Family Basecamp Utility Trailer (sprint build thread)

[a.boelkins]

I've enjoyed ExPo for many years and gleaned many concepts and ideas from the huge variety of amazing build threads. I don't normally post, but figured a decent build thread would be an appropriate way to pay it back. I hope somebody finds it reasonably worthwhile and thought provoking!

This is a "sprint build" because our first family camping trip is in three weeks. TBD if I can pull this together in that timeframe, but it should keep this thread interesting!

A quick background: My wife and I have always loved the outdoors. Pre-kids, we spent a lot of time in the backcountry, including an extended 3 month road trip through the American West, living in the back of a Toyota Tacoma. Well, we now have three kids 3 years old and younger (there's a set of twins in there!), and are slowly emerging from the fog of the baby stage.

We've had a few trips with the kids, and they've even been relatively successful. We don't mind ground tents (in fact, I think it's a great way to involve the kids), but we do hate packing and unpacking gear every time we want to get outside for a night.

So, over the past two years I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to ease the "hassle factor" of camping with kids and settled on the following trailer characteristics. NOTE: I don't want a dedicated camping trailer. This thing has to do more than just help us camp.

• Small and light enough to tow behind a Honda Odyssey (no overland vehicles in my garage!)
  • Keep it light (<2000 lbs loaded weight)
  • Small footprint. A 4’ wide, 2’ tall, 7’ long main box seems about right
  • Overall width <6’ so it fits through my standard shed doors
  • Quickly remove camping gear so it can be used to haul furniture or yard waste. Must fit a sheet of plywood!
• A highly functional galley to make meal prep easy
  • Full width (4’) tailgate swings open. Inside surface has a fold down table and storage for anything related to food prep (plates, cups, and utensils).
  • Two slide out drawers out the back
    • One is for the fridge/cooler and plastic storage containers
    • Other contains a stove/galley chuck box. This contains the stove and any stove related utensils. Folds open to add more countertop space
      • Easy access to pots, pans, spices, etc. No digging the camp stove out of a plastic bin full of other crap!
  • At least 20 gallons of fresh water.
    • (4) 5 gallon jerry cans is simple and easy. Mount in four corners of the trailer
  • Some sort of awning and bug net over the entire galley area
• Plenty of storage
  • Dual slide out drawers out the back (simple plywood box and plastic runners
  • Side mounted boxes?
• Stabilizing legs on all 4 corners (keep the trailer light enough that these don’t have to be jacks)
  • Unistrut inside of structural steel tubing
• Rear hitch mount for bike rack
• Flexible rack design
  • Allow mounting of basically anything adventure related (canoes, bike, awnings, RTTs, etc)
• Axle less design to maximize ground clearance (Timbren or Flexiride, 2000 lb capacity)
• Weather tight and easily lockable. Minimize exposed things (even though those look cool)
• Adjustable/removable tongue
  • Allows more flexibility when hauling canoes, etc.

It was a fun thing to design in SolidWorks. To understand the concept above, here are a few screenshots:

Cheers,

AB

 

[a.boelkins]

My job at a small manufacturing business gives me access to a nice shop with a Miller MIG gun, some CNC machines, and good saws, but with three kids at home and a full time job, there isn't a ton of extra time in the day to drive all the way back to work to do a personal project.

With this in mind, I bought a used DeWalt abrasive cut-off saw so I could do most of my cuts and prep work at home, then do the welding in a more dedicated evening once all the pieces were ready. This saw is LOUD, but the kids seem to sleep through it.

I bought all of my material at a nice local steel shop that also offers used steel at discounted prices (which helped save some money). I tried to keep the frame pretty simple, but it is a bit unorthodox. The angle brackets shown in the lower corners of the box are laser cut 14 GA steel with 5/16 clearance holes on 6" centers. This will be used to secure the wall and floor panels and create more "unibody" structure (they'll be installed along the top corners of the box as well). The flat piece on centerline in the second pic is the exact same design, but in a "not bent" configuration.

Pieces cut and mocked up on a very uneven garage floor:

 

[a.boelkins]

With steel cut to length, I did my first welding last week. I'm self taught and learning as I do more, although this isn't my first welding project.

The two swing out tailgates are made of 16GA 2"x2", which is pretty thin for my skills. I also tried to do these all with miter corners and found it was critical to minimize any gap between the material to prevent blowing through the steel.

I probably should have bought one of those magnetic squares:


Good weld/bad weld:


Finished sub-weldments of the main trailer frame! The two U-shaped pieces are the front and rear ends of the trailer box. The vertical uprights are 14GA 2"x2" and the cross members are 12GA 1.5"x3". They are notched to accept the receiver tube that runs the entire length of the trailer. The rectangular weldment is the 16GA swing out tail gate (just tacked together in this case).

 

[smike95]

Looks great, subscribed. I see you have the flexiride axles in your design. I have been trying to find anyone with those in stock, but no luck. I too am in the process of building a trailer and was hoping to use the flexiride half axles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[a.boelkins]

Looks great, subscribed. I see you have the flexiride axles in your design. I have been trying to find anyone with those in stock, but no luck. I too am in the process of building a trailer and was hoping to use the flexiride half axles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Eastern Marine just got the 2000lb assembled version in stock two weeks ago: https://www.easternmarine.com/flexiride-torsion-half-axles-ff-200b-2a

For the price, they seem like a great option.

