What features would you most like to see in an overlanding trailer?

[DMFA]

I’m a welder/metal fabricator and want to build myself a small overlanding trailer. I want to keep it simple, yet have some innovative features that most trailers don’t have, but people wish they did. My must haves include a platform for a RTT that is high enough to stand under, a pullout kitchen, fresh water and grey water tanks, gear storage that is water and dust proof. What are features that are must haves for you that just aren’t very common, but you wish you had? Possibly even things that serve double duty?

Cheers!

 

[bgenlvtex]

Independent suspension(preferably air ride) and fully articulated hitch are where I would start.

 

[MOAK]

I built ours to go anywhere our built 80 series can go. It has , more than enough storage, kitchen in the rear, dust proof, waterproof, an rtt 6’ up, 2x2 frame , with heavy duty leaf springs & shackles, 33” rubber matching the tow vehicle, pintle hook, 36 gallon water capacity with a tap for the kitchen and for a hot water shower. It has seen literally thousands of miles of dirt roads and hundreds of miles of technical trails. I’m trying to think of anything I would do differently, but cannot as it took about 8 years of trial & error to get everything dialed in. I’m a strong advocate of leaf springs. We broke one a few years ago. We were able to ratchet strap the axle and hard tailed that side to a campsite about 6 hours away. We located a spring shop 90 miles from camp and swapped them out the next day. Since these photos I’ve added a propane tank on the side and now have full coverage on the fenders.

 

[smritte]

I build mine using as much travel as possible. I could design and build anything and my last two are solid axle leaf. I did this because of ease of repair. In my opinion only one of the independents work properly. My leaf's are about 45" long, KYB gas shock about 8-10 inch of travel and air bags to level it out based on load.
I can run about 45 mph an a moderate dirt road and have (accidentally) caught air. Off set ruts and rocks, the trailer takes them smoothly. I run low tongue weight, center the axle under the box. The axle to tongue match's my vehicle length and width. The trailer follows my track perfectly. My M-100 trailer has seen hard core trails for a couple of decades. The teardrop, moderate trails.

If I was going to do anything trailing arm wise, they would be at least 20" long, coils with poly air bags inside them. Shocks would be as long as possible. On that note, I've been using KYB, early VW bug. My M-100 weighs about 1k loaded and my teardrop about 2k loaded. My long dirt road driving, the teardrop has been overheating the shocks. I need to come up with a larger diameter or possibly a reservoir.

Hitch wise, multiaxis or go home. In my opinion all of the ones on the market have a common flaw. They all spin 360 degrees. The ones I make will only go about 160 degrees. My M-100 on two occasions tried to flip on me. Both times were slow and both times were a fluke. If it did happen on both occasions, I would have been forced to drag the trailer quite a ways before righting it.

 

[MOAK]

KYB, now there’s a blast from the past. Agree about the 360 degree hitches. I ran with a spinning Lunette ring for one trip. Came home and welded it fast. If the fifteen hundred lb trailer drags my 6,000 lb truck over, I’m in deep doo doo and where I shouldn’t be.