I cant help but point out that the crane option would work. You just need to have a second land speed car to lift on the other side so it stays balanced. So, you know, build a trailer with two cranes. And a second land speed car.
A u-shaped frame could lift the car on the front while clamp-on caster wheel support the back. The front could just be craned on at the back. It's neater this way, but required the axle delete.
I know no one cares, but i would just lift the car and drive the normal trailers under it, could be done way cheaper and you would still have a trailer that can be used for more then just 1 specific thing
Pro tip, the harbor freight winch comes with minimal bad grease so the popular wisdom is to crack open the gear assembly and repack it with new grease and add dielectric grease to the wiring.
As a mechanical engineer in progress, it's seriously inspiring to see all the creative ways you solve problems as they come up and learn as you go to build whatever project it is you're working on.
As another mechanical engineering student, this whole thing could've used a lot more calculation to make it a lot lighter, but that shit is annoying, I would've overbuilt it aswell.
Pro tip, when you have a slow moving bearing surface just use bearing bronze it is more resistant to corrosion and forces pulling them down. You don't really need ball barrings for slow moving rotation.
@@JoranGroothengel depends, you can get off the shelf parts at the hardware store and use them for the bearing surface. I only mentioned it because he is going to take it to the salt flats, but it's kinda too late now.
I was thinking the same thing. An engineer friend was once helping me with some welding on a swing away tyre carrier. Like just about all such things in Australia, I used a trailer stub axels with roller bearings and he similarly pointed out that the primary load is low speed, limited angle rotation. A bronze (or even plastic) bushing would deal much better with road vibrations twisting across the pivot and basically never need relubrication.
Yep. Learned the vacuum trick when needing a pull string running wire full length (and turns) of a basement conduit. Made a bubble out of my lunch sandwich bag for the vacuum to pull.
At this time of the year in the uk we like to hand out curiously old fashioned and sometimes inappropriate (British Empire?) medals/ awards. I give you the honorary Brit award for 'irony/sarcasm/ wit best displayed by someone from not England '. I hope you are proud.
I'm very glad to see ancient Greek philosophy is finally being applied to trailer building, equally pleased to see that so many viewers are familiar with Theseus and his old ship.
As an architect I approve of this design… That usually is a bad sign and it will have some detrimental consequences in the future but until then it’s great!
For your 2 removable bolts on the swinging bars, you should drill a small horizontal hole through the bolts towards the bottom and just use a mini trailer hitch pin clip to keep the bolts from coming out. This way you won't need any tools. (the kind of clips like what you use to hold an RC car's body on, or car hood pins, just smaller)
wow this video is a really good SuperfastMatt video, I stopped 3 times to narrate the joke to my girlfriend and for her to tell me that she did not get it. pure gold!
When you order the new spindles, you can also get them offset so that the hubs are spaced outward (instead of the giant spacers). You'll love that particular suspension, btw!
Thoes spacers are really adapters to change the bolt pattern if he gets a new hub with the viper bolt pattern that fits the bearing he could get rid of the adapters.
@@trdnismoguy @TheBCninja Y'all are both partly correct - they definitely adapt the bolt patterns to fit the Viper wheels, but that's typically a 1.0-1.5" adapter. These are ~4.0", to offset the rim from the hub. Trailer wheels are typically 0 offset - Viper rims are (~50-70mm), so 2-3", plus a little extra for clearance of the bolts on the side of the T*mbren suspension (learned that the SF Matt way...)
For the frame tubes, use outdoor-use expanding foam to fill them. Lot less headache than trying to spray inside them, prevents moisture from even getting in, and has the added benefit of cutting down on noise since the tubes are now "solid". We did this on the frame rails and windshield frame of our '70 Barracuda 'vert resto and it made a big difference.
Whoa, I don't know what to believe. I have heard the exact opposite advice multiple times. The other folks say that the foam not only traps water but also keeps the water in close contact with the metal. I ended up paying a pretty penny for galvanizing and coating.
@@anchopanchorancho Yeah, i didn`t try it myself, but every oldtimer i talked to told me the same thing, ``avoid it, it just traps water and makes it impossible to spray in any valid solutions like rust converting paint or cavity wax``... I don`t know, i`ll stick to cavity wax myself... When i need a solid tube, its when i`m making a fabricated table or similar, and then a load of sand and used motor oil works perfectly... Just vibrate the sand until the frame is full and then pour in as much waste motor oil to make the sand a lubricant rag... Not a good idea if you will be oxy-cutting or similar on such a frame, but for machine frames and low temp. work, it is the best approach to achieve a ``solid`` tube effect...
Also,@@mriguy3202, trailer tires work like every other tire, and the Viper tires will work fine. There is no need to maximize the carrying capacity for the size and minimize the tire manufacturing cost for the load, which are the only factors considered in trailer tire design. Literally any highway service tire will be better in quality and performance than the typical "ST" trailer tire of the same load capacity.
At least one boat trailer near me has one set of trailer lights permanently installed on the trailer, and a second removable set that can be put on the back of the boat. You might want to think about doing something like this for you
Not applicable for this application, but I don't know how I lived before having a "Donahue"(brand) moveable axle drop deck implement trailer. The deck of the trailer can be literally laid on the ground and you just dive on the deck, then move the axles back and drag the movable tongue back up into position. All done by locking/unlocking the trailer wheels and the axle carrier slides on the underside of the deck.
The most annoying part of this amazing Thunderbirds-esque video is the realisation that you somehow manage to have enough of a social life to be able to call on a bunch of helpers and still be consistently productive on your projects, whilst also creating videos!
Hah, I knew immediately where you were going with the “how much can you remove while still calling it the original trailer?” The same is true with aircraft restorations - the data plate is the only thing that matters to the FAA. If you have one from a 1947 Piper Cub, you can build a brand new airplane and (as long as it’s built the same way as the original airplane) it’s legally a 1947 Cub if it has that data plate.
As far as I’m aware, no. If you built a new airplane and transferred the paperwork/data plate to it, the collection of parts the data plate had been attached to would be seen as just that - a collection of parts. As it had been built by someone else, registering and obtaining an airworthiness certificate for it would be extremely difficult or impossible. Possibly the only way to do that would be to completely disassemble it and reassemble it, documenting the work you do in the reassembly process, and then applying for an Experimental-Amateur Built certificate, as the FAA will now see it as a new airplane that was built primarily by you. It would then come with all the limitations and requirements (e.g. flight testing) of any other E-AB aircraft.
