Red_5's Conqueror Axle swap & other upgrades

[red_5]

Living out of the trailer was great! Two weeks of "Zombie Evasion" field readiness practice.... :xxrotflma

One of the high points being scooting across the Nevada desert on dirt roads @ 50mph. :sombrero:

I didn't set any records for set-up/take-down times I'm sure, but definitely got better at it. The hard part for me is setting up the awning if needed. That seems to take about 3x as long as anything else.

No mechanical problems, the trailer brakes worked great and I was REALLY glad to have them more that a couple of times. The new Dometic fridge worked awesome despite the 114 degree heat at some points. Having that made the trip much nicer! The trailer battery stayed charged without issue.

The only real downer was one of the door screens on the trailer somehow managing to get snagged on something (corner of a hinge plate I suspect) while deploying the tent and making a nice 2"x3" hole in the screen and a pencil sized hole in the canvas.

I wasn't overly pleased about that but managed a temporary field repair with a needle and some thread.

Sourcing some screening to make a better permanent repair is on my things to do list.

 

[Titanpat57]

Living out of the trailer was great! Two weeks of "Zombie Evasion" field readiness practice.... :xxrotflma

One of the high points being scooting across the Nevada desert on dirt roads @ 50mph. :sombrero:

I didn't set any records for set-up/take-down times I'm sure, but definitely got better at it. The hard part for me is setting up the awning if needed. That seems to take about 3x as long as anything else.

No mechanical problems, the trailer brakes worked great and I was REALLY glad to have them more that a couple of times. The new Dometic fridge worked awesome despite the 114 degree heat at some points. Having that made the trip much nicer! The trailer battery stayed charged without issue.

The only real downer was one of the door screens on the trailer somehow managing to get snagged on something (corner of a hinge plate I suspect) while deploying the tent and making a nice 2"x3" hole in the screen and a pencil sized hole in the canvas.

I wasn't overly pleased about that but managed a temporary field repair with a needle and some thread.

Sourcing some screening to make a better permanent repair is on my things to do list.

It's always great to have some sort of rescue mission while camping...even if its only a screen repair.....:ylsmoke:


Uneventfull...that's the way we like em' !

Glad the trip went well...bring on the Zombies!!!!

 

[Honu]

bummer on the screen and tent !

the nose mod looks good really like that

the conqueror are dif than the compact so mine would not work that way ? but makes me brain start twitching with ideas hehehehe

 

[teebes]

Great job and write up! Glad to see someone took the plunge with some brakes.

BTW, I'm really digging your garage Looks stunningly similar to mine except my DRZ came in black :victory:

 

[racingjason]

Ok, I guess this is as good a time as any to let everyone know a problem I discovered on our Compact as it pertains directly to the mods that red_5 and others are considering. On our trip to Baja were were bumping along on a very beautiful but fairly rough piste up to a Mission. On our way back I noticed a jingling and thought that one of our safety chains had come loose and was dragging. Instead I was greeted with the sight of our trailer frame splitting apart while we were a solid 30km away from any civilization. We unloaded most of the trailer into the Cruiser and slowly made our way out. I am not sure if this is a defect is widespread throughout Compacts or it was caused by a bad piece of steel that was not formed correctly but everyone should watch for it.

The real entertainment came when we tried to get it fixed. I was quite relieved when the village that we pulled into had a roadside tire stand with an old Lincoln welding machine. The first fellow who was going to weld it up dragged the machine outside and got ready to get down to business. I stopped him and gestured that perhaps he should grind the paint etc. off first. Ok, that should have been my first clue but then he started to weld and it was the most appalling chicken $%! weld I had seen. The guy stopped and asked me if I could weld?!! Well I could do much better than that but I wanted it done right. Apparently he was not a welder but that guy would be back tomorrow AM. We camped in the hotel parking lot next door and waited for the guy to arrive the next day. After a couple of hours we were told he would be back in the afternoon.We could see where this was going so we asked if there was someone else in town that could do the job. The tire jockey rode off on his 10 speed and came back a little while later with Luis who was a welder rather than someone who thinks he knows how to weld. He did a great job and the price was right for both of us, not cheap by Baja standards ($40US), but we were both happy.

