Advice on building a camper trailer needed
Submitted: Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 08:05
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kevanancy
Hi all ,
I am thinking of building an off road trailer and would appreciate any advice from anyone who has done this . Towing vehicle is an 80 series . Some of the
places we go camping are quite hard to get to so trailer will have to be very sturdy . Does anyone know where I can get plans from . If you have built one what would you do differently next time .
All the best
Kevanancy
Reply By: Member - Lionel A (WA) - Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 08:55
Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 08:55
K 'n' N,
Visit as many camper trailer retailers as you can.
Have a look at as many setups as you can.
Get the pencil and paper out and include everything you want and disregard those features you dont.
When I built
mine, over a period of time, made so many changes and alterations it looked like a 'pickled' welder had gone nuts.
Cheers.....Lionel.
AnswerID:
343820
Reply By: Willem - Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 08:58
Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 08:58
Kevanancy
Can't help you with plans but I went down this road a few years ago looking for an offroad trailer at a reasonable price.
I looked at trailers from a variety of manufacturers in
Melbourne but could not find one to suit my needs. I finally tried closer to
home and found one in
Adelaide. The trailer is aHeavy Duty Chequer plate 7x4 Modern Offroad Trailer fitted with 16" rims. Then I had to make some alterations like fitting a Treg Hitch, doing a spring over axle on the
suspension and fitting Nissan studs to the hubs so that all wheels and nuts/studes are interchangeable with the tow vehicle.
The trailer has done around the 40,000km now without any stress fractures or weld cracks. I have observed that it has not been 'overwelded' giving the body some degree of flexibilty. The trailer has done some extreme
treks and
well over 1000km of cross country driving. I have made a steel canopy frame for it and my local upholsterer made a canopy with suitable awning for shade or incelemnt weather. The unbraked payload is 750kg though it might go a tad over that at times. Next time I will make sure that I buy one with brakes fitted.
I think that the biggest problem with building your own trailer is to that you might 'over do' your building. Too many welds and too heavy steel sections. I have a friend who is an expert welder and he set about building a camper trailer and by the time he had finished it weighed in at 1300kg and that is unladen weight.
Hope you get some good answers off this
forum.
Cheers
AnswerID:
343822
Follow Up By: Member No 1- Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 17:10
Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 17:10
"1300kg and that is unladen weight"...one of the reasons why Ii dont want to even try
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611770
Follow Up By: Sir Kev & Darkie - Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 17:22
Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 17:22
I had my off road gear trailer custom built and it is around 600kg+ dry weight without the spare tyre or full jerries fitted, lucky I didn't get a camper made hahaha
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Reply By: austastar - Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 14:14
Monday, Jan 12, 2009 at 14:14
Have a look on myswag.org
Loads of usable information.
cheers
AnswerID:
343874
Follow Up By: kevanancy - Tuesday, Jan 13, 2009 at 08:40
Tuesday, Jan 13, 2009 at 08:40
Thanks for the advice guys & that site (myswag) looks great I am sure they will get me sorted .
FollowupID:
611924
Reply By: Sigmund - Tuesday, Jan 13, 2009 at 10:35
Tuesday, Jan 13, 2009 at 10:35
It's worth the money to buy Rivers' 'The Camper Trailer Book'. Has plenty of design criteria to evaluate retail units.
But the bottom line is you have to be clear about what you intend to use the unit for, and then build to suit.
AnswerID:
344067