campertrailer modifications

Submitted: Saturday, Jul 12, 2003 at 20:08
ThreadID: 5951 Views:2554 Replies:8 FollowUps:6
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Have a tent campertrailer and I am looking for advice - ideas on making the trailer more user friendly, on a limited budget we are looking to make it more off road capable ie: extending the drawbar, beefing up the suspension probably leaving it as a leaf spring setup. The camper is the basic model, but it works extremely well for myself and wife and 2 children. We are looking for my storage area on the drawbar, plus more carrying capacity in the trailer.
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Reply By: Member - Geoff & Karen - Saturday, Jul 12, 2003 at 21:38

Saturday, Jul 12, 2003 at 21:38
Hi Foxer, we have a basic model tent campertrailer (Updating to a Kanga off road deluxe in about 10 weeks, yippee) as well and for more storage my husband Geoff bolted one of those 1 tonne ute tool boxes on the drawbar. We then put rubber matting in the bottom of it and it works really well. We store our generator and things like that in there, and there is a heep of room. If you are interested in seeing it I can email you some photos.
Kind regards
Karen
(Happy holidaying)
AnswerID: 24792

Follow Up By: Member - Toonfish - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 01:01

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 01:01
what basic model do you have Geoff and Karen?
you selling it ?
ya never know?
cheers
1999 NISSAN NAVARA DUALCAB
DIESEL 3.2 & SPRINGY CARLTON TOY
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FollowupID: 16694

Follow Up By: Member - Geoff & Karen - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 10:25

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 10:25
Hi Toonfish, yep we are looking at selling it, after this weekend though. The boys are having their one last trip away in it for 3 days this weekend. It's a Cub, and we had a brand new annexe custom made for it 12 months ago. The annexe has only been up 3 times since we had it. It's all in excellent condition though cause I havn't let the boys take it out very much on their own. If you are married Toonfish, your wife will understand what these boys can be like on their own. LOL. If you are interested we can send photos and more details.
Kind regards
Karen
(Happy holidaying)
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FollowupID: 16707

Follow Up By: foxer - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 18:15

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 18:15
Hi Karen
Thanks for your interest .
Would like to see the pics of your camper Looks like it will be easier to look at a new camper
Foxer
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FollowupID: 16730

Reply By: Matt M - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 00:04

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 00:04
Foxer,

Do you intend on doing any substantial off roading with this trailer?? If so I have seen so many of the spring hangers just break off 'real' offroad trailers so I would hate to see how a slipper with lightweight springs would do!

Plus if you upgrage the springs and fit matching 4x4 rims/tyres the tent will not reach the ground!
One solution is to fit the ALKO suspension and then you completly do away with the spring hangers altogether, Im looking at doing this with my off road camper just because of the breakages I have had!

Extending the drawbar is good for towing, but again I dont know how you would go structurely?? Have you looked at lifting the camper off and selling the trailer and gettin a new base for it! The tent is the dearest part!!

Goodluck anyway!

Matt.

AnswerID: 24812

Reply By: Donald - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 12:44

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 12:44
Foxer,
Hi,
I have had a lot of problems with a camper I bought years ago and unless you know the design limits of the original unit you could run into trouble., see my post 5786 dated 2 nd July.
I was able to re-build my trailer because of private access to resources etc. There is good advice above in other replies, If you add extra gear, more weight etc you have to up-size in some of the structure areas. At the end of the day It may pay you to flog the trailer as a box trailer & get a new trailer built to match the tent with all the other bits (extra gear storage etc) built in with off-road wheels, hitch etc..
Don't rush into it, do a bit of research, especially when money is short.
Regards & good luck,
Donald
AnswerID: 24829

Follow Up By: foxer - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 18:13

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 18:13
Thanks to all who helped
checked out your post Donald , may pay by the sounds to look at another trailer or a camper as it may just be chasing our tails to improve this one.
Foxer
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FollowupID: 16729

Reply By: Member - Peter (WA) - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 14:46

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 14:46
we have a swing out tailgate on our tralior witch we have built a kitchen on so just swing open the gate and the kitchen is all set up we used a gal toolbox so the lid swings down and mounted a 2 burner stove on top witha long hose to reach the bottles mounted at the side rear also have addad a50lt water container froma caravan inside at the front .Born to drive a 4x4 , not a keyboard
Peter York 4x4
AnswerID: 24834

Reply By: Member - Geoff & Karen - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 18:36

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 18:36
Foxer, have you got an email address I can send the photos to?
Kind regards
karen
AnswerID: 24852

Reply By: Member - Geoff & Karen - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 18:41

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 18:41
Actually Foxer ours is up for sale after this weekend, we are upgrading to a brand new one and I have just place ours in the trader section of explore Oz.Kind Regards
Karen & Geoff
(Happy holidaying)
AnswerID: 24853

Follow Up By: Member - Geoff & Karen - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 18:48

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 18:48
And no, the boat doesn't go with it! LOLKind Regards
Karen & Geoff
(Happy holidaying)
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FollowupID: 16735

Reply By: Donald - Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 19:18

Sunday, Jul 13, 2003 at 19:18
Foxer,
I also have some photos of how I customised our trailer to fit additional gear such as: 2nd spare Wheel/gas bottles/tool box/Jerry cans/water tank plus pump and a space saver kitchen with 3 burner gas stove mounted on the swing out tail gate. Set up for the "Wilderness" or just a weekend.
I must of done the kitchen OK...cause my misus is a city slicker...and hates tent camping immensly but loves the camper trailer...so if you can keep in the good books with the cook you must have some sort of a winner.
I am more than happy to share photos of the customisations so let me know your email address if you are intertested and I can send them to you.
Regards
Donald
AnswerID: 24859

Follow Up By: Bundy - Wednesday, Jul 16, 2003 at 18:23

Wednesday, Jul 16, 2003 at 18:23
Donald
Would love photos of your setup as we are looking at setting up a camper shortly. fishnboat@bigpond.com
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FollowupID: 16981

Reply By: Member - Melissa - Monday, Jul 14, 2003 at 14:18

Monday, Jul 14, 2003 at 14:18
Hi Foxer,

Our previous campertrailer was an offroad rear opening, soft floor type which we modified over time to suit our needs. Mods included addition of pull-out kitchen in side, changing wheels/tyres to match car, removal of spare-wheel carriers on both sides to one carrier on drawbar in front of storage box/jerry can holders, addition of gas cylinder holders on side and inclusion of full length shelf in underbed storage area for tables, chairs and poles. New owners have since added a Deep cycle battery and water tank.

After much research we realised economically it was worth doing the mods as opposed to a straight upgrade (did this later to cater for our growing family) and they were worth there weight in gold. Made our trips so much easier and more comfortable.

Thing was though, we had a very good off-road trailer to start with (Treg built trailer, same mob of the Treg off-road hitch fame). If your trailer is too light-weight in basic areas like suspension, drawbar etc I wouldn't bother. Take the tent off, sell the trailer then go to a manufacturer and have a new trailer made to specs. I've seen more than a few garden variety trailers masquerading as off-road trailers come to grief.

:o) MelissaPetrol 4.5L GU Patrol &
Camprite TL8 offroad camper
AnswerID: 24909

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