my off road trailer

[hugh]

Hers a couple pictures of my off road capable trailer. It originally had a narrow 2000lb axle with the wheels enclosed by the trailer body. I had made it all wrong using a narrow 2000lb axle with springs rated at 1750 lbs each. It was way to narrow for the height of the trailer and to stiff. Now it has a 3500 lb axle with a 72" hub face to hub face distance. The axle has a nice large tube and larger bearings than the orig. It runs 31 x 10.50 tires on 15 " rims and has a set of munroe gas shocks installed. In a couple more pay checks it will get a set of brakes installed. The trailer weighs approx 1250/1300 lbs. It's inside dimensions are 5' 2" high, about 5' 2" wide and almost 8' long. It is insulated, I slept in it last fall at 15 below celcius and my body heat was enough to keep it warm inside. It has 5 opening windows and a 2 person seat across the back that when folded down and using the small table also gives a 6' long bed wide enough for 2 people. I was going to make a teardrop trailer but decided that by making it high enough for the wife to stand in and me hunched over it would be more comfortable. When the bed is in position there is still enough room to stand and get dressed to go outside. It will have a marine battery in the orig wheel well on the drivers side whch will power the 5 12 volt lights inside and the small led door light on the outside. It also has a 110 hookup which uses a GFI and has 2 receptacles when there is shore power. At the moment it has a cd player / car stereo also. For now it uses a standard 2" ball but if needed can be swapped to a pintle hitch. I,m running it spring under for now but in the spring over config it sits level ground clearance wise with my Cherokee. I will prob settle for leaving it spring under and going back to my pintle, it still has good ground clearance and when towed behind the Jeep doesn,t stick up to high.
The first picture was it,s orig config, the following are with the new axle. Fenders are coming in a day or 2 and will be installed soon.

 

[jeep4x4greg]

Very nice! got any pics of the interior?

 

[hugh]

Yes, the first pic is looking in the open door, you can see a storage cabinet my neighbor gave me, we use it to hold cans, coffee pot, dishes, propane cylinders etc. The small triangular item top right is a speaker for the car stereo. You can also see the top of the wheel well bottom left, the wood strip is what the seat/bed slides on and holds it in place. The next 2 pics are looking to the rear, the chrome pipes hold a table which when taken down is the foot of the 6' bed. the seat folds to make the top 2/3 rds of the bed. Above the seat is an overhead storage with the car stereo top right and it also houses 4 adjustable 12 volt lights. I decided to carpet the interior, on cold days it seems to work well , you don,t get any condensation to speak of, or at least nothing you can feel. The carpet is just stapled on I didn,t want any glue for the odor and in case it got changed it will be easy to remove later.

 

[dro805]

i really like your trailer build i remember when it was green and i feel in love with it caause it looks so simple but i doubt it is

 

[VE2WHZ]

verry cool !!!
i like it

 

[Snowdrift]

Thanks for sharing your Build. Looks great! What did you frame the walls and roof out of?

 

[hugh]

First a quick explanation. I used a Kreg pocket jig to fasten all the wall studs to the floor and ceiling beams. The walls are 2x2,s and everything is waterproof glued and screwed together [prob over 1000 screws]. With rigid pink 1 1/2 insulation in the walls. The roof, well I got lucky, at an insurance auction I got the roof from a tent trailer along with quite a bit of hardware for $10. It,s about 1" thick foam core with a type of bumpy plastic coating on the outside, I think they call it FRP, it,s the usual stuff on roofs of tent trailers. After cutting it to size with a reciprocating saw it was placed on the roof trusses and screwed down along the edges. Then a layer of eterna bond tape along the edges followed by a layer of butyl tape capped by some 2x2 aluminum angles a sheet metal buddy made up. No leaks at all. Anyway on the theory a picture is worth a thousand words here,s a couple thousand words worth.

 

[TEJASYOTA]

Sweet! - great build.

 

[nfunlimited]

So you replaced the 3500lb spring set?? For what weight capacity now?

 

[hugh]

I replaced the springs with a set rated for 2500lbs. Also built a battery tray in the wheel opening on the drivers side using a walmart deep cycle marine battery. It has a hookup for a small solar panel attached to it which will be used when camping and also has a trickle charger hard wired to the 110 inside at the back. A set of electric brakes has also been installed and a friend made a set of kind of ungainly square aluminum fenders. The fenders have a set of LED red/amber clearance lights on the outside edge. On the plus side they are solid enough to use as a tray. Anyway when I get the time a brake controller will be installed over the next day or two then it will be ready for some travel.
Here,s a couple of pictures

 

[Hill Bill E.]

Great use of the old wheel well! Trailer is looking great!

HB