Another project for my son....

[spike99]

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Where possible, I try to show my 12 year old son "new building" projects. Something that is within his skills and when he gets tired of the current phase, he has the option to "walk away" - and I finish the job. Or, we do the next phase of the job another day.

Today, I bought a new axle with electric brakes from my smaller 6x10 utilility trailer. Being a 3,500 lbs axle, I should have bought it with onboard brakes many years ago. Lesson leared the hard way.... For phase 1, we simply drop its current idler axle (4 U-Bolts) and install the new electric brakes axle (same 4 U-Bolts). Transfer its current 14" wheels, and do a test pull. If alignment is ok and if "feels right", we then dive into its next phase. For Phase 2, we simply remove its 4 pin wiring and replace with 7 pin wiring. Splice the brake light, signal lights and clearance lights into its future 7-pin 6 foot cable colors. For electric brake function, we simply run 10 guage wires (brake blue and ground wire) to each wheel hub, solder in the wire and connect the 7-pin plug to our TV (which already has a 7-pin and onboard brake controller installed). Re-Routing / connecting wiring is an easy job - with the correct tools.

After this job, we then take our utility trailer's "removed" idler axle, shorten it via cutting 2 feet out of its axle beam, re-joing the axle beam via inner steel tube inserted pipe, then create a 9ft long x 4ft wide 2x4 board upper deck "off road" trailer. Could use steel but 2x4s for a temp "off road" trailer is much less expensive. A custom trailer for current canoe and future yack boards - at our seasonal camp site.

As you can tell, I'm looking forward in teaching him how to replace/install utility trailer axles and how to build custom canoe trailers from scratch. Hopefully, these skills will help hin - in his future "custom build" projects. Just like how my dad taugh me about his "trailer building" area many years ago.

What special projects did you teach your kids or grand kids???

Just wondering...

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[LindaNY]

Great idea to teach the kids these skills.

I have taught my grandsons and granddaughters how to swim and how to fish. They clean their own catch and know how to fillet them too.