Exacting Specs Trailer Build

[elsensei]

the fridge!

Hey guys...I was out of town for a little bit but now I'm back and back at it.

Here's the frame of the box bolted to the deck...used acorn nuts and there are 28 studs on the periphery. Once it's bolted tight, you can rock the whole trailer from anywhere on the box. It's burly.

Here's the top layer of the water storage tank in place. Of course, it'll be 1.5" higher than this. I found a guy with a spool gun and all the tanks should be welded in place this tuesday. Just didn't feel like running 70 feet of aluminum bead...i'd end up with skin cancer after all that.

and

I'll post pics of the finished deck with tanks attached once it's done. Again, tuesday. keep your fingers crossed.

That's about all I had that done before I left for my trip. Once I got back, I was in a hurry to get the refrigerator slides mounted but of course I was out of metal so needed to make a quick run for some more 1" square. Once the slides were in and true, next tigged together a tray to mount between the slides. .190 wall diamond plate aluminum. Bolted it in and had to grind down one fastener in a hurry and managed to feed both index fingers into the grinding wheel. Idiot. Haste makes waste but makes for good pics though.

Anyway, here's the finished product...or that part, anyway...

The fridge from the front:

and the side:

The two inches below the tray will be filled up with the water storage tank.

So, you'll roll into camp like this,

swing open the door,

and pull the fridge out. These slides are burly as hell, I'd have no qualms about standing on the edge of the tray when fully extended.

When cooking time rolls around, out comes the fridge-

and then the side door folds down to access dry food and utensils. Still have to build that slideout part.

Only other major thing on that side is the stove door/slideout. Once it's complete, you'll be able to cook surrounded on 3 sides with everything within reach. Under a canopy if I can pull that off. I'm pretty stoked how this is turning out. Thanks for watching. Suggestions/critiques welcome as always.

 

[elsensei]

Going overboard...

Yesterday I took the rack and RTT off my old camper shell and lowered it onto the box frame, just to see how it would look.

It definitely makes the whole thing bigger.

I'm not sure what the tongue weight will be, but I figured if it was too much I'd just slide the tent back within the rack. Then I discovered that in order to clearance the fridge door, it HAS to be moved back. Now it sits directly over the axle.

I called a number of welders to get someone with a spoolgun to stitch up the tanks I made, but when I could get a guy to call back (rarely) they either didn't have the right equipment or were too darned expensive (IMO). So I ended up buying a new mig welder with steel gun and aluminum spoolgun, scheduled to be delivered Friday. Miller 211, my friend has one and I've used it and it's pretty nice. I already sold my old Hobart 135 for $400 so that plus the minimum $550 I'll save on the welding itself and I'm really only out of pocket 300 or so for the complete setup. Hopefully I'll be laying down seams on the tank this weekend and I can finally get that part put to bed.

Today I went a little overboard with the galley. I modified some inexpensive sliders I had and installed them so they fold down and then out from the stove compartment. The stove itself I wanted to attach to the slides, but there wasn't any way I could see to make it work. I ended up modifying the stove itself, riveting aluminum channel and bolting a slide to the bottom of it, and now it'll setup pointed in any of 4 different directions.

Then I had another idea.

Four sections of 1" cut at 45 degrees, 16 inches of piano hinge, some 1/8" strap and a 1" bar made up a framework for a foldout cutting board/food prep surface.

Then I dragged out a piece of granite I salvaged from my house remodel years ago. My circular saw was still setup with a diamond blade from the last time I used it to cut tile. A couple cuts later, viola! offroad granite countertop!

Once those shenanigans were finished, I busted out mounting the shower on the opposite side.

Tomorrow I get to strip it all down for the DMV. Yay. Divorce court, then the DMV. What a day that'll be. But the next day, NEW WELDER!!!

 

[wannabridin]

Simply amazing!! Great work man, can't wait to see the finished product!! Great inspiration for my eventual build!!

 

[elsensei]

Time for an update, lots of changes...

first, got the trailer registered. DMV was the DMV as usual and to keep things simple i stripped everything off the trailer and just rolled it in as the frame with wheels. Here it is, parked.

Then my new welder arrived, with spool gun, so I could do the 70 or so feet of aluminum welding I needed for the fuel and water tanks.

I put it all together and it's really nice. Started laying down beads like these:

I used my lift to pick the cage up off the trailer so I could work on the deck and the tanks. that thing is a godsend.

I spent the next few days getting everything together, all the fill, pressure and outlet tubes in placed and air-pressure-tight, going over every seam with a spray bottle of soapwater, tracking down pinhole leaks. It was time consuming to say the least. Now here is my screw up. I was so focused on whether I could do it, that I didn't even think if I should.

Because I shouldn't have.

