Finally getting it together

[SamM]

navy jay,
Next week, I plan to be heavily into my suspension fabrication. The 2" steel axle just makes it easier for me to square everything and it should make the trailer stronger overall. There is not much steel on my trailer, so there is no issue with that. I want to be able to haul any load imaginable.

Here's a picture of it with a new MOPAR Winter wheel.

SamM

 

[navy jay]

Man, that frame is really nice! I would assume that it has a bolt on bed and you'll be moding that? I hear what you're saying about using the 2" tube to help square things up. Not that it was terribly difficult to get things together, but I think I would have felt more comfortable with the tube to help with the alignment. In the end I think it all worked out (although I still haven't had it out on the pavement yet!). I'll have to wait on the tires to show up so on Wed to see how it all turned out. No one in my area carries the size BFG KM2 I use, so I went and ordered them online. All of the places I called either had none or one. Guess I could've taken the rims to 2 different places...oh well. I did get the hubs and electric brakes mounted today and tomorrow or monday will be the hitch. Sam, I'd love to see some pics of your suspension when its mounted.

 

[SamM]

I have a thread here on Expedition Portal. It's on the third page now, I think. You'll see it listed as as Schutt Industries 1 1/2 ton Adventure Trailer Build. I'll post pictures there, so I don't hijack other threads.

The Schutt trailer does not have a bolt-on box but I will be making one for it. The trailer is an LQG and carried a generator for the US Army. It just had aluminum bodywork bolted to the frame. All that was removed along with the 4200 lb. axle. Way overkill for my use. All my addition systems will be in the trailer, this way my daily driver Jeep is untouched and lighter. Plus, it's a 2-door. I don't want shelves, drawers, refrigerators, etc. cluttering it up. There is no room for that anyway.

SamM

 

[navy jay]

Jah310, thanks for the encouragement man!

Sam, that is a beefy looking frame. I do like the addition of the tractor as well! Nice acquisition!

Well, I was going to try and wait until I had a chance to pull the trailer (see if it tracked straight) before I started adding the rest of the body frame, but the tires were taking a bit too long. Apparently 285/70R/17 are had to get items. The first company I ordered them from had said they were in stock and be delivered in 3-5 days. As I checked the order sheet it said the tires weren't going to ship until the 23rd of May...so much for being in stock. I cancelled that order and ordered them elsewhere. They should be here tomorrow, but I didn't want to wait that long and decided to keep going. I managed to get a lot of the sides and top complete today and most of the bottom tubing in place as well. I have a couple of welds to go on the bottom, but was a bit worried that the frame was getting too hot so I stopped for the day (I had heard a couple of loud bangs and got worried that I had blown some of the welds, but I couldn't find anything a miss.) I'll finish the bottom railing tomorrow and start on the frames for the side boxes. I decided to cut down on the dimensions of the side boxes (down to 24" from 30") so that I could keep the middle spars somewhat uniform in spacing. Progress is a little slower than I expected, but I'm hoping to have her done by the end of May...just in time for some beach and trail camping!

 

[MROONFJ]

Looking great man. One thing you might look for is flex and twist in the tongue past the reinforced portion toward the hitch. I had to address that on mine. Keep it up!

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[navy jay]

MROON, that was the one thing I was concerned with as well when I started and I appreciate you mentioning your lessons learned. I upped the wall thickness to 1/4" rather than the 1/8" that I originally had planned. What wall do you have with your current setup? How did you overcome the flex and twist if you don't mind me asking? Might be something I can do now rather than when the thing is all together. Thanks!

 

[navy jay]

Well, tire were mounted this morning and I finally got a chance to pull it around the block. I noticed that the right tire is cambered out a bit, while the left is virtually level. I took it for a drive and it seemed very stable behind the vehicle (I was only doing 25mph though). When I followed behind while my wife drove it I noticed an ever so slight pull to the right side of the truck. Nothing huge, but I'm wondering if the camber on the right side had to do with that. I tried to level it when I got back with some shims, but I'm not sure how much it helped. I'm going to try and pull it around again later this afternoon so I can see if it improved anything. Anyone see any large side effects to the camber being a bit off other than uneven wear on the tire/tread? Here are some pics of it hooked up.




Ok, I lied. Having trouble uploading more. Will try to get some pics after the second run today.

Figured out "the glitch"
So, crawling on the garage floor I noticed that the driver side tire was vertical to slightly neg cambered. This drew me to the whole assembly which appears to be uneven in the mounting. About an 1/8" of an inch out of level. So, it's either use a 2" square tube between the assemblies to level the driver side or just use a shim to level it out on the frame. Not sure which would be better, but leaning towards the tube.

 

[MROONFJ]

Navy Jay, I used an I-beam for my center piece. You can kind of see it in this pic from the start of my build. The young length looks short but it tracks exactly with my tow vehicle. Yours is looking great!

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[navy jay]

Thanks man. I like the idea of the I beam for the tongue. I can imagine that having it track right along with the FJ makes it a ton easier on the trail! Right now the length of the tongue allows me to fully open the rear door of the FJ and still have room for a 16" tongue box. I was thinking of taking it down an inch or so, but I'm thinking I can live with it the way it is. I'm in the process of getting some new steel cut to redo the suspension and get everything leveled out. Adds a couple of days, but decreases the number of nights worrying about whether it will hold up during an outing!