Trailer Help

[girvin]

sorry I posted in the wrong section.

So I am building a working mans bruder. I am worried my axel is not far enough forward. I copied their trailer for dimensions and matched my front axel to ball length to my trailer hitch to axel length. I am hoping I can keep these dimensions and just keep weight in the back. My water was going to go in between the tires as well as 3 deep cycles just in front of them. They only thing I can do is lengthen the rear if I want to change axel position and still keep the handling I want. 13' box 6'2" wide 3' 2" tongue past box. Nothing heavy up front just mattress and a place for my hydrofoil boards which weigh under 5 lbs each.

 

[Teardropper]

I tried Googling what a bruder was... and finally figured out you are attempting something along the lines of a Bruder camp trailer.

Putting the water behind the axle will work until it's used up. When you mention, "...if I want to change axel position and still keep the handling I want" Are you talking about the departure angle? Otherwise, why not move the axle forward and stick with the 60/40% rule?

T

p.s. and why three batteries? What do you need to power with that much juice?

 

[girvin]

Bc I want my axel to hitch length to be the same as my tow vehicles front axel to hitch (gx470) Sorry, yeah its a bruder exp4 is what I based it off of. It seems to do amazing on theirs I am hoping I dont screw mine up lol.

 

[girvin]

Maybe a double tire carrier off the back would fix this issue.

 

[girvin]

Ok I think I have it close to 40 percent now. The reason for 3 batteries and 300AH is I work remotely the whole point of this little rig is a family camper that I can still work from so we can go anywhere and I can still make a living. Thanks for the help.

 

[Bayou Boy]

Bc I want my axel to hitch length to be the same as my tow vehicles front axel to hitch (gx470) Sorry, yeah its a bruder exp4 is what I based it off of. It seems to do amazing on theirs I am hoping I dont screw mine up lol.

If you want to have that wheelbase, you might as well make the back of the trailer longer to give you more room inside. The difference between 2ft and 4 or 5ft of overhang will make virtually zero difference towing it anywhere since you will be limited by the breakover of the long wheelbase. However, it will give you room to do a drop down behind the bed for your legs to go so you can use it as a couch with a little table across the back wall for when you want to hang out inside.

People always think they just want to sleep inside. When it's rainy or cold or both, you'll want a place inside to chill and doing that on a bed just sucks.

Go to 15 or so feet overall and this whole thing makes a lot more sense.

Also, either do 2 GC2 batteries or one Group 31. Honestly, with that size trailer and a 100 or 150watt solar panel it will be very hard to use more than 50% of a Group 31 unless it is cloudy/rainy for a ton of days in a row. In that case you'll either end up driving cause you're bored or in town where you can plug in and charge cause you're bored.

 

[Bayou Boy]

Just read your family camper part. Take what I said to heart. Your family is going to be miserable in that thing if it is any weather other than such that you can be outside. Been there in an ATC popup truck camper and moved our way up.

Also if you need power, it's probably because you need internet. That's tough to come across reliably anywhere other than campgrounds.

You do not need 300AH for that trailer. I have 4 GC2s in the 5th wheel with a total of 430AH and we can go three days of normal(not conserving) use running the heater heavily at night before we get down to the low 60% capacity. And that's running the TV at night through an inverter.

 

[Bayou Boy]

Before going through the time and expense of building that I'd find a used 16ft TT from Jayco or Nash or something for a few thousand bucks and try this out a few times. You'll be able to sell it and make almost all your money back, especially if you buy now and sell in the spring. Then ask you wife how she feels going smaller.

A 16ft single axle TT with an axle flip and 31s will go a hell of a lot of places. As will a popup setup the same way. They aren't the pieces of crap people make them out to be if you buy right and go through it over a couple of weekends.


I built this for about $7000 and drug it everywhere. It would go anywhere your truck would without question.

2014 Rockwood 2318G Popup. Axle Flip, 15" E-rated ATs, 100w solar SOLD

This camper was bought to use for trips to the Rockies and improvements were made to make it work perfectly on long distance trips. The axle has been flipped to increase clearance and make room for LT215/75r15 tires with real speed ratings to allow travel at posted speed limits anywhere in the...

www.expeditionportal.com

 

[girvin]

I like your points the only thing is this is moving way up for us already. We lived in a van our first year of marriage doing Europe and north Africa. I asked my wife if she wanted a small TT but she said we should try a teardrop style first so we dont get spoiled with indoor plumbing while we are still young bc we believe we wont be able to go back lol. The travel trailers die a quick death in Baja where we frequent so i wanted something a bit more suitable. What TT do you like for being well made? I have already ordered most of the stuff for my trailer so am pretty set on my build. We couldnt even sit up strait in our van lol. So it will be a big upgrade for us. You are probably right on the battery I used to build systems for boats and always made them bigger bc people lie about how much juice they use. As for the building I owned a fab company and have built just about everything and I need an outlet as I am stuck away from the ocean for a year. Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply!

 

[Bayou Boy]

Most small trailers die a quick death on rough roads because of the ride. That can be fixed.

Move to bigger LT tires with significantly more weight capacity so you can inflate them to auto pressure of 35 or 40psi rather than 65psi.
Add shocks.
If that's not enough, do the Timbren SAS system.

Also, SLOW DOWN.

You'll need to do all of these to your teardrop anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of that Forest River popup. everything was screwed together and there just wasn't much to break. It didn't have a shower or toilet so I never had to dump. I bought a "covered bucket" (look it up on Amazon) for the sink and it was plenty. It only held 20g of water so it was very light. separate sleeping areas and a dinette were very nice. We got caught in a 3 hour rainstorm that turned to hail one afternoon outside of Pinedale WY. That would have sucked royally in anything smaller. it was very comfortable and I could pull it at 85mph or crawl a forest road without thinking twice about either.

Jayco and Starcraft have always made the better quality campers of the bargain brands. I wouldn't hesitate to buy smaller campers from either of those guys. The best is Lance, Outdoors RV, and Northwood however Lance will be too low and road oriented for you and the others will be too heavy.

Also, a lot of Jayco Jay Flight campers came with massive water tanks which is awesome. Look at the options list on the site. They have small campers that were available with 80g of water and a lot of them came that way. A lot of their popups were also available with bigger tanks as well.

 

[Bayou Boy]

BTW, if you are just looking for a project go join tnttt.com and have fun.

 

[girvin]

Thanks for all the advice. I am using timbren I will look at those trailers as we move up .I like tnttt.com alot. I do things a little higher standard then alot of those build but at the same time there are some great craftsmen on there. I can always add a pop top later if we need it. Currently we are coming from a 5 ft wide x 7ft long x 3 foot high living space so this will be a big move up.