My Backcountry Camper Trailer Build

[mjmcdowell]

Rob, more power to you! I have been lurking here and I guess I just have to say this: "Those who can do, do, those who can"t, well they can"t" Your build is huge! You and your family enjoy it, don't worry about those who "can't. Now if anybody want's to give ME some grief about this post, it's fine with me, I would just consider it "humor". By the way I use my name also. Keep going Rob, stay safe, MJMcDowell

[R_Lefebvre]

Ok, some more updates. The basic trailer wiring (lights) is done, I used a waterproof box, and terminal strip from an industrial electric shop.



Here you can see how I routed the cable to the back.



My folks came by this weekend and we got a fair amount done on the trailer today. We started hanging the paneling inside the sleeping area. I had to make some access holes for the RTT bolts, so I cut these holes. I plan to cover one of them up with a light for the room.



While my father and I worked on the paneling, my wife and my mother got to work sewing up the mattresses for the sleeping area. The covers are made from waterproof synthetic canvas, so it should be easy to clean and durable. The mattresses came out great. My mother is pretty skilled at sewing and my wife learns a lot from her.

You can see my son testing out the mattress. He's pretty excited.



Plenty of headroom for him to sit up. Hopefully it should fit him for a few years yet.



We hung the painted doors back on. It's really coming together now! Soon it should be useable, even if not completely finished. You can also see the spare tire is mounted on the back. I cheated here and used a premade spare tire mount. The location was a bit of a compromise. I wanted it bolted to a solid framework which meant it couldn't be centered. It then needed to be mounted high to clear the tail light. In a while, I will probably remake the mount with a different angle. to hold it lower and centered more.





And lastly, here you can see the kitchenette taking shape. The surfaces will get covered in melamine before I hang the cabinets.

[OlympiaFJ60]

Looks great. Your son is having fun in it and it hasn't even left the drive way. It has come together very nicely.

[Xtreme XJ]

Nice build... by FAR though the two picts. of the young'n in it has to be the best ones so far... I'm sure you are smiling too...

Curt

[indiedog]

Rob, that is looking great. Making me want to get mine finished!!

[R_Lefebvre]

Oh yeah, Phil *loves* trailers. Not sure why but he just has a thing about trailers. Not just camping trailers, but ANY trailers. He's always hooking up trailers to his toy trucks. The first time he saw the rear mounted reciever tube, he looked at it and said "Two trailers?"

It was hard enough just to get him to lie down for the picture.

[mrchips]

What model Maggiolina did you get?

[R_Lefebvre]

What model Maggiolina did you get?

It's a Large Safari. I'm not sure the Safari is available in the US? It's essentially the same as a Grand Tour, but there are a few small differences. It has the door-in-a-door like the Extreme Forest, not sure what else. And of course, the unique colour.

[R_Lefebvre]

Last night I decided to hook it up and take it for a test run. I went out for about a 30 minute test loop including some neighborhood streets, some secondary highway, and freeway. First things first, the trailer has *zero* tongue weight, if you lift the tongue, the trailer tips back and at some point the vertical component of the CG shifts behind the axle and it wants to fall backwards. It's perfectly balanced. I did want to have a light tongue weight for when the bike is on the tongue, but I don't think this is going to work out, I have to get some more weight up front. Currently the battery is at the very back of the trailer. I'm going to move it forward which will help, but I think I'll just go ahead and get the dual 6V deep cycle batteries setup, since it'll be harder to do that setup once I've got the interior installed. With 2-300 lbs ahead of the axle instead of my current 100lbs behind the axle, it'll help. Beyond that, I think my typical cargo loading will help.

Anyway, so even with no tongue weight, it pulled fairly well. It rattled a bit on the hitch, but not even as much as my utility trailer. The rubber torsion axle with big off-road tires really made the ride very smooth. I really like the way these rubber torsion suspension trailer tow, smooth and quiet. I could feel the weight of the trailer when accelerating and going up hills, the truck wasn't slow, but you gotta use a lot more throttle. Once at speed, it towed really well. I hardly felt it back there, even at 60-65mph which was my max speed. I'm not sure how much effect it will have on milage, on flat land, maybe not much. I really do think it is tucked up into the windstream from the truck as I planned.

At no point was there any sway that disturbed the truck, though it did wander around behind the truck a bit. I think there's some slop in the extendable tongue and the hitch drawbar which has an 8" drop, and the low tongue weight doesn't help. That'll be fixed up when I get an off-road coupler setup. I wiggled the truck a few times to see how stable it was, if I was at risk of bad trailer sway. Nothing really seemed to effect the truck but the trailer moved around a lot. Again, because of the slop in the hitch setup, and low tongue weight which I'll fix. But it also bobbed back and forth side to side on the suspension a lot which concerned me a bit. The torsion suspension is very soft, and I suspect the tires were contributing. I stopped and inflated them from 35psi to 45psi and that helped. I'll have to figure out how high I should go for the street. They are C rated LT A/T tires, 235/75/16. I don't know if I should run them at max pressure or not.

So, a couple things to work on, but overall it was pretty decent. I may try replacing the pins on the drawbar and extendable tongue with 5/8" grade 8 bolts. A neighbor of mine does that and it really tightens up the joints so there's not slop. It's less convenient, but seems to work.

I think I also need to align the wheels which will be interesting. The axle I bought comes as two seperate sides, so you can set them at whatever width you want. The mounting holes are slotted so offer some adjustment. I think they aren't aligned right because it looked like the trailer was crabwalking a little to the left. I just have to figure out the geometry needed to set up the string system to align it.

[Box Rocket]

It will be interesting to hear how it goes once you get a little tongue weight. I know my trailer is much smaller than yours but I erred on the other side with mine I think. I've definitely got more tongue weight but it's still quite balanced and easy to move around by hand.

As for the extendable tongue, I debated doing that for a long time, but decided against it mainly because I didn't see myself bothering with changing the tongue length very often at all. I didn't even consider that some sway could be introduced because of the slop in the tubes. Very interesting. Do you really think you need the tongue extendable? From what you've said in the past about how you plan to use it, it sounds like you're not going to see much techinical towing situations where a shorter tongue will be a necessity. Would you consider just finding a good length for all around towing and just welding the drawbar solid?

I'm also interested to hear about what you can do with your suspension. Can you upgrade the torsion bits to be more firm? When I saw the sheer size of your trailer I wondered if that suspension would be too soft especially when you get it all loaded. Again it's interesting coming at it from the other side of the coin. I'm using stiff trailer springs with not much flex in them and compensating with low tire pressure, where you are adding pressure to your tires. Quite a diffference with your 45 psi and the 12 psi I'm running in mine.

Please don't feel like I'm trying to shoot holes in your project and second guessing your choices. You've done an amazing job and I'm extremely impressed. Just making some observations as I watch things unfold.