off road camper trailers

Is it cost effective...??? If it's going to take a thumping and carry a fair load, you need to ask whether or not your welding skills are up to task. It's very easy to create a weld that looks great but has infact severely reduced the strength of the product you're welding. It could be very costly indeed if a vital weld lets go.

Not knocking your idea, just adding another element to think about.

Hi Bulldog,
There are a number of ways you can go,in regard to building your own off road trailer..complete fabrication,partial,build up from domestic...e.g bigger wheels,heavy duty axle,springs tregg hitch,new chassi...depends how far you go,how many bells and whistles you you want...and of course how much of the undertaking you can do yourself?..Then you have to figger out your hidden costs,such as running around to get the materials...my opion is you should be able to bring it in for the cost of a basic 2nd hand trailer...you get a lot of personal satisfaction from building it yourself,you have no-one else to blame if it brakes...me shortly I will be doing a build up of a damaged flip over camper,domestic,to full 4WD.Probably after xmas I will be posting updates of progress as well as pictures by hyper link as I go..me Ive done this before..I supose the best advise is do your homework first..it's a lot of work that at times doesn't end..but if you don't start you never end.
JD

hi Bull dog
i PUT A PLAN TOGETHER to build a realy strong off road trailer but i could not beat the price of the co i chose the 4WD OFF ROAD Camper trailer we bought was far better than i could build for the price

I've had a bit of a look around lately at camper trailers and the price of them doesn't really surprise me. What does surprise me however is just how heavy they all are. I was a having a discussion over the weekend with a guy I know who is very knowledgable on trailer suspension designs and it all comes down to the standard leaf spring suspension they all use. It's cheap and that's why it's so popular but trying to build a supple leaf suspension without axle steer is impossible. The suspensions therefore are fairly harsh but the trailers have to built very heavy to take the punishment produced by the suspension. I asked about alco rubber suspension but it has even less suspension travel than a leaf setup.
His solution is trailing arm suspension particularly sugar glider or Track Trailers MC2 suspension (in his opinion the track MC2 is the ultimate system) The Track is so good on the Outback Challenge a Track T Van was driven over the course by a Jeep Wrangler.
Neither Sugar Glider or Track are cheap however. I rang the manufacturer of Sugar Glider and was quoted $1185 for the suspension but that doesn't include hubs, brakes, shock absorbers, limit chains, or wheels and tyres.
Track trailers will sell a "rolling chassis" ready to tow home to finish to your specifications apart from wheels and tyres for $4500. (that includes electric brakes, parallel bearing hubs, wiring, lights, and clip on mudguards)
I think a Track chassis with a body built up to your own specs and a camper unit to suit would be a more affordable option and you'll have a trailer easily capable of handling the toughest conditions you could throw at it.
Have a look at link text to see an example of the MC2 suspension sytem on a camper.
Regards Andrew.

Hi Bull Dog

We did this a couple years ago with a great success,
What we did was who built what for whom,
We went and looked at several campertrailer mobs and found out who actually manufactured the pieces for them ie trailer & tops, then we approached the manufacturers of these direct and put the pieces together for eg had the trailer built then, we had the kitchen manufacturer send the kitchen to the trailer mob to fit then picked up the trailer and took it to the person to add the top,
in the end we ended up with a strong, fantastic trailer that every one comments on and believe me it is tough which we have found out.

in the end we saved about $6000 on it if you would like more details and pics i can send you these

Good luck its worth doing.

Dave T

David,
Great idea about selecting the components and putting them all together. I would love to see any information you have on what you did the components that you used.

Have been working on mine - on & off - since mid year. Its (finally) going to the painters tomorrow.
Im running a leaf/live axle combo with shocks.
Steel tube frame. I was going to clad it an ally 5bar plate but decided to just use steel sheel welded on. Heavier but strong.
Flip over lid is clad with 5bar ally though to get the weight down.
62L caravan water tank just behind the axle. Filler on the side of the trailer.
Rear swing out tailgate has kitchen mounted on it.
Dual rear swingaway wheel carriers.
Large storage box on draw bar.
The trailer body is 2400 long x 1950 wide (width to match the GU)
Coupling is about 1300 from front of trailer.
sides are 700mm high, without the lid
Eye to eye 1250kg springs from Adelaide Engineers and Springmakers.
Landcruiser BJ42 shocks from Terrain Tamer - extended length of 487mm and collapsed 305mm with 16mm eyes. Angled 45degrees to the rear.
50mm square axles with mechanical (cable) disc brakes
Treg rubber block coupling with override brakes and handbrake.
Narva waterproof trailer lights
wheels are 16x8 ROH Monsoon alloys running MickeyT Dick Cepek FC2s - 285/75/16

Some pics from the build up





















Also have a read of this thread: DIY Ultimate Camper