My DIY solution to the UEV 440

ljrunner05

Adventurer
What an incredible build! As many have said you have an abundance of talent. I'm very slowly starting my first trailer build. A little harder when you don't have a garage and live in an apartment.... We all have to start somewhere, and I'm excited. :wings:

After reading the last 17 pages, I've got a few new ideas!
 

Rutdigger

Watch This!
What an incredible build! As many have said you have an abundance of talent. I'm very slowly starting my first trailer build. A little harder when you don't have a garage and live in an apartment.... We all have to start somewhere, and I'm excited. :wings:

After reading the last 17 pages, I've got a few new ideas!

:victory: I know exactly what you mean. I have lived in a few apartments also, and some "houses" that should have been called apartments! Whatcha got planned? Down where you live there are a ton of good areas to explore and camp! Love that area! Can't wait to see what you come up with! Happy building...:wings:
 

ljrunner05

Adventurer
Thanks! It's been a slow process, but I found a trailer a couple weeks ago, and got my RTT mounted, lights run and installed and the new drop arm jack mounted this last weekend. Next is a water tank, plumbing and kitchen. It's a start, and we'll go from their!

Instead of cluttering your beautiful thread up with pics of my trailer, I just created a build thread for me!
My First Trailer
 
Last edited:

Karoo Klong

New member
Amazing work Rutdigger.
The Conquer is actually a South African design and built camper trailer.
I myself have grown to like everything this trailer design has to offer but I also wish to make some significant changes to suit me and SWAMBO's needs.

What advice can you give a noob?

My father has built many road trailers so he will help me. But this is unfamiliar ground to him.

Where does one start designing from ZERO?

Sent from my SM-N900 using Tapatalk
 

Rutdigger

Watch This!
Amazing work Rutdigger.
The Conquer is actually a South African design and built camper trailer.
I myself have grown to like everything this trailer design has to offer but I also wish to make some significant changes to suit me and SWAMBO's needs.

What advice can you give a noob?

My father has built many road trailers so he will help me. But this is unfamiliar ground to him.

Where does one start designing from ZERO?

Sent from my SM-N900 using Tapatalk

Well crap...I don't know how I missed this but apparently I just plan forgot to respond! Must be getting old!..lol. Well, to answer your question; I think it is totally up to you where to start. You can make it as complicated or as easy as you want. You can start from total scratch like I did and build it from the ground up (frame and all) or you can buy a normal trailer and do a conversion. Either way you will most likely end up using someones idea and making it your own by modifying it a little bit to suit your own needs. I guess the biggest thing is don't try and reinvent the wheel. There is ALOT of talent on this forum, use their ideas for inspiration and plan a trailer that will work great for what you want and need. Don't try and overdue it with novelties, the "KISS" method works great here. Don't be afraid to experiment either. If you fail, then you have just become that much more wiser for the next version. Oh, and ask advice, but don't let people build it for you. Meaning, make your own decisions, don't justify to people what you are doing and why. Right, wrong, or indifferent own your own ideas and work. Take a hard look at your skills, and utilize your strengths, and get help for your weaknesses. Your fathers skills will come in very handy here. Gather as many photographs that you can from multiple angles of the trailer you want to build or the designs of others that you want to encompass and then reverse engineer then to come up with your plan. Just get in there and start building, most of the time the details will work themselves out as you build and the plan you thought you had will change multiple times before the final product. You are gonna see things that work good on paper, but don't work so good in real life. Don't be afraid to make mistakes! Let me know if you have any questions. Myself and I am sure everyone else here will help you if we have the knowledge to do so on the task you need help with. I look forward to seeing what you come up with! Rut
 

Karoo Klong

New member
Wow. Thank you so much for taking the time to write up such a proper reply.
Thank you for the words of wisdom and for opening my mind on how to commit to my design and persevere with it. Also it would be great to get help and advice from you guys.

I guess I will go with a build from scratch as I want the independent suspension that comes with the original trailer. Although I am pretty impressed with the cross design MC2 suspension from the TVAN. But I am, shall I say, perhaps afraid of trying it.

After seeing the Wedgetail camper, my wife pretty much made up her mind that that is the best design for our needs. But it is a pickup based camper and I want to put it on a trailer. That in itself brings up a whole lot of challenges.

d27110b4ebe2e1365f38f1e9ee3cb5a8.jpg

31c3a1bbd59f6033c02f1b7f8dea595a.jpg

cab686bb1dab3c76890c228edc6f538c.jpg
 

Rutdigger

Watch This!
Wow. Thank you so much for taking the time to write up such a proper reply.
Thank you for the words of wisdom and for opening my mind on how to commit to my design and persevere with it. Also it would be great to get help and advice from you guys.

I guess I will go with a build from scratch as I want the independent suspension that comes with the original trailer. Although I am pretty impressed with the cross design MC2 suspension from the TVAN. But I am, shall I say, perhaps afraid of trying it.

After seeing the Wedgetail camper, my wife pretty much made up her mind that that is the best design for our needs. But it is a pickup based camper and I want to put it on a trailer. That in itself brings up a whole lot of challenges.

d27110b4ebe2e1365f38f1e9ee3cb5a8.jpg

31c3a1bbd59f6033c02f1b7f8dea595a.jpg

cab686bb1dab3c76890c228edc6f538c.jpg

I have always been interested in that type of suspension, would be an interesting build that's for sure!
 

