Expo-Lite

[REasley]

WildSide
I gave that some thought. I could build mounts that bolt onto the brake backing plates, but that is alot of mass attached narrowly to the axle and only from one side, unlike a motorcycle which has mounting points on both sides of the wheel. Without the benefit of suspension to soften the imapcts, I am afraid that no matter how sturdily I built them, they would have a short life.

 

[ntsqd]

Spacing the boxes up off the frame or moving the spring mounting points down from the frame sound like your two options for more tire travel.
Any idea what the spring rate of the springs is? Could be that you'll just want to install some bumpstops.

"Cycle fenders" are a frequent feature of some older sports cars, particularly British for some reason; and on some hot rods.

 

[REasley]

The springs are the rears from my Suzuki. The whole vehicle weighs only 2500 lbs, so these springs should be 700 - 900 lb springs, maybe more. They were rock hard on the Zook, which is why they are no longer on the zook. Of course on my lite weight trailer they may not flex much. Perhaps I will throw 6 or 700 lbs on the frame, take it down the road and measure the travel. 3" of travel might be enough, but 4 could be destructive.

I think I may opt for the 2" tube option. That would be easiest at his point in the build.

 

[REasley]

Finally back to work on this thing
Two of the boxes are mounted and I've started the plumbing and the wiring.



The last box will go on once all the plumbing is in and tested.

The 3/4" line is fill, the 1/2" is suction and the 1/4" is vent.

 

[Cody1771]

wow thats amazing. i just read through the whole thread and you have some serious tallent. i can honestly say im jelous

 

[REasley]

Getting close to finished...

All of the boxes are mounted, the fenders are on and the wiring is just about finished.

The middle light was to be a third brake light, but it's got to go. The desire to have the light has been superseded by the reality of the turn signal/brake combo.

The wiring turned out to be more complex than originally envisioned. It started out as, run a few wires here and a few there and, whoops, I gotta have fuses and pretty soon you need a road map. The cute lavender relay is to allow the vehicle back up light to function on the trailer, but still have an independent light in the rear.


The switches on the side of the box control the pump, the interior lights and the rear light. And yes they are weatherproof.

 

[Donsfast]

Great trailer!! I like that it locks up from what I can see which is something I dont like about my little flatbed trailer.

 

[REasley]

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything on my trailer. I lost a week to changing out the gearing in the Zook’s transfer case. I had the thing in and out three times before I got it right. So I’ve been under the gun trying to finish it enough to be road worthy for our trip to Utah and this is a busy time for me at work. We were originally scheduled to leave a week ago Sunday, but Tuesday morning I welded up the mounting brackets for the fuel jugs and we were off.

We found out very quickly that the Suzuki was never designed to do this. We started at 1500’ and climbed to 9680’ to get over the Sierras. The last ten miles of the grade are incredibly steep. At one point for about 1000’ I was down to first gear. The zook is getting a heart/lung transplant! This years bonus check is gettting me a VW TDI engine. Out on the flats in Nevada it did fine, but the grades were slowwww. Both on and off road it handles great. The trailer seems to smooth out the washboards better than the Zook. Off road the Zook pulls it with no problems, thanks to the new gearing. I do get some occasional rattle from the slop in the hitch (oh boy something to work on).

My wife loves this thing. Like any sensible creature she had her doubts during the construction phase, but is now sold on the concept. The second night out we stopped at a campground in Zion and she was like a proud parent when a steady stream of campers came by to see and ask about the trailer.

She particularly likes the rear sink set up. The concept is barrowed from the retail shelving industry. The rail across the back is 1” sq tubing with a 3/8” clearance hole drilled on 1” centers. 3/8” rod is cut and bent to drop into the holes and a small piece of 1” x 1” angle is welded on to hold the rod up against the tube. This holds the sink tub and drying rack as well as the trash bag. All of the components break down for storage. The wood front piece was just shop scrap and will be replaced by a piece of ½ “ poly. The faucet is located just above the tub


We are still one the road with this thing. In fact it’s 3 am. I can’t sleep and we are in a motel room in Escalante waiting for a storm to blow over.

I will post more when I have a connection.

 

[oldcase]

Very nice build.

 

[SAR Jeepster]

Nice trailer build I like the sink area:sombrero:

 

[REasley]

The shake down trip finished up at 1740 miles. While the trailer handled great, it was pretty sensitive to how it was loaded.You knew right away if it was loaded too far back. Extending the tongue should help with the weight distribution. It did impact the Zook's mileage. It dropped from 30 to 24 mpg. The conversion to diesel will help.

Since we were out by ourselves we did not try anything too challenging. This is on the trail out of the Copper Globe Mine in the San Rafael Swell.




We came across this beauty at Goblin Valley. Belong to anyone here?

 

[TruckCentral]

Very nice build. In the early stages you had a list of parts. At the end of the build is that still pretty acurate? As with the final price.. I would like to do something like this to pull behind an XJ.. I have a family of 5 so the interior of the XJ will be mostly ocuppied with kiddos.. roof racks will have some stuff stowed but the idea of all the camping gear in a lockable trailer parked in the driveway waiting for the weekend is awesome. Again.. very nice job.. :clapsmile

 

[ccarm]

View attachment 33608

I really like this tail light setup. Really clean and out of the way.

 

[REasley]

The list is fairly accurate. I made a few changes along the way, but the cost was close. The original estimate was 3217.27 and it came in at 3321.57. The biggest expense were the boxes at a little over $1200. You could do it with off the shelf boxes for 200 to 300 less.

This was a trip to the Sweetwater Mountains on the CA/NV border

 

[stevec]

Just reread this - it is one of my favorite trailer builds (probably since I'm a Zuk nut!)

Did you see what the final weight ended up being? Just curious.