FS: Aluminum, insulated offroad teardrop w/ hot/cold water on a sturdy steel chassis.

adventurebuddies

Adventurer
This trailer has served me well, but it's time to move on. I sold my Land Cruiser 80 and am now selling the trailer as we are moving over to an XPCamper. This trailer is a combination of factory and custom features that make it quite unique compared to other options. If you are in the market for an extremely durable and capable trailer with many creature comforts, read on….

Price $8,500 obo. I am happy to discuss details and answer questions over the phone so please PM your phone number and I will call you. The trailer is located in Orange County, CA.

My wife and I are self-described “glampers” and this trailer was custom built/modified to suit our needs. We are foodies and my wife loves to cook so the size of the kitchen was one of the priorities. She also gets cold easily, so a warm bed and a place to escape the elements if the weather gets nasty were prime considerations in this build. However, I did not want to sacrifice trail capability just to tow what basically is a mobile bedroom and kitchen.

In order the keep it trail worthy, the axle width and the overall height of the trailer were matched to our fully expedition built Land Cruiser 80. Basically, the trailer can follow through any trail that even remotely makes sense for a trailer. Unlike other trailers, the fact that the track width matched the vehicle (instead of being wider) means that it follows in about that same track as the vehicle tires, even around tight turns. This trailer’s capabilities easily keep up with the popular commercially built cargo-type trailers, but it offers an insulated place to sleep, lots of water storage, and a hot shower.

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The main differences between this trailer versus other ones:

1) The kitchen area is open to the sleeping area. We designed it this way so that the sink with running water is accessible from the inside. During the epic snowstorm and mud bog of Overland Expo a few years ago, this feature proved to be especially useful as we were able to wash our hand/faces, brush teeth, etc without have to put on boots and raingear and step into the quagmire. A disadvantage of this design is that you lose the storage space of “overhead” cabinets or shelves.

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2) The “tailgate” does not fold down. Instead, it lifts out and attaches to the spare tire swingout and then functions as extra counter top space. The size of the kitchen was a priority so this design gave us lots of counter space for prep work, cooking, etc. In order to gain so much counter space, we decided to not carry a fridge/freezer in the trailer. Instead, that was kept in the Land Cruiser since we frequently “day tripped” in the vehicle while the trailer stayed in base camp. By keeping the fridge in the vehicle, we could keep lunch and beverages with us and we freed up the trailer kitchen to be much larger than it would have been if there had been a fridge back there.

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3) The trailer has 36 gallons of water storage in tanks under the chassis. Part of our “glamping” goal was to be able to use water freely. The water is in 4 tanks, each with 9 gallons of capacity. They are forward of the axle and are divided into two groups via some valves so that you can fill only half of them and/or choose to draw water from only half of them. The water pump provides pressurized water at the sink, exterior hose bib, and at the shower wand.

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4) There is a propane fired “instant” hot water heater that provides hot water at the sink and at the shower wand. The controls are accessible from the outside to adjust temperature while showering. Wilderness camping at the end of a technical trail and then being able to take a hot shower is pretty awesome. I am including one of those “pop up” privies in the sale which makes for a great shower stall if you don’t feel comfortable showering in the buff.

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adventurebuddies

Adventurer
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5) A consequence of my decision to match the track width of the trailer to the Land Cruiser 80 is that I had to cut fender wells into the trailer. The interior of the trailer fits a queen size mattress which is a big advantage compared to many that only give you a “full” mattress size. However, the wheel wells intrude into the interior, so I built a platform at the height of the wheel wells which means that you sleep about 9” higher than the floor of the trailer. The advantage is a great storage space under the mattress, but the disadvantage is that it impacts your head room. You can still sit up in bed, but there isn’t much extra headroom.

6) The storage space under the mattress platform gives you space to store an easy-up shlter (included in the sale), chairs, etc. It also creates a space where the mattress ends and the kitchen begins to store pots/pans, plates, cups, etc.

