Success! And the end of another project to boot.. The lumber is stock grade 2x6's bolted down with grade 5 carriage bolts drilled through the frame. The sides are secured with four corner stake pockets hosting pressure treated 4x4's. Everything is tied together with three inch coated deck screws and coated with a layer of exterior varathane to help the wood keep it's appearance and strength for as long as possible. I thought about making the entire thing out of pressure treated wood, but there were two issues there. First is the weight. Pressure treated, for the uninitiated is a greenish coloured lumber that gains that shade when a preservative chemical (usually copper azole) is forced into the wood under several atmospheres of pressure and an elevated temperature. The resultant product is very (but not entirely) resistant to rot and weathering. Unfortunately, the treated product is extremely HEAVY. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to be putting onto a small-ish trailer that has some weight limitations to begin with. Pound for pound pressure treated is probably 60% heavier than a non treated length of the same thickness, and when your trailer frame is already somewhere around the 400lb mark with just the frame and the normal wood, more weight is not an attractive option. Secondly, Carrie is contact sensitive to pressure treated wood, so that made the choice a very simple one. After dealing with the wood, I cut a fair sized flip down tailgate into the trailer and secured it with some heavy duty galvanized strap hinges and barrel bolts. The lighting package is actually for a boat trailer, and came from Princess Auto for $19.99. To top it off, the safety chains in the front have been shortened up (why the person who owned it before me had over 4 feet of chain on each side I will never know) and the bolts he had for securing it to the hitch were replaced with a set of grade 31 hooks with a sping loaded locking lip on them. Safer, and easier to remove as well. Last but not least were 4 heavy duty tie down rings, and a small lockbox to store my tiedown straps in, all bolted to the bed of the trailer.

The final test came on Sunday when I towed the trailer up to Vulcan with my lawnmower strapped to the bed. Honestly, I don't think it could tow better than it did. Minimal movement in crosswinds, very little bouncing, no evidence of the wheels ever touching the underside of the deck, and my car towed it without the slightest bit of trouble. A 200km round trip on less than a quarter tank of gas shows me my fuel economy was not suffering either. I've always suspected the motor on my Buick had a bit of power to spare, and now I have some confirmation of that. The excellent thing is I don't have to kidnap people anymore to go to the lumber yard or pick up bulky furniture :)

One thought though, I think I'll be looking into a transmission cooler for my car if I want to use the trailer excessively. I checked the fluid when I got to Vulcan and when I got back to Lethbridge and it's fine (no discolouration, no burnt smell, no smoking) but the dipstick itself was too hot to touch (well duh.. you're pulling it out of an engine that's just run for the last hour on a 24 degree day.. what do you expect it to be you dummy) and even though this might be normal, I think a cooler would be a good preventative measure.