Trip down Oregon coast

[biggoolies]

We have just completed a trip part way down the Oregon coast. It has been 14 years since our last trip down the coast. We forgot how beautiful and stunning it is there. We traveled the 1200 mile trip on veggie oil so absolutely no damage to the environment. Here are a couple of pictures of our truck on the beach at Seaside.

 

[Gatsma]

Wow- the more I see of yours and Carl Hunter's rigs, the more I MUST find an old Bigfoot trailer to put on a truck! They actually look better on a truck than on their own wheels!
Question- are you able to open the front window shield? Can't tell if it would hit the cab or not. If so, I guess tilting the cab a bit would allow it to open, but still a hassle...
Anyway, enjoy the rest of your trip! You have a lot of beauty to see, but you already knew that ...... ;-)

 

[Mock Tender]

This is pretty much what I am looking to do- except with an Escape Trailer. How did you mount it on the back and have you had any structural problems with the trailer/caravan?

Mark

 

[biggoolies]

Wow- the more I see of yours and Carl Hunter's rigs, the more I MUST find an old Bigfoot trailer to put on a truck! They actually look better on a truck than on their own wheels!
Question- are you able to open the front window shield? Can't tell if it would hit the cab or not. If so, I guess tilting the cab a bit would allow it to open, but still a hassle...
Anyway, enjoy the rest of your trip! You have a lot of beauty to see, but you already knew that ...... ;-)

Yes we have had to tilt the cab in order to open the front protective shield. It became more difficult with the rack on top. I have to modify the shield to either slide up instead of tilting or cut it in half so the top flips up and the bottom folds under to miss the cab. But that is a future project. I am enjoying the truck now the way it is. I have a lot of plans for future projects on the truck as we are planning on taking it on some worldwide journey but that will not happen for several years so the projects can be delayed until before then.

 

[biggoolies]

I will take some pictures on how it is mounted and post them but basically for now there is a three point mount on the front and the rear is bolted to the frame. It seems to work well. But the weight of the trailer is quite light. I have had no structural problems whatsoever and we have been over some pretty rough terrain and hit curbs by mistake with no damage.
QUOTE=Mock Tender;1675107]This is pretty much what I am looking to do- except with an Escape Trailer. How did you mount it on the back and have you had any structural problems with the trailer/caravan?

Mark[/QUOTE]

 

[con kso]

Awesome rig! Bet you left a trail of french fry aroma behind you as you rambled down the coast.

 

[Mock Tender]

Thanks biggoolies- I am heading up to Escape Trailer next week- so knowing a successful way to mount it will be extremely helpful while looking at their options.

Mark

 

[biggoolies]

Hi Mark:
Here are the mount pictures. I need to get under there and give it a paint job but here goes. The first two pictures are the three point mount and the last two are the rear fixed. We have the short wheelbase so the frame had to be "intended" with the steel tubing which eventually needs to be shortened to improve the departure angle.
QUOTE=Mock Tender;1675363]Thanks biggoolies- I am heading up to Escape Trailer next week- so knowing a successful way to mount it will be extremely helpful while looking at their options.

Mark[/QUOTE]

 

[biggoolies]

Thanks. Actually, I have gotten back at the exhaust and had a smell and it doesn't smell like anything. I suppose that comes from those who use blue jeans as a way of filtering it. I centrifuge the oil and the particulate matter left is less than one micron which is very small. So I am not making anyone crave anything. Lol

Awesome rig! Bet you left a trail of french fry aroma behind you as you rambled down the coast.

 

[Gatsma]

Nice pictures! It looks like you used a subframe after the frame drop, then used crossmembers on top of that to attach to the trailer frame side members. Correct so far? I will probably use a longer-wheelbase truck for mine, mostly because Isuzus are very common at that length. Mine, if/when done, will be 2wd because I'm not going off road for the most part. But I still want a strong attachment between truck and trailer, so I'm looking at yours and Carl Hunter's carefully. They BOTH WORK! Did the same person do both trucks? I see many similarities, but that could also mean great minds think alike! Again, the Bigfoot trailer on a truck just looks SO RIGHT! Thank you in advance for your answers, at your convenience.
On edit- Is that a water or holding tank in the second pic of the front mount? Does it stick down very far? And is that a reason for having to mount the coach as far above the frame as it is? I noticed the same thing on Carl's unit.

 

[SkiFreak]

I think that the design concept of a 3 point mount is a proven thing. I was initially going to use one myself but chose not to after much reading and numerous discussions with people that know more about this stuff than me.
As mentioned, a dump truck uses a type of 3 point mount and they do just fine. Personally, for a Fuso frame, I think that if a 3 point mount is used then having the pivot at the front is preferable to having it at the rear, given that the most amount of flex happens at the front. As biggoolies has said, his camper is quite light too, which is a plus if using a 3 point mount. There is no pass-thru either, which also helps.

How to mount a subframe to a chassis has pretty much been done to death on this forum, so I will not try to try to hijack this thread and turn it into another on the same subject.
All I will say is that when it comes down to mounting a camper on a Fuso stepped chassis, I think the design has to take into consideration the weight of the camper and the type of terrain that the vehicle will be used on.
Do that and you should be fine.

 

[Gatsma]

Makes sense, Owen. The Bigfoot trailers ARE fairly light, which is why the 3-pt. system holds up here, and on Carl Hunter's rig. Though I'd be tempted to put a rear crossmember over each pair of spring perches to eliminate any possibility of "bowing" the frame, even with the light weight. Better safe than sorry....

 

[biggoolies]

The three point pivot is directly bolted below to the truck frame on each side. The top pivot is welded to a cross member on the trailer. Yes! The company that built Carl's truck was the same company that built mine as Carl and I live near each other. When Carl's truck was built he and a couple other engineers were around during the build adding their expertise which was comfort for me to hear. I would be quite surprised I have any frame problems. I have considered putting a spring system like others have done on the back. (one spring on each side) and keep the pivot at the front. But I will have to think it over. I may cause too much twisting with that system. What you see in the one picture is a holding tank that has a fiberglass cover around it to make it four season. (The furnace blows heat around the water tanks) The frame is higher at the front of the truck and has an S curve. So the rear of the frame is lower so the living quarters has to be higher for that reason.

Nice pictures! It looks like you used a subframe after the frame drop, then used crossmembers on top of that to attach to the trailer frame side members. Correct so far? I will probably use a longer-wheelbase truck for mine, mostly because Isuzus are very common at that length. Mine, if/when done, will be 2wd because I'm not going off road for the most part. But I still want a strong attachment between truck and trailer, so I'm looking at yours and Carl Hunter's carefully. They BOTH WORK! Did the same person do both trucks? I see many similarities, but that could also mean great minds think alike! Again, the Bigfoot trailer on a truck just looks SO RIGHT! Thank you in advance for your answers, at your convenience.
On edit- Is that a water or holding tank in the second pic of the front mount? Does it stick down very far? And is that a reason for having to mount the coach as far above the frame as it is? I noticed the same thing on Carl's unit.

 

[biggoolies]

Gatsma, since you are considering mounting onto a 2WD truck, I have to say that 99 percent of our driving has been 2WD and have not required 4x4.

 

[Gatsma]

Thank you, biggoolies(love to know what THAT name means.....;-) ! The main reason that neither you nor Carl don't have frame problems that others have is because of the relatively light weight of the Bigfoot trailer coaches you both used. As a result, you both ended up with lighter, easier-to-handle, and durable expo trucks that have held up very well.
Question- Anybody know if Carl's truck is still around? I doubt Carl still has it.