What I initially said isn’t 100% true, as it would also imply that data plates are irreplaceable. What really matters is the registration and airworthiness certificates, which the data plate ties to the airframe to which it is attached. Replacing a data plate can be a pain, but it is possible as they can end up damaged or lost.
@@tylerstank2714 thank you for the advanced details! One thing I could not get myhead around, how one would end up with two legit planes from 1947. In one way you restore the plate of the original, making the newly built an illegal clone, in another you would have to register the newly rebuild old parts as a new aircraft with recent date, isn't it? I know of such practice with cars - mostly in Eastern Europe - when simply both the clone and the original get confiscated or at least getting registration revoked.
I think you misunderstood. In the scenario I described, the plane built with new parts and the old data plate/paperwork would be a “1947 Piper Cub” with the same serial number you started with and would be considered by the FAA to be the same airplane with a “major repair” or several. The airplane made of old parts that came from the Piper factory in 1947 which you disassembled and rebuilt and registered as an E-AB would be considered a brand new aircraft, with you as the manufacturer and whatever model name/number and serial number you want to give it. It doesn’t matter that it’s identical to an airplane made in 1947, the FAA would consider it a new airplane made in 2024 with you as the manufacturer.
Next time you need to pull string through a tube tie a grocery bag to the end of it and then use your vacuum cleaner on the other end to draw it through. It works the first time every time and you'd be amazed at the distance you can get.
Very nice. As a fellow ADD-affected engineer, I love your mix of logic and humor whenever it comes to designing something. Really looking forward to more landspeed content. For the fenders, I would recommend either adding non-slip tread tape to the tops, or welding on some expanded metal. And if they're not structurally capable of holding at least 300 pounds, reinforce them. I can 100% guarantee that those fenders will be used as a step when loading/unloading the car and when accessing the gun cases. And a healthy layer of rubberized undercoating on the insides of the fenders should hopefully help prevent chipping that will leave bare metal exposed to salt. The insides of steel fenders are usually the first thing to start rusting on a trailer. Or since I see you TIG-welded them, maybe you sprang for stainless there? If you're going to have drain holes in the lower frame, I wonder if it would be worth it to weld on a threaded hose adapter somewhere so you can actively "flush" the frame out after it spends time on the salt? Might also be nice to add a rock deflector so that your nice aerodynamic body doesn't get blasted during transport.
Paint for zinc gal exists, you want the Hammerite gal paint or Dymark Zinc Guard stuff. You can also treat the surface with a mild acid like 5% acetic (you know, white cleaning vinegar) and use an enamel. Trailer looks great!
Matts old trailer: "We can rebuild him, we have the technology". Also, I didnt expect to finally get a conclusive answer to the "ship/trailer of theseus" in this video. Neat.
i feel like this solves the problem so well that it’s almost underwhelming, like you had to suffer so much to get the car on the old trailer, while this is just a lift it up and go, i would feel like somehow i should be suffering more.
I love watching your 'things I did before I could do the thing.' vids, because it meshes so well with the 'in order to build a thing you have to have a shop.' and converting my unfinished garage, into a shop. Also your longer-ish format vids fit super well to listening to in a playlist while I work on that project. This week, I got 95% of the electrical ready to join and make-hot.
If you don't at least get ST trailer tires, get some LT tires with more of a highway tread design. 195/75R16XL, LT225/75R16, and LT215/85R16 are easy to find as they are common tires for dually commercial trucks. What I would be inclined to do is match whatever size you run on the motorhome (probably 225/75 based on every E350 cutaway I've worked on). If you run 8- lug adapters, you could even share wheels back and forth in a pinch.
What is the load per tire, and what is the tire load capacity? If there is suitable capacity, there is no need to buy new tires. Sharing wheels with the RV to share tires does make practical sense.
I know you'd definitely want trailer tires on the trailer, but unfortunately as I'm not a tire engineer, I can't really articulate the reasons why. I do know that trailer tires just act different from vehicle tires, and cope better with the loads trailers see. Apparently lo-pro vehicle tires cope especially poorly with trailer loads. I remember Doug went into it in his VINWiki video about the Corvette boat, which came with a Corvette themed trailer riding on Corvette wheels and tires. th-cam.com/video/vGWjlT_xRq8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=PLpsVyoxLKDwjlj4
@@billgiglio1023 tires work the same way on trailers as other vehicles, and the tires don't know that they're on a trailer. In heavy trucks, tires for every axle are built the say way, except that they are available with treads optimized for wear in three classes of position: steer, drive, and trailer. They also have "all position" types available, so clearly exactly the same tire can work properly in any role. Light motor vehicles (cars, pickup trucks) don't have separate steer and drive tires; they don't need separate trailer tires, either. The rear tires on a front-wheel-drive car don't steer, don't drive, and have exactly the same job as a trailer... and the same tires work there are on the front of the same car, or on the front or rear or a rear-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive car. The "ST" (for "Special Trailer") designation for small trailer tires is only used in North America - apparently tires are supposed to work differently on different continents. 😄 They are suitable for trailers, and so are other types (commercial, Euro-metric, "LT" for Light Truck, and even "P" for passenger) when used within their rated capacity.
Exactly. Nearly every trailer/RV forum has some oldtimers who will pipe up to say they learned the trailer tire lesson the hard way. It's more than just load rating. LT tires with a highway rib tread pattern are similar enough that some trailer manufacturers spec them on some models. I'm doing so on one project where the trailer is a lightweight, limited-use show piece and the smallest LT tires (185/80R14) are a better fit than the smallest ST tires (205/75R14) This hauler and the race car may not weigh a ton, but it's a very long contraption, prone to all of the funky dynamics and leverage that come with that. I wouldn't highway tow it anywhere on those Viper wheels.
A young guy with an Austin Mini (the 1960’s type) used trailer tires because they were available for 10” wheels. How well did that work? I don’t know, but he also tinted all the windows deep lime green to match the body.
You can get old sailboat "Winches" for pretty cheap. They are not electric but they will always work, even after sitting outside for 10 years. The newer self-tailing winches are what everybody wants and are much cooler but when sailers upgrade the older style becomes very cheap/free.
Your matrial trailer solution reminded me of your neighbor when i was a kid... He had built a box for his boat trailer so it could do double duty.. But you have build yourself a nice ship of Theseus ..😝
@@SuperfastMatt good, cause the image of a no approach angle land speed car getting trailered behind a viper with great approach angles is what I need in 2024
great job, but i would get the right wheels, no dam adapters ,also a put 4 wheels on it. ive towed racecars for 400 years and you dont want a blow out with only one tire per side,notting good happens. glad you are back on our project.
