Has anyone built a trailer from scratch? I want a small one (4x8), but I want it to have brakes. I also want to use good quality parts - tires (critical for safety), frame, lights (LED), etc., and Harbor Freight is not exactly known for quality. By the time I take a HF trailer and modify it the way I think I want it, I would only be using the frame and the springs.
I want to keep the trailer light since my car is only rated to tow up to 1000lbs. I'm not sure why no one puts brakes on trailers this small? It seems like it would help when towing with a small car. I guess most people don't tow with small cars and you can't even feel a small trailer behind a big truck. I would mostly use the trailer in the mountains in Colorado, so brakes are more important than if I was hauling stuff around town. There are long steep grades of course, but it can also snow any month of the year, trucks often go 35 when the speed limit for cars is 65, and hills, turns, and rapidly changing weather can make for poor visibility that makes it hard to anticipate stopping. I'll probably always have a few people in the car when towing, and as far as I can tell the car can handle a 1000lb trailer and 750lbs of people and cargo in the car at the same time, so that's a lot of extra weight. I need to see if I can find an official GCWR number to be sure, but I'd easily be within the GVWR and GAWR.
A frame made of 8020 extrusion would be cool, but I imagine it's expensive. I could probably build it out of steel without welding, using bolts instead. I would build it up as a small camper that I would also use for cargo.