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Camping Trailer Build

I threw a memory foam pad on top of the factory mattress and it's great. The only real damage from the flop was some holes in the cover, so it's built pretty good too.


They really are. I love the sh!t out of mine.
I also rock an egg crate pad on mine.
Memory foam was to costly at the time for me... my only complaint comes from a trip in Moab where we got hit by a super hard rain and it started to leak. I had to get out and tarp it. And Moab of all places!!

Excited to see another overlander around here....
 
Have you thought about independent suspension?
Yes, but since it's a light weight axle it wouldn't really gain me much. I'm pressed for time, so I'm not reinventing the axle right now, but I may change out the suspension later if I decide I don't like the way it performs. This trailer is the same length as my old trailer, with the wheel arch in the same place, so I should be able to just unbolt the 4 link, weld new tabs onto the new trailer and be done.
 
I don't get too excited about builds, but I'm very anxious to see more of your progress. I've made several attempts at a small camper (both from scratch and restoring existing campers) to take on weekend get-a-ways, but I've never made an off-road version yet. Good luck and can't wait to see how this one goes for you. Here's the link to the 1969 Trailblazer camper I gutted and restored. Like I mentioned, It's not an off-road version, but I put a lot of my time and effort into restoring it.

 
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Yes, but since it's a light weight axle it wouldn't really gain me much. I'm pressed for time, so I'm not reinventing the axle right now, but I may change out the suspension later if I decide I don't like the way it performs. This trailer is the same length as my old trailer, with the wheel arch in the same place, so I should be able to just unbolt the 4 link, weld new tabs onto the new trailer and be done.

I have just read that with independent suspension the roll over risk is reduced
 
I don't get too excited about builds, but I'm very anxious to see more of your progress. I've made several attempts at a small camper (both from scratch and restoring existing campers) to take on weekend get-a-ways, but I've never made an off-road version yet. Good luck and can't wait to see how this one goes for you. Here's the link to the 1969 Trailblazer camper I gutted and restored. Like I mentioned, It's not an off-road version, but I put a lot of my time and effort into restoring it.


That was pretty fantastic right there.
 
We got quite a bit done today. I stole the axle, links and airbags out of the blue trailer:

IMG_20160723_131225778.jpg


Installed some bump stops, bent the upper links to clear the frame, centered the axle and tacked the link tabs in place:

IMG_20160723_145129391.jpg


Fabbed up some new mounts for the bags that make it easier to replace them when necessary and tested them out (I don't have all the lines set up so I can't leave them inflated):

IMG_20160723_170945396_HDR.jpg


IMG_20160723_171050294_TOP.jpg


Then we added the bushings to mount the adjustable front a-frame, finished welding everything, reassembled, flipped it over and put some tires and wheels on it. These aren't the tires I'm going to run, but I need to order some wheels for the other tires. I thought I had some 6 lug trailer hubs for this axle that I could use, but I don't so we're just going to stick with the 8 lug drums (I do have a set of 8 lug non-brake hubs as well):

IMG_20160723_192125629.jpg
 
I worked on the trailer most of the day yesterday again. Unfortunately my plan for the 3 axis hitch was not thought out properly and isn't going to work so that was a waste of time... I'll just steal the hitch off my old trailer for now.

The A-frame is done and fully welded, and it mostly looks like a trailer frame now. I ordered a ton of parts for it (wheels, solenoid valves, switches etc.) and those should all be in by next weekend:

IMG_20160724_142153578.jpg
 
What brand and model tires do you have on the trailer in the picture above? That tread pattern looks really familiar.
 
I think they're hankook something or others. The cheapest A/T tire I could find at the time.
 
I stripped some more parts off the old trailer including the 3 axis hitch. It's now grafted on to the new trailer. My new wheels also showed up and Amber ran them over to the local llantera and got them mounted up. It's starting to look a little more awesome now:

IMG_20160726_185910839.jpg


A ton of other parts are showing up too, solenoid valves, tubing, switches, lighting etc. I should be able to get at least one more night out in the garage before the weekend and I'll make some good progress this weekend too.
 

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