Suspension bridge? Truss bridge maybe. Your new trailer is far superior to what you used before. (I hope you can mitigate the effects of salt too.) Well done. It's great.
4:52 I may be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that a single axle trailer cannot legally be over 16' in the US(except for boat trailers). It may just be Texas, though. So if it is that long(or 17.5' as you stated later), the trailer may not be legal as you still only have one axle. I worked for over 5 years at a Fabrication shop that commonly made trailers, and i had to reference the code book somewhat often(i seemed to be the only one that cared about them actually being legal, and i was in charge of the lighting and finishing stages). I left that job last year, and i can't find that exact code book online, so i can't say for certain. I do know for a fact that *we* never built a single axle that was longer than 16', for anything over that we always did tandems.
Also, I'm sure you already know this, but whenever you do install the fenders, you'll need to make sure there are lights marking their width, as they will be the widest point of the trailer. Your trailer looks to be under 80" total width, so you don't need anything additional besides your tails(which serve as your rear markers as well), width markers, and front markers(which it looks like you already have). If you added sideways extension wings to the rear bumper equal to the width of the fenders, you could mount your taillights there and not require fender lights.
@@TheHonestL1ar Easily. The US doesn't make trailer laws. Individual states do because we're a stupid fucking country and require things to be as complex as possible. So there could be as many as 50 different trailer length laws.
Nice job on getting the trailer operational. The suspension was almost exactly what I was picturing, with a trailing arm setup (trailer of the trailer's trailing arm?). Although it is stronger and offers storage with the gun boxes, I am kind of surprised you did not make the upper section collapsible. After all, you are driving around with one of the world's most aerodynamic vehicles behind you (once the bodywork is added)--and it's covered in scaffolding.
You may want to load the car in backwards to improve weight distribution on the trailer and reduce wear on the front facing polished surfaces of the car while towing.
The point is that the trailer is built for the car, so the centre of mass will be properly placed in the trailer regardless of the car's orientation,@@rupertcrighton4107 . But it is true that the trailer works better with the longer part of the car (from centre of mass to end) projects ahead of the trailer axle rather than behind it, to minimize overall length.
I had a friend who use to make custom enclosed trailers for drag cars, mostly notalgic and railers. He used an electric winch on pulley rail system that ran from the rear to the front of the car. You lifted the front of the car in the air and load it with the front raised. This prevented the car from bottoming out.
I found your channel a week ago while looking for a 3D Scanner. Since then, I’ve binged watched your videos so much that I had forgotten to buy said 3d scanner.😂 You’ve definitely become my favorite TH-camr
I'm only a minute in - but I have been thinking about this very problem for the last couple of days. A solution I am contemplating is - what about a trailer with a parallelogram lift system so that you can drop an inner suspended deck right down onto the ground? It could then be raised using either mechanical or pneumatic/hydraulic lift and locked into place using pins. I will now watch the rest of the video, and see if we both arrived at the same solution.
How do you put the spare on if you get a flat? Is it going to be a spacer removal on the side of the highway kind of adventure? I'm unsure if you missed that or just left it for future Matt to figure out.
I would be careful about using non-trailer wheels and tires on the trailer. While it may turn out to be a perfectly fine, it would be really disappointing if there was another VINwiki Corvette-boatesque incident where sports car tires cannot handle trailer vibrations and shake themselves off the trailer, or otherwise being a headache
It will be interesting to see if you can still get those bolts into/out of the lower cross bars once it has been moving under load on harsh roads for some length of time. Especially if you roll it around without them while on the lake. Steel is rather bendy.
I found your channel on my recommendations and your humour is right up my alley. Contradictory between theory and practice, self-deprecating with a healthy dose of realism!
Did you consider creating dollies that cradle the wheels of the car to increase ground clearance and approach and departure angles? Lift the front and back of the car with floor jacks, slide the dollies under the wheels, and wheel it onto a "more normal" trailer.
There is no floor jack that will fit under it with the body on. You have to lift it from the top. And at that point, might as well just lift it with the trailer.
@@SuperfastMatt Check out the way Formula Student teams jack their cars up. It's basically two sets of tube frames nested inside each other with bars on bushings connecting them and forming a parallelogram. When flattened it will be only as high as the thickness of the tubes of the frame. You can then attach giant L arms on the end as a lever to pull it into its upright position. It only requires the muscle power of one average engineering student, although the cars are only around 200kg or less, so this may not work with the land speed car.
@@VulpeculaJoy These Quickjacks are however (usually) very flimsy and cars sometimes fall off them. With this year's FSG Rule change, these quick jacks were removed from the rules and replaced with 2 beer crates, and manual lifting of the car...
I see you are an adherent of random triangulation even where it adds nothing but extra weight. I applaud you 👏 Btw it's Vi number - just like Pi number
Round 7 trailer connector includes a charge wire, to charge the winch battery, and a reverse light wire, that you wire to a solenoid on the surge brake coupler...
Also a handy trailer to pick up a lot of heavy things like donor engines and metal tubing. You could have a brake light at the very back to stop stupid people from crashing into the back of your very long race car.
Seems like it would have been much simpler and cheaper - well, maybe not cheaper - to buy 2 Collins Tow Dollies, weld a tow hitch to one of them that extends out several feet, and strap them to the speedster. According to Casey LaDelle, they're good for hundreds of miles at highway speed.
Interesting idea. You'd have a problem steering the front dollies, or more correctly, allowing the front dollies to pivot/steer on the front of the racecar.
Why not just make some tiny dollies you can jack under each wheel, or small wheels with tall shafts you can jack up the car then bolt on each corner? Then can trailer like normal with some right height yes? Though you lose some of the other advantages of doing these things, just thought it was worth a mention as surely it satisfies the original intent with what you had with the least effort?
Learned to stick weld building the carrier for the Buckeye Bullet way back when...great times...glad to see similar rigging and structure techniques popping up on the YubTubs
At least you haven't started pushing shorts aggressively like every other TH-camr it's getting outrageous shorts are just ads and are commercials for the TH-camrs main content the very thing that the content consumer is trying to avoid so thank you for not spamming everyone's notifications with a million different shorts and then getting their hopes up for new actual content when it's not I appreciate that
The difference between math and engineering: "The ramps would need to be 8 feet long and the final 3 feet would be 2mm or less". Then cut off the last 3 feet, a tire should roll over a 2mm lip.
