Off road trailer

David,

Pretty flash. All it needs now is a good coating of dust and a few stone chips.

Enjoy (;=))

Cheers
Pop

Good morning David
Nice looking trailer. How much does it weigh before you start to load all your gear? I assume there are no brakes

Hi
David
Great trailer good design for light to med duty use
Deep tub and looks good ,good size frame, great lid etc
7x5??
A trailer that's made out of gal sheets and duragal SHS /RHS or a trailer thats dipped in gal will last longer and there`s no re paint required ever .
A painted trailer needs to be sand blasted prior to painting for maximum adhesion . epoxy primer /eurathane top coat paint are the most durable . Most industrial equipment is paint in a similar way. Its never low cost !! [ Some trallers with lots of flat sheet metal cannot be blasted ]
Depends on the actual size but a Trak Shak trailer is a good example of how to utilize the areas in front and behind wheel arches jerry cans ,gas bottle ,agm batteries/solar stuff .eg can save doing a water tank under body.
IF u ever consider brakes go at least 50mm sq axle /parallel bearings
Mount the wiring in a gal electrical conduit to 1 light then conduit to the other light
Use heavy duty trailer wire prevents vibration breakage .
spare wheel mount ??
Ando connection to vehicle [charge cable for aux batt ]
tomo

Trailer is a 6x4, I will get it weighed, Lid is steel frame with aluminium cover which is fairly light, can be locked as well, I will get one of those stone deflectors for the front eventually before I take it out bush

Trailer looks very good.

Many trailers which have larger diameter wheels require at least a 50mm square axle and it is best to have parallel bearing ends on it. The pictured axle is a small dia outer which may not be able to withstand side forces from big dia wheels, ie, angular loadings above a certain level. Caravan regs and specs dictate the use of larger axles when big wheels are used.
At least it should have Ford outer bearings which has a larger cup/cone than the Holden ends. The hub looks small to me.
I also hope it has electric brakes to assist stopping when loaded and if used on hilly country. One emergency stop will reveal the need for electric brakes.
Happy travels.

It looks good David. If you are using it to carry camping gear that would overload your car if you put everything into it then that is a great ides. There would be a lot less damaged cars all over the bush if more people did that.

Just one question though: does it have shock absorbers? Undampened springs can and have caused a lot of damage to trailers in the Outback. Problems like the ends snapped off axles to wheel bearing and wheel stud problems are common and have been occurring since trailers were first used out there.

There is a bit more information about it here.wheels falling off

In an earlier version of that article before the recent update, the author said while working for General Motors in suspension development, he measured spring rebound forces using electronic equipment that he designed himself and found the forces generated by unrestrained springs releasing their energy was 35 times higher than those with shock absorbers.

I am currently building a carrying only plywood camping trailer that is smaller and lighter than yours. The single leaf springs and shocks are from a Holden Combo van. They are light weight, long and very flexible. I can bounce it up and down easily by hand until I install the shocks. Geez does that tighten them up.

What did it cost?

Who built it, looks like a Challenge?

Friends of mine bought a new camper trailer and for their first trip, headed outback. They didn't make it to Innaminka. The spring hangers broke away from the "Chassis". It turned out that the chassis was made from about section with 1.6 mm thick walls. OK - these friends were somewhat brutal with their driving but the trailer was in no way fit for service. They patched it up in Innaminka and then came home. We took it back to Sydney and the factory fitted a heavier suspension, but the original problem of the chassis still remained. Friend has since welded some plates to beef up the area around the attachment points, but even then the drawbar is still suspect in my opinion.

You have 7 leaf springs in your trailer. I reckon that for a dedicated camper trailer, softer springing is better - less likelhood of rattling either the trailer or the contents to pieces on rough roads.

Looks like a nice unit you have there. Be careful of stone chips though. Painted one I had in the past ended up with a lot of surface rust after the odd trip to the beach camping.