Safari Cab "Overland Camper" Trailer Build

[jeepdreamer]

As always...

As always JS...great work. I am curious as to what you have planned for the pull out portion. I always find inspiration in your designs and exicution...Any thoughts on how far out the "tray" will come and how your gonna make it slide? I'm thinking of something similar for my "8" but haven't gotten that far yet...

 

[jscherb]

As always JS...great work. I am curious as to what you have planned for the pull out portion. I always find inspiration in your designs and exicution...Any thoughts on how far out the "tray" will come and how your gonna make it slide? I'm thinking of something similar for my "8" but haven't gotten that far yet...

Haven't decided the exact size yet, have to finalize the interior design first, and the design of the "kitchen" that will go on the slider. I know people at a company that makes a wide range of pull-outs for campers and pickups, so I'd probably try to go with one of their stock sizes, although if I need a custom size I'm sure I could get them to build that for me too. Their stock sizes go all the way to 90", which is a little longer than the trailer, so I can make one as long as the trailer if the interior design dictates. Their stock widths include 33", which would fit very nicely in the 35" tailgate opening of the trailer (or a Jeep).

 

[JPR4LFE]

I think the rear barn door would be great access to the sleeping area and would be the most convient for getting in an out of the camper. But in terms of the "Kitchen", the door would need to opened when the slide was in use. When I go camping I am up way before everyone else, and in order to start making breakfast or even coffee, having the door open would be inconvient for those who choose to sleep in. It would let in a great deal of light, bugs and noise, all of which would tick off my wife. So from a kitchen standpoint, the tailgate and swing up hatch that are independent of one another would make more sense, possibly allowing you to use the kitchen without disturbing the wife and kids.

 

[jscherb]

I think the rear barn door would be great access to the sleeping area and would be the most convient for getting in an out of the camper. But in terms of the "Kitchen", the door would need to opened when the slide was in use. When I go camping I am up way before everyone else, and in order to start making breakfast or even coffee, having the door open would be inconvient for those who choose to sleep in. It would let in a great deal of light, bugs and noise, all of which would tick off my wife. So from a kitchen standpoint, the tailgate and swing up hatch that are independent of one another would make more sense, possibly allowing you to use the kitchen without disturbing the wife and kids.

This camper might not be large enough for the whole family, after all it is only as wide as a Jeep. But the barn door could be on the front, and a hatch/kitchen drawer on the back, so you could slide it out without opening the entire barn door.

 

[jeepdreamer]

Reality..

Jpr4life...,
Not to pick the nits but i think you have a unique situation honestly. For your case a kitchen trailer separate from the family seems the only logical option. Or I'n something like JS's case, maybe an RTT on top with the trailer only being for kitchen and gear.?. But it would be near impossible to address your specific needs without a custom, one off trailer.
I'm curious to see how you work the fridge (there will be one, right?) on the slider issue as well. Some kind of retractable power supply? And speaking of power... Is this going to be battery pure or a mix of bat, solar, whatever??

 

[jscherb]

I'm curious to see how you work the fridge (there will be one, right?) on the slider issue as well. Some kind of retractable power supply? And speaking of power... Is this going to be battery pure or a mix of bat, solar, whatever??

Haven't decided on the exact internal features and fittings, but a fridge seems like a must to me. Retracting power with the sliding kitchen shouldn't be too much of a challenge. The type of power is TBD.

Right now I'm focused on getting phase 1 done, when that's done I'll ask you guys for help with the interior layout and appointments. Like I said, I have no experience with that so I'll need your help.

 

[jscherb]

I've now finished the mods to the stock LJ Safari Cab panels for the camper.

I've added the drip rail across the front of the roof (in the Jeep hardtop version, the roof mates with the windshield and the mating surface has a crown in it to match the crown in the windshield, so I added a drip rail and filled in the crown:

I shot the drip rail with some rattle can black for now, but there's still a little sanding and minor bodywork required to finish it off.