The fix was done by welding the top plate to the vertical portion of the C channel. It has shown no signs of problems since. My plan is also for a max-coupler but i think I am going to weld the whole front section together and "box" in a receiver tube in the middle between the top and bottom plates (if that makes sense) It will distribute the load between the both plates and raise the tongue up a little as well.

Thanks for the brake write up. At 2200 lbs loaded a set of brakes for the Compact is high on the list.

 

[teebes]

Ok, I guess this is as good a time as any to let everyone know a problem I discovered on our Compact as it pertains directly to the mods that red_5 and others are considering. On our trip to Baja were were bumping along on a very beautiful but fairly rough piste up to a Mission. On our way back I noticed a jingling and thought that one of our safety chains had come loose and was dragging. Instead I was greeted with the sight of our trailer frame splitting apart while we were a solid 30km away from any civilization. We unloaded most of the trailer into the Cruiser and slowly made our way out. I am not sure if this is a defect is widespread throughout Compacts or it was caused by a bad piece of steel that was not formed correctly but everyone should watch for it.

The real entertainment came when we tried to get it fixed. I was quite relieved when the village that we pulled into had a roadside tire stand with an old Lincoln welding machine. The first fellow who was going to weld it up dragged the machine outside and got ready to get down to business. I stopped him and gestured that perhaps he should grind the paint etc. off first. Ok, that should have been my first clue but then he started to weld and it was the most appalling chicken $%! weld I had seen. The guy stopped and asked me if I could weld?!! Well I could do much better than that but I wanted it done right. Apparently he was not a welder but that guy would be back tomorrow AM. We camped in the hotel parking lot next door and waited for the guy to arrive the next day. After a couple of hours we were told he would be back in the afternoon.We could see where this was going so we asked if there was someone else in town that could do the job. The tire jockey rode off on his 10 speed and came back a little while later with Luis who was a welder rather than someone who thinks he knows how to weld. He did a great job and the price was right for both of us, not cheap by Baja standards ($40US), but we were both happy.

The fix was done by welding the top plate to the vertical portion of the C channel. It has shown no signs of problems since. My plan is also for a max-coupler but i think I am going to weld the whole front section together and "box" in a receiver tube in the middle between the top and bottom plates (if that makes sense) It will distribute the load between the both plates and raise the tongue up a little as well.

Thanks for the brake write up. At 2200 lbs loaded a set of brakes for the Compact is high on the list.

Yikes :Wow1: Has anyone else had issues of their frame rails splitting? I have a receiver tube welded to top-plate in a similar fashion to the pics above. Welding up the front portions as you mentioned wouldn't be a bad bit of insurance - thanks for the post!!

 

[red_5]

Great googley! :Wow1: Good save! That could have been a disaster.

That right there is exactly what I was afraid of with original tow plate and the specific reason I had the new tow plate made up.

There were visible flex/bending forces in that area with the trailer loaded. I'm hoping that the heavier duty plate and reinforcing the mounting point with the plates I made up will prevent any shenanigans in that area.

I'll certainly be keeping a close eye on it for certain.

Hope your repair/upgrade goes well.

 

[red_5]

Great job and write up! Glad to see someone took the plunge with some brakes.

BTW, I'm really digging your garage Looks stunningly similar to mine except my DRZ came in black :victory:

Thanks, the brakes were well worth the cost and effort.

Excellent taste you have... :26_7_2:

I have plans to swap out the carb for an FCR and open it up with an exhaust and some cams. It's fun out of the box, but there's a lot of untapped potential in the DRZ engine.

 

[teebes]

Thanks, the brakes were well worth the cost and effort.

Excellent taste you have... :26_7_2:

I have plans to swap out the carb for an FCR and open it up with an exhaust and some cams. It's fun out of the box, but there's a lot of untapped potential in the DRZ engine.

