Burro Trailer Renovation: Working on a Plan

Went to the camper over the weekend. I got to talk to the lady who runs the storage place and how I want to work on the trailer. She basically said so long as I clean up after myself, it shouldn't be a problem to do the work there. Hopefully I don't wear out my welcome during the work.

The main purpose of my visit was to take some measurements of the frame to make plans for replacement. Also for replacement of the axle too. One measurement I didn't get to check/confirm was the hub-face. Another post I found, the burro owner listed the measurements for their own trailer but seems a few on mine may be different. Until I get my own sorted out, it helps to get an idea of what to expect.

I started off with measurements from the end of the side rail that butts up on the inside of the angle-iron used for the rear bumper. There was a small gap at the bottom where I was able to hook on a tape measure.

The following pictures show the measurements I took at the cross beams starting from the rear.

2x3 angle iron used for bumper

hitch receiver is bolted on, going to replace with straight weld-on type

rear most beam

Rear beam to be moved forward a few inches.

Getting an idea of where the center of the hub is located.

A few inches forward of this last beam, the side rail bent towards the coupler on the tongue. As of now, the only change I'd make for the cross beams were to move the back one forward 4 inches or so, where it would sit under the back dining seat better, where it currently sags from soft plywood. The overall width of the trailer is 49.5" but I'm thinking it could be 49" for an even number, where it might help when ordering a new axle.

While I've seen posts about axles, I've looked at the Dexter #9 and the Flexiride axles. The current axle arms are up from the axle beam and the next one, I'm thinking either a 10 or 22 degree down would be good. The bottom of the frame is 12" high and having the arms down a bit will give it a little more clearance. Even as it is, I'm able to crawl around under it, but not by much.

Sizing up the extra support under the door.
Might do the same all around.
24" x 6"

After getting these measurements, I went inside. I removed the water and drain fittings under the sink area and plan to patch the remaining holes with fiberglass and come up with a different plan. While I was taking things apart, I removed the white fabric covering the center seam. Now, I've heard builders used resin to fill in the gpas of the two halves but seeing it myself, I saw it had cracked. Front and back both have cracks. The one in the back goes from the floor all through to the window. The front one goes about half way up to the window. I was thinking to sand the surface to prep it anyway and now I see there's a bigger need. I'm now looking to add some fiberglass to help strengthen the bond between the two halves together. Might be good to work on this before lifting the shell off the frame. With the two halves split, I wouldn't want to make it worse when there's less structure to the whole thing. I do have some fiberglass left over from a boat project that could do well with this project.

water feed/drain fittings removed. Large hole was for AC input.

harder to see the crack in the front but it's there

The crack on the back is a bit more obvious

I want to remove the old spare tire mounting bolts.
May cut away a little of the molded interior to fix.

Rear crack continues down through the floor. This crack could be worse due to the impact damage I had found before and wasn't repaired like the area below the driver side window.