Nissan Frontier Truck Bed Off-Road Trailer - The "Frontrailer"

[Nd4SpdSe]

I spent some time last week installed some LED strips in the awning. I decided I don't want to fuss with lights and flashlights as little as possible.

I had also ordered some lights to do underneath the truck and trailer.

And on the weekend, I worked on installing the water tank, in which I had/wanted to modify the mounting basket for it since it was too close to the axle.

And I also made up a battery tray, which took much more time then I was expecting, but it was a fairly complicated pieces with 20 separate pieces of metal.

And on my way to pick up some metal and work on the trailer for the weekend, and saw this in traffic. Not sure if it's legal...I thought you're only allowed if the first trailer is a 5th wheel.

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Time flies! With the Run 1000 Rally at the end of June, I only had one weeken left to work on the trailer before American LeMans @ Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. With that, I needed to pump out as much work on the trailer as I could, so I didn't really take the time to take pictures during the process. I had a big list of things to do and needed to concentrate on pumping it out as fast as I could in the time that I had. The girlfriend did snap a few pics of me working.

As I'm sure I said a few times already, there was no change of a storage box being made this year, so I opted for a basket to be able to put really anything at the moment, and any weight up front, the better it'll tow. I made it in the rough shape that the storage box will so, with 2 winglets for the propane tank and the hot water heater. I bought the welder outside to the trailer and deicde to fab it up right on it, which would be more efficient use of time with less back and forth for fitting and measurements, just measure, cut, tack, and when it's do your liking, add a few more tacks, then bring it inside to get fully welded. Although I don't have any pictures of the fabrication since it was on-the-fly, I can show you the assembly of all the pieces. Like all that I do, I like to make it modular for flexibility in use and makes for easier storage when removed. I use bolts temporarilly, but eventually I'll switch them over to pins.

The main platform

The rear posts with the crossbar, and bolting up the propane tank holder

The other sides center post and a closer shot of the left side shelf for the hot water.

Front bars and crossbar is on.

And the top rack with the trucks' spare tire on top. Putting it up front to get some weight in front of the axle for the moment.

And before most of the paint was dry, we loaded it up with wood for the following weekend before heading home.

My girlfriend also suggested to make a cart for the water jerry cans, so I pumped that out somewhere between an hour or two.

I did run out of time to make jerry can holders for the front of the trailer, as well as I didn't get to make the trailer legs. I started one, but it's far from complete and still working on the concept....the BAL C legs are just too large and bulky for what I want for the trailer.

Heading down to Mosport, it seems all went wrong. My power steering tensioner pulley exploded, and my supercharger tensioner decided to snap when removing tension since I had to remove that belt to replace the power steering/water pump belt that got pinched from the failed pulley. A junkyard piece was suppose to arrive Thursday, but as of right now, it's somewhere in Granby, which we're thinking BC. Why it's there, I have no clue, but we did manage to make a hybrid with the unused pulley from my friends NA truck and headed off to Mosport Friday morning. We got there in time for supper, and later in the evening, a storm came through suddenly gusting with winds between 40 and 50km/h and torrential rains. The tent wanted to fold in half, which was a first for me. The awning would of done well, but the downfall to that is the poles. They're a twist locking style, but can't handle a hard tension from the ropes to torque them down, so they collapse down. The fix to that will be to modify them or get new ones with pins that lock them in the up position. Other then that, it handled the storm extremely well, and the LED's we installed were a godsend to deal with the awning/room issue at 11pm. It was so abrupt and violent, I don't know how we would of been able to deal with it in the dark, frantically looking for flashlights or our cell phones, or hoping my lonely Dewalt light's battery didn't die at the wrong moment. Here is the setup, where the pictures were taken the morning after the storm.

Wet clothes and towels hanging to dry

Our makeshift shower and change area. This worked great, and it was nice to take a hot shower after getting drenched by the storm.

And the integrated awning LED's at night. They worked wonderfully and very glad we put some extra clear heat shrink to protect the connections.

And back to Quebec after a stop for some sushi in Kingston

 

[Jmacjeep]

Awning

What awning and enclosure are you using?

 

[emtmark]

Did you say the tent collapsed or was having a tough time? Hmmmmmmmm more about that please.

I'm really liking the look and as a fellow X man I'm already starting to look for a fronty


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[Nd4SpdSe]

Wow times flies! I'm definitely overdue for an update! But I gotta wait until my girlfriend and I finish going through the pictures of our trip....which is going slow cause we're quite busy...

What awning and enclosure are you using?

A Sunday Campers awning, model WA02, with the sides and floor...but haven't tried the floor yet.

Did you say the tent collapsed or was having a tough time? Hmmmmmmmm more about that please.

