My DIY offroad utility (base camp) trailer

[Sparksalot]

I welded a square tube on them to keep them straight during setup, then once the were set and tacked I cut the tube off.

Gotcha. I was thinking along the same lines.

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Havnt had much time to work on ghetto trailer. Got sick last weekend and spent most of the week trying to recover. I did make up some gussets to got with the extra bracing I havnt made yet.
I'll be heading north and driving around with the family this weekend to fisit other family that we havnt seen in a while, next week I won't be able to bring my trailer into work because head office will be there ( they might not care.... but they might...) and next weekend I need to "re-do mothers day" since I was stuck in bed the whole weekend and my wife didn't get the rest she deserved ..... so here starts a lull in this project. I am hoping to still do a few little things during the evenings but it's nearly to that time to bring it to the shop and finish weld some of the thicker materials and flip it over so I can work on the top half.

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Not a whole lot of progress on the trailer lately. Been busy with the family and the wife's honey do list. Also did a little bit of work on the TJ so I could drive it again. Made up some gussets to keep the control arm tabs straight. Got 1 burned but still not happy with how my welder is working. I was hoping to be able to skip a trip to work to burn everything in on the bottom but I guess that's just how it's gunna have to be. I may be able to get up next week if I play my cards right .

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Made a bit of free time so I could make up a couple shock mounts. Still need to make the top side mounts but ran out of time.

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Slow progress on the trailer. Work has had me extremely busy and I havnt had the energy after getting home and getting the kids to bed to do any work on my own stuff. My wife too the kids over to her parents place this morning to give the kids baths ( it has been dry here and our well is suffering) so I get one control arm put back on and got the shock placed and mounts tacked. I'm going to leave enough room to add another shock per side if needed.

 

[PCO6]

Slow progress on the trailer. ...

I know what you mean. I welded in 3 tubes on my trailer build today. That's not much ... but I made 3 design decisions too! What a great day!

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Well I havnt had much of a chance to do any work on my offroad trailer. But I do need a trailer to tow behind my jeep to an offroad event to haul my camping gear next month as well as needing a trailer to haul camping gear for mywlself and the family next week .... so I'm shifting gears slightly to give myself extra time for the offroad trailer.
I already have 2 trailers that I use for different projects ( 3 if you include the boat trailer), so I am taking the utility trailer I use most and modifying it slightly for use behind my jeep. As I've mentioned before, I have all kinds of parts laying around so I figured I would put some to use.
I plan on building a removable rack to go on top of the trailer so I can mount my shower and awning on top and still haul all the gear I need in the bed of the trailer. For this I made up some pockets for the rack to sit in on the side with some 2x2 square tube I had in the garage, and I removed the fenders because they were too small for my extra set of tires ( still not large tires by any means. Only around 27" tall.) And to mount them I had to flip the bolts for the springs son that they pointed inward ( this trailer has sliding leafs and the bolts that hold the leafs in place actually held the brackets for the fenders). The rack will be made of 1.5" square tube and once I get everything build I'll drill some holes to either bolt or bin them in place.
The fenders I also had sitting in a shed for a trailer I don't have anymore so I welded them on for some extra coverage.
Only took me a couple hours to get the work done with a little bit of trial and error, and just the change in tire size raised the trailer 4".
Overall for a quick job I think it turned out well and will meet my requirements short term ( without any real offroad use in the foreseeable future for this trailer).

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Threw a rack together last night when I got the kids to bed. It sits high and I'm torn about this. I made it so that I would t have to adjust anything to deploy my awning, but it now won't fit in my garage with the awning and shower mounted. It's not a huge deal.. I could make the top slide up with more holes in the legs of the rack but I have a bar welded across the bottom of each pocket to support the rack while it's sitting on the trailer. Oh well, not a big deal either way. It's coming together and should hopefully take it's first trip this weekend. I need to pick up more paint and drill holes for pins. Also I did a bumb move and didn't measure the bolt pattern on the shower and it just barely fits but I will need to address a bitbof a hardware issue ( the metal straps are curved and the radius of the curve sits too close to the cross bar). I just need to cut some flat bar and put some holes in it and it should be good. Hopefully the awning fits.

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Well everything seems to be ready for this weekend .... I am missing a pole for my awning but that's not a huge issue ( I probably won't even use it this weekend). Hopefully the weather is nice and the family can have a nice relaxing camping trip. I think we are all in need of it lol.

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Loaded the trailer up and hit the road for an extended weekend with the family. It did well on the road and through the back roads ( didn't do any offroad travel with the little ones in the car) we had to adjust some of our gear prior to leaving to make sure that all food related items could fit in the car when we went to bed/away from camp as the park had active bear warnings posted.

