Hudson Trailer improvements

[99NCXJ]

Ever since we bought our bright orange hudson trailer a few years back I've always wondered why anyone would manufacture a car/equipment trailer and not have any tie down locations. Nothing that a bunch of 15,000lb weld on D rings couldn't take care of. 14 of them to be exact.

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/trailer7.jpg
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/trailer8.jpg

On our trip to Columbia, SC last weekend I had two tires come apart going down the interstate. Luckily I had two spares in the bed of the truck. Yesterday I went and had 4 new tires put on and kept two of the old ones for spares.

Then I thought, now that I can tie stuff down securely and have nice new tires that are actually road worthy I might want to haul something that can't just be driven up onto the trailer. So, I bought a Bull Dog 10,000lb winch from Steve (96CountryCherokee), a winch plate off a CJ from SgtBrianGreen, and some other misc. steel and got to work. This is as far as I got today. I'll mount the winch and finish the two spare tire tiedowns tomorrow.

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/Trailer1.jpg
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/trailer2.jpg
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/Trailer3.jpg
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/trailer4.jpg
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/trailer5.jpg

[highrolrcustoms]

Looks good!! Will ur jeep fit between fenders or do you have to drive up and over them

[99NCXJ]

up and over on one side. The tires only hang off the sides of the trailer by about 3" on each side. This trailer was mainly bought for hauling the tractor and sometimes hauling hay for the farm. As it turns out, I've hauled my jeep on it way more times than anything else. My plan though is to get a gooseneck trailer in the future that will be long enough to either haul two rigs or have a pop up camper on the front and room for one rig behind it. (another reason for making the winch mount on this trailer removable).

[99NCXJ]

Finished it up today.

I still need to figure out if the battery can be charged from the 12V wire coming from the truck wire harness. Anyone know?

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/trailer9.jpg
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/trailer10.jpg
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/trailer11.jpg
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z249/99ncxj/Hudson%20Trailer/trailer12.jpg

[ParadisePWoffrD]

I was planning to run the constant 12v from the trailer plug to the batter to charge it. Not 100% that it will work. I run a marine battery and just make sure i trickle charge it ever few times i use it (you can tell when it is getting weak) or before I know I will need it...

I have used the winch on my trailer more then a winch on anything else really...

[99NCXJ]

I'm using a marine battery too.

[jeepinmatt]

Looks good dude. Where did you get the idea for the winch mount, I wish I had one like that...
I've always thought about putting a piece of plate under the framerails at the front so I could throw stuff in there (chains/binders/small children/etc).

If you will always be pulling it with the same truck, run wires from the truck battery and put a connector near the rear bumper. You will never pull anything on without it hooked to a vehicle will you? Dad this on his truck, using a 220V plug from Lowes, and it works great.

[99NCXJ]

It could be pulled with any of three different trucks. That's why I installed a battery on the trailer. I just want the battery to be getting charged while driving. I'm going to do some research on line and see what I come up with.

The winch design was just something I threw together. I wanted to be able to remove the winch and put it on a different trailer in the future and be able to go from one trailer to another.

[Hadfield4WD]

A guy here has his battery charged off the truck. Also my brake breakaway battery is just has a constant from the truck battery.

[RamAford]

Trailer looks great. Ive got some of those tie downs on my 16ft trailer. Every now and then Tractor supply has them on sale and you can save some on them. Its kinda crazy that manufacturers dont put them on there. But they are defintiely handy when hauling all sorts of things.

On my old camper, the truck would charge the batterys on the toyhauler. That way they stayed charged while raising/lowering the electric jacks. It seemed to work fine if you were out without electricity to plug the camper up to. But like stated above, a good deep cycle battery and throw a trickle charger on it every now and then, and it should last a while winching. I always took the battery off in the winter months, and threw it in the garage so it wouldnt loose to much charge when it got really cold out.

[jeepinmatt]

The winch design was just something I threw together. I wanted to be able to remove the winch and put it on a different trailer in the future and be able to go from one trailer to another.
Oh, I just figured you had see mine and thought it was a good idea. I did pretty much the exact same thing before I went and picked up the gray F350 that sat at the shop for a while. It works great, drug that 4500lb truck onto the trailer with no problem, even though all the wheels weren't turning.

[Tiny]

I dont know exactly how it works but do you have the battery wired up to where it charges off the truck? I rented a dump trailer last week and it charged up of off the RV style trailor hook up, it worked great and ran the hydro motor strong.

[99NCXJ]

That's what I'm wanting to do. I've read that you just run the constant 12V from the center pin on the connector to keep it charged but then you have to unhook the plug when you use the winch or it will draw too many amps on the small wire in the harness. Maybe a circuit breaker inline would take care of that.

[99NCXJ]

That just made me think of something... We have a dump trailer at the farm for moving horse fecal matter from the barn to the other side of the property. I'll just look and see how it's hooked up on that.

Thanks tiny!

[Tiny]

Sweey dude, It may just have some sort of voltage regulator that controlls the charging so that you dont over charge the battery.

[Gubni]

etrailers.com has what you need - charger for break away battery

[Rtaylor]

If you are using a standard 7-pin connector then it provides +12V for charging your battery.

http://www.ak2o.org/kshoe/images/7pin.jpg