RR44TDv8
New member
Hi Folks,
I am pretty new here but I have laboured over the site and I cannot even get all the great ideas I have stolen, salvaged or read about, into my head all at once! To those that I have plagiarised, I salute and thank you!
So, I am from Sydney Australia and I own and drive a 2012 Range Rover Vogue TDV8 (4.4Ltr) which does go off road and has actually had low range engaged! I work in the mining industry and the vehicle attends a lot of mine sites. The car also does a lot of highway driving, it has been across Australia on an 8000km journey and has been to northern Queensland and all over New South Wales. For it's age, its probably the highest mileage Range Rover in the country! I also have a 2011 Nissan Navara Dual Cab 4x4 diesel turbo as well. The Nissan has a 130ltr long range tank and a suspension lift, 265/70R17 Kumho KL71 mudders and a factory alloy bar on the front. Both the Range Rover and the Nissan will tow this trailer whilst it is being built and when it is finished so I keep an eye to suitability for both vehicles. The aim of the trailer is as a base camp for a journeys I can start to organise now my work is allowing me more freedom. Gotta love a commodities crash!
Now to the trailer..... it is a standard 6x4 box trailer with low sides and it had its axle fitted above the leaf springs to make it user friendly for the sedan owning public. It is 5 years old and I paid $350 for it second hand about 18 months ago. It has carried out domestic duties and has been a workhorse for my company over this period. It has hauled loads way over it's stated capacity and for extremely long distances and never uttered a word in complaint. It was fitted with 205/65R15 tyres on black steel road wheels but is now on 265/70R15 Radar A/T's on Mickey Thompson Steel Series 15 x 8 rims. This created some issues with clearance under the guards and this would then have created issues with hauling loads. I have a belly lift hoist in storage and now my garage slab is dry, I am going to get the hoist tomorrow and bring it back home. It weighs about 450kg so I need the clearance between tyre and guard!
I started to roll the axle over and place it under the springs yesterday morning at around 10.00am and whilst it was apart, I greased all the bushes and the spring mounts and the perches and replaced anything that was worn out. Job was all over and I was standing drinking a beer and looking at it by 1.30pm! I recovered 3.25" in height and it now sits just a touch nose heavy behind the Nissan. It would be perfect behind the Rangie with the suspension set on "Off Road". The Rangie runs 275/55R20 Pirelli Scorpion A/T's which raise it about 3/4" from standard in any of the air suspension settings.
This was the trailer when it worked for a living.
This is with the new wheel/tyre package but springs under the axle
and this is the trailer with the axle now positioned under the springs and I have all my clearance back not to mention the much more useful height of the trailer work surfaces.
So what happens now?
I am waiting on some 75mm rubber flare to arrive so I can fit it to the mudguards to keep the whole thing legal as you can see below, we have some overhang issues.
I will be adding an extension to the draw bar to move the trailer back so that I can get a decent angle on it off road and the rest of the list looks like this at the moment:
I have 2 x 120 a/h deep cycles to go into a box on the front with all ancillary wiring to run lights, fridge, water pump, lotsa plugs for phones and ipads and stuff like that.
DC to DC charger to go with the above.
Wiring to car for on-road charging.
Two large storage areas on each side of the tray for a bar and to provide work space but this will cause the load area to be decreased to 3' or 900mm across. These storage areas will be lifted above the 13" or 345 mm height of the tray. I don't have the exact measurements yet but I have just bought cheap a heap of light weight sheet metal for the fabrication so I will figure out what I have to play with once it arrives.
Spare wheel mounts at the rear for the spares for the trailer and one at the front for a spare for the car.
Jerry can holders on both sides in front of the mudguards.
A set of sliding drawers for the middle area between the side storage areas that will exit the back of the trailer.
A basket suspended between two ladder rack style support bars so that I can get my dome swag up there out of the mud and away from sniffing noses in the bush. The bars will rise and lower with electrical actuators if I a still enthused enough or with gas struts if I'm lazy. I want to keep the height of the trailer under the height of either of the tow cars.
The whole thing will get a blast and paint when it's time and when the welding and drilling and bolting has stopped, (slowed down?), and I'm going with white and black to match the Range Rover at this stage.
Let the fun begin!
