honda250xtitan
Active member
Nice job man! I've only used my trailer once so far :/ AZ camping season is crappy this year due to the lak of rain. BUT having running water and a legit cooking station was a game changer.
Redeth's Overland Trailer Build
- Thread starter Redeth005
- Start date
Redeth005
Adventurer
Realized i forgot two pictures showing the passenger side of the front compartment. Here is the daytime pictures showing a bit more.
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In preparations for the Fathers day camping trip i plan every year i had to get a good deal done to the trailer. One of the things i wanted to make sure to clean up the trailer before we left. I didn't want to arrive super dusty. Even shined up the CVT cover a bit .
All cleaned up
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Also preparing for the trip we bought a few new things to keep the kids busy and to make our stay a bit more comfortable for the long weekend trip. I bought 2 of these stack-able 7 gallon water containers with convenient water spout. and later bought 1 more when i saw them at walmart
Considering i ran out of water the last time i went camping. 15 gallons from my water tank just wont do again so i rigged those 7gallon tanks to be able to fill up my trailer on board water tank by piecing together a few pieces at Home Depot. now i just run a vinyl tube from the 7 gallon water tank and route it into my filling section on the passenger side of the trailer.
check it out:
So what i do is set the tank on a higher surface in my case it was just convenient that i built the fenders higher then the tank so by gravity once open up the top cap the water will flow at a slow rate but it will eventually empty itself into the tank. If i absolutely needed something quicker i could just route the tubing straight to the water pump if i wanted and that would work too.
Also bought 2 water guns, nerf football, and velcro ball with catching mitts for my stepson and his cousin to play with at the lake.
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In preparations for the Fathers day camping trip i plan every year i had to get a good deal done to the trailer. One of the things i wanted to make sure to clean up the trailer before we left. I didn't want to arrive super dusty. Even shined up the CVT cover a bit .
All cleaned up
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also preparing for the trip we bought a few new things to keep the kids busy and to make our stay a bit more comfortable for the long weekend trip. I bought 2 of these stack-able 7 gallon water containers with convenient water spout. and later bought 1 more when i saw them at walmart
Considering i ran out of water the last time i went camping. 15 gallons from my water tank just wont do again so i rigged those 7gallon tanks to be able to fill up my trailer on board water tank by piecing together a few pieces at Home Depot. now i just run a vinyl tube from the 7 gallon water tank and route it into my filling section on the passenger side of the trailer.
check it out:
So what i do is set the tank on a higher surface in my case it was just convenient that i built the fenders higher then the tank so by gravity once open up the top cap the water will flow at a slow rate but it will eventually empty itself into the tank. If i absolutely needed something quicker i could just route the tubing straight to the water pump if i wanted and that would work too.
Also bought 2 water guns, nerf football, and velcro ball with catching mitts for my stepson and his cousin to play with at the lake.
Redeth005
Adventurer
Also I know it is summer time but last time we went on this Lake Elsinore camping trip the i learned the winds pick up pretty strong around 6pm and go on throughout the night bringing cold to the night. So this year i wanted to be prepared and have the Propex heater duct Kayak Deck plates installed so i could route the heater ducts to the exterior while still being able to keep my door locked in the middle of the night. So here was the pretty simple mod.
FYI these were bought from SureMarineService.com i have a link in a much earlier post if you would like to see cost and everything else.
Started off by measuring, centering, and making up where i would be cutting the holes.
I drilled big enough holes to be able to fit a jigsaw blade in there. let me tell ya this job wasnt easy once the door was mounted in place. if i would have done this when the door was still off the trailer it would have made my life much easier. None-the-less it was still pretty quick.
Once i got everything properly fitted i siliconed screws as they went in and siliconed a lot in the interior side and made it as neat as i could on the exterior side.
Here is how the Heater ducts will be routed to the exterior.
The only thing that needs to be done is to route the thermostat through that hole as well then route the ducts into the tent and its good to go. It's as simple as that.