Yes, i've been running with those exact mods and loove it. Even put a kicker on a few months back. The larger carb is such a nice change, so snappy I went with a MRD exhaust, but it's a tad loud when out on the trails. Mine came in supermoto trim, but I have way more fun with the dirt setup :bike_rider:

 

[red_5]

Been a while since I've been on here, but I did not jump off into outer space... :Astrologist:

Just been very busy feeding the lemons life's been handing me into the juicer. :sombrero:

So, moving right along... I've gotten around to doing a bit more work on the Compact and just installed water purification system utilizing a 3 stage filter arrangement followed by a 12v Sterilight UV purifier.

For the filters, I can use standard any standard cartridges for 10" housings so there are filters galore depending on what you want to filter out.
Currently installed, I have a 5 micron sediment filter, followed by a Doulton Ceramic .9 micron absolute cartridge and finally a .5 micron nominal carbon block cartridge. The filtered water is then passed though the UV chamber to point of use.

Pressure is supplied by a ShuFlo 2088 pump and I've added a QD with check valve at the UV outlet to allow changing and easy storage of hoses without having to depressurize the system (and introduce air).

Pressure and flow rate are adequate and should be sufficient for showers when I get to the hot water project.

I mounted the system and the pump to a plywood panel so the entire assembly can be removed from the trailer by removing four bolts and needs only a 12v power source to be portable (although not exactly lightweight). The ballast for the UV is behind the chamber, mounted to the filter bracket, which I reinforced with a couple of angle brackets.

The whole operation is turned on by a switch mounted above the back of the unit.

I'm also kicking around a couple of ideas for the inlet side of the pump and pickup lines to the water tanks.

As configured, I can not only process water drawn from the trailer tanks but can also fill the tanks from just about any source (within reason) by running a pickup line to the source and filling the tanks off the clean side of the system. I can easily also by-bass the pump and connect a hose directly to the filter inlet.

So, how's the water? While I haven't field tested the system with pond water, unfiltered, city-supplied water from my house is vastly improved after having been processed, so I expect good results from other sources as well.

 

[FFMessick]

That's impressive, if you don't mind, how much did that setup cost. Have you thought of any ideas yet on how to draft water out of the tanks to your system?

 

[Honu]

Looking good

One thought the battery bar that black L steel is on wrong noticed some of the ones here in the US including mine came like that they are suposed to be on the upper top edge of the battery kinda holding it down and back at the same time

Found this out from the South Africans with theese trailers and info from one of the conqueror trailer guys

Makes sense when the stock bar with the nuts had the end it did
And really holds it down and in

 

[red_5]

Good eye Honu! That is indeed improper use of battery hold-down due to misplacement of proper j-bolts and has been rectified.

I got the filter/UV system from: http://www.rvwaterfilterstore.com/ and added some of the extra bits myself, including a few critical spares.

The system, water pump and basic hookup bits ran me about $600 all told. You could probably build it yourself for little less but support is worth a lot.

Rick, the filter guy was VERY helpful and and answered a lot of questions I had when I was planning this out so he's my guy for this sort of thing now.

I'm currently feeding the pickup line down the fill pipe or running line back to the ball valve at the back of the tank, both of which which work fine. Still kicking around ideas for drawing water off the trailer tanks as I'd like to have a 'flip switch and I have water' solution.

 

[Dendy Jarrett]

I have the same battery, and I can't get my battery hold down to reach since this battery is so deep. Incidentally, what did you do about the battery post? On mine, they are jam up against the upper part of the opening, so I left the plastic caps on the post and used the screw terminals to connect, but I need to rectify the problem because I know eventually the plastic caps with wear through and then I'll have a mess on my hands.

Just couldn't tell what you did.

Thanks
Dendy

 

[red_5]

I used longer, 8" "j" bolts from the auto parts store and cut off the extra length.

The clamp on battery posts are a tight fit going in. I left the plastic caps on an put the battery in at an angle so that there'd be no chance of short during install. Once in place, the posts have plenty of clearance.

I also put a piece of 1/2" plywood behind the battery as a spacer to create the needed clearance between the front panel and the stud terminals.

I also made an insulator cap for the + terminal out of a bit of heater hose. I cut it a bit long. slipped it over the the terminal and filled it with some urethane auto body sealer I had around, so it makes a nice cap for the positive terminal.