Hi Matt. I'm binge watching your entire catalogue. It's awesome. I'm building a garage so I can do what you do. Thanks and keep et up 👍 - a fellow mechanical engineer in his 40s from Denmark 🇩🇰
Do you mean adding dolly wheel points to the frame of the landspeed car? The car is going to get a fiberglass body which probably isn't rigid enough to support the car.
So you didn't put bearings on the pulley that you will load up. But you did over design the swing arms with double bearings that will just carry their own weight? Can't say that makes any sense. Car tires are not the right solution for trailers. That's why trailer tires exist. They typically have a higher profile, since tire flex is a big part of trailer handling. I suspect (but may be totally off base) that the load rating of the car tires isn't correct either.
True on many counts, however trailer tires are usually only rated for low speeds. And you know....race trailer go zoom. (I joke...but honestly on such a low weight and single axle trailer he'll be fine. Probably.)
if it ever comes up... turbine engines are sometimes raised into a test stand via a screwjack that pulls cables. it can be cost effective in the sense that you don't need to buy a winch to pull a foot and a half on and off the drum with 25ft of cable. you can also use a trailer jack in place of an electric screwjack
Another option for lifting the LSC would be to have the two 'overarms' actually pivot. Lean them backwards 45 degrees, hook up the car, pull them upright with the winch, and secure them in place with trailer hitch pins. Would require securing the car to the trailer somehow, though.
I don't have time to read all the comments on the toilet to see if it's been said, but it's worth mentioning to the public. Wear a respirator and grind off all the galvanized coating before welding, and wear one while you weld. That shit will make you seriously sick! Another great video matt, my idea has always been to have a motorcyle trailer that lays flat to the ground with a cantilever air suspension set up.
A project start to finish in one video? A miracle indeed
The sandwich one got done in one go as well.... Thank god!!!
New year, new superfastmatt?
"finished"
done, until next time
@@kyleeverly9243it’s the year of Future Matt!
I cant help but point out that the crane option would work. You just need to have a second land speed car to lift on the other side so it stays balanced. So, you know, build a trailer with two cranes. And a second land speed car.
We all meant to suggest, “please build this minor addition.”
A u-shaped frame could lift the car on the front while clamp-on caster wheel support the back. The front could just be craned on at the back. It's neater this way, but required the axle delete.
If only there were something that could be extended to stabilize the crane... We could call it an Outrigger...
That sounds like a Matt plan so cunning even Matt would have a hard time coming up with it
I know no one cares, but i would just lift the car and drive the normal trailers under it, could be done way cheaper and you would still have a trailer that can be used for more then just 1 specific thing
Pro tip, the harbor freight winch comes with minimal bad grease so the popular wisdom is to crack open the gear assembly and repack it with new grease and add dielectric grease to the wiring.
That's a solid recommendation, especially with the Bonneville salt exposure it can expect.
yeah, grease up any tools with moving parts from HF as soon as you get home
the dialectric grease would probably be a great idea especially since it will be spending most of its life covered in salt
Thank you for clearing up the Trailer of Theseus debate. If only the ancient Greeks would've had a DMV to ask...
i came looking for this comment i was not dissapointed :P
As a mechanical engineer in progress, it's seriously inspiring to see all the creative ways you solve problems as they come up and learn as you go to build whatever project it is you're working on.
i mean the man designed the doors for the model x, he is seriusly impresive!
@@nikolaitoxvaerd No way, I knew he had some solid engineering background but that is rad!
@@creamyhummus agreed, he has some really cool patents from his time at Tesla
As another mechanical engineering student, this whole thing could've used a lot more calculation to make it a lot lighter, but that shit is annoying, I would've overbuilt it aswell.
@@joemama069 When in doubt, beef it out 😎😎
leave it to an engineer to put two tapered roller bearings where a bushing would’ve done just fine 😂 love the video matt!
Haha thats the only thing i wouldve changed as well xD
How is NO-ONE mentioning the fact that the start of the video is a trailer... for the trailer. Brilliant as always Matt.
Yeah. Best trailer trailer ever.
It was too obvious, and actually so obvious it was not gofast style but its ok.
at least 9 people made the same observation. i only scrolled down halfway
I thought the obvious didn't require an explanation
I'Ve trailered my trailers a few times myself
4:30 I suggest saying "VIN plate", it speaks to the specific part and adds the extra syllables to be understood clearly.
Pro tip, when you have a slow moving bearing surface just use bearing bronze it is more resistant to corrosion and forces pulling them down. You don't really need ball barrings for slow moving rotation.
Would that be cheaper or more expensive? Simpler part of course, but you can't make it out of Chinesium steel and ball bearings
@@JoranGroothengel depends, you can get off the shelf parts at the hardware store and use them for the bearing surface. I only mentioned it because he is going to take it to the salt flats, but it's kinda too late now.
Not even sure it needs a bearing or bush at all.. just grease
@@mcspikeskyits probably overkill but def makes the arms move much more freely which is nice
I was thinking the same thing. An engineer friend was once helping me with some welding on a swing away tyre carrier. Like just about all such things in Australia, I used a trailer stub axels with roller bearings and he similarly pointed out that the primary load is low speed, limited angle rotation. A bronze (or even plastic) bushing would deal much better with road vibrations twisting across the pivot and basically never need relubrication.
Next time, try your shop vac to vacuum the string through the tube. Works amazingly well.
Yup tie a little bit of shop towel to the front for more better fitting in the frame with less air leakyness around it.
@@watvannou as usual, the best lessons are in the comments
Wine cork works equally as well with much less chance of the rag hanging up on the tube's inside weld.@@n_tas
I swear the things you can do with shop vacs
Yep. Learned the vacuum trick when needing a pull string running wire full length (and turns) of a basement conduit. Made a bubble out of my lunch sandwich bag for the vacuum to pull.
At this time of the year in the uk we like to hand out curiously old fashioned and sometimes inappropriate (British Empire?) medals/ awards. I give you the honorary Brit award for 'irony/sarcasm/ wit best displayed by someone from not England '. I hope you are proud.
I'm very glad to see ancient Greek philosophy is finally being applied to trailer building, equally pleased to see that so many viewers are familiar with Theseus and his old ship.
As an architect I approve of this design…
That usually is a bad sign and it will have some detrimental consequences in the future but until then it’s great!
