My overland camper trailer

[Shayne]

Your lad looks happy are you sure he will let you in it

 

[Shayne]

Looks like the brakes were recently serviced and the drum looks good for years to come

 

[Shayne]

I was making slow progress with a wire brush on Friday afternoon when i heard tell of a retired gentleman who enjoys free access to to the shotblasting facilities of a big industrial plant nearby . He said get it down here now or the place is locked up for the weekend and he won't be back for a few weeks . What about the wiring etc says me , no worries was the reply just get it down here in the next half hour or i can't do it . On inspection he say's 80 quid and pick it up on Monday he was i nice old bloke and obviously wasn't in it for the money so like a fool i says tell you what if you do a good job i will give you a 100

I should have made it clear what i meant by a good job was to remove the lights , wiring and reflectors so i could have bare metal to make everything look new

Instead i got this

 

[clivehorridge]

No worries Shayne, it's clean and tidy, and a good base to proceed from. I'd just give it a similar coat of black or colour of your choice and get on with the build.

100 notes well spent

 

[Shayne]

OK I need to order wheel spacers and looking at the price of custom made sets i don't want to get it wrong , info on these trailers is sparse on the web but my research revealed someone suggesting the newer defender wheels won't fit ?

Is this just because they are alloys and the studs aren't long enough or do defenders have different pdc's depending on what series ?

 

[stumog]

All defenders have the same pcd. The reason newer ones will not fit because the hub of the trailer will not go through the center of the newer alloy wheels. Have a look on the divverence between a old steel rim and the boost alloy. If your fitting spacers you might be able to get them to fit.

What custom spacers did you want to do?

 

[Shayne]

Cheers Stu i never thought of backspacing and i should have because i can't flip the trailer wheels for the same reason

I'm gonna do what you did with a 2" thick adapter so i can fit Toyota wheels .

I did email the fella that made yours but he didn't reply .

 

[stumog]

gav had some made not me I was going to make some in work. But as thing have changed not going to build trailer.
You can flip the wheels if you get the right ones.

 

[Shayne]

Call me lazy but seeing the bearings packed with new grease and new brake pads installed on one side i didn't bother checking the other , until today when moving the trailer around by hand i noticed it was sticking . I've search the web many a time for info on this trailer and so know this to be a common problem but nobody offers a solution so -

Rapier Trailer sticky brakes and cylinder hard to remove is caused by the handbrake mechanism . A very simple device that does not need greasing because its stainless steel and grease will only catch brake dust jamming the slider which is likely why so many of these trailers have a broken handbrake lever .

In the pic below remove both rollers and sliders , fit the shoes and replace roller/sliders if they wont fit the slider is too long so just trim it with a grinder .

 

[Rich Sims]

Just for info the two sliders are in the wrong way round!

With the plunger pushed in the rollers should be over the other side and the sliders need flipping over.

 

[Rich Sims]

Like this, so when the brake is pulled the rollers ride up the ramps. Lol

 

[Shayne]

possibly the pic was an after thought as it explains better than words so i just chucked them back in to get it . I haven't fixed the lever as i'm probably going to change it for the ratchet kind so it locks on if you yank on a breakaway cable . Wheel spins freely now though and pulling on the cable spreads the shoes to lock on the drum so i must have put it all back together the right way

 

[Shayne]

Tubs on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Army-Rapi...324?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item43d9990e1c

 

[Rich Sims]

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=111639085961

i havent been down the farm to see what i have yet and i know you wanted these?

 

[Shayne]

Thanks Rich but they are not what I'm looking for , mine has a couple of fold down telescopic legs on the front with just flat pads on the bottom . Fully extended they might be about 30" in length . They lock with a threaded pin . Does that sound like the ones you removed from your trailer ?

 

[Julian T]

Just came across this on flea bay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EXPEDITIO...OF-TENT-/131479222354?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

 

[Shayne]

I know now Julian that the one you posted would be cheap at twice the price shown

 

[Shayne]

Help finding wheel studs anyone ?

ive waited over a month for wheel spacers to arrive and when they did it was minus studs to bolt my Toyota wheels to , my own fault should have noticed they weren't pictured in the custom spacers ad

phoned Marston as they have M12x1.5 studs for Vauxhall asking if they could supply me with studs with 60mm of unbroken thread allowing me to cut off the extra length and to give them their due they arrived first thing Monday morning despite being ordered late Saturday . Unfortunately they sent 60mm full length studs with 35mm of thread one end and 15mm of thread the other .

i have emailed them saying thank you very much I will keep them as ornaments and buy more if you can supply what I need , but thought I would ask here anyway as I have accepted the devil himself does not want this trailer built .

 

[Shayne]

Rapier trailer wheel studs have a 5/8s UNF 18tp thread size .

 

[Shayne]

If you ever make these effing things buy the sheet cut and bent to size so you have a big template to make the frame to , wish someone had told me that before i started