FYI these were bought from SureMarineService.com i have a link in a much earlier post if you would like to see cost and everything else.
Started off by measuring, centering, and making up where i would be cutting the holes.
I drilled big enough holes to be able to fit a jigsaw blade in there. let me tell ya this job wasnt easy once the door was mounted in place. if i would have done this when the door was still off the trailer it would have made my life much easier. None-the-less it was still pretty quick.
Once i got everything properly fitted i siliconed screws as they went in and siliconed a lot in the interior side and made it as neat as i could on the exterior side.
Here is how the Heater ducts will be routed to the exterior.
The only thing that needs to be done is to route the thermostat through that hole as well then route the ducts into the tent and its good to go. It's as simple as that.
Redeth005
Adventurer
During the week before the trip i bought the trailer some new leaf springs.
I bought some cheapie Procomp 4" rear lift 1988 4runner leaf springsthey only ran me about $250 for both and still mounted up to the stock spring hanger locations so no extra modifications needed to be made. to use them.
The reason i decided to buy new springs was because the tires are starting to rub on the underside of the fenders so it needs a little lift. So here is to giving the trailer a nice growth spurt!
...........and then while installing i realized something.
I ran into a MAJOR fabrication mistake. And i hadn't realized the mistake till the day i installed the springs.
So initially i built this trailer on some temporary worn out 3-4" lift FRONT 4runner leaf springs that i got off of @livinthedream138 for free as a contribution to start off my trailer build. I didn't expect to run them permanently on the trailer. After all It was supposed to just be temporary but i never got around to buying new leafs. So when i built the trailer's step/rock sliders and fenders i built them around the center of my tires never thinking about how the center pin on the leaf springs would affect where the tire would relocate after i bought the correct leaf springs. So unfortunately when i installed these new 4" lift ProComp leaf springs i realized the center pin was moved forward about 6" to 6.5". THAT'S A HUGE DIFFERENC! As you can see from the pix it is a big deal. And that was bad planning on my part when building this trailer. Now i have figure out a way to fix the issue. The way i see it i have 2 choices. 1) Leave the springs where they are. And torch or plasma cut off the fenders and the rear portion of the steps and move the entire fenders forward to keep the current' better axle location' for balancing out the trailer more.(I'm sure it will tow better) or the simpler choice. 2) Order new spring hangers then cut off the welds for the springs hangars and move the new hangars back about 4-5 inches. Which would ultimately center the tires at the location of the current fender placement. And it would lower my lift about 1-1.5" inches. Which I'm totally fine with.
But due to the fact that the Axle location is actually in a better place now i may go with the more difficult choice and torch/plasma cut off the fendersand the most rear portion of the sliders and move everything forward a bit. Even if i have to re-fabricate the fenders this is still the better decision.
Oh and fyi Procomp leaf springs are extremely stiff for those of you considering do a cheap lift for your 85-89 toyota pickup/4Runner. I would vote against them for actual motor vehicles. But in this case i didn't care much since these leafs are going onto the trailer. I may need to remove one leaf from the spring pack later if it still remains too tall. We will see.
So here are the pix
Before i had about 2" to &1/4 of clearance
And now i have 6&1/2" of clearance! SOOOO MUCH BETTER!
Here you can see how close the tire is to the front vs the rear now. There is 2" between the front of the tire and the tube portion of the rock slider holding the fender in place and 10" behind. i would like to get that fender centered to make it look good again. 6" on both sides would be great!
Oh yea and with a larger lift comes the need for larger leaf springs So the beast got a new pair of Bilstein 5100 series shocks. It'll tow a bit nicer now. I ended up going with Bilstein 5100 9&1/4" travel shocks. Perfect size for the trailer. The way i have it set up it will have 3 inches of down travel and 6.21 inches uptravel. But the leaf springs are so stiff that it may never go below 1" of down travel unless i remove one spring from each of the leaf packs.