For your 2 removable bolts on the swinging bars, you should drill a small horizontal hole through the bolts towards the bottom and just use a mini trailer hitch pin clip to keep the bolts from coming out. This way you won't need any tools. (the kind of clips like what you use to hold an RC car's body on, or car hood pins, just smaller)
R-clips
@@robg5513 yes those! Name makes sense now that you mention it 😁
wow this video is a really good SuperfastMatt video,
I stopped 3 times to narrate the joke to my girlfriend and for her to tell me that she did not get it.
pure gold!
When you order the new spindles, you can also get them offset so that the hubs are spaced outward (instead of the giant spacers). You'll love that particular suspension, btw!
I think the spacers are there for bolt pattern
Thoes spacers are really adapters to change the bolt pattern if he gets a new hub with the viper bolt pattern that fits the bearing he could get rid of the adapters.
@@trdnismoguy @TheBCninja Y'all are both partly correct - they definitely adapt the bolt patterns to fit the Viper wheels, but that's typically a 1.0-1.5" adapter. These are ~4.0", to offset the rim from the hub. Trailer wheels are typically 0 offset - Viper rims are (~50-70mm), so 2-3", plus a little extra for clearance of the bolts on the side of the T*mbren suspension (learned that the SF Matt way...)
For the frame tubes, use outdoor-use expanding foam to fill them. Lot less headache than trying to spray inside them, prevents moisture from even getting in, and has the added benefit of cutting down on noise since the tubes are now "solid". We did this on the frame rails and windshield frame of our '70 Barracuda 'vert resto and it made a big difference.
This is something I've never thought of doing. I'll file that away in the ol' brain case for when it's needed. Do you just use the stuff in cans?
Shit, that’s genius
Whoa, I don't know what to believe. I have heard the exact opposite advice multiple times. The other folks say that the foam not only traps water but also keeps the water in close contact with the metal.
I ended up paying a pretty penny for galvanizing and coating.
@@anchopanchorancho Yeah, i didn`t try it myself, but every oldtimer i talked to told me the same thing, ``avoid it, it just traps water and makes it impossible to spray in any valid solutions like rust converting paint or cavity wax``... I don`t know, i`ll stick to cavity wax myself... When i need a solid tube, its when i`m making a fabricated table or similar, and then a load of sand and used motor oil works perfectly... Just vibrate the sand until the frame is full and then pour in as much waste motor oil to make the sand a lubricant rag... Not a good idea if you will be oxy-cutting or similar on such a frame, but for machine frames and low temp. work, it is the best approach to achieve a ``solid`` tube effect...
Don't do it. Cost me a new bulkhead when a PO filled the frame with foam. Trapped salty moisture and rotted from inside.
Its going to be fun putting the five lug spare on a 6 lug hub.
For as far as i know a viper has 4 wheels ? ;) 2 spares.
Also, trailer tires are not the same as auto tires, and the Viper tires are particularly ill suited for a trailer.
Also,@@mriguy3202, trailer tires work like every other tire, and the Viper tires will work fine. There is no need to maximize the carrying capacity for the size and minimize the tire manufacturing cost for the load, which are the only factors considered in trailer tire design. Literally any highway service tire will be better in quality and performance than the typical "ST" trailer tire of the same load capacity.
Really? I would just take off the hub adapter.
At least one boat trailer near me has one set of trailer lights permanently installed on the trailer, and a second removable set that can be put on the back of the boat. You might want to think about doing something like this for you
There have been like 5 points in this video where I wanted to hit the like button again. This is peak Matt.
You’ll need a fabric cover for your trailer to keep the road and weather off it. It can double as a sun shade or rain weather tent.
Solid advice
Not applicable for this application, but I don't know how I lived before having a "Donahue"(brand) moveable axle drop deck implement trailer. The deck of the trailer can be literally laid on the ground and you just dive on the deck, then move the axles back and drag the movable tongue back up into position. All done by locking/unlocking the trailer wheels and the axle carrier slides on the underside of the deck.
The most annoying part of this amazing Thunderbirds-esque video is the realisation that you somehow manage to have enough of a social life to be able to call on a bunch of helpers and still be consistently productive on your projects, whilst also creating videos!
Hah, I knew immediately where you were going with the “how much can you remove while still calling it the original trailer?” The same is true with aircraft restorations - the data plate is the only thing that matters to the FAA. If you have one from a 1947 Piper Cub, you can build a brand new airplane and (as long as it’s built the same way as the original airplane) it’s legally a 1947 Cub if it has that data plate.
Can you leave everything untouched from the aircraft you cut out the plate of and register it again as 1947?
As far as I’m aware, no. If you built a new airplane and transferred the paperwork/data plate to it, the collection of parts the data plate had been attached to would be seen as just that - a collection of parts. As it had been built by someone else, registering and obtaining an airworthiness certificate for it would be extremely difficult or impossible. Possibly the only way to do that would be to completely disassemble it and reassemble it, documenting the work you do in the reassembly process, and then applying for an Experimental-Amateur Built certificate, as the FAA will now see it as a new airplane that was built primarily by you. It would then come with all the limitations and requirements (e.g. flight testing) of any other E-AB aircraft.
What I initially said isn’t 100% true, as it would also imply that data plates are irreplaceable. What really matters is the registration and airworthiness certificates, which the data plate ties to the airframe to which it is attached. Replacing a data plate can be a pain, but it is possible as they can end up damaged or lost.
@@tylerstank2714 thank you for the advanced details! One thing I could not get myhead around, how one would end up with two legit planes from 1947. In one way you restore the plate of the original, making the newly built an illegal clone, in another you would have to register the newly rebuild old parts as a new aircraft with recent date, isn't it?
I know of such practice with cars - mostly in Eastern Europe - when simply both the clone and the original get confiscated or at least getting registration revoked.
I think you misunderstood. In the scenario I described, the plane built with new parts and the old data plate/paperwork would be a “1947 Piper Cub” with the same serial number you started with and would be considered by the FAA to be the same airplane with a “major repair” or several. The airplane made of old parts that came from the Piper factory in 1947 which you disassembled and rebuilt and registered as an E-AB would be considered a brand new aircraft, with you as the manufacturer and whatever model name/number and serial number you want to give it. It doesn’t matter that it’s identical to an airplane made in 1947, the FAA would consider it a new airplane made in 2024 with you as the manufacturer.
Next time you need to pull string through a tube tie a grocery bag to the end of it and then use your vacuum cleaner on the other end to draw it through. It works the first time every time and you'd be amazed at the distance you can get.
