Miguel Sanchez
Observer
I've been tinkering with building an off-road camping tent trailer for use behind my early Bronco for several months now. It isn't done yet, but I've made enough progress to start a build thread and post a few pictures. First, a shot of my tow vehicle - a 1975 Bronco with countless goodies (lifted, locked, extended radius arms, discs, lots engine work, lined tub, etc):
I wanted to build a trailer that matched the Bronco body lines, but didn't have ready access to a Bronco tub. Knowing the '64 through '66 pickup boxes shared the same lines, I found a '64 F100 LWB donor vehicle on CL. After dragging it home, the bed came off:
To match the size of the Bronco tub, I split the pickup bed lengthwise and narrowed it 9", then shortened it 24" to become a 72" long by 56" wide (inside dimensions) bed:
Previously, I had fabbed up a 2x2 square tube frame with a 3" square tube tongue. I had some old front leaf springs from an F350 Power Stroke laying around, and stripped them down to just the main leaf. After narrowing up a 3,500 lb Dexter axle (with 5x5.5" hubs to match the Bronco), I build spring hangers and put it all together with a set of Wild Horses Gorilla WarFlares like my Bronco. I have since replaced the drop axle with a straight axle for ground clearance and to match the height of the Bronco.
I found a Bronco tailgate, which has the FORD embossed to one side, rather than across the entire width as the truck tailgates are. A bit of slicing/dicing was required to make it all work out, but I got it. I also wanted a hard tonneau cover, above which will be a rack with my CVT RTT. A trip to the wrecking yard with a generator and sheet metal nibbler yielded the entire roof and bows from an '89 Ford van. I built a frame from 3/4" angle, inserted the bows for support, and then skinned it with the van roof:
Still have TONS of work to do, including close off the back of the tonneau, seal the tailgate, install shocks, install my brakes, build a height-adjustable RTT rack, tongue box, articulated hitch coupler, interior lighting and all wiring, stabilizers, rear bumper (original Bronco), strip and paint to match my Bronco, etc...
More updates to come as I get more done. My goal is to have it at least functional, if not totally complete, by early August.
I wanted to build a trailer that matched the Bronco body lines, but didn't have ready access to a Bronco tub. Knowing the '64 through '66 pickup boxes shared the same lines, I found a '64 F100 LWB donor vehicle on CL. After dragging it home, the bed came off:
To match the size of the Bronco tub, I split the pickup bed lengthwise and narrowed it 9", then shortened it 24" to become a 72" long by 56" wide (inside dimensions) bed:
Previously, I had fabbed up a 2x2 square tube frame with a 3" square tube tongue. I had some old front leaf springs from an F350 Power Stroke laying around, and stripped them down to just the main leaf. After narrowing up a 3,500 lb Dexter axle (with 5x5.5" hubs to match the Bronco), I build spring hangers and put it all together with a set of Wild Horses Gorilla WarFlares like my Bronco. I have since replaced the drop axle with a straight axle for ground clearance and to match the height of the Bronco.
I found a Bronco tailgate, which has the FORD embossed to one side, rather than across the entire width as the truck tailgates are. A bit of slicing/dicing was required to make it all work out, but I got it. I also wanted a hard tonneau cover, above which will be a rack with my CVT RTT. A trip to the wrecking yard with a generator and sheet metal nibbler yielded the entire roof and bows from an '89 Ford van. I built a frame from 3/4" angle, inserted the bows for support, and then skinned it with the van roof:
Still have TONS of work to do, including close off the back of the tonneau, seal the tailgate, install shocks, install my brakes, build a height-adjustable RTT rack, tongue box, articulated hitch coupler, interior lighting and all wiring, stabilizers, rear bumper (original Bronco), strip and paint to match my Bronco, etc...
More updates to come as I get more done. My goal is to have it at least functional, if not totally complete, by early August.
