Advise needed re off road trailer

Hi Jeelan,

I have just purchased a Casuarina Camper from Seaford in Melbourne.

Lochie builds a Great trailer and after lots of research I found value for money you couldn't buy better. He has years of experience and is able to accomadate any needs you may have in "specialising it " to suit your application.

In his offroads he has two options independant leaf or independant coil.

His canvas work is done by Southern Cross who is reconised as one of the oldest and best in Canvas work,

Couldn't be happier,

Cheers John

I haven't done this myself but common sense would say it would be as simple as welding a shackle onto the trailer chassis and putting springs in it.

A possible consequence of changing the springs means the axle may move (probably back if the springs are longer). This may affect handling and require a different weight distribution when loading the trailer. This could be fixed however by welding both shackles, rather than just the slipper end, to accommodate longer springs.

But apart from that personally I can't see any problems.

Barnesy

Jeelan

I tow an Offroad Trailer.

I went to Melbourne to look for these trailers as that city is the capital of things to tow. Could not find one under $3000. Eventually came back to Adelaide and bought a Modern Offroad Trailer for under $2000. It is very strong and has done 45000km so far without any issue with some of the journeys being cross country travelling. I had to do a springover as the spring setting was too low and the tyres rubbed on the guards.

Buying a trailer with slipper springs may not be such a good idea as the trailer might not be built to Offroad standards. If you do go down that road then you might have to look at strengthening the box, if needed.

Changing the slipper springs to eye to eye shouldn't be a problem but get a professional welder to do the job, unless ofcourse, you are one.

Cheers

G'day Jeelan
Assuming the chassis is strong enough to be a real offroad unit then yes - all you need do is weld in the new bit. I had this done to a box trailer yonks ago. Used LandCruiser springs in place of the slipper springs the trailer came with. Still going strong some 20+ years later. The ride with the bigger springs has been and remains excellent. Never had any issues. Can carry a heap of weight too. Those short springs most trailers come with are useless in my opinion.
Cheers from the Moose

MOOSE and WILLEM

thanks for your responses - much appreciated.

Another question - do you use your trailers with a soft cover on it?
i'm considering getting a hard lid fabricated. It would be hinged on one side with gas struts. I'd put roof rack mounting points on the lid.

ideally the lid would hv removeable hinges so if i needed to use the trailer as an open trailer, this could be done easily enough.

what are your thoughts? does the soft cover (like a tonneu cover with loops) seal dust from the trailer fairly effectively?

as noted above, a mate is a fabricator so to do the lid would only be material cost.

cheers
Jeelan

I built an off road trailer 15years ago using landcruiser springs. Works great and a softer ride for the trailer. I towed it across the Gunbarrel including the abandon section without a problem. I saw many abandoned slipper spring trailers out there. One of the cars with us was towing with slipper springs and didn't last 150k on the track before smashing his springs. When fitting your springs just make sure the centre pin of the springs is about 25mm to the rear of the centre of the trailer, that was advice from a trailer manufacturer. Cutting off old spring mounts and putting new ones on is straight forward and doesn't worry the trailer. I have done it a few times.