Very nice. As a fellow ADD-affected engineer, I love your mix of logic and humor whenever it comes to designing something. Really looking forward to more landspeed content.
For the fenders, I would recommend either adding non-slip tread tape to the tops, or welding on some expanded metal. And if they're not structurally capable of holding at least 300 pounds, reinforce them. I can 100% guarantee that those fenders will be used as a step when loading/unloading the car and when accessing the gun cases. And a healthy layer of rubberized undercoating on the insides of the fenders should hopefully help prevent chipping that will leave bare metal exposed to salt. The insides of steel fenders are usually the first thing to start rusting on a trailer. Or since I see you TIG-welded them, maybe you sprang for stainless there?
If you're going to have drain holes in the lower frame, I wonder if it would be worth it to weld on a threaded hose adapter somewhere so you can actively "flush" the frame out after it spends time on the salt?
Might also be nice to add a rock deflector so that your nice aerodynamic body doesn't get blasted during transport.
Paint for zinc gal exists, you want the Hammerite gal paint or Dymark Zinc Guard stuff. You can also treat the surface with a mild acid like 5% acetic (you know, white cleaning vinegar) and use an enamel.
Trailer looks great!
Matts old trailer: "We can rebuild him, we have the technology".
Also, I didnt expect to finally get a conclusive answer to the "ship/trailer of theseus" in this video. Neat.
Nice Steve Austin reference
i feel like this solves the problem so well that it’s almost underwhelming, like you had to suffer so much to get the car on the old trailer, while this is just a lift it up and go, i would feel like somehow i should be suffering more.
The Ship of Theseus interpretation was very amusing.
Very nice to see more frequent uploads from you!
One of the best sir. From the ADDDHDDH viper suspension to the 'trailer of Theseus' mastery. Keep on trailering!
Did Matt actually start and finish a project - in one video? I'm impressed 👍
I love watching your 'things I did before I could do the thing.' vids, because it meshes so well with the 'in order to build a thing you have to have a shop.' and converting my unfinished garage, into a shop. Also your longer-ish format vids fit super well to listening to in a playlist while I work on that project. This week, I got 95% of the electrical ready to join and make-hot.
I really like this new channel sponsor. Drink, Cut, Drink. It really brings those projects forwards.
The air pressure string trick works better if you tie a plastic sack on the other end and use a shop vac.
If you don't at least get ST trailer tires, get some LT tires with more of a highway tread design. 195/75R16XL, LT225/75R16, and LT215/85R16 are easy to find as they are common tires for dually commercial trucks.
What I would be inclined to do is match whatever size you run on the motorhome (probably 225/75 based on every E350 cutaway I've worked on). If you run 8- lug adapters, you could even share wheels back and forth in a pinch.
What is the load per tire, and what is the tire load capacity? If there is suitable capacity, there is no need to buy new tires.
Sharing wheels with the RV to share tires does make practical sense.
I know you'd definitely want trailer tires on the trailer, but unfortunately as I'm not a tire engineer, I can't really articulate the reasons why. I do know that trailer tires just act different from vehicle tires, and cope better with the loads trailers see. Apparently lo-pro vehicle tires cope especially poorly with trailer loads. I remember Doug went into it in his VINWiki video about the Corvette boat, which came with a Corvette themed trailer riding on Corvette wheels and tires. th-cam.com/video/vGWjlT_xRq8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=PLpsVyoxLKDwjlj4
@@billgiglio1023 tires work the same way on trailers as other vehicles, and the tires don't know that they're on a trailer.
In heavy trucks, tires for every axle are built the say way, except that they are available with treads optimized for wear in three classes of position: steer, drive, and trailer. They also have "all position" types available, so clearly exactly the same tire can work properly in any role.
Light motor vehicles (cars, pickup trucks) don't have separate steer and drive tires; they don't need separate trailer tires, either. The rear tires on a front-wheel-drive car don't steer, don't drive, and have exactly the same job as a trailer... and the same tires work there are on the front of the same car, or on the front or rear or a rear-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive car.
The "ST" (for "Special Trailer") designation for small trailer tires is only used in North America - apparently tires are supposed to work differently on different continents. 😄 They are suitable for trailers, and so are other types (commercial, Euro-metric, "LT" for Light Truck, and even "P" for passenger) when used within their rated capacity.
Exactly. Nearly every trailer/RV forum has some oldtimers who will pipe up to say they learned the trailer tire lesson the hard way. It's more than just load rating.
LT tires with a highway rib tread pattern are similar enough that some trailer manufacturers spec them on some models. I'm doing so on one project where the trailer is a lightweight, limited-use show piece and the smallest LT tires (185/80R14) are a better fit than the smallest ST tires (205/75R14)
This hauler and the race car may not weigh a ton, but it's a very long contraption, prone to all of the funky dynamics and leverage that come with that. I wouldn't highway tow it anywhere on those Viper wheels.
A young guy with an Austin Mini (the 1960’s type) used trailer tires because they were available for 10” wheels. How well did that work? I don’t know, but he also tinted all the windows deep lime green to match the body.
"I don't know if this is legal, probably is"
I love america.
That's a mighty nice trailer. To rise from the ashes like a phoenix to become that wondrous trailer is a beautiful sight
What a coincidence, I've just finished watching the -Land Speed Car First Drive- building the first trailer video
You can get old sailboat "Winches" for pretty cheap. They are not electric but they will always work, even after sitting outside for 10 years. The newer self-tailing winches are what everybody wants and are much cooler but when sailers upgrade the older style becomes very cheap/free.
Didn’t have a lesson on the nuances of Ship of Theseus on my bingo card for the day - but here we are
Your matrial trailer solution reminded me of your neighbor when i was a kid... He had built a box for his boat trailer so it could do double duty.. But you have build yourself a nice ship of Theseus ..😝
Will you be able to tow this trailer with the off-road viper?
Yes
@@SuperfastMatt good, cause the image of a no approach angle land speed car getting trailered behind a viper with great approach angles is what I need in 2024
@@TheCruxy*2028
great job, but i would get the right wheels, no dam adapters ,also a put 4 wheels on it. ive towed racecars for 400 years and you dont want a blow out with only one tire per side,notting good happens. glad you are back on our project.
I can't believe Matt passed up on the opportunity to make the first land speed vehicle with a hovercraft "storage mode".
Suspension bridge? Truss bridge maybe.
Your new trailer is far superior to what you used before. (I hope you can mitigate the effects of salt too.)
Well done. It's great.
