SoCal Tear Drop Owners! Post up!
- Thread starter Yulli
- Start date
Keith Starr
Inmate #2558516
That was a bit east of Mormon Lake AZ off FR 125/126 on the way back from Overland Expo. Very scenic area but it lacks any technical terrain. Thanks to the Fun Treks books (great guy, met him at the Expo) I'll be doing some routes in Moab and southern CO this summer in search of trails that make the trailer earn it's "off-road" title.
Chris Cordes
Expedition Leader
It is really looking good. And not only is the design and craftsmanship of the original build good, but, at least speaking about Mike at Voyager Adventure, their post sales support is excellent also.
BTW, we didn't get the heater and so far, including a couple of sub freezing nights, haven't missed it. But I do have my wife to keep me warm
BTW, we didn't get the heater and so far, including a couple of sub freezing nights, haven't missed it. But I do have my wife to keep me warm
It is really looking good. And not only is the design and craftsmanship of the original build good, but, at least speaking about Mike at Voyager Adventure, their post sales support is excellent also.
BTW, we didn't get the heater and so far, including a couple of sub freezing nights, haven't missed it. But I do have my wife to keep me warm
I wasn't going to get the heater, but my wife is always cold, so I figured it was worth the investment to keep her happy. Hopefully it will be worth it.
Luckytibbs
LuckyTibbs
I just finished a 5 day off road trip with my trailer built by Mike at Voyager, heater and all and it is worth it. We had some really cold nights. But the trailer did great over some rock obstacles and on switchbacks. This is truly an off-road trailer. No joke here. I went on trails that you wouldn't even consider with any other trailer and it followed my jeep perfectly. Have fun with your. I am overly thrilled with mine!
Debbie
Five days. I'm envious of you, Debbie. We just did three in central New Mexico, and the trailer, also built by Mike, was basically perfect. Not so the driver of the rig, but more in a moment.
The first pic below was taken at our camp in the Manzanos, showing our kitchen,
and this one is the next day in the Santa Fe National Forest, with the Arb out but we we haven't yet set up the dogs' night time fence which can be seen in the background under the trailer tongue.
We don't do technical, and this is basically as bad as it intentionally gets:
.However, forest service roads, especially those signed: "No passenger vehicles", or, a bit more ominously, "High clearance and forest management vehicles only", can sometimes be a bit more of a challenge and one of those caused me to learn a bit on this trip. I left the leveler jacks mounted on the back of the trailer, and despite being careful, managed to destroy one of them. Seems that the forest service people built water flow control ridges in the road which have _very_ steep approaches. Steep enough that one of the jacks hit the ground despite 30" tires.
After that, I moved the remaining good jack from the back of the trailer to the mount on the tongue. I bit later, same road, we reached a dead end in a narrow box canyon. Rather than attempt to back up several hundred yards, I decided there was room for me to turn around with something like a 5 point turn. In the process, I didn't quite jack knife, but I did run the rear bumper into the crank handle of the leveler jack I had just moved to the front. Bent the handle all to hell and gone, but was too pissed at myself to take a photo.
Lesson learned. DO NOT drive on USFS roads with the leveler jacks mounted anywhere. Stow them on the tongue!
Keith Starr
Inmate #2558516
Man, that's rough. I've always wondered if that could happen. Sorry to hear.
Luckytibbs
LuckyTibbs
Oh boy Doug, that was rough! Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I try not to do real technical stuff with the trailer attached, but I've been caught before on a trail that I though Oh Crap. Well, the trailer stayed right behind so thank goodness. Yes, I have also tried doing those 5 and 10 point turns and so far I have been lucky, but just barely. I have a few bang ups myself, I've just tried taking them in stride! The last one I did said no Trailers recommended and did that stop me? Heck no. Ha. I made it though, and the trailer did great. Hope to see you in the forest one day!!
unusedusername
Observer
Doug E:
Don't feel too bad. We did worse.
A sand bank gave way under the trailer as we came down an incline. The bank caused one tire to come down about 3 feet while the other tire wasn't moving. The trailer just slid down and flopped on it's side. Luckily, the sand below was soft. The only damage is the roof rack mounts are bent, and the awning on the side that hit the ground is bent to the point where it can no longer be opened. There is no damage to the frame, or the body as far as I can tell. The window on the downside of the fall did not break. We were towing with a Max coupler, so the hitch was undamaged also.
