Albertan Trailer

[ert01]

So this is my quick write-up on the trailer I built this summer. This forum has been a huge insight for me and pointed me in the right direction time and time again so I figured I'd post up the final product.



The goal:
My wife and I were heading on a trip this fall from our home near Edmonton, Alberta down to Colorado and Utah. We had 5 weeks for our trip and we planned to stay away from civilization as much as possible.

I drive a Jeep Cherokee on 31's and a bunch of other stuff... I could go into detail, but this is about the trailer, not the Jeep.

We wanted a trailer to carry our RTT (ARB simpson 3), our gas, our tools/parts and some of our camping gear. Our fridge/clothes etc were going to stay in the Jeep. Basically just keep the stinky/dirty parts out of the Jeep and keep the weight in the trailer as much as possible.



The Design:
I borrowed from the BoxRocket thread for some basic dimension and steel choices...

Main frame is 2.5x2.5x0.125
Drawbar is 2.5x2.5x0.1875
Uprights/lid frame are 1.5x1.5x0.060
Top bar is 3x1.5x0.100

Sides are made from stained/waterproofed pine held onto the uprights by 1/4" hardware and nutserts.

Lid struts are from a late 90's Dodge Caravan

Front lid hinges are from Ruffstuff Specialties

Rear Tailgate hinges are fabbed from stock Jeep JK swaybar ends... I cut the rubber bushing end off the swaybar link and welded the square tube to it.

Leaf springs are 2" lift front springs from a Jeep CJ.

Shackles are stock Cherokee shackles. I pln to replace them with somethign a bit longer in the future.

Axle is a 3500lb with electric brakes. Same width as my XJ wheelbase.

Wheels are stock XJ aluminum wheels. I had to hog out the center hole to fit the axle. It was actually pretty easy with a hole saw and a bit of tidying with an aluminum bit in an electric rotary tool.

Tires are 31x10.5R15's BFG AT's just like on my XJ.

The lid has some LED lights wired onto it. There is also a 300W inverter wired up in the trailer and a 12V socket.



Afterthoughts:
After pulling this trailer for thousands of miles on and offroad I am very very happy with it's capabilities. The clearance is better then my XJ, I can jack-knife the trailer to more then 90 degrees which is incredibly handy on the trail.

I would love to have had the time to put shocks on it before the trip but I didn't have time. I will definately put some on before the next trip.

The balance point is almost dead center... I figured if I packed with the weight at the front, that it would be ok, but it's still too far forward. The trailer swayed a bit on the highway even with the RTT at the front and 3 - 20L gas cans and 2 - 20L water cans at the front of the trailer. Would like to move the axle back maybe 4" or so.

The lift struts worked wonderfully. I can lift the lid with the tent open on it and they hold the lid open well even in windy weather. No fears of it coming down on me ever.

I love the Max Coupler. It has a couple little rattles and clunks by design but much less then a standard pintle and it has WAY more articulation then a ball. I love this setup. Best spent money on the trailer by far.a



Pictures:
We're still actually on our trip... we're in Vegas right now and we still won't be back home for another 2 weeks so I only have some pics from our trip. I will post more detailed pics of the hinges, struts etc... when I have time.

Feel free to post your comments/critiques... I'm always open to new ideas and I know this trailer still has a lot of work to go into it. I plan to mount the spare under the tub over the axle in the future.

 

[chardur]

Very cool build. You should post more pics if you have some.

Regarding the max coupler: do you have any concern that the trailer will flop over accidently or does it seem to track well with the vehicle? Im considering the max vs a lock'n'roll with the limiter to prevent flops.

Also any downside to the longer tongue? You mentioned you can jack knife but did the length seem to inhibit offroad ability at all?

Thanks for the write-up

 

[Tacoma4life]

Very cool build. I would love to build somthing like yours, but it just wont fit the family. Nice work!

 

[ert01]

Very cool build. You should post more pics if you have some.

Regarding the max coupler: do you have any concern that the trailer will flop over accidently or does it seem to track well with the vehicle? Im considering the max vs a lock'n'roll with the limiter to prevent flops.

Also any downside to the longer tongue? You mentioned you can jack knife but did the length seem to inhibit offroad ability at all?

