More Welding, Bending, Trailers , & Stuff

[Bob La Londe]

I've got a utility bed for a pickup truck out back. I long ago decided
not to install it on the planned truck. I bought a new truck with a
utility bed instead. I've since sold that truck, and the truck I was
going to do the bed swap on, but I still have the utility bed. For a
while I've been thinking about turning it into a trailer. Something I
can load up with stuff on the rare occasion I go help a buddy doing
handy man type stuff. With the right tires and axle it might also
double as an over lander, although I doubt I'd use it that way... more
than once or twice anyway. I have an axle, actually two of them, I took
off the gooseneck last year when I installed a pair of new axles with
actual modern electric brakes. I just didn't know where I was going to
get the steel to make a frame for it. I might only use it a couple
times a year. Its not like I plan to get back into contracting.

In my scrounging for steel I didn't mind wasting to build that winch
plate project I walked around back of the shop and saw several long
pieces of C-channel laying on the back work slab I totally forgot about.
A buddy had a fire at his hotel several years back which damaged a
couple parking shades. Part of helping him clear it up was hauling off
the some c-channel. I think it was part of the no longer function
parking shades. Not functioning due to being vaporized by fire. I
totally forgot about having that channel.

I actually have everything I need to turn that truck bed into a trailer,
and being a utility bed I won't have to show a dismantling permit to the
DMV. An OEM bed is "part of the truck, but a utility bed is a bolt on
accessory. Just register the whole thing as a home made trailer.

Well, there is one thing. I asked about it some time back for some
other project. How do you bend c-channel in a home shop?

The only thing I can think of is to cut notches in the flanges. Get the
web red hot, and bend it around a couple parking bollards. I have
bollards protecting the building next to my over head doors on the shop.
V it out, weld, grind flat, and weld on a truss plate over the welded
beam top and bottom.

[Jim Wilkins]

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message news:vp88jh$314pd$***@dont-email.me...

Well, there is one thing. I asked about it some time back for some
other project. How do you bend c-channel in a home shop?

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Some of the used C3x4.1 and C4x5.4 I bought for the sawmill and gantry
needed straightening, in both directions. All but one piece of C4 could be
fairly easily permanently bent against two other pieces with chains and a
hydraulic jack. I jacked at the end to stay out of the line of fire if
something slipped or broke, it's a huge crossbow. The one odd C4 appears to
be higher strength, like 50KSI instead of 36KSI yield strength. It fully
recovered from being bent more than a foot. Its dimensions were slightly
less than the rest, which let it deflect more easily within the elastic
range, bowing the loaded gantry track sideways until I offset the hangers.

I wouldn't be surprised if sawing the flanges down to the web would let it
be bent cold by hand with enough leverage, or from its own weight if heated
enough. At yellow heat I've bent a truck spring by hand. The stiffness is
very unsymmetrical, for the C3x4.1 Ix is 1.66 in^4, Iy is 0.20 in^4.

https://amesweb.info/section/c-channel-section-properties-calculator.aspx
The properties are in the Supplements.
jsw