I've got an appointment to get it fixed.
We got some help from someone with a winch. Afterwords, we went back to town to assess our options. We eventually decided to continue our trip and spent two glorious days in the desert.
The hardest part was towing the trailer down the Watson wash. I should get enough time to post a video of this in the next few days.
Don't feel too bad. We did worse.
A sand bank gave way under the trailer as we came down an incline. The bank caused one tire to come down about 3 feet while the other tire wasn't moving. The trailer just slid down and flopped on it's side. Luckily, the sand below was soft. The only damage is the roof rack mounts are bent, and the awning on the side that hit the ground is bent to the point where it can no longer be opened. There is no damage to the frame, or the body as far as I can tell. The window on the downside of the fall did not break. We were towing with a Max coupler, so the hitch was undamaged also.
I've got an appointment to get it fixed.
We got some help from someone with a winch. Afterwords, we went back to town to assess our options. We eventually decided to continue our trip and spent two glorious days in the desert.
The hardest part was towing the trailer down the Watson wash. I should get enough time to post a video of this in the next few days.
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Thanks Kieth & Debbie for the expressions of sympathy, but OMG has unusedusername ever got me beat. Hands down. That really sucks and I am so glad to see that you and yours appear fine, and that the trailer damage was relatively mild, (a testimony to the build quality?) I'm also impressed that you continued on to enjoy your time in the desert. Yay.
Best wishes,
Doug
Best wishes,
Doug
unusedusername
Observer
Thanks Doug. The fact that it survived that abuse at all shows how well the design and build comes together on these trailers. I've seen what happens if a fiberglass framed trailer falls, and those are generally a complete loss.
We picked the right trailer
Table leg for off-road trailers.
In response to a couple of questions regarding my previous table leg post:
The table leg that came with my original table is on the right (AP Products 013-070). It's max extension is 31.5" and it is adjustable from 26" to 31.5" in half inch increments. The table leg I used to start my project is shown on the left (AP Products 013-135). Same max, 31.5", but a 12" range of adjustment in one inch increments, which works better with off-road terrain. And the coarser adjustment is no big deal, especially off road. Both legs are easily found on amazon.
I made two versions of the longer leg, shown in the following two photos.
Note that the one on the left has a greater range of adjustment, and is my preferred leg, but it does require a slight bit more work. In the right leg, I simply added a tip extension, created by sacrificing another leg, bolted onto the sliding portion of the leg. This eats up part of the leg's range, and I was left with a total adjustment of 10".
The one on the left required that I drill out the rivets on a sacrificial leg, use the sliding portion of that leg to slice together the two pieces - one the brown outer part of the sacrificial leg and the other a much shortened brown piece with the hinge still attached. The total adjustment range on this one is the full 12".
Because levelers only lift one side of the trailer and don't lower the other, the adjustment range of the leg wants to be of asymmetric. In my case, with a 30" height to the table rail, I've made the adjustable range of the leg from 27" to 39", which accommodates slightly better than an 8% grade with the table on either the low or high side of the trailer.
In response to a couple of questions regarding my previous table leg post:
The table leg that came with my original table is on the right (AP Products 013-070). It's max extension is 31.5" and it is adjustable from 26" to 31.5" in half inch increments. The table leg I used to start my project is shown on the left (AP Products 013-135). Same max, 31.5", but a 12" range of adjustment in one inch increments, which works better with off-road terrain. And the coarser adjustment is no big deal, especially off road. Both legs are easily found on amazon.
I made two versions of the longer leg, shown in the following two photos.
Note that the one on the left has a greater range of adjustment, and is my preferred leg, but it does require a slight bit more work. In the right leg, I simply added a tip extension, created by sacrificing another leg, bolted onto the sliding portion of the leg. This eats up part of the leg's range, and I was left with a total adjustment of 10".
The one on the left required that I drill out the rivets on a sacrificial leg, use the sliding portion of that leg to slice together the two pieces - one the brown outer part of the sacrificial leg and the other a much shortened brown piece with the hinge still attached. The total adjustment range on this one is the full 12".
Because levelers only lift one side of the trailer and don't lower the other, the adjustment range of the leg wants to be of asymmetric. In my case, with a 30" height to the table rail, I've made the adjustable range of the leg from 27" to 39", which accommodates slightly better than an 8% grade with the table on either the low or high side of the trailer.