
Roc Doc mentioned that the bushing in the beam was noisy. I haven't experienced that with my 2 trailers. The only noise was from the hitch and ball if I didn't have enough tongue weight.
I will go with the bushing for the walking beam again for this trailer.

You wouldn't happen to have any picks of the trailer floating would you?

[bakedalaskan]

Here is a picture floating unloaded. This was my test run to see how well it floats. I can't tell you how well if floats loaded because I never got to try it but I suspect it will float with no problem.