Rutdigger

Watch This!
My DIY Solution to the UEV 440

Well folks I finally found a flat panel Monitor that I think will work just fine. Best buy was having a close out sale, best part is that its a 12V LED monitor. The Double Din deck Multituner that I am putting in will send the video to that monitor and we listen to the audio thru the deck. My kids will also be able to plug in their gaming systems when they get to bored! Maybe! Wife will prolly have an issue with that..lol.

011.jpg
 

Rutdigger

Watch This!
Thought it was time for an update. Rain or shine this weekend we will be taking the trailer out on the beach and camping in it for a cpl days. I have plans to make some awnings like the bat-wing, or something similiar but I won't have time to get those done before the trip this weekend. Hopefully before Sat I can get the mattress cover completed and the canvass rear door so we don't have to close the hatch. I tested out the Suburban heater the other night and man let me tell you that thing works great! Heats up fast, shuts off when it reaches temp, just like a real furnace in your home. I also changed out the golf cart batteries for 12 volt deep cycle marine batteries and ran them in parallel. By doing this I gained about 15 more AH overall and they are sealed. The 6 Volts were not and began to seep. Can't have that happening! I am thinking about redoing my kitchen draw system also. I'm just not digging the drawers that are in there now. I am really kicking around the idea of cutting that opening bigger and just putting in a wooden insert with drawers built in. For now we are also going to use a popup canopy that we can put in front of the shower to be able to wrap a tarp around it while we take a shower. Anyway, stay tuned and I will post pics of the bad and the good from the camping trip this coming weekend.
 

FMF

Adventurer
Awesome build! We will be taking our trailer out for its first trip rain or shine this weekend. Post up some pics of your trip if you can.
 

Rutdigger

Watch This!
Awesome build! We will be taking our trailer out for its first trip rain or shine this weekend. Post up some pics of your trip if you can.

Definitely will! This run will give me an idea on what I need to change and what we like about it.
 

Rutdigger

Watch This!
NEW PICS-Weekend camping trip

Welp, got back from an over-nighter down on the (PINS) Padre Island National Seashore and I will call it a win. I found some stuff the trailer did very well on and some stuff that I am going to change fast. Here are a few pics of the trip.

063.JPG

This shows a good view of the pop-ups and the tarps at this point. That will change soon once I build my Bat-wing type awnings.

033.jpg

IN the meantime I used that standard beach pop-up to cover our kitchen area. In the future this will all be covers by the awnings

023.jpg

024.jpg

025.jpg

028.jpg

Pantry cabinet

029.jpg

Looking inside

034.jpg

036.jpg

037.jpg

More to follow.....
 

Rutdigger

Watch This!
NEW PICS-Weekend camping trip (Cont)

Ok, I have to rethink this part of the build. I found a safety hazard here that I am going to have to correct before we use this feature again. As you can see from the pic that my piping insulation was melted by the heat from the hot water heater on demand. And if gone unchecked will melt the water hoses also. I am going to have to find heat resistant water lines, or some kind of insulating wrap for the pipes to keep them warm in the winter and fire resistant during operation. This looks worse that it really was. Oh and before you point it out to me...Yes, I used hot water PEX for both cold and hot side....I ran out of blue and had red left over..:elkgrin:

045.jpg

The second problem I encountered was the black 90* elbow that I put on top of the exhaust flu. I found out that it acts like a "air ram" and lets wind reverse down the flu and into the unit blowing out the flames and pilot....grrrr. So I am going to have to figure that out . I think I may end up using that elbow for looks and make it removable, then once in camp I take it off and put on a higher flu stack with a rain guard that is more traditional.

On a better note.....I caught my wife trying to reach in an grab something quick from the trailer.....hehe....paparazzi aint got ******** on me! :Wow1::victory::victory::bike_rider:

059.jpg

Our watch dog taking a break from chasing Laughing Sea Gulls...lol

061.jpg

Enjoying the A/C on the ride home! Rotten I tell ya...Rotten!

062.JPG

So the PROS:

Trailer handled great and did great in the snow. The Trailing Arm suspension is the best (IMO) for rough terrain and smooth towing. Trailer weighed in at about 3000lbs when loaded. The water hose idea for the kitchen was awesome and we used that constantly for washing dished, cleaning hands and feet of sand, etc. Even used it to wash the trailer down before leaving the area back on pavement. Fans worked great inside and the mesh I chose keep the bugs on and kept the damp air water droplets outside on the mesh during the night. Wife loved the kitchen slideout and the small table.

The CONS:

The pelican case I used for a tongue box did to good of job. Meaning it condensates on the inside pretty bad. So much so that it will prevent me from using it as dry storage. So we used it to store fire wood and shovels and stuff like that. The shower situation needs to be fixed and I went over that above. One good thing salt water is great for is showing me areas that I need to paint better, lol!! Our 2" memory foam mattress works good, but really needs to be a 3" or thicker, don't skimp here guys! I need to install a paper towel holder...lol. Oh, I almost forgot...zipper silencers! I used YKK #10 zippers on the windows and all they did during the night was dink together and make racket from the wind! Arrr...:mad: So, I need to wrap them with something to keep them quiet...lol. I must also glass in the rear steps to keep water , dirt, and sand out of the door while acting as steps and to protect our feet from the little diamond mesh....lol.

Whats to come that I will make....

Bat-wing type awnings
Matress cover
Rear entry door
Shower room
Better insulation and plumbing to water heater
Replace fill tube with RV water hook-ups and fabricate adapter for field expedient filling
Install ARB or ENGEL fridge/freezer (haven't made up my mind yet on which one)
 

MountainD

Adventurer
Heat shrink tubing would be easy for your zipper slides-- might use a contrasting color so easy to spot... Looks great!
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,541
Messages
2,875,675
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top