All four side panels have been shortened, new flanges have been 'glassed on, trimmed and the standard Safari Cab inter-module mounting holes have been drilled:

And the rear hatch stake pocket patches are bonded in, and the inner and outer shells of the hatch are bonded together, here's a photo of the barn door version and the hatch version. The rear barn door is attached to a factory tailgate with stakes that bolt into the recessed stake pockets in the barn door upper; in the hatch configuration those recesses aren't needed so I filled them in.

That's it. Pretty minor changes from the hardtop version. And the hatch change isn't specifically for the camper, the hatch could be used with the hardtop instead of the barn door as well.

The next step is to start fitting/assembling the parts on the trailer, I'll start on that tomorrow.

 

[adrenaline503]

Wow, I wish I had your skills.

 

[JPR4LFE]

Jpr4life...,
Not to pick the nits but i think you have a unique situation honestly. For your case a kitchen trailer separate from the family seems the only logical option. Or I'n something like JS's case, maybe an RTT on top with the trailer only being for kitchen and gear.?

No worries, I was just thinking outloud. Have you ever had a woman tell you "close that tent door, you are letting all the bug in"? To me it seems like a large majority of expo members are guys with wives and 1 to 2 small kids, or guys with girlfriends that would want to go "camping" but a month on the road in a jeep wouldn't fly. For these Jeep families, I think this trailer would be perfect. If I had to choose between keeping the kitchen seperate from the sleeping area or having the barn door for easy egress, I personally would choose the barn door. But maybe I have just been using a Wrangler as my Daily Driver for WAY too long! But, as jscherb mentioned, two ways to enter the trailer makes it extremely flexible.

 

[jscherb]

It's starting to look a little like a camper now... I got the top assembled on the trailer today. Everything went together as planned.

It's not very hard to assemble everything singlehandedly, but the trailer is hitched to the Retro Wrangler so it doesn't move around as I'm putting the roof panel on and off by myself.

Tomorrow I'll swap a TJ tailgate onto the rear of the trailer and install the barn door on it.

 

[jscherb]

I printed one of the photos from the last post on my b&w laser printer, and the gray and yellow came out looking the same, so I turned one of the photos into a grayscale image so we could see what it looks like it in all the same color .

 

[Hawkz]

Very nice. I do have one question that I hope you didn't already answer. How long is the trailer/sleeping platform? I see in one post you said 90" was a little longer than the trailer tub. I'm just wondering how long the sleeping platform will be.

I'm considering a teardrop trailer to pull behind my 2003 TJ, but something like this would work just as well.

 

[jscherb]

Very nice. I do have one question that I hope you didn't already answer. How long is the trailer/sleeping platform? I see in one post you said 90" was a little longer than the trailer tub. I'm just wondering how long the sleeping platform will be.

I'm considering a teardrop trailer to pull behind my 2003 TJ, but something like this would work just as well.

The inside floor is about 86" long, and there's 49" between the inner fenders (on the stock Jeep tub, there's only 36" between the fenders). Depending on how I lay out the interior, the sleeping platform might be above the inner fenders, I haven't fully decided yet, which would make the sleeping area about 57" wide.

For comparison, a queen mattress is 60" wide x 80" long, so the sleeping area is 6" longer than a queen, and if the mattress is above the fenderwells, only about 3" narrower than a queen. Plenty of room for two to sleep.

The functionality of the teardrop style is the benchmark for what I'm trying to design, only I've added two additional criteria:

1. Styling to match the Jeep (and of course the Safari Cab hardtop).
2. Off-road capability.

 

[jscherb]

I've marked the approximate interior dimensions on this photo:

 

[jscherb]

This morning I swapped out the rear CJ tailgate on the trailer for a TJ tailgate, and installed the barn door on the tailgate:

I put the TJ tailgate on with a pair of the new heavy-duty hinges I've designed:

And posed with the LJ:

Tomorrow I'll begin working on installing the front hatch. It's the same fiberglass parts as the barn door, but it will be hinged at the top and swing up.