We got caught up in some rain shortly after we arrived and I was glad to have the awning ad it provided most of the shelter until the rain died down.

But we did manage to ketbthe kids out on some hikes, nature walks, beaches, and playgrounds to tire them out while we were out and about.
Any Canadians out there recognize this?
Lol the park staff had a sense of humor. This was in a turtle tank in the visitors center.
We did get caught in more rain and thunder storms through the evening and overnight but all in all was a decent trip.

I'll still have to use this trailer for a while until I get the other one built up for now it's working out well.

 

[AviatorJones]

Bumping this to see if you've made any other progress through the summer/fall?

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

unfortunately I havn't touched the project in a while. between work, family, other projects and repairing things around the house, its just been sitting in my garage. I'm going to have to have another look at it soon and see what I want to do with it because my wife decided that she wanted a pop up camper for next season which will likely get more use than this trailer would. Also my computer erased all of the drawings I had made for the trailer build so I have to either make new drawings or go off of memory. I am hoping to get back at it soon though.

 

[Chuck_582df9]

How's your project coming along? That appears to be some pretty heavy wall tubing, do you have any idea how much it will weigh? Thanks for sharing your build. I'm building an M416 trailer and have had to learn how to weld, paint, wire, and source just about everything. I started about two years ago, got about 80% of it done and its been sitting for about six months. I really appreciate seeing other peoples builds.

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

How's your project coming along? That appears to be some pretty heavy wall tubing, do you have any idea how much it will weigh? Thanks for sharing your build. I'm building an M416 trailer and have had to learn how to weld, paint, wire, and source just about everything. I started about two years ago, got about 80% of it done and its been sitting for about six months. I really appreciate seeing other peoples builds.

unfortunately it has been sitting in my garage without being looked at in quite a while. I need to get back at it but haven't had the time. Some of the material used is heavier than others on this trailer where extra strength may be needed. the control arms are made of .188" wall square tube ( strength in case of rock hits), the main platform of the trailer is .125" square tube and everything above it will be .100" wall. the tongue itself is 1 long piece from front to back of 2-1/2" x 2-1/2" x.238" wall hitch tube that gives me plenty of rigidity throughout and allows for a hitch on the rear as well as removable hitch on the front. I am hoping to get back at it soon but the heat in the garage isn't working at the moment.... I guess burning some steel together will keep me warm lol.

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Finally getting back around to working on the trailer some more. It's been a crazy year with the kids, work, and other projects/maintenance on things that this build got shelved for a while.
I managed to get a few hours and finished welding up the control arms and got them test fit with the bushings installed. Now I have to take it apart and spray them with some paint before I mount the hubs and put wheels on it so I can have it able to roll around in the garage. I need to buy some more hardware because some of the original parts I bought or had for this were used on other things while this was on hold.
Still a fun project and I'm excited to see it with some wheels ( only small trailer tires for now).

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Painted the control arms and got everything mounted back up, installed the hubs and wheels and finally dropped this thing to the ground. One of the shocks has a clearance issue under load that I need to address but it's coming together finally. May be a slow process from her on getting more materials together but it's moving along again.

 

[Joeguyzxj]

How did you get the measurement on the center of the wheels or hubs ? I am starting a build on a 4x6 trailer also using straight axel. Thank you in adavance

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

How did you get the measurement on the center of the wheels or hubs ? I am starting a build on a 4x6 trailer also using straight axel. Thank you in adavance

I wanted the axle to sit a bit further back than most because I wanted bit more tongue weight, and when the drawers slide out of the back I didn't want it to want to tip backward constantly ( I will still add some stabilizers). It also has a receiver in the back that will I can add a bit more weight and still have the trailer stay steady behind me.
Instead of centering the axle at 3' I moved it back 1'. When building I set the springs just ahead of that mark and layed the axle out where I wanted it. Then I layed out all the arms with those measurments in mind.

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Got the trailer out for a run around the block and it tracked great, was very quiet behind my Jeep and even as a bare structure with no weight on it ( though the base is fairly heavy itself) it wasn't bouncing all over the place like my other trailers.

Got it back in the garage and stripped it back down for a coat of pain on the under side, all except for the tongue that I plan to weld some zip tie tabs on to run the wiring down the side of the tongue/spine to the back for light. And I also got the loop for the safety chain welded on and the actual ball receiver made.

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Not a whole lot of progress but some layers of paint layed down, replaced a mangled grease cap on one axle, tacked my zip tie tabs in place down the "spine" so hopefully the next time I flip it over it will be the last.
Also I really need a bigger garage .... I have all kinds of tools and when I start working on something ... a lot of them come out .. then friends come over with issues wit their cars/trucks/boats and everything comes out.... then I get side tracked on another project for a while and ..... Basically my garage is chaos lol.