1973 Wagoneer - Full Size Camping Goodness

[Dr. Marneaus]

Busy weekend, but things are coming together.

This is the first fabrication project i have ever worked on, and am being guided by a friend. I've probably done about 75% of the welds, a ton of the cutting, both with saw and plasma, etc. The welds are ugly, but i have been assured they should be plenty strong.

I decided to keep it simple, and go with a static rack, not an adjustable height. I know this offers some drawbacks, but given the type of wheeling that I do and the fact that we still arent 100% sure the RTT idea is going to be right for us, i decided on simplicity and low cost.

We measured up for the floor of the tent to be right about 6'2" off the ground. This should be ideal for the annex, with several inches of wiggle room either up or down. The main disadvantage here is having a 200 pound tent 6' up in the air. If I'm not mistaken, this puts the tent height at 32" above the lip of the trailer. I will definitely be testing it out before taking it anywhere crazy. But i believe with proper loading (keeping a good bit of tongue weight) it should be plenty stable.

At any given time its being towed it will be loaded with at least 300-400 lbs of crap....10 gallons of water, 5-10 gallons of gas, spare wheel/tire, RTIC cooler full of food, a second cooler full of beer, battery, tongue box, chuck box full of stove/kitchen gear, Propane tank, fire wood, yadda yadda. I may even eventually have the water tank mounted under the trailer, further lowering the COG.

Anyway. 2" angle iron for corner brackets, 1 1/2" square tube for everything else, and then some plate gussets. Even just clamped in place its SOLID. Rocks the whole trailer when you try to move it. I have zero concern about the stability of the rack.

Also, the front and back corners were left high in order to provide a bit of a guard for the tent. I'm not sure what we will do for the final height, we left them long so they could go as high as the tent when closed, or we can lower them a bit. Either way, all we have left to do is run the 2 cross bars for the tent to mount to, then run the 2 end "loop" cross bars and cut to the right height. And that's all she wrote!


The 10* inward lean is nice thus far because it keeps the upper bar away from my head and whatnot when reaching in and lifting bins or gear out of the trailer.

Untitled by Marn, on Flickr
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr

 

[CRolandLJ]

looks great!

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

Well. Its almost done.

Got everything mounted. Decided to forego the front cross bar, and opted instead to mount the tent as far forward as possible to add some tongue weight. In the back we just did about an 8" raised cross bar in case I wanted to toss anything up there. Also just finished it off a little nicer.

Threw the tent on top, and the rack is pretty damn solid. I cannot see or detect any flex in it at this juncture, it just rocks the suspension of the trailer. we'll see how stiff it feels once the trailer is loaded down. It pulled home (10+ miles) just fine, I didn't take any corners fast or anything because it was empty and therefore top heavy. I had it up to around 50mph, and it pulled 100% normal.

The tent is just above roof line, almost exactly the height as if it were mounted to a rack on the vehicle.

Yay, now my trailer/tent combo is worth more money than my friggin' truck.
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr

Got it home and set up up the next day, easy enough to set up, stable enough as is, but I have some legs for the rear of the trailer on their way to me. The height is about perfect.
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr

 

[1979bettywhite]

Nice work! Very jealous that you are learning to fabricate with a good teacher. I may be doing that myself soon as well. Does the trailer still have a parking brake set up on it? Might be something to get operational, or throw some wheel chocks in for when you disconnect it from the Jeep at camp. Also, if you threw some cross bars on three sides (leaving the rear fully open), it might give you some more space to mount anything, as well as some good lashing points etc. Would also add to the rigidity. But looks great so far!

Just got my roof rack installed on the Chief, plan on having the RTT up there. With 4" of lift, I will probably be at 6'7"+ height.

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

More work done. Painted the rack, added some bubble levels.

Added stabilizer jacks under the rear to make sure it doesnt go tippy tippy backwards. I can jump up and down in the back now and no issues.

Picked up some lvelling blocks so I can get it pretty close to level in every direction. also makes it easy to level the front using the stock landing gear. Looked briefly into adjustable landing gear but said nah.

Picked up the most sturdy bin I could find. Looked at sportsmans, cabelas, and home depot. All the stuff by plano was flimsy. This thing is solid as a rock. I can sit on it and it doesnt bow. Plenty of locking points to keep honest people honest, and will allow me to store my smaller gear securely when we are away from the trailer for the day.

Last thing I need to do before the first trip this weekend is mount up the spare tire in the front. Have a rack designed, but havent built it yet. Should be easy peasy.

Untitled by Marn, on Flickr
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr

Untitled by Marn, on Flickr

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

First time dragging it behind the wag. The damn pintle hitch is too long, had to add a few extensions to the chains, same situation as the hitch on my F250 because the dealer supplied bumper extends way out. Either way, towed fine, its a little clunky. Trailer still needs some more tongue weight. I'll be fabbing up a spare tire mount next week, that will go in front of the tub, and will likely mount a battery and box up there as well.

Untitled by Marn, on Flickr
Untitled by Marn, on Flickr

 

[corndogduff]

Feel free to drag that trailer up here to Utah and leave it in my driveway.

-Duff

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

Feel free to drag that trailer up here to Utah and leave it in my driveway.

-Duff

Will do. $5000 delivered. Add another $6000 and I'll leave the jeep too.

 

[1979bettywhite]

$6k for the Jeep!?!? Come on man, it's worth way more than that

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

$6k for the Jeep!?!? Come on man, it's worth way more than that

Then you'd be a fool not to offer me $6000 and scoop it up right now, wouldnt you?

 

[corndogduff]

Will do. $5000 delivered. Add another $6000 and I'll leave the jeep too.

After, what, 10+ years of listening to your marning about, this is how you wanna do me?

I've got 3 dollars and a rusty Comanche. Deal? I'll even trailer it out to Elko. Meet in the middle.

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

After, what, 10+ years of listening to your marning about, this is how you wanna do me?

I've got 3 dollars and a rusty Comanche. Deal? I'll even trailer it out to Elko. Meet in the middle.

Yes, I do wanna give you an awesome deal on one of the most recognizable FSJ's from the interweb! Thats how I wanna do you!

 

[corndogduff]

Yes, I do wanna give you an awesome deal on one of the most recognizable FSJ's from the interweb! Thats how I wanna do you!

You want to do me in your FSJ? That's pretty cool.

What really happened here was I read the whole thread over the last couple days and my dumb self FINALLY made the connection of who it was. I blame this on JF induced brain damage.

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

You want to do me in your FSJ? That's pretty cool.

What really happened here was I read the whole thread over the last couple days and my dumb self FINALLY made the connection of who it was. I blame this on JF induced brain damage.

But I have the same name and everything.....

 

[corndogduff]

But I have the same name and everything.....

Yep. Still didn't click. Even when mindlessly scrolling through looking at pictures. Then again, at this point I'm more familiar with your real name than the forum name. It's been a while since I've crawled the forums.