With the 'which trailer is the original trailer' conundrum, it very much reminded me of the 'Only Fools & Horses' conundrum of Trigger's Broom.
4:52 I may be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that a single axle trailer cannot legally be over 16' in the US(except for boat trailers). It may just be Texas, though. So if it is that long(or 17.5' as you stated later), the trailer may not be legal as you still only have one axle.
I worked for over 5 years at a Fabrication shop that commonly made trailers, and i had to reference the code book somewhat often(i seemed to be the only one that cared about them actually being legal, and i was in charge of the lighting and finishing stages). I left that job last year, and i can't find that exact code book online, so i can't say for certain. I do know for a fact that *we* never built a single axle that was longer than 16', for anything over that we always did tandems.
Also, I'm sure you already know this, but whenever you do install the fenders, you'll need to make sure there are lights marking their width, as they will be the widest point of the trailer. Your trailer looks to be under 80" total width, so you don't need anything additional besides your tails(which serve as your rear markers as well), width markers, and front markers(which it looks like you already have).
If you added sideways extension wings to the rear bumper equal to the width of the fenders, you could mount your taillights there and not require fender lights.
You are wrong
@@russellv6234 Can you back that up with something solid? I have trouble believing a simple "you are wrong"
@@TheHonestL1ar Easily. The US doesn't make trailer laws. Individual states do because we're a stupid fucking country and require things to be as complex as possible. So there could be as many as 50 different trailer length laws.
Also you can get a 28 foot pup trailer in every state and they only have 1 axle
Viper trailer! 🎉
As someone who used to do a lot of rigging and lighting I yelled “TRUSS!” to my screen just a little too loud. It’s fun to be pedantic.
All Hail the Algorithm 🙌
All hail!
The algorithm
All hail!
The algorithm
Algorithm!!!!!!!
Nice job on getting the trailer operational. The suspension was almost exactly what I was picturing, with a trailing arm setup (trailer of the trailer's trailing arm?). Although it is stronger and offers storage with the gun boxes, I am kind of surprised you did not make the upper section collapsible. After all, you are driving around with one of the world's most aerodynamic vehicles behind you (once the bodywork is added)--and it's covered in scaffolding.
You may want to load the car in backwards to improve weight distribution on the trailer and reduce wear on the front facing polished surfaces of the car while towing.
Brilliant. Very good point.
Did you miss the part where he carefully calculated the weight distribution of the car when placing the axles?
@@brianpennington4202 I caught that, but wanted to see the calc with the car backwards. I said ‘may’ meaning maybe no better but the car isn’t 50/50.
The point is that the trailer is built for the car, so the centre of mass will be properly placed in the trailer regardless of the car's orientation,@@rupertcrighton4107 . But it is true that the trailer works better with the longer part of the car (from centre of mass to end) projects ahead of the trailer axle rather than behind it, to minimize overall length.
I'm not great at focusing, but I definitely heard you say Viper a few times - so nice new Viper video, keep 'em coming!
Fifteen minutes and thirty four seconds of awesome I didn't expect to get today! Now I'm happy. Thanks MediocrelyFastMatt. ❤
To paint galvanizing and aluminum, you need to use a particular type of primer. Any hardware store should have it. All hail!
No more beer cans holding up the trailer haha
I had a friend who use to make custom enclosed trailers for drag cars, mostly notalgic and railers. He used an electric winch on pulley rail system that ran from the rear to the front of the car. You lifted the front of the car in the air and load it with the front raised. This prevented the car from bottoming out.
Nice!!
And the trailer can double as a canoe trailer
It could even be a 1/2" thick steel CAD designed Send-Cut-Send canoe.
I found your channel a week ago while looking for a 3D Scanner. Since then, I’ve binged watched your videos so much that I had forgotten to buy said 3d scanner.😂 You’ve definitely become my favorite TH-camr
Matt, that string trick is pretty neat. I've used it with PVC pipe and a shop vac but never ship air. Nice job.
tie the string to a slightly inflated baggie if it doesn't work the first time.
Using 300% of your budget for vastly improved convenience is always worth it, if you have the money, time and means necessary to complete the project.
Thank you for translating the millimeters into kilometers!
I'm only a minute in - but I have been thinking about this very problem for the last couple of days. A solution I am contemplating is - what about a trailer with a parallelogram lift system so that you can drop an inner suspended deck right down onto the ground? It could then be raised using either mechanical or pneumatic/hydraulic lift and locked into place using pins.
I will now watch the rest of the video, and see if we both arrived at the same solution.
They use such trailers for pontoon boats but not low like needed here. A good system.
How do you put the spare on if you get a flat? Is it going to be a spacer removal on the side of the highway kind of adventure? I'm unsure if you missed that or just left it for future Matt to figure out.
Definitely future Matt's problem
@@cloudyview poor future Matt!! Send thoughts and prayers!!!
Future Matt tends to hate Present Matt for this kinda stuff
Hopefully future Matt will also check fender clearence with the spare when they get installed
he could add a mount each side for the jockey wheel. these could also be used for umbrella mounting when working on the vehicle.
11:39 Fun to see for just a moment that toddler brain kick in, the look of pure discovery
I would be careful about using non-trailer wheels and tires on the trailer. While it may turn out to be a perfectly fine, it would be really disappointing if there was another VINwiki Corvette-boatesque incident where sports car tires cannot handle trailer vibrations and shake themselves off the trailer, or otherwise being a headache
And what happens when the spare tire goes on and you want to drive in a straight line? But it looks awesome which is the most important thing
@@Droidy77he has 4 Viper tires, surely he'd just use one of those as the spare to keep everything matching up
As a person who doesn't mind a drink and welding, the quality of your drunk welding friends work is consistent enough to pass for personal use👍👍
It will be interesting to see if you can still get those bolts into/out of the lower cross bars once it has been moving under load on harsh roads for some length of time. Especially if you roll it around without them while on the lake. Steel is rather bendy.
It wasn't a problem for the other trailer teams i talked to, but I will have a few ratchet straps and a hammer ready just in case.
It works OK, just keep a hammer handy. We have transported NT3 from San Diego to Bonneville and all around El Mirge without any major issues.
I didn't expect to enjoy a video about such a specific trailer build so much. Well done sir!
Is this?..... Is this the first of Matt's projects we've actually seen him complete?
He still has to make the trailer aerodynamic.
I found your channel on my recommendations and your humour is right up my alley. Contradictory between theory and practice, self-deprecating with a healthy dose of realism!
