Ed's camper trailer build

[Paddler Ed]

So, after originally planning on building my own, and after a long time loitering around Gumtree and eBay, and a couple of the camper trailer forums I found a trailer locally for sale... went to look at it this afternoon, and came home grinning like a Cheshire Cat much to the wife's annoyance - a conversation ensued for 30 minutes about the trailer and whilst it took a bit of explaining what I was looking at, she came round to it eventually.

What have I got? 1996 Kanga Camper trailer, one owner since new - a bare canvas to start with:






Why did I go with this? My logic with some things (which may seem backwards) is that people hold onto good things, and get rid of rubbish… and that some things were better made in the past compared to now… on that basis this trailer ticks the boxes well and truly.

No idea on some of the specifications (such as steel dimensions) but it weighs in at about 350kg tare and has a 750kg ATM, so nice and light and no brakes (KISS!), and perhaps best of all, has a independent suspension:



The plan from here is to:
-Source a camper top to replace the alloy lid
-Fit some corner legs
-Get some space cases for inside it for storage and organisation
-Use it
-Change the wheels and tyres to match the car
-Work out a kitchen plan (I suspect it’ll be a free standing unit or a Drifta style Kitchen box)
-Work out what else we need (I’m thinking a shower and a water tank for potable water)

I'm picking it up later this week with a bit of luck, so will get some more pictures over the weekend.

 

[froggy Steve]

That looks good and strong, should last another 20 years 'think I would want brakes though..............

 

[stumog]

Looks good. The independent suspension is meant to be amazing on a trailer. Is that from new or been upgraded.

I was worried about no brakes on mine but it does pull up straight under hard braking.

Good luck

 

[clivehorridge]

Nice to see coils and shocks under there, makes life easier if you need to upgrade or renew I'd imagine.

Got yourself a project there Ed

 

[Ben]

Nice!

Looking forward to seeing it evolve and being taken on trips.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Looks good. The independent suspension is meant to be amazing on a trailer. Is that from new or been upgraded.

I was worried about no brakes on mine but it does pull up straight under hard braking.

Good luck

It had independent from new - they were probably one of the first to do it - and it was a real bonus in that respect.

I'm planning canvas and kitchen at the moment...

 

[Paddler Ed]

So canvas planning...

My original plan was to go with the GordiGear Savannah, but I'm now looking at the smaller Taiga http://www.gordigear.com/trailer_tents/taiga.php?l=en

I've messaged some of these guys to ask about options, and we'll go from there:
http://www.cameroncampers.com.au/concept-tent-top-only/
http://coffscanvas.com.au/outb.../camper-kits-tent-sections/
http://www.challengecampertrailers.com/cavalier/9-camper/
http://www.bellcanvas.com.au (they used to do one, but don't list it now)
http://www.campersdelight.com.au/tttpictures.html (shocking photos and website is out of date)
http://3dogcamping.com/camper-trailers.html

 

[Paddler Ed]

More update... Delz is liking this project, so strike whilst the iron is hot and keep moving forwards... when my tax return coming in?!

I was off all weekend, whilst Delz was working... she spent the weekend thinking about things for the trailer so me going off on a hunt for bits and pieces was a good thing really as I was able to say what I had found.

Kitchen
I thought about getting the kitchen worked out first as we can then load the trailer with swags and junk and head off anyway.... so, ideas are looking like doing something like this:

Which is made by a company in QLD that I found online.

Canvas
Now ideally I'd like to get an Aussie canvas, and have found some really nice ones... but a couple of things have made it so they are not feasible - price and location mainly. One quote came in at $9k (I think that was a "we'll give you a quote, thanks for asking but we don't really want the work" price) another $5k. I emailed about half a dozen companies to ask and only 2 came back... fired off another couple this evening to see what we hear back. I have a budget in mind, and the one closest to that will get the order - most importantly we'll pay a bit more for an Aussie made tent over an import.
So, I've gone back to the company I was originally looking at - Gordigear who I think import their tents, but come in at a good price with a good reputation on here by the looks of it- and their smallest tent (Taiga). We looked at it again last night and measured it up against the bedroom... the floor was about the same size as the bedroom in our unit, so we can visualise it easily.

 

[Paddler Ed]

So the trailer's been put into use as a standard box trailer quite a bit the last few days - yesterday it was put into use paddock clearing and shifting firewood around.

Towing it rides really nicely on the dirt road around here - didn't bounce too much empty at 60-70kmh along the back roads, so that was a bonus.

BUT I put it over the weigh bridge and found that it was a tare weight of 420kg... and then I found a plate on the 4Runner that says Unbraked = 400kg... and the ATM is 750kg... so it needs brakes or I need a new car... and I know which is the cheapest option...

So operation fit brakes begins soon - it looks like it's going to be electric brakes, and we'll go from there. They have the benefit that we can feather the brakes on some of the roads around here as we go down them (some where like West Kunderang is on the list - it needs 1st Low to come down the hill into it...)

Kitchen is beginning to come together now - I picked up the corner pieces the other day, but still need to get the aluminium extrusions (which are of course imperial sized... and therefore a bit more than metric sized stuff) and a drawer to see how it all sized up.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Quick update:

Didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but made some forward progress...

Kitchen design:


The plan was to put it together today... Well, that was the plan... there's 9m of aluminium in the car but a mate's drop saw wasn't working and I realised I was missing an important dimension...

On the flip side, the mate who owns the drop saw son returned whilst I was there... he's got some 15x8 rims (that match the 4Runner) that he was trying to sell.... one carton of beer later and I now have 4 new rims...


They'll eventually get some Duellers D697's to match the tyres on the car.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Test fit of the spare wheel and tyre from the 4Runner which is the same as the white ones above, just with a tyre:


Also found that the axle appears to be a 45mm one, square with a round slotted into it. Now to sort out what bearings are in it and from there, then order a brake kit for it.