Rgds
Grant
I am pretty new here but I have laboured over the site and I cannot even get all the great ideas I have stolen, salvaged or read about, into my head all at once! To those that I have plagiarised, I salute and thank you!
So, I am from Sydney Australia and I own and drive a 2012 Range Rover Vogue TDV8 (4.4Ltr) which does go off road and has actually had low range engaged! I work in the mining industry and the vehicle attends a lot of mine sites. The car also does a lot of highway driving, it has been across Australia on an 8000km journey and has been to northern Queensland and all over New South Wales. For it's age, its probably the highest mileage Range Rover in the country! I also have a 2011 Nissan Navara Dual Cab 4x4 diesel turbo as well. The Nissan has a 130ltr long range tank and a suspension lift, 265/70R17 Kumho KL71 mudders and a factory alloy bar on the front. Both the Range Rover and the Nissan will tow this trailer whilst it is being built and when it is finished so I keep an eye to suitability for both vehicles. The aim of the trailer is as a base camp for a journeys I can start to organise now my work is allowing me more freedom. Gotta love a commodities crash!
Now to the trailer..... it is a standard 6x4 box trailer with low sides and it had its axle fitted above the leaf springs to make it user friendly for the sedan owning public. It is 5 years old and I paid $350 for it second hand about 18 months ago. It has carried out domestic duties and has been a workhorse for my company over this period. It has hauled loads way over it's stated capacity and for extremely long distances and never uttered a word in complaint. It was fitted with 205/65R15 tyres on black steel road wheels but is now on 265/70R15 Radar A/T's on Mickey Thompson Steel Series 15 x 8 rims. This created some issues with clearance under the guards and this would then have created issues with hauling loads. I have a belly lift hoist in storage and now my garage slab is dry, I am going to get the hoist tomorrow and bring it back home. It weighs about 450kg so I need the clearance between tyre and guard!
I started to roll the axle over and place it under the springs yesterday morning at around 10.00am and whilst it was apart, I greased all the bushes and the spring mounts and the perches and replaced anything that was worn out. Job was all over and I was standing drinking a beer and looking at it by 1.30pm! I recovered 3.25" in height and it now sits just a touch nose heavy behind the Nissan. It would be perfect behind the Rangie with the suspension set on "Off Road". The Rangie runs 275/55R20 Pirelli Scorpion A/T's which raise it about 3/4" from standard in any of the air suspension settings.
This was the trailer when it worked for a living.
This is with the new wheel/tyre package but springs under the axle
and this is the trailer with the axle now positioned under the springs and I have all my clearance back not to mention the much more useful height of the trailer work surfaces.
So what happens now?
I am waiting on some 75mm rubber flare to arrive so I can fit it to the mudguards to keep the whole thing legal as you can see below, we have some overhang issues.
I will be adding an extension to the draw bar to move the trailer back so that I can get a decent angle on it off road and the rest of the list looks like this at the moment:
I have 2 x 120 a/h deep cycles to go into a box on the front with all ancillary wiring to run lights, fridge, water pump, lotsa plugs for phones and ipads and stuff like that.
DC to DC charger to go with the above.
Wiring to car for on-road charging.
Two large storage areas on each side of the tray for a bar and to provide work space but this will cause the load area to be decreased to 3' or 900mm across. These storage areas will be lifted above the 13" or 345 mm height of the tray. I don't have the exact measurements yet but I have just bought cheap a heap of light weight sheet metal for the fabrication so I will figure out what I have to play with once it arrives.
Spare wheel mounts at the rear for the spares for the trailer and one at the front for a spare for the car.
Jerry can holders on both sides in front of the mudguards.
A set of sliding drawers for the middle area between the side storage areas that will exit the back of the trailer.
A basket suspended between two ladder rack style support bars so that I can get my dome swag up there out of the mud and away from sniffing noses in the bush. The bars will rise and lower with electrical actuators if I a still enthused enough or with gas struts if I'm lazy. I want to keep the height of the trailer under the height of either of the tow cars.
The whole thing will get a blast and paint when it's time and when the welding and drilling and bolting has stopped, (slowed down?), and I'm going with white and black to match the Range Rover at this stage.
Let the fun begin!
Rgds
Grant
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