My little adventure trailer. Two year build.

[INSAYN]

I forgot to get back here with pictures of the trailer I put together over the past couple of years. It started out as just a utility trailer I built with kayak racks to tow behind my one ton truck camper combo.

Then it went under the knife and I added more features.

A little test camping to make sure I have everything where I want it before painting it.

Finally painted and prepped for a two week trip through SE Oregon.

Fully functional and now gets more use than my truck camper!

It's been a fun trailer to build, and fits my needs great. Fully loaded down with the two weeks of water, food, gear and spares it weighs less than 1900lbs.
Very easy for the Taco to pull. The two week trip to the Oregon desert was 1350 miles and 350 of that was on rough washboard towing the trailer. Absolutely zero issue or failures along that trip.

Now it is used mainly as my mobile kayak fishing base camp behind the Taco, as it is way cheaper to use than hauling my big camper around for just an overnighter. When we do use the truck camper, we tow the trailer as well so that the kids can use the popup tent as their sleeping quarters. Gives mamma and I some privacy.

Oh, and yes I have a small quiver of kayaks to choose from. :coffeedrink:

 

[Mark Harley]

Great build!
I like the duck feet on the stabilizers.

 

[INSAYN]

Great build!
I like the duck feet on the stabilizers.

Look closer, them kickers have sharp toe nails.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

I forgot to get back here with pictures of the trailer I put together over the past couple of years. It started out as just a utility trailer I built with kayak racks to tow behind my one ton truck camper combo.

Man, thats my dream set up!!!!

 

[TheThom]

Nice!

 

[Bonked]

I love your set-up! Especially the telescoping rack! I need to haul bikes on a rack above my Bantam trailer, so I could never figure out how to have both a RTT and a rack with bikes on it.

Please provide info on how you made/bought that set-up. How many sections does it have to get from its shortest length to its extended length?

THANKS in advance!

 

[1SAR39]

Awesome build!!!! Looks Great!!!

 

[INSAYN]

I love your set-up! Especially the telescoping rack! I need to haul bikes on a rack above my Bantam trailer, so I could never figure out how to have both a RTT and a rack with bikes on it.

Please provide info on how you made/bought that set-up. How many sections does it have to get from its shortest length to its extended length?

THANKS in advance!

The telescoping rack is just some 1.5" ID pipe for the parts welded to the trailer corners and the uppers for the racks themselves. The first couple of pics showing the first version of the trailer, I used 1.5" OD x .120" wall mild steel tubing for the vertical supports. I later came across some 1.5" OD x .25" wall aluminum tubing that I'm using now. Aluminum doesn't need to painted so rust isn't an issue. I hit the tubes with steel wool once in a while just to keep them shiny.

It's a two man deal to lift the racks up for camping, or down for travel. I just stand on the tongue or the tailgate and use the strapped down kayak to lift one rack at a time, while having a second person pull the pins and relocate them once the vertical tubes are where they need to be.

The lowered height was set to keep the kayaks just above the closed tent lid to keep wind drag down when pulling behind the Taco.
When extended up, I can adjust the the vertical tubes at the trailer corners for about a 2.5' lift, and then the racks themselves are able to lift another few inches up the vertical tubes as well. When it's all the way up, I can and do camp with the tent open and the kayak(s) stored above.

The cool thing about this Airtop tent is that I can pull down on the rear of the tent and secure it in the closed position yet leave the front of the tent popped up, and then open the lid of the trailer all the way open. The top of the tent just barely touches the kayak, so I have full access to inside the trailer without having to completely close the tent, remove the kayaks, or the racks to do so. It wasn't originally planned that way, but it just turned out to be a valuable effect after getting it built. Sleeping bags, pillows and clothes bags can all stay in the tent when I operate the lid this way.

The racks don't show it in this picture, but I can lower the kayak down to about 2-3" from the top of the tent lid by pulling pins and lowering the racks down the vertical tubes to another set of holes. It really gets it low for travel.

Also the tongue is extendable by a foot to give me extra space between the kayaks on the truck and the ones on the trailer. This also doubles as a security device, as I can completely remove the tongue from the tube, and store it inside the locked trailer, in the garage or take it with me in the bed of the truck. You might be able to see the locking hitch pin tucked back under the aluminum box. The tongue slides into a tube right where the "V" is in the front of the trailer. Very difficult to hook anything up to this area without the tongue installed. I could easily make a pintle style tongue to slip in there if I ever needed to.

 

[operator john]

Thats a great trailer ! lite weight & functional ! just perfect

 

[Mykol74]

Do you have any better and/or closer pictures of your rack? It looks like you can optionally have the horizontal bar running on the long side or the short side - is that what I'm seeing? I'm thinking of doing something modular as well and would love to get a better look at how you're doing it.

 

[loren85022]

Great rig. It's even better to see it in the wild.


Sent from my iToaster

 

[dorton]

Very cool setup

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[glwright]

I know this is an older post, but I just found your trailer and it looks awesome. All the pictures are great. I may use this as a reference to build one of my own.