Thanks for the write-up

I'll get more pics up as I have time/internet capability.

I was a little concerned initially about the trailer tipping, but I took it through some pretty hairy stuff and I found I was more worried about my Jeep then the trailer in the end. The COG and rollover point on the trailer seems to be lower then my Jeep so now I have no worries at all about it. It went everywhere my Jeep did and it did it with ease. I was quite impressed.

The longer tongue worked out pretty well too. The only time it was noticeable was on a tight corner with an obstacle on the inside of the corner because the trailer would want to take the corner a few inches tighter then the Jeep. I never found it to be an issue though because there was always a little bit of wiggle room on the trail and I could get my Jeep as wide as possible. I could shorten the tongue to help a bit but I will not sacrifice the jack-knife ability... it came in handy in WAYYY too many scenarios to count.



Thanks for the comments guys. More detailed pics to come.

 

[Titanpat57]

Great build and pics!

Thank you for sharing!

Keep a list or log of little changes you may want to make once you get back



Best of luck on your trip...be safe!!

Pat

 

[Hootowl]

"...The balance point is almost dead center... I figured if I packed with the weight at the front, that it would be ok, but it's still too far forward. The trailer swayed a bit on the highway even with the RTT at the front and 3 - 20L gas cans and 2 - 20L water cans at the front of the trailer. Would like to move the axle back maybe 4" or so..."

Yep, definately figger out the best way get more tongue weight as this falls into the safety issue catagory. Having a light trailer tongue can definately get spooky as you may have discovered. Moving the axle back as you described sounds like the best technical solution. Alternatively, you could go over your gear loading plan again to get more heavy stuff loaded forward of the axle. Especially, consider what you could load on the tounge. For example; your refrigerator, a water tank, battery, box for tools and miscelaneous heavy stuff, etc.

I fouled up loading a double axle trailer once and got the tongue too light. Scared the crap out of me when I got a sway going at highway speed. Had to radically slow down my max speed to below the sway point and that definately extended my time on the highway when covering 1500 miles.

 

[ert01]

Yep, definately figger out the best way get more tongue weight as this falls into the safety issue catagory. Having a light trailer tongue can definately get spooky as you may have discovered. Moving the axle back as you described sounds like the best technical solution. Alternatively, you could go over your gear loading plan again to get more heavy stuff loaded forward of the axle. Especially, consider what you could load on the tounge. For example; your refrigerator, a water tank, battery, box for tools and miscelaneous heavy stuff, etc.

I fouled up loading a double axle trailer once and got the tongue too light. Scared the crap out of me when I got a sway going at highway speed. Had to radically slow down my max speed to below the sway point and that definately extended my time on the highway when covering 1500 miles.

Yeah it isn't too bad right now... just a barely visible sway that I can see in my rearview mirror if I look closely enough. You don't feel it in the vehicle at all right now. The weight is packed as much forward as possible right now so I will move the axle when I get home just to finish it off. I'd hate to have put this much time into a trailer to have it bug me with that little sway

 

[ert01]

More Pics:

1)Max Coupler
2)Front Lid Hinge
3)Front Lid Hinge
4)Tailgate Hinge/Cable
5)Tabs for locking it all up
6)Inside of the lid (notice the wiring, the clothesline for our washcloths, the LED lights)
7)Electrical - Earlier I said it had a 300 in it but I forgot I put the 300W in the Jeep and the 175W in the trailer.
8)Tailgate - You can't tell from the pic, but the LED's shine right onto the tailgate nicely.
9)More Electrical Detail - light switch and 12V receptacle
10)Another tailgate detail

 

[indiedog]

Nice trailer. Good to see a different approach. Where did you get your tailgate cable stays from? Are they off another vehicle? I haven't found a proprietary item as yet for new stays.

 

[ert01]

The cables are from a late 90's Dodge 1500 truck but to fasten them to the trailer I used a 1/2" piece of rod for the shaft and welded a 3/8" flat washer to it. A little grinding with the flap wheel got em smooth. They actually worked out better then I had hoped, but they're not easily replaceable as I'd need to cut them to get them off the tailgate side.