Economical Off-Road Trailer Build: Part III

The SWAG Off-Road Baja Bins are offered with dual clasps on each side for tight fitting mounting locations or with a hinge on one side and clasp on the other.

We used stacked Action Packer crates to determine the deck height and cut the tube accordingly. The Action Packers will be secured in a SWAG Baja Bin. That’s a Harbor Freight chop saw being used. Our cuts would certainly be straighter if it was secured to a table but we don’t have a fab shop at home – just a garage full of tools, spare parts, unfinished projects, un-started projects, motorcycles, bicycles, folding tables and chairs, many boxes of holiday decorations, and too much other stuff taking up space.

After some measuring we decided on a 42-inch height from the bottom of the trailer frame. We used clamps to secure the tubes in places before leveling and tack welding.

With the forward uprights still held in place with clamps we set a front cross bar on top and located it with magnets.

We then determined the correct length and cut the cross bar accordingly.

With the front uprights and cross bar squared and tack welded to keep them in place the rear uprights were positioned with clamps.

After the uprights were leveled a rear stringer bar was positioned above them.

The corner magnets work great in helping square everything up...

...and are strong enough to hold the bars in place for tack welding.

Before applying any final welds, we measured multiple times to make sure everything was true.

We actually ended up needing to break some tacks and grind one of the rear uprights that was slightly less than perfectly placed.

When we were happy with the placement of everything we applied final weld beads to all of the seams.