Anyone successfully use a truck frame for a trailer foundation?

[hidefxj]

Anyone else have a trailer that utilizes not so much of the pickup bed but more of the frame and a custom upper?

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

This is my favorite TRUCK FRAME TRAILER.
DIRTCO I believe a member here too.

http://www.yotatech.com/f88/my-camping-trailer-project-219053/

Still one of my all time fave truck frame trailer builds. There is a guy a few blocks away with an old Nissan King Cab box trailer. It is actually a really nice little trailer and looks surprisingly good, all factory and everything. The tongue and drawbar on his is very neat and tidy and looks like a factory made setup. It is pretty kool what you can do with 1/2 a pickup!

 

[elmo_4_vt]

I used a ranger frame and a utility body... The frame was light, but I cut off everything in front of the bed and welded in a new platform and tongue. I never liked the looks of the frames being bent together and wanted the beef that area up a bit. Can't find a good pic of the just the frame, but I'll add something tonight when I'm home.

Don

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[Septu]

Don, question for you. What does this weigh?

 

[elmo_4_vt]

The utility bed was aluminum, and weighed around 375 if I recall correctly.... The whole trailer including the tent, water, propane, and everything needed for a long weekend of camping weighed in around 1,750 lbs if I remember correctly from a time I stopped at a truck stop scale. The trailer is now sold though and I move into a hard sided camper.

Don

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[Dirtco]

This is my favorite TRUCK FRAME TRAILER.
DIRTCO I believe a member here too.

http://www.yotatech.com/f88/my-camping-trailer-project-219053/

Thanks man! I have an on going thread over here with recent pictures and updates, it has a brief introduction and then current updates: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/gener...dirtco%92s-camping-trailer-version-1-2-a.html .

I like his trailer also, awesome fab work and a great looking final product, but it seems that the shape of the frame puts the bulk of the mass of the trailer and contents unnecessarily high, giving it a high CG and the bed height for loading/unloading/accessing the contents, but this might not be of concern to most people as much as for me.

It looks like it has a high center of gravity, but you have to remember all the heavy stuff is below the bed. The fuel tank, battery, and soon to be water tank are all under the floor. My camping gear doesn't weigh much at all, and the skins/panels are super light gauge steel, or aluminum. There is another advantage to using the frame, I can run real suspension and not just trailer springs; I have a good amount of suspension travel and it keeps up with the 4Runner quite well. Almost too well, there have been several times I have gotten the 4Runner, and trailer sideways playing Baja driver! Having said that, if I was to build another trailer I would build my own frame, I have a TON of time working around the stock frame. Here's a couple pictures of how it set's right now...

 

[Mark Harley]

Yep! Still one of my favorites........It has served well and still looks good!