cool, thanks. that is a close enough estimate for me.
i hope this comes to market, would be a great little thing to pull behind my montero.
Bolt-together fiberglass Jeep-tub trailer kit
- Thread starter jscherb
- Start date
cool, thanks. that is a close enough estimate for me.
i hope this comes to market, would be a great little thing to pull behind my montero.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Stay tuned, I hope to be able to post some news soon
.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
I'm pleased to announce that an agreement is in place with a company to market the trailer tub kits. I've been talking with this company for about a month now, and I'm very impressed with them. The tub kits are a perfect fit for their strategy and their expertise. The owner of the company has lots of great ideas for the kits, his experience can add a lot of value to the further development of options and variations of the tub kit product line. He's already come up with some great ideas to improve the modularity and upgradeability of the kit.
They tell me they're targeting the week of January 12 to make an announcement.
My next step is to mold a set of parts to their specifications so they can use those parts to make their production molds. From what I've seen so far, I believe they'll be on a fast track to get the products to market.
Thanks to everyone for your support of this project and your great input - your input has helped make this a product the company is looking forward to bringing to market.
They tell me they're targeting the week of January 12 to make an announcement.
My next step is to mold a set of parts to their specifications so they can use those parts to make their production molds. From what I've seen so far, I believe they'll be on a fast track to get the products to market.
Thanks to everyone for your support of this project and your great input - your input has helped make this a product the company is looking forward to bringing to market.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Before I can begin work on the next project, I need to mold trailer tub parts for the company to use in making their production molds. Then I need to deliver the parts to them, which is a loooong road trip. The combination of those two, plus a few other personal commitments, will take me through the end of January.
When all that's done, in early February, I'll start the next project. Don't really want to divert this thread by talking about it here.
:wings:
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Since the beginning of this project, I've contemplated making smaller inner fenders for those who might want to use either the original small HF tires/wheels, or perhaps somehwat larger trailer tires/wheels that might not look right in a huge TJ wheel arch. You don't really want to put the small HF tires in a huge TJ wheel arch:
I'm now in the process of making a master to mold new smaller inner fenders - I'm doing this is at the request of "the company" and I'm implementing it using an idea they had. Their idea was that if the smaller inner fender is sized and shaped correctly, if you were building on a budget, you could initially build the trailer with the small inner fender to use the original HF tires, and then later you could upgrade to the larger inner fenders when you could afford larger tires.
To make this work, the inner fender has to "nest" inside the TJ wheel arch. See the photo below, the smaller inner fender fits inside the TJ wheel arch, allowing for a 1.25" mounting flange on the smaller fender (the flange isn't on the master yet).
So if you had the side panels with the small inner fenders attached, and you wanted to upgrade your trailer to the larger TJ wheel openings/flares, you'd just cut out the old small inner fender along the TJ wheel opening line, install the new inner fender, TJ flares and larger tires.
It's a really good idea and an example of the type of creative thinking I'm hearing from "the company."
Here's a shot showing the new inner fender master compared to the old inner fender mold, just to show the size difference. The small inner fender is about 28.5" radius, so it would fit up to say 205/75-15 or perhaps 215/75-15, as well as looking decent with the 5.30x12 HF tires.
And here's a few photos of the master a little further along, the fillets are done and the sealer is on:
Next step is high-build primer and final block sanding. I'll do the smooth tailgate in high-build at the same time.
I'm now in the process of making a master to mold new smaller inner fenders - I'm doing this is at the request of "the company" and I'm implementing it using an idea they had. Their idea was that if the smaller inner fender is sized and shaped correctly, if you were building on a budget, you could initially build the trailer with the small inner fender to use the original HF tires, and then later you could upgrade to the larger inner fenders when you could afford larger tires.
To make this work, the inner fender has to "nest" inside the TJ wheel arch. See the photo below, the smaller inner fender fits inside the TJ wheel arch, allowing for a 1.25" mounting flange on the smaller fender (the flange isn't on the master yet).
So if you had the side panels with the small inner fenders attached, and you wanted to upgrade your trailer to the larger TJ wheel openings/flares, you'd just cut out the old small inner fender along the TJ wheel opening line, install the new inner fender, TJ flares and larger tires.
It's a really good idea and an example of the type of creative thinking I'm hearing from "the company."
Here's a shot showing the new inner fender master compared to the old inner fender mold, just to show the size difference. The small inner fender is about 28.5" radius, so it would fit up to say 205/75-15 or perhaps 215/75-15, as well as looking decent with the 5.30x12 HF tires.
And here's a few photos of the master a little further along, the fillets are done and the sealer is on:
Next step is high-build primer and final block sanding. I'll do the smooth tailgate in high-build at the same time.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
A trailer-top-tent is being shipped to me so I can do some playing around with mounting a tent on the top of the trailer and on the Safari Cab hardtop...
So here's a little more developed trailer top tent concept - not being a tent/trailer camper myself, I'll need you guys to tell me what's wrong with this concept.
I've put a slide-out kitchen in the design, it's got a stove and a sink. I think a small fridge or cooler could go in the slide-out as well, but haven't drawn that in yet. I've also stacked a removable storage module on top of the main trailer tub, the module has swing-down doors/tables on all four sides. And, since it raises the tent, it allows access to the tongue box. I've stabilized the flip-open part of the tent on the trailer tongue so the entire unit is self-contained.
What did I get wrong/what would you change?
So here's a little more developed trailer top tent concept - not being a tent/trailer camper myself, I'll need you guys to tell me what's wrong with this concept.
I've put a slide-out kitchen in the design, it's got a stove and a sink. I think a small fridge or cooler could go in the slide-out as well, but haven't drawn that in yet. I've also stacked a removable storage module on top of the main trailer tub, the module has swing-down doors/tables on all four sides. And, since it raises the tent, it allows access to the tongue box. I've stabilized the flip-open part of the tent on the trailer tongue so the entire unit is self-contained.
What did I get wrong/what would you change?
jeepdreamer
Expedition Leader
Stabilizers...
JS... You'll want to add some stabilizers to the back of the trailer so it doesn't tip over/up when the drawer is pulled out or people are climbing in/out of the tent.
JS... You'll want to add some stabilizers to the back of the trailer so it doesn't tip over/up when the drawer is pulled out or people are climbing in/out of the tent.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
JS... You'll want to add some stabilizers to the back of the trailer so it doesn't tip over/up when the drawer is pulled out or people are climbing in/out of the tent.
Yes, that's already in the plan. Since the trailer has a rear receiver, I'm thinking of something that plugs in there. That way it isn't permanently mounted taking up ground clearance.
wjeeper
Active member
snip*
What did I get wrong/what would you change?
I like the idea. Cut my Jeep in half and you more or less have the same set up, albeit not as tall. Which I think is a good thing in the wind, although you cant have a changing room. I gave up on my changing room. It took too long to set up, flapped in the wind and I hardly ever used it.
I have similar slide out kitchen and storage and it works really well for my needs:
One suggestion would be to make the sides of the slide-out taller. I like being able to just toss loose gear in there and it stay in place.
All this gear...
...plus all the dry goods and cans needed for a week of traveling fit easily in there.
As has been mentioned a stabilizer would probably be needed in the rear, but looks like you have that under control. Another observation is that the scale of the folded tent in the image tent may be a bit smallish. I have a Mombassa/ car-top/ camping lab tent and the RTT takes up the entire roof. Granted my tent is not mounted all the way back on the tub, so depending on which tent you have that observation may be a moot one.
(not the best photo, but shows the scale of the tent on the roof. If I remember right its a medium RTT)