7) The tongue box has brackets to hold a 2.5 gallon propane tank (included in the sale) which is plumbed via a gas line for the grill (included in the sale) and the also has a gas line that leads to the back of the trailer and provides propane to the water heater and a connection for a camp stove. There is a bracket to hold a “Lugable Loo” (included in the sale) which is the perfect place to store the toilet since you wouldn’t want to store it inside once it’s in use. The included grill is an Olympian stainless steel and is the best camping grill I have ever seen. It’s better than most home grills. I will be adding a propane tank to my XPCamper just to be able to use one of these grills. The grill mounts to the side of the tongue box which ensures that smoke from grilling does not get into the sleeping area. There is also space to store a rug and a table (both included in the sale) between the tongue box and the camper pod.

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8) I designed this with a solid axle with leaf springs. Obviously, there are performance advantages to trailing arm suspensions, but I wanted simplicity and field serviceability. Airbags fail sometimes so I felt that a leaf spring that can be serviced in Baja or anywhere would be best. I used OME leaf springs and a 3000lb Dexter axle with electronic brakes and do not feel like that design has impacted the trailer’s offroad capabilities at all. I also installed adjustable Rancho 9000 shocks and some beefy bumpstops. The articulation is great and the shocks keep any feedback from the trailer in check so that you don’t even notice the trailer behind you. The brakes are excellent and actually had the effect of significantly improving the braking performance of the Land Cruiser.

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9) The is trailer has left and right side camp lights which give a lot of light for setting up camp at night, plus it has amber “porch” lights that can be used when bright lights aren’t needed. It also has rear lights which can be activated by a switch, but they also come on automatically when the vehicle is placed in reverse.

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10) There is a rear spare tire that is matched to the trailer tires and also was matched to my Land Cruiser. They are all Land Cruiser 80 wheels with 315/75/16 BFG AT tires. The spare tire is mounted to a swingout rear bumper. I also purchased 2 Bulldog trailer jacks and four mounting points. This enables you to move the jacks to any combination of the 4 corners of the trailer for leveling it at camp.

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11) The actual trailer chassis is very robust. The “spine” is a continuous piece of square steel tube and the rest of the chassis is built around this spine. This means that the front and rear are both effective recovery points since any recovery stress is transferred straight through without any welds or angles. It also would enable you to hook the trailer up backwards if necessary in a recovery situation. There is a max coupler included in the sale. The trailer uses an RV 7 pin connector and has trailer brakes plus the reverse lights described above.

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adventurebuddies

Adventurer
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12) The camper “pod” itself is a Microlight Trailer Wazat. It’s constructed of welded aluminum and features 1” insulation in the walls and ceiling. The designed a squared-off teardrop and it is very strong. I purchased the Wazat trailer and then put the “pod” onto the custom built chassis. My build thread (link in my signature line) has pictures of the chassis build for anyone who cares to see it. The Wazat features interior lights, a fan, a ceiling exhaust vent, a storage shelf, 12v outlet, and an inverter to power a laptop.

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13) The trailer’s “systems” are located under the sink. There is an AGM battery, a water pump, and a shore power charging system under the sink, plus the propane tank in the tongue box. There is a hatch that you open by lifting the end of the mattress that creates a space to hold pots/pans, plates, cups, etc.
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fireball

Explorer
Very nice! I can attest that the fridge in the vehicle is nicer than having it in the trailer. That way the fridge and your food is with you wherever you go, and when at camp the fridge is no more than a few steps away.

Curious if you know how much the setup weighs?
 

adventurebuddies

Adventurer
Very nice! I can attest that the fridge in the vehicle is nicer than having it in the trailer. That way the fridge and your food is with you wherever you go, and when at camp the fridge is no more than a few steps away.

Curious if you know how much the setup weighs?

I never actually weighed it, but the Land Cruiser 80 had no problem towing it on trails. That's not a very strong engine so I never felt like the trailer was too heavy. It would feel really light for anyone with a V8 or even a modern V6.
 

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