Here they are installed:
Oh yea and i also bought some new reflective tape for the trailer because the one i had before had been peeling due to being a cheap brand.
I bought some cheapie Procomp 4" rear lift 1988 4runner leaf springsthey only ran me about $250 for both and still mounted up to the stock spring hanger locations so no extra modifications needed to be made. to use them.
The reason i decided to buy new springs was because the tires are starting to rub on the underside of the fenders so it needs a little lift. So here is to giving the trailer a nice growth spurt!
...........and then while installing i realized something.
I ran into a MAJOR fabrication mistake. And i hadn't realized the mistake till the day i installed the springs.
So initially i built this trailer on some temporary worn out 3-4" lift FRONT 4runner leaf springs that i got off of @livinthedream138 for free as a contribution to start off my trailer build. I didn't expect to run them permanently on the trailer. After all It was supposed to just be temporary but i never got around to buying new leafs. So when i built the trailer's step/rock sliders and fenders i built them around the center of my tires never thinking about how the center pin on the leaf springs would affect where the tire would relocate after i bought the correct leaf springs. So unfortunately when i installed these new 4" lift ProComp leaf springs i realized the center pin was moved forward about 6" to 6.5". THAT'S A HUGE DIFFERENC! As you can see from the pix it is a big deal. And that was bad planning on my part when building this trailer. Now i have figure out a way to fix the issue. The way i see it i have 2 choices. 1) Leave the springs where they are. And torch or plasma cut off the fenders and the rear portion of the steps and move the entire fenders forward to keep the current' better axle location' for balancing out the trailer more.(I'm sure it will tow better) or the simpler choice. 2) Order new spring hangers then cut off the welds for the springs hangars and move the new hangars back about 4-5 inches. Which would ultimately center the tires at the location of the current fender placement. And it would lower my lift about 1-1.5" inches. Which I'm totally fine with.
But due to the fact that the Axle location is actually in a better place now i may go with the more difficult choice and torch/plasma cut off the fendersand the most rear portion of the sliders and move everything forward a bit. Even if i have to re-fabricate the fenders this is still the better decision.
Oh and fyi Procomp leaf springs are extremely stiff for those of you considering do a cheap lift for your 85-89 toyota pickup/4Runner. I would vote against them for actual motor vehicles. But in this case i didn't care much since these leafs are going onto the trailer. I may need to remove one leaf from the spring pack later if it still remains too tall. We will see.
So here are the pix
Before i had about 2" to &1/4 of clearance
And now i have 6&1/2" of clearance! SOOOO MUCH BETTER!
Here you can see how close the tire is to the front vs the rear now. There is 2" between the front of the tire and the tube portion of the rock slider holding the fender in place and 10" behind. i would like to get that fender centered to make it look good again. 6" on both sides would be great!
Oh yea and with a larger lift comes the need for larger leaf springs So the beast got a new pair of Bilstein 5100 series shocks. It'll tow a bit nicer now. I ended up going with Bilstein 5100 9&1/4" travel shocks. Perfect size for the trailer. The way i have it set up it will have 3 inches of down travel and 6.21 inches uptravel. But the leaf springs are so stiff that it may never go below 1" of down travel unless i remove one spring from each of the leaf packs.
Here they are installed:
Oh yea and i also bought some new reflective tape for the trailer because the one i had before had been peeling due to being a cheap brand.
Nd4SpdSe
Adventurer, eh?
Damn, that sucks. Sadly this can happen when you have nothing to do by on your build and are making it up as you go along alone. Those problems are frustrating sometimes, but for goo or for bad, those challenges are frustrating but part of the fun of the challenge at the same time.
Curious how your tongue held up when off road and loaded? I bought a used trailer build and as I dug into it realized how inadequate and bent the tongue was so I straight cut it off and am beefing everything up to create a more stout spine and ribs to a tongue that should be overbuilt for my expected load. Water is the heavy part right. So. How’s the thing (you’ve done a lot of awesome build) holding up to abuse?