Newbie Question

[OutlawB52]

Good morning ( barely ) to everyone. Have the chance to purchase a mobile home trailer frame measuring 12' X 48' with twin 8 and 1/2 in I beams down either side . Good tires and axels  for $ 500 . My plan is to air dry lumber on the frame . I am guessing there will be plenty of versatility .  Has someone tried this ? Wondering if the I beams will need support along the 48 ' length of the trailer.  Thanks

[Tom the Sawyer]

OutlawB52,

It may be easy to overload something that size.  Someone on here may be able to tell you what a 12x48' mobile home would weigh, I doubt that the frame was engineered for much more than that (plus normal household goods, potential snow load, etc.).  That load would be equally distributed over the 576 square feet. 

You can figure that a pallet of 1000 bf of 8', 4/4 lumber (4' wide, 8' long, 5' high), will weigh about 5000 pounds. Although you could potentially put 18 of those pallets on the frame, allowing for air space between them, 10 or 12 would be more reasonable.  That is a potential 50-60,000 pounds (if only stacked one pallet high).  That is certainly way over what the axle load ratings would be (probably about 6000 pounds per axle), and likely much more than the frame was designed to carry.

So, you might be able to use it, after removing the axles and supporting the frame with a good foundation.

[alan gage]

Never really messed with them but mobile homes are notorious for using thin steel for their beams. No one seems to be standing inline to reuse them for other purposes for this reason. 

Alan

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

A mobile home that is small, like 48', might weigh 10,000 to 14,000 pounds, including the frame.  So, the payload might be 5000 to 10,000 pounds.  Frames come in all different weights and strengths, however, as some mobile homes weigh 50,000 pounds.  1000 feet of undried oak is 5000 pounds or so.  How many tires do you have?  Figure a weight of 5000 pounds per tire...this includes the frame weight and payload.

It does seem likely that it is a bit weak for a lumber frame.

[Wudman]

If you don't plan on towing it, it should be ok.  Just block the frame up under your piles.  One of my neighbors gave us a house trailer that a tree had fallen on.  We built a farm trailer out of it (Cut it to 20 feet).  It had so much flex in the frame that it was not very good for farm use.

Wudman