Safari Cab "Overland Camper" Trailer Build

[jeepdreamer]

Ideas never cease...

Or you could apply the same concept to the Safari Cab hardtop for the Jeep...

You'd end up with a sleeping platform that was almost 8 feet long (across the Jeep), and about 4' wide (might have to mod the roll bar a bit to move the rear down bar out of the way).

And in an extention of your rendering Expo8 and my love for Svens modded 80 model...Would it be possable to add an extention to the back of the safari to create this sort of effect? Seems that if you had the length to do the "push outs (drop downs?)" and could ad the rear piece in addition... one could create their own sort of Earth Romer modlarly without needing the 6 figure investment? Use the extenstion to add the needed length to use the drop down sleepers on the side of a CJ/TJ/YJ whatever...And maybe move some of the support equip to the rear tail housing... Hven't really looked at the configurations to see if thats possable...but I think sleeping two people parallel with the jeep instead of cross wise may make it easier to create somewhat of usable space inside..? Just a thought...?

 

[jscherb]

And in an extention of your rendering Expo8 and my love for Svens modded 80 model...Would it be possable to add an extention to the back of the safari to create this sort of effect? Seems that if you had the length to do the "push outs (drop downs?)" and could ad the rear piece in addition... one could create their own sort of Earth Romer modlarly without needing the 6 figure investment? Use the extenstion to add the needed length to use the drop down sleepers on the side of a CJ/TJ/YJ whatever...And maybe move some of the support equip to the rear tail housing... Hven't really looked at the configurations to see if thats possable...but I think sleeping two people parallel with the jeep instead of cross wise may make it easier to create somewhat of usable space inside..? Just a thought...?

Well you already included my CJ-8 extended Safari Cab concept drawing in your post (the orange Jeep), here's the LJ version. I did these concepts about a year ago. The extended version would extend the interior of the cab long enough to allow for full-length parallel sleeping instead of cross-wise as in the pop-out concept.

 

[jeepdreamer]

getting there...

Yeah, Pretty much like the TJ deal but with the ladder moved to the rear and instead of the big/little side windows, have the drop downs there. My biggest reason for thinking that the cross ways method would be hard is the roll bar placment. May make it hard to in/egress the sleeping area?
Also, by using the drop downs for as the self contained sleeping area it would frr up all the rest of the interior for the everything elses...fridge,heater, gear...what not...?

 

[jscherb]

Yeah, Pretty much like the TJ deal but with the ladder moved to the rear and instead of the big/little side windows, have the drop downs there. My biggest reason for thinking that the cross ways method would be hard is the roll bar placment. May make it hard to in/egress the sleeping area?
Also, by using the drop downs for as the self contained sleeping area it would frr up all the rest of the interior for the everything elses...fridge,heater, gear...what not...?

For either the drop-down version or this larger expedition version, the rear bars of the roll bars would be removed and replaced with modified parts which would form part of the support for the drop downs (and part of the support in general for the larger version. They'd be bolt-in so the Jeep could also be used with a standard Safari cab as in the second drawing (although the bars aren't shown in that drawing). With the modified bars in/egress wouldn't be a problem.

 

[bluejeep]

My version of the 'cross-wise' bed / rack. This was an initial concept prototype. I've since moved to a design where the rack would extend to the back instead. Couple of reasons have prompted that design change.
-more width in sleeping area
-with the stock TJ, no worries about the stock soft top bows passing thru the area
-works with stock hard top as well

 

[jscherb]

Is anyone going to the All Breeds Jeep Show in York, PA this weekend? (http://www.pajeeps.org/).

I'll be there with the LJ Safari and the camper trailer project.

 

[jscherb]

Here are some photos of the trailer as I finished it up for the PA All Breeds Jeep Show this weekend. I was surprised by the amount of interest the camper generated at the show.

The side panels are still in primer; I haven't thought about how they should be finished up.

I towed the camper with the LJ Safari over 200 miles from home to the show, and it cost about 1.25 mpg to tow it (mostly at 65 mph), which I thought was pretty good. It tows very nicely.

 

[jscherb]

Three Safari Cabs in one photo...

This is as we were packed up and getting ready to leave the show on Sunday. Had to get a shot of all of them together.

 

[jscherb]

And here are some "twins separated at birth" photos of the LJ Safari and the camper together...

 

[JPR4LFE]

Now that you are through with the show, its time to bring on the camping gear! I am looking forward to see how this unfolds

 

[jscherb]

Now that you are through with the show, its time to bring on the camping gear! I am looking forward to see how this unfolds

I'm probably going to delay the camping gear work for a little while, I've got a couple of other projects I'd rather work on right now.