 

[Paddler Ed]

That wheel and tyre above are the same offset as the white rims, and the same tyres eventually. 1.25" clearance on the inside between tyre and chassis on the lazy hubs - I'm not sure if braked hubs will increase the offset or not.

Took the trailer out to the mate who will be doing the welding for the brake plates, and pulled a hub apart to check bearings etc:




45mm stub axles and Slimline bearings FTW... a 1500kg combination I believe... trailer is plated to 750kg, but also has 1000kg on the max axle load rating. I suspect because it was unbraked it was limited to 750kg.

Kitchen building has started as well:

 

[Paddler Ed]

Quick update this weekend - it looks like it's going to be getting blasted and resprayed. We've found a few bits that have been repaired in the past that need to be tidied up, so strip out the electrics and the other hub, and load it on the ute and take it to be blasted.

We can then undercoat and respray it and get it all sorted out over a couple of weekends (I think I have some spare on my timeline...) it's likely to be a couple of evenings week after next to strip it back, and then welded up where needed. Going to do underneath with some decent stone guard underbody spray to hopefully prevent damage from dirt kicking up to it.

I'm undecided on what to do with the sides; do I leave the arches as they are, and have empty spaces for putting "things" or do I box it up and have something permanent to collect junk in? My preference is probably to have them as empty spaces with a couple of tie down points. The box in the side picture above is all rusted out at the bottom, so that's coming off, and the box on the front is just ugly in our view, so that's off as well!

 

[clivehorridge]

Good to see you getting it blasted and painted Ed, you wouldn't have been happy doing all this work then having to strip it later.

Nice ideas floating, looking forward to seeing the build.

 

[Paddler Ed]

More update - trailer had a crash diet with the angle grinder = 20kg off!

4Runner has had some work done: Now have an electric brake controller fitted to the car. Over here the norm/a lot more common is to run electrickery brakes. Now beyond how the controller works it's all standard electrickery to me.

The controller I've gone for is a sensing self caliberating one, which (unlike a lot of the others) can be mounted in any plane as long as it is securely attached. It takes the signal from the brake lights and applies the brakes accordingly - if I want more brakes, I can increase the amount of braking via the button/knob on the dash and tweak them accordingly. On the whole I suspect I'll run them as fully auto, and only when off road will I run them manually.

It's not that daunting - work out in advance where things can go and then go from there. I had the dash apart the other day and worked out where things were going, and then put it back together. Planning makes it easier.

So, photos... I've not got a lot to write about otherwise:







I've taken the trigger from the brake lights - put the mulit meter on at the Brake controller end and had a solid 12.5V on the brake/earth when the pedal was depressed.




Had a spare switch blank that I shaved the rear of last night, and then drilled and filed the holes to suit to day


Blue Peter-style - double sided sticky pads to hold it against the A-Pillar.



Controller fitted, dash to be refitted!

All done:


Took from 10ish until 4, including lunch and a 90 min walk to get more cable...

Oh, and I smashed my phone... 2 years of abuse... RIP $150 Nokia...

 

[Paddler Ed]

Quick picture of the 2 together:


What is interesting for me is how level the trailer sits. A lot of the trailers over here sit very nose down... I did some thinking...

What happens is that they start life as a 7x5 or similar box trailer... that means that the axle is set rearwards in the box section by about 7" from the centre line (so with my trailer there is about 4'1" in front of the axle, 3'11" behind) That's fine... until you start putting tool boxes in front of the trailer body.... then the weight distribution goes to crap and you end up nose heavy and the tow car suffering ducks disease (arse too close to the ground) and no steer wheels in contact with the ground, or in the case of IFS scrubbing out the tyres.

 

[Shayne]

Balance should be 10% heavier at the hitch Ed , i can't remember the technical term but i did read up on it because common sense told me when we brake the towing vehicle nose dives lifting her ass so a nose heavy trailer helps to keep it level improving braking all round .

 

[Paddler Ed]

Balance should be 10% heavier at the hitch Ed , i can't remember the technical term but i did read up on it because common sense told me when we brake the towing vehicle nose dives lifting her ass so a nose heavy trailer helps to keep it level improving braking all round .

10% of the total trailer weight or the weight should be 45/55 behind axle/front of axle? In my case that would be 337.5/412.5kg, giving me a nose weight of 75kg (which is 10% of the total weight) when loaded, or 180/220 unloaded. As I can lift the drawbar up without too many problems, I reckon it's close to that 40kg at the moment.

I follow you; the thing is that some of the big Aussie trailers are running at about 2,000kg gross, with about 250kg on the noseweight. Also, my brake controller is a proportioning one - when the braking is more severe, more brakes will be applied to the trailer (joy of electric brakes!). I also think that a lot of people forget about axle weights, so a Long range fuel tank, 3 kids (and their junk) and then a big trailer on the back, and all of a sudden you're marginal on the axle load limit...

In contrast, Dad's towed for many years with about 75kg noseweight on the caravans in the UK (all of which ran at about 1200-1500kg) so I suspect that loading and balance has as much to do with anything.

 

[Shayne]

My trailer being a combo of 2 pro built rigs that were both designed nose heavy and it remains nose heavy . But I'm not satisfied , having a jacked up short wheel base exaggerates things so i can see the coupling lifts under braking . I still have a 70 litre water tank to fit but i would like that above the axle in neutral balance so empty or full it makes no difference and i hope a 12v battery mounted somewhere forward will be enough to set things right . My truck and trailer are more or less fixed loads though .

 

[Paddler Ed]

100kg of me standing on the back doesn't lift the nose on mine, so I can probably say that the nose is around the 40kg mark at the moment.