When I first started dreaming of this project, my original goal was to make a little teardrop trailer with a bed inside and the kitchen out the back. My wife and I didn’t mind the tent camping, but it always rained on us and getting water in the tent was inevitable.
We were also camping from a 2008 Ford Ranger, so every time we left the campsite and every night, we would need to put the cooler and food bins into the cab. The next morning, out seats would be wet and muddy from the bins sitting on them.
Then, when the wife got pregnant, we knew that a teardrop wouldn’t work for us. That’s when our attention turned to more of an expedition style trailer with a RTT that we could fit both of us and a couple kids.
I found this frame and was very happy because I should have been able to make the trailer light enough that it could be pulled by both my Ranger and the wife’s Ford Escape. Since the Ranger won’t hold a car seat with the sideways jump seats in the back, we would need to take the Escape on any family trips. The original hubs were also the same bolt pattern and offset as the two vehicles, so we wouldn’t need to carry a separate spare.
The rims that came on the trailer were fairly rusty, and the tires were very sun cracked and almost completely bald. My wife got a sidewall puncture in one of her tires with about 20% tread left. She decided to replace all 4, so two if the old ones got recommissioned for the trailer.
Shortly after that, I traded in the Ranger for a really good deal on a 2016 Nissan Frontier, and then the transmission went in the Escape. Now the Frontier is the tow vehicle, and its pulls very nicely, but we no longer have the ability to use the vehicle spare.
More pics and info to come when I get a chance to resize them.