- I've worked up a design for an inside tailgate latch release and lock button for the Wrangler tailgate. Without an inside release/lock, there's really no way to get out of the camper once you latch yourself inside it. But it might also be a useful project for people who want to be able to open and lock/unlock their Wrangler's tailgate from the inside.

- I want to finish up the work on the Safari Half Cab design, specifically the "roll bar pass through" feature that allows the half cab to be installed on a Jeep without cutting or removing the roll bars. While I'm at it, as a proof of concept, I'll also make up the side panels for an extended half cab, which would put the rear wall of the cab just behind the speaker pods mounted on the roll bars, also providing some good storage space behind the seats. But that project is off-topic for this thread, so I won't write any more about it here.

And I've been working on the detail design for a series of rear door options. Below is a drawing of the outer skin for the new doors, which can be used for a one-piece barn door, ambulance doors, or even as a one-piece full-length swing up hatch. For the camper, a full-length swing-up hatch could serve as a canopy over the entire slide-out kitchen-in-a-drawer. I doubt the the full length hatch would interest people as part of a Jeep hardtop, but either the full length one-piece barn door or the full-length two-piece ambulance doors would be good options for the Jeep hardtop.

All three options are overlaid on this drawing, hopefully it won't be too confusing.

There are multiple positions for latches and handles, depending on the configuration. For the one-piece barn door configuration, a latch could either be at the factory tailgate latch location and probably use the factory striker pin in the tub, or it could be mounted a little higher and have the striker on the Safari Cab panel. For the ambulance door configuration, there would be a latch in one of the doors, and for the full swing-up hatch, there would be a t-handle in the center (probably would use a folding t-handle so it wouldn't interfere if a tire carrier were mounted as well.

There are some cosmetic design details on the door, including two recessed panels, and raised "SAFARI" letters in one of the recesses.

I'm working on the inner skin designs now, there would be two different ones - one for the barn door/full hatch configuration, and a different one for the ambulance door setup.

 

[jscherb]

Its not an issue of cost per-se its more becuase I have never seen a camper interior that I didnt want to completely re.

?

 

[jscherb]

The trailer turned out to be really popular at the Jeep show, so I've come up with a concept for a modular series of molds that could make pretty much any length Jeep-style trailer tub in fiberglass. The "kit" would consist of side panels, which could be any length up to 8', end panels in either tailgate or "blank" style, and inner fenders.

The floor could be either fiberglass, metal or plywood, there are a bunch of different ways to go with that. There would also be some fiberglass angle brackets that would reinforce the tailgate opening so it could support either CJ-style tailgate cables or Wrangler-style hinges/striker pins. Those aren't shown in the drawing.

If these were to be offered commercially, they could be made available fully assembled in a range of standard sizes to fit various trailer frames that are on the market, or they could be offered as a DIY bond-togther kit so someone could make a custom size trailer. Add the necessary Safari Cab side panels, roof and barn doors/hatches and you could make a Safari Overland Camper trailer.

They could be offered in a range of standard sizes (either assembled or in kit form), to fit a range of the inexpensive trailers out there, like those from Harbor Freight:

 

[jscherb]

I've done some research on the sizes of trailers available at places like Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, etc., and it seems there are two common sizes that might make sense to throw fiberglass tubs on - 4'x8' and 40" x 48". These trailers are very affordable as well, and come in several load capacities (and prices).

Here's the larger of the two, I've drawn the tub slightly transparent so you can see the frame and tires below it. I've sized it to fit the Safari Ovelrand Camper top, so it's 89" long. That's slightly less than the 8' trailer frame, so I've thrown a steel mesh platform on the front (these trailers are bolt-together, so if you didn't want the overhang for the platform, you could cut the rails a little shorter to match the tub length). The axle track width is such that standard Jeep flares would be the right width to cover the tires.

And here's the smaller trailer. The trailer frame is 48" long, but I've sized the tub at 46", because Gr8Tops sells a tonneau cover that's 46" long (although it wouldn't be hard to get other sizes made, including one for the longer trailer above). The track width of this one as it comes is narrow enough that flares wouldn't be necessary, the tires would fit within the wheel wells of the tub (kind of like the older narrow-track CJ's).

5x8 also seems to be a common size, that also would be a good fit for the camper top tub, and would offer a larger load capacity.

These trailer generally have fairly small tires, so I'm guessing some people might want to switch to larger tires to match their Jeep. The larger capacity trailers come with 5-lug x 4.5" bolt circles that are the same as the Jeep pattern.

 

[reece146]

When I build a trailer I make the box large enough to easily load a 4'x'8 sheet or drywall, plywood, whatever.