GR8ADV
Explorer
+1 on the actuators. Even putting the visuals aside, just makes sense to me.
.
Great job you two.
AND YET AGAIN: Paul and Mike Try to Build a Hard-Sided Do-It-All ADV Trailer
- Thread starter mhiscox
- Start date
+1 on the actuators. Even putting the visuals aside, just makes sense to me.
.
Great job you two.
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
A reasonable request, though perhaps less exciting than you may think. I'll see if I can rope the next person to wander by into working the camera.
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Well, the family videographers went to the Coast for the weekend and, besides, Portland is the capital of stop motion animation, so I decided that I could get some photos that would accomplish the goal of showing how things go up and down.
Let's start with the walls down, as it would be for towing on the highway:
First, lower the trailer's short rear gate:
Open the doors, stand on the step, and then raise one sidewall, holding it vertical with the cedar holding block:
Now there's enough space to climb inside and raise the other wall:
Then go to the front and drop the front panel, held by two blocks:
Then go to the back and drop one upper door and attach to the door frame:
Then go to the other side and drop that door, fastening it to the door frame:
All done with the panels and ready for occupany:
Total elapsed time--A little under two minutes:
Of course, there may be time added in the future based on what's done regarding added sealing to close the gaps. It may be just a matter of attaching something flexible to the panels, which wouldn't take any additional time, but there could be some pieces that have to be moved into place.
It also doesn't count raising the tent, but it turns out that the headroom, even with the tent down, is better than 6'-6", so unless you are going to sleep someone up there, there's no need to put it up. And I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of storage available around the edges of the tent cutout. The Autohome's fabric doesn't take as much space as I thought and there's plenty of room to fit things. (I'm guess I'm probably one of few people to know what the inside of a closed Autohome tent looks like,)
Regardless, the current setup is remarkably quick at getting you some shelter. While the tall form factor makes it look goofy, there's no waiting around for the roof to go up or any reason to stand outside in the rain to deploy parts of the shelter. I'm admittedly leaning toward adding the actuators, but the ability to set up this design so quickly while standing inside is worth something.
When it's time to travel, everything is just reversed. It took under two minutes to have the panels dropped and secured (not counting packing up the tent, if used).
PaulJensen
Custom Builder
Looks badasss at your place...
Yeah, video the simplicity of of your design...
Confusion to our enemies...!!M....
Yeah, video the simplicity of of your design...
Confusion to our enemies...!!M....
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
The tent hangs in the air for now, but we didn't do anything to make it difficult to add 12V linear actuators to the corners. If I do that, the tent platform can snuggle down to pretty much the level of the tops of the side pods and collapsed side walls.
Ford Prefect
Expedition Leader
Two things I notice.
The trailer (sands roof and RTT) is nearly taller than your suv. Add in the roof and rtt, even lowered down, it is still taller than the truck. It seems like down would be superior for use off road as well. I pulled a trailer built by Adventure Trailer, with a similar RTT on the top, and it was rather taller than my old lifted Grand Cherokee. It beat me up on fuel economy owing to the extra drag it placed on the vehicle. Then again I suspect you are more accustomed to the less than desired fuel economy rates in at least one of your vehicles...
Over all it looks great Mike. I think this concept serves very well for a living situation that is primarily intended for outdoor living. Do you think you will consider making the original trailer compartments accessible from the interior?
Oh, and I was going to mention, a nice swath of grip tape along the inside of the original tailgate should make for a nice step in the rainy seasons.
Congrats on a great build Mike.
The trailer (sands roof and RTT) is nearly taller than your suv. Add in the roof and rtt, even lowered down, it is still taller than the truck. It seems like down would be superior for use off road as well. I pulled a trailer built by Adventure Trailer, with a similar RTT on the top, and it was rather taller than my old lifted Grand Cherokee. It beat me up on fuel economy owing to the extra drag it placed on the vehicle. Then again I suspect you are more accustomed to the less than desired fuel economy rates in at least one of your vehicles...
Over all it looks great Mike. I think this concept serves very well for a living situation that is primarily intended for outdoor living. Do you think you will consider making the original trailer compartments accessible from the interior?
Oh, and I was going to mention, a nice swath of grip tape along the inside of the original tailgate should make for a nice step in the rainy seasons.
Congrats on a great build Mike.
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
It's about 9 feet tall as is sits with clearance for the two foot tall sidewalls, so if the tent sat on them, it'll still be seven feet tall. Not the best result, but unavoidable. The combination of the trailer floor being about 30 inches off the ground and the big side compartments made the the top of the stock trailer nearly five feet off the ground. Pretty much a case of good ground clearance and big-time storage resulting in a tall trailer even before the stand-up headroom requirement is involved.
It was only a 100 mile trip, but when towing the trailer back from Paul's, the Sequoia mpg went from 16.5 to 14.5 according to the vehicle computer. If that result is accurate and representative, I'd be pretty pleased with it. And nothing about the trailer handling suggested the tent/platform were causing much of an aerodynamic issue.
Let's be honest, though . . . the odds are pretty good that something will be done to get the height-during-transport reduced. I'm suspect I'll be spending money to solve pretty minor problems, but most everyone (me included) thinks it looks weird traveling this way. Other ADV trailers, like an Xventure
credit: Gizmag.com
can get away with having the tent perched above the bed, but our trailer has much taller sidewalls and then adds another foot with the top pods, so the tent is much further up in the air.
They'll be a ton of stuff--water, propane, all kinds of electrical--where the components will be in the compartments and passed through the wall into the interior. But since there'll be a lot of storage available inside the enclosed section, I'm not expecting to make any sizable access holes into the compartments, which are pretty much dedicated to the systems and storage of things used from the exterior.
I appreciate the compliment.