I'm really liking the look and as a fellow X man I'm already starting to look for a fronty

It wasn't collapsing, but the tent was trying to fold back in half, with my girlfriend inside. Since the RTT's fold out, the wind was trying to fold it back closed since we we're facing directly into the wind. Since, just in case, I've been using a strap from the ladder to the wheel of the trailer to prevent that from trying to happen again. Unless you're referring to the awning during the same storm, it was the poles themselves that were collapsing. The twist-lock feature of the extendable poles can't handle a strong amount of force. My solution to that, which I haven't done yet, is to drill holes and use a pin to lock it in place. I haven't done it yet, although simple, I want to put on the sides and mark the spot for the pole length when the sides are installed. We broke the awning, snapped a few knuckles, on our trip a few weeks ago when it was cought in the wind and improperly supported... and I just fixed it this past Saturday. When I get a chance and post up an update, I'll get into more detail on the break and the repair.

I nope you find a Frontier, and we see another one

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

I can get one small update done for the moment at least, and going chronological, back in July, there was an open 4x4 truck show. I decided to show up and open up the trailer with the tent and awning. It got quite a bit of attention, and people were using it for shade for the truck pull (human pulling a Jeep, anyone could give it a try)

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

I'll post up some pics of our trip out in Eastern Canada. But I'll link to the full albums later on if anyone wants to see more details on the trip on the trailer/camp album, our personal album with the plates we visited, or the album of the sister-in-laws gnome that we stole and took many funny pictures with.

The night before, I had finished the badge and officially christened it the night before we left.

On the road. Left late, but the first stop is only 2.5 hours away

Out spot for the night

And getting up camp

With a beautiful bed view, and the relaxing sound of waves

My rig, and out home for the next 12 days.

The girlfriend making breakfast before we hit the road (with a quick dip in the water before leaving)

Quebec-New Brunswick Border

A stop to see the longest covered bridge in the world

The road is beautiful

The weather not to nice to cross the Confederate Bridge into PEI

I'm not particularly a fan of heights...and it's windy

But the weather on the other side was nice enough to take some pics

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Our camp at Campbells's Cove, PEI

I do love this awning, plenty of room. Hiding from the misty wind.

Supper with a view

Campfire with Popcorn, and a view

Waiting to get on the ferry to Nova Scotia

A little tight on the ferry

And crossing onto Cape Breton Island

To setup camp at Inverness

And leaving Inverness to hit the Cabot Trail

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

The beautiful Calbot Trail, Nova Scotia

Overheating the motor on the way up a long hill past Pleasant Bay, and overheating the brakes on the way down.

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Meat Cove was full. Go camp on the beach they said...

Broke the winch, and broke the awning in a gust of wind while setting it up

I had a neighbour, but I did serve to others a warning to stay on the rocky part of the beach. A few almost got stuck just turning around

It rained HARD during the night. All the tenters had cleared out by the time we got up

Leaving Meat Cove

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Shortest Ferry Ever

And camp in Baddeck, NS

Breakfast and Bacon in Baddeck

Leaving Baddeck

And our camp in Darthmouth while visiting a friend

Alexander Keiths Brewery (and we did the tour) The girlfriend's camera bugged randomly through the trip.

A small trailer means I can bring it downtown, which means I have full access to the cooking gear

So supper in a parking lot in Halifax harbour

And camping in Peggy's Cove for the night

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Leaving Peggy's Cove. No idea when or how this happened, but I stopped after noticing a strong abnormal vibration when we got on the highway.

A Nissan dealership parts open until 1pm on a Saturday that had some studs and nuts in stock! We got there with 15min to spare.

Heading back to Quebec, 3 hours behind from the repair, on the longest day of road of the trip which was already 7 hours.

Spending the last night at the exact same campground and site from the first night

And the nice morning view (the girlfriend's feet)

 

[rodrage]

So impressed. Very envious! Super build!!!

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

So impressed. Very envious! Super build!!!

Thanks! But your build is coming along well as well and it looking really good!

Adding more to the updates. I was able to finally get around to installing LED strips inside my RTT. I started with zip ties, but I didn't like it, and was worried that they'd wear on the tent material, or would scrape any of our skin by rubbing against them accidentally, so I decided to get some huge 1" shrink wrap, forgo the tie wraps, and shrink wrap them on instead.

And then I picked up a proper PWM LED dimmer for them. I picked it up locally since I didn't want to wait to get a smaller one in a month, but decided to inspect inside the box to see if there was room to modify it. I wanted to add in a second switch to control the lights under the RTT that light up the ladder so we can turn them off when going to bed, or on if we have to get up in the middle of the night.

Looks like there's plenty of room. But first, I had to rotate the pot around since those connections would be in the way.

Using a nibbler tool, I cut my hole.

A test fit confirms it fit, just, it rests on top of the capacitor.

I cheated and grabbed the 12v and ground from the V+ and V- IN off the dimmer, and soldered wires directly from the pins to the new switch.

The finished product. The extra connection runs to the LED strip under the tent. It does not dim however, but I didn't need, nor want it to.

And the new switch to control that circuit.

 

[Haiti_Missionary]

Nice!!


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