Happy new year Matt. Please don’t get hurt this year 🥰
I use two m18 batteries wired parallel to run the 5500lb winch I have on my truck crane it works great even though I was told it wouldn't
New year new land speed car videos 🗣️
Did you consider creating dollies that cradle the wheels of the car to increase ground clearance and approach and departure angles? Lift the front and back of the car with floor jacks, slide the dollies under the wheels, and wheel it onto a "more normal" trailer.
There is no floor jack that will fit under it with the body on. You have to lift it from the top. And at that point, might as well just lift it with the trailer.
@@SuperfastMatt Check out the way Formula Student teams jack their cars up. It's basically two sets of tube frames nested inside each other with bars on bushings connecting them and forming a parallelogram. When flattened it will be only as high as the thickness of the tubes of the frame. You can then attach giant L arms on the end as a lever to pull it into its upright position. It only requires the muscle power of one average engineering student, although the cars are only around 200kg or less, so this may not work with the land speed car.
@@VulpeculaJoy These Quickjacks are however (usually) very flimsy and cars sometimes fall off them. With this year's FSG Rule change, these quick jacks were removed from the rules and replaced with 2 beer crates, and manual lifting of the car...
@@VulpeculaJoyMatt literally wrote a book about his time in a Formula SAE team. Called Racecar. It's a good book, you can download a PDF of it.
@@marcjulianzuther6660 Not necessarily. You can still use the same method, you just have to make it fit under the footprint of the car.
Now I want to see the whole movie… the trailer was awesome!
I see you are an adherent of random triangulation even where it adds nothing but extra weight.
I applaud you 👏
Btw it's Vi number - just like Pi number
And AT machine.
Please the memory of using vi is coming back, used it just enough be functional.
It is a vin number the same as my nice card. ;)
Decided to impress the algorithm although you didn't tell me to do so. What a cool trailer!
Next time you add fishplates to stiffen something up, have them shaped like actual fish!! Probably pike for 1 1/2'' tube and perhaps bass for 3''....
The bass ones have to be made out of brass.
Round 7 trailer connector includes a charge wire, to charge the winch battery, and a reverse light wire, that you wire to a solenoid on the surge brake coupler...
Also a handy trailer to pick up a lot of heavy things like donor engines and metal tubing. You could have a brake light at the very back to stop stupid people from crashing into the back of your very long race car.
From what I got he'll put the taillights on some kind of removeble tube that'll mount on the back of the race car.
I absolutely love that you're using the viper wheels and tyres for your trailer
Seems like it would have been much simpler and cheaper - well, maybe not cheaper - to buy 2 Collins Tow Dollies, weld a tow hitch to one of them that extends out several feet, and strap them to the speedster. According to Casey LaDelle, they're good for hundreds of miles at highway speed.
Interesting idea. You'd have a problem steering the front dollies, or more correctly, allowing the front dollies to pivot/steer on the front of the racecar.
You still came in much closer to budget than your homemade dry-sump, so that’s a win.
Why not just make some tiny dollies you can jack under each wheel, or small wheels with tall shafts you can jack up the car then bolt on each corner? Then can trailer like normal with some right height yes? Though you lose some of the other advantages of doing these things, just thought it was worth a mention as surely it satisfies the original intent with what you had with the least effort?
Learned to stick weld building the carrier for the Buckeye Bullet way back when...great times...glad to see similar rigging and structure techniques popping up on the YubTubs
At least you haven't started pushing shorts aggressively like every other TH-camr it's getting outrageous shorts are just ads and are commercials for the TH-camrs main content the very thing that the content consumer is trying to avoid so thank you for not spamming everyone's notifications with a million different shorts and then getting their hopes up for new actual content when it's not I appreciate that
The difference between math and engineering: "The ramps would need to be 8 feet long and the final 3 feet would be 2mm or less". Then cut off the last 3 feet, a tire should roll over a 2mm lip.
Welcome to another episode of Matt making excuses to not make a body for the landspeed car
Hi Matt. I'm binge watching your entire catalogue. It's awesome. I'm building a garage so I can do what you do. Thanks and keep et up 👍
- a fellow mechanical engineer in his 40s from Denmark 🇩🇰
Luckily, you have time to make this trailer, and you don't have other projects waiting to be finished.😂😂😂
Thanks for this - really appreciated the brisk pace, explaining detail where necessary.
This is so much more complicated than adding dolly wheel points to the frame
Do you mean adding dolly wheel points to the frame of the landspeed car? The car is going to get a fiberglass body which probably isn't rigid enough to support the car.
@@vroomfondel5447 yeah, a little pinhole through the body into the frame where you stick a dolly wheel. I’ve seen similar on factory equipment
@@jaredj631 I believe the nose will stick out past the front of the frame by a foot or two.
A perfect solution to get the car in/on the trailer. Nice work.
So you didn't put bearings on the pulley that you will load up. But you did over design the swing arms with double bearings that will just carry their own weight? Can't say that makes any sense.
Car tires are not the right solution for trailers. That's why trailer tires exist. They typically have a higher profile, since tire flex is a big part of trailer handling. I suspect (but may be totally off base) that the load rating of the car tires isn't correct either.
True on many counts, however trailer tires are usually only rated for low speeds. And you know....race trailer go zoom. (I joke...but honestly on such a low weight and single axle trailer he'll be fine. Probably.)
The swing arms will be carrying the load of the car when it is loaded.
@@dirtdart81 which they didn't need bearings to do.
@@donhappel9566 with trailer tires, a lot of the concern is side loading. Also, I can't recall what the race car weighs.
Wait, WTF is this ? A video project that stays on track ???
Love it regardless! :D
if it ever comes up... turbine engines are sometimes raised into a test stand via a screwjack that pulls cables. it can be cost effective in the sense that you don't need to buy a winch to pull a foot and a half on and off the drum with 25ft of cable. you can also use a trailer jack in place of an electric screwjack
Another option for lifting the LSC would be to have the two 'overarms' actually pivot. Lean them backwards 45 degrees, hook up the car, pull them upright with the winch, and secure them in place with trailer hitch pins. Would require securing the car to the trailer somehow, though.
I don't have time to read all the comments on the toilet to see if it's been said, but it's worth mentioning to the public. Wear a respirator and grind off all the galvanized coating before welding, and wear one while you weld. That shit will make you seriously sick! Another great video matt, my idea has always been to have a motorcyle trailer that lays flat to the ground with a cantilever air suspension set up.