Trailer ......

I got the wood stripped off the platform. In the pic, you will see the original trailer platform in red. What I am doing is capping the sides with the 4 inch channel and making new mounting points for my new axles since the current axles are not set up correctly. The unpainted channel on the sides (on top of the red frame) is where i am going to cap the sides. I have to trim the outriggers to fit. The total deck width will be 76 inches. I wll have to add some metal to the platform to conect the original platform to the new channel (where the tires currently are)

To correctly mount my axles the spring indexing holes on the axles are at 67 inches. Which would fall in the middle of the old main rail, and the channel i am using to cap the sides. Well what i am going to do is use channel to bridge the gap between the main original rail and the C channel end. I then will mount the spring hangers on the channel.

My question is...

I was going to use channel and go all the way across from the new pieces of channel. But i got to thinking and probably over thinking. Do you think there will be any problems if i do not go all the way across, but rather just go from original rail to C channel. The dotted lines in yellow is wher i would go across at. Would i get enough support just bridgeing that area, or would it be better to go all the way across? The platform is rather stout, it is 2x4 steel, and then i also added 1/4 3x3 angle iron when i originally did it.

And unfortunately i found the rear foot or two of the original main rails have rot on the bottom. I am going to use some more 1/3 3x3 angle iron to patch the holes and support the weakened area.

Any problems with any of these plans??

 

I would think that with the channel welded in there upright and with corner braces like that one section you might be alright. I think you are wondering if it might flex, definitely depends in part on how thick that frame is. The whole load (trailer and whatever is on it) is going to be on that section that you add, if I understand what you're doing. There will be forces applied on that area from all angles.