Once it was all together, the damn thing weighed about 250 lbs. Boy, when I mess up, I go big for sure. Literally 5 minutes after I finished it, I pulled out my plasma cutter and cut it all up again and went a different route. If I'd thought about that issue beforehand, I would have saved about 8 days of work all told, plenty of money, a ton of effort and aggravation, and wouldn't have needed the spoolgun.

On the plus side, I love my new welder, I am using much of the reclaimed aluminum and I learned another aspect of planning. Weight. To that end, I redesigned my trailing arms and updated my sketchup plans to reflect the better design of both the arms and the trailer frame itself. I even got one of the tailing arms redone and it turned out well. I also relocated the airbag to reduce deflection under load and I think it'll be a much better solution.

Before I get to that though, I decided to go with a baltic birch 1/2inch deck. That's already cut and holes bored and in place. SOOOO much lighter...

also I ordered a 20 gallon fuel and 30 gallon water tank and the fuel tank arrived and is mostly in place. Note the reclaimed aluminum...

Now on to the new trailing arms, or rather, the mishap that befell me...

Without too much explanation, I discovered that the skin of the shin is very thin...and pretty much bereft of nerve endings...I didn't realize I'd cut myself until my leg felt like it'd been in a rainstorm.

In my usual style, I was on a roll working and didn't want to quit so I washed it out and taped a pad over it and it seemed to stop bleeding...

See?

until it started again...must've been all the gymnastics with the welder...but soon I was leaving bloody footprints so I knocked off for the day and took care of it.

haha.

So that's it for now. More pics as I take them. Thanks for all the PM support and comments guys!

Sam

 

[loren85022]

LOTS of blood, sweat and tears. I'm thinking a built-in first-aid kit might be wise. Do you plan to post the drawings?

 

[Woods]

Did DMV register the trailer without fenders?

 

[elsensei]

yes. and it didn't even have functioning taillights!

 

[JeepDork]

I spend hours on this site reading different posts. I think so far I like yours the best. This is a great trailer. Not too big not too small. Very nice work on this thing. You just couldn't buy a trailer with this much time invested in it without really paying through the nose for it. Very nice! I'd really be interested in hearing a little more about the DMV trip, did you have to go to the CHP too?

 

[Woods]

What the hell are they doing down there?

And these are the guys who'll be running our health care? Next you're going to tell me the DMV put that bandage on your leg...

Did DMV register the trailer without fenders?

yes. and it didn't even have functioning taillights!

 

[slawson2000]

Have you done (or are you going to do) anything to be able to adjust camber/toe? Looks nice!

 

[elsensei]

I didn't have to go to chp...dmv just slapped a VIN sticker on it and charged me tax on the $50 bill of sale I had. Honestly at the vehicle inspection line the bureaucrat there was more interested in the suspension and after 5 minutes we were like old pals. Whatever it takes to starve the beast of revenue.

Regarding adjusting the suspension camber and toe...after thinking about things, I redid the arms. Now the airbag is directly under the framerail and the arm is a triangle instead of square. That took care of any issues due to weight. And I've since redesigned my plans to reflect a couple even better ideas. Just in case I do this again.

I do have a fair amount of time in the trailer, but honestly knowing what i know now I could cut about 8 days of fab time off the build. The first one is the one you learn on.

I'm actually kind of looking forward to building another, once this one is Baja proven. I was thinking I might go into limited production...every once in a while you find an older wealthy guy who wants what no one else has and is willing to pay for something handmade.

 

[Greenmonkey]

Can we get an update of your redesigned a-arms and suspension?

 

[Titanpat57]

I didn't have to go to chp...dmv just slapped a VIN sticker on it and charged me tax on the $50 bill of sale I had. Honestly at the vehicle inspection line the bureaucrat there was more interested in the suspension and after 5 minutes we were like old pals. Whatever it takes to starve the beast of revenue.

Regarding adjusting the suspension camber and toe...after thinking about things, I redid the arms. Now the airbag is directly under the framerail and the arm is a triangle instead of square. That took care of any issues due to weight. And I've since redesigned my plans to reflect a couple even better ideas. Just in case I do this again.

I do have a fair amount of time in the trailer, but honestly knowing what i know now I could cut about 8 days of fab time off the build. The first one is the one you learn on.

I'm actually kind of looking forward to building another, once this one is Baja proven. I was thinking I might go into limited production...every once in a while you find an older wealthy guy who wants what no one else has and is willing to pay for something handmade.

I hope you do, and wish you luck...it's a nice product!

 

[elsensei]

Can we get an update of your redesigned a-arms and suspension?

I'm actually out of town so no update for now...but I'll be home in a few days and will post up then...

 

[clcoyle]

Great looking build so far, keep up the good work. Sorry about the injuries.