 

[smike95]

That’s good to know. I was hoping to get the 3500 lb axles, but maybe I will go with 2000 lb since they are in stock. I suspect my trailer will finish out to be around 2000. Maybe someone here has a recommendation about running the half axles at or a little over max capacity??

On another note, I see you clamping to a regular framing square. Checkout fireball tool website. I have one of their mega squares. Can’t brag it up enough. Been using it for my build and it is probably the best fabrication tool I have.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[a.boelkins]

That Mega Square is a nice looking tool! Thanks for the recommendation.

Made some progress in the last two days. Used a CNC mill to put 5/8" pin and 3/8-16 weld nut holes on each end of the long receiver tube, plus two smaller 6" receiver tubes I'm making. I'll use a 3/8" threaded handle as a clamp to push the tongue/bike rack to one side and prevent rattling (saw this idea on a Turtleback Trailer).



I also assembled all of the hinge bodies. I wanted to be able to pin both sides of the front and rear tailgates. This will allow me to swing it out in either direction depending on the situation, as well as easily remove them entirely when I want to haul something long in the trailer.

Made these by welding 3 feet of 3/4" square and 3/4" round tube together along the entire length, cutting them to 1.75", wire brushing them down, and then installing bronze flange bushings on either side. I had salvaged a bunch of 4" long, 1/2" diameter SS rods from our scrap bin, so these will be used as the actual hinge pins.

For the low cost, I'm hoping this is a pretty bomber solution.



Cheers,

AB

 

[chunko]

Great idea to batch weld those hinges.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

 

[Old bike doc]

Very slick!

 

[a.boelkins]

Sub frame where the axles mount is complete (notice the notches in these two cross members for the full length receiver tube). The original design was just one cross member and two short pieces fore and aft (for an "H" shape), but I had some extra steel and decided to fully box it in. The space between the two cross members would be perfect for hanging a water tank in the future.

The top welds are ground flat because the angle bracket will be installed directly over that area.



Once I get the hinges installed, I'm considering adding a receiver tube on the rear swing out tail gate. It would be an ideal spot to carry a hitch mount bike rack and not have to remove it every time I wanted to access the galley. TBD if the tailgate assembly will be stiff enough to handle that type of load.

 

[a.boelkins]

Good progress last night. Hinges are installed on front and rear frame weldments, and the concept seems to work pretty well.

I started by laying the tailgate on top of the U-shaped frame weldment and putting it in the proper position. The silver pieces are 10GA scrap that are used to space the tailgate off the mating surface to allow a bulb seal to properly seal against the trailer frame.

Then, I put a set of hinges on a single piece of 1/2" stainless steel rod to ensure they were aligned co-axially. Once those were clamped in place, I tacked each hinge in place. Once one side was tacked, I repeated the process on the other side and then fully welded the hinges on both sides.

From a design standpoint, fixed hinges on two sides could cause it to become over constrained, but by match welding them in place and putting the hinges on perpendicular surfaces, I think it will work. It certainly seems pretty bomber.




One side completed:


I had also purchased a weld-on jack. Since I want to be able to entirely remove the tongue for storage, this had to be mounted on the main trailer frame. A piece of scrap 1.5x3 tube was used to space it off from the frame and allow swing clearance past the closed tailgate (although I still need to cut off one side of the jack foot).



Comments or questions are welcome.

Cheers,

AB

 

[a.boelkins]

The bulk of the trailer frame is tacked in place. I'm definitely happy with how the swing out tailgates came together, and the hinge design seems to work well.




Next up is finalizing wheel/tire choices and getting the axle sub-frame located and the axle mounting plates installed.

I'm a bit limited with tire and wheel choices because I'm trying to keep the trailer's overall width less than 70" so it will fit through my shed doors. The box is 50" wide, so that leaves 10" on each side for the tire. Currently planning on a 205/75/R15 trailer tire on 15" trailer wheels.

-Alex

 

[Old bike doc]

hinge is clever!

 

[a.boelkins]

A bit slower week than I had hoped for, but the wiring is complete and tail lights are good to go. Wiring is run through the rear cross tube (with chafe protection installed), but now that it is welded, there is no access to it. Hopefully I did it right!




Also, everything but the axle sub-frame is fully welded! It was pretty easy to flip the trailer into different orientations, which made it easier.


Cheers,

AB

 

[a.boelkins]

Spent a sunny spring afternoon building the rear swing out galley. This went surprisingly well and I'm happy with the end result. It's all built from 1/2" birch plywood. Wood glue and finish nails, so nothing cabinet grade, but it should be pretty solid.


Besides the spice rack in the middle, I'm leaving it open for now. As I figure out the rest of my cook set, I'll build in specific height shelves, etc.


It is secured to the 2x2 steel tubing with #10 sheet metal screws. The back panel is a 0.050" piece of aluminum I had cut to size. Currently only secured with sheet metal screws, but after paint I'll attach it with silicone or VHB tape.

-AB