My various projects thread.

[94touring]

Here's the new trailer to haul sand and cars with. 16' by 82".

[gr8kornholio]

Looks good.  Like the security measure.

[94touring]

I have a cable running between the wheels on the other side as well.

[MiniDave]

Nice, you can almost haul 2 Minis on that!

[94touring]

2 shells would fit pretty well I think.  Maybe one roller and one shell.  I opted for the extra width to be able to open up doors.

[MiniDave]

THAT was a great idea, most trailers you either push or winch the car on, otherwise you have to climb out the window.

[94touring]

The price was negligible too.  My only other option was buy a 20 foot car hauler without the side rails.   That was out of my price range and overkill for size.  I actually wanted a 14 footer but this guy didn't have anything in dual axel shorter than 16 foot.  His prices were better at 16 than most in the 10 to 14 foot range, so why not go a little longer. The width of a mini should give a lot of room for opening a door.  A regular car may be tight.  The ramps are 5 feet long but I may lengthen them to help avoid bottoming out.

[94touring]

Went ahead and put on an extension with a little angle thrown in.  It makes quite a bit of difference in ramp angle and should help with clearing the floor when driving onto the trailer.

[94touring]

Ordered a winch  20.gif.  It will serve 2 vital shop functions.  One being it will go on the trailer to assist with non running cars.  The other purpose is having it mounted to my shop floor to pull cars back in that are on the rotisserie.  Uphill in sand is no easy task.  Even after I put in a concrete pad it's a good incline best suited for a winch, rather than yanking, pulling, and pushing.  I went with a harbor freight badland 5k lb guy.  I read a ton of reviews and after multiple YouTube clips of it pulling cars up steep inclines or huge trucks out of snowy ditches, I was sold...after the 20% discount with shipping and handling to the tune of $167.58.  I have a newish spare battery from the mini to power it. 

[MiniDave]

The remote controllers are a great feature, in case you have to go back and turn the wheels as you're pulling or put a chock behind before you stop. That $5 winch mounting plate is cheaper than yo can make one!

One suggestion, if you're going to weld up a mount for the trailer, don't have it at bed level, but up a bit so the wire rope doesn't drag over the end of the trailer. Also, if you're going to weld up a mount think about a modular design that will let you move it easily from the trailer to the floor mount.

One thing you can do is use anchor sets, then it's just a matter of bolting it down to the floor.... I've had good luck with hollow core or drop in anchors both - the drop in are quite a bit cheaper. You can rent a hammer drill if you don't have one but you'll need a 3/4" bit for anchors for 1/2" bolts.

[94touring]

I may fab up something so the mount bolts to the trailer, unbolts and mounts to the floor.

Yeah those hf mounts are so cheap I bought one for fabbing up my rotary engine mount to the engine stand.

[gr8kornholio]

You could also fab up a little wheel to guide the cable over the end of the trailer so it doesn't rub as Dave mentioned.

[94touring]

You could also fab up a little wheel to guide the cable over the end of the trailer so it doesn't rub as Dave mentioned.

I was thinking the same thing.  Great minds.

[MiniGene]

Nice trailer!  You can use it to pick up the project Mini I have in storage in Arkansas.   :D

[94touring]

We learned yesterday the ramps will puncture holes in a mini floor.  To solve this problem I cut some material off at an angle.  I took it one step further and welded what I cut off on a calculated point on the ramp to decrease pitch as the front wheels are on the trailer.  End result was not impaling Stans car a 2nd time. 

[94touring]

Showing off how much room I have to open doors.

[MiniDave]

Good to see you using safety chains......I'll need to pick up my project car donor at some point this summer.

[gasmini]

Showing off how much room I have to open doors.

Dan,
Where are you hooked up to hold the mini in place? I thought about using straps and going through the wheels to hold the mini down.

[94touring]

Tie rods on the front and subframe in the rear. 

[94touring]

Tried out the winch.  Mounted on the floor and centered up with the garage door, it was able to pull my 2700lb rx7 in the shop, up the sand dune, over a concrete lip, and with little effort.  The battery was the old one out of my mini.  I had it on a charger yesterday for today's tryouts. 

[94touring]

So yesterday after pulling the 7 in, it was time for some exhaust work.  A few years ago when I bought it they had a catback with ginormous tip, which I loath, and a midpipe with no muffler.  The end result was a loud as hell rotary.  I put on a magnaflow muffler on the rear with tip that I can't fit my head in, and used the old catback section and welded it into the midpipe.  Things looked better and sounded a little better.  Problem was the midpipe section that I welded in sat a little low since it was a fairly large round canister style, so it would scrape and rub going over certain objects.  I bought a new magnaflow muffler to go in it's place. Actually bought the wrong size initially (perfect for a pickup truck if anyone is interested), so new muffler came in and back under the car I went. New muffler is tucked high and tight. No more rubbing thank goodness.  Sound wise it maybe dropped a few decibels but nothing too crazy, though I notice less interior rattling, so it made some kind of difference.  Still a bit droney cruising so next step is to fit a resonator prior to the catback to hopefully tune out the drone.  Read a few articles and that seems to be the winning position. 

[94touring]

Another day of exhaust work.  Put resonators on both the rx7 and the JCW that was fitted with a straight exhaust when we bought it.  Last year fitted a cat off the header which dramatically improved how loud and obnoxious it was, but the catback wasn't hung the best and would hit the bumper and cause tons of rattling. Plus it was still raspy and droney.  Today after the resonator install and repositioned catback, all rattles and drone is gone. It actually sounds like a normal car but with some grunt. Jen was pleased.  The rx7 was also improved with resonators but still a fairly loud car.  Much butter overall though and air/fuel ratios remained the same as well. 

[94touring]

Time for new rubber on the 7.  My extreme summer tires offer zero traction till 3rd, 5th if damp, so went with a track radial.  Proxes r888r in 275/40/17.  Almost went full slicks but decided I'd better not.  Come highly recommended. 

[94touring]

Few new things to report on.  Bought a battery charger for the shop. A fancy one from harbor freight.  I hooked it up to a battery that's been sitting on my floor dead for 2 years, that's 6 1/2 years old.  It went into maintenance mode and after a day said it was fully charged.  So put it to the test and pulled my very heavy truck into the shop with it.  Didn't flinch.  Then I thought I'd test the winch strength even more and put the truck in park.  It began to drag the truck across the floor.  I think the winch and battery charger will work. 

[94touring]

The long line of blood sweat and tears.