Show us ya box trailer setup

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

In the future I'm lookin build/buy a 7x4 offload box trailer with extended draw bar put a box on the front, Jerry can holders blah blah, basically it will be a camper trailer without the tent on top, I'm interested to see people's trailer setups to give me some ideas when I decide what path to go down, I will also build canvas canopy on it as well, so if you have any photos wack them up here. Cheers samo

[Hutch Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hutch]

My box trailer is 15 years old just had it's 3rd refurb, painted grey same as the Prado and got some new black wheels!!! This week changed out the springs to give it a mild lift and some more carrying capacity.


Hutch- 2012 Prado 150, some TJM Kit.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

My box trailer is a hydraulic tipping trailer, another one of my little DIY jobs from a few years ago, I love it.





Cheers Andrew

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Mine's a bit different... Pipe drawbar through the trailer. Treg hitch at the pointy end and recovery hook at the blunt end. Have snatched a stuck 4wd still pulling the trailer, wow was the guy embarassed! Long drawbar allows the trailer to be jackknifed without damaging the car or trailer, handy on tight tracks but also makes it easier to reverse. Various plates and bits and pieces to attach things like my bike carrier and kayak carriers. As well as the usual spare carrier and gas bottle holder. 500mm high sides with a removable frame and canopy. Nice and high with matching wheels/tyres to the Prado. Front and rear "gates" open and can be removed so it can be a straight through bed. Have carried 3m material on it before now. I welded the small unistrut on the front and rear gates and the gas bottle holder/spare carrier can be moved left right front or rear. Good strong tie down rail runs all around.





Frame is made from pressed channel. Light, rigid and strong. Needs a birthday now, just on 15 years old. Shackle leaf suspension to keep the cost and complexity down.

I should have added the trailer then becomes the kitchen/pantry when we set up camp.

This is the old old set up from a few years back but the trailer sits on the opposite side. And all this fits in the trailer.

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

Thanks mj that's the info im after, nice setup. Cheers samo

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Samo make a shopping list of what you want before you even put pencil to paper to rough out a design. I did have drawings for my trailer (it was fully engineered down to deflections and stress analysis) but I gave my calculations to a guy who was building his own version.

My shopping list went like this:

Light weight (all up 200kg including standard spare, bit more with the LTs)
Front and rear gates removable
4 Gerry can holders
Brackets to mount gas bottle, spare and fold up boat trailer (little Bulldog) on the front or back (the unistrut)
Tie downs in the body of the trailer (4 500kg lift up tie downs)
Single drawbar like the army trailers though this may no longer be legal
Recovery point at the back
Bike rack fitting front (on top of drawbar) and back (under drawbar)
Concealed wiring (runs in a piece of 25 angle from front to a j box at the back and then to the lights)
Solid tie downs around the body
Same track as the Prado
Plenty of clearance
Shockies (!) even though the tyres are usually only at 15 - 20 psi the shock absorbers make a huge difference
Cheap and reliable suspension (hence the shackle leaf springs)
Cheap to make
Treg hitch (though I went overboard and the Treg was modified and slid up inside the pipe drawbar), hitch is greasable
Double safety chains
Nice high sides made from two pieces of sheet folded and then a single seam weld in the middle of the tray

Most of my trailer was made from excess or scrap material from site, the drawbar is a length of 3" water pipe (89.1 OD), the frame is pressed channel (100 and 75) and the gussets and suspension mounts are sliced up bits of kickplate (6mm thick plate). The only bits I bought were the hitch, suspension, axle and hubs and the sheet for the body. The tie downs are 1/2" water pipe. The canopy is 19mm stainless tube, only 316L (!) again excess material.

On and off it took me about a month to build but that was mainly getting access to the folder but once I got it home it was welded out and finished in a weekend. All up it cost me about $400 from memory. I copped a lot of shit while it was being folded up from guys who knew better. According to them sheet metal was only good to fill in the spaces in an RHS box frame. My trailer was described as the rain water tank gone wrong. When the frame was tacked together it was as floppy as a day old cat and that meant even more mirth and hilarity from a few observers. Well a boilermaker and I welded out the frame a couple of days later and it developed a bit of a twist, it took one hell of a lot of load from the outrigger from a 140t crane with the frame sitting on 3 300mm high blocks to straighten that little twist! Damn thing kept springing back to the same shape so we pushed it down about 200mm to get it straight. Second outrigger holding the other side down and two outriggers from a 50t roughie on the other side! Nice to have heavy duty outdoor presses available. No more jokes when I suggested the experts bring their box trailers in to test them under the same condiitons! Since new it has had three sets of wheels to suit the towing vehicle, a new axle because the 120 rims were a different offset compared with the 90 and the tyres were too close to the body and a new set of wiring and led lights. Tows like a dream and is tough. When we went to WA I sent the trailer over with our construction gear and one of the supervisors decided it would be a good idea to fill the tray with some sheaves. One of the sheave weighed 750kg! Oh and one other thing when it is finished put a tarpaulin in the body and slowly fill the trailer with water. Put about 100mm in at a time and measure the distance from the top of the tyre to the underside of the guard. Then you can work out how much weight is in the trailer simply by checking the gap. I drew up a little graph and that lives in the glovebox.

If you want any pics or details of individual parts let me know.

EDIT: one thing I forgot was the jockey wheel. My trailer does most off roading on sand so a big stable wheel is needed if you want to snatch the trailer. Sadly the first one I built was deemed to be needed by someone else and was stolen on the way back from WA and I have not yet rebuilt it but I have a small quad bike wheel and tyre to do just that.

Michael

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Here's some pics of our little red caboose! What I love about our humble little box trailer is it's unique sliding canopy which was on it when I bought it. Very handy when doing a trip to the dump. Always gets a comment. Predominantly used to carry all the crap (Kitchen sink etc) when camping. I have installed 2 tent pole carriers for all the tarp poles as we have a similar setup to mjrandom (large tent and a big arse tarp to live under.) Thanks for starting this thread Samo as it 's reminded me to redo the bearings....

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Thats a pretty thourough description there MJ, and it all sounds well thought out and well put together. The only thing that puzzles me is how you got it weigh only 200kgs? I weigh box trailers all the time and almost none are as light as that, even the cheapest nastiest light wieght basic 6x4 with small wheels go around 220kg, 250 - 300kg is the norm for a low sided box trailer. My tip trailer pictured above is 380kg, but that has a double chassis and battery and hydraulic pump in it of course.

Samo, I have the material sizes for my camper trailer listed in the first page or so of my rig build if you are interested.

Cheers Andrew

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Good point Andrew. The low weight is off the weighbridge ticket before I first registered the trailer. The guy at the Dept against Transport refused to believe it so I picked the back corner off the ground. That weight though was with steel 15" Sunraysia rims and passenger construction sand tyres, Duellers I think. A 40mm (?) axle, the style that had Ford/Holden hybrid bearings. Now it would weigh a fair bit more since the GX 17 steelies and 275 BFGs must be 40 - 45kg each I reckon and it has a 50mm axle to suit the offset of the GX wheels. No canopy or spare/carrier in that weight either by the way. And yes I should have mentioned that the weight was with those lighter components, didn't think about it. So I guess now with spare it would be closer to 300kg. I probably should weigh it and see, I know I got a shock when I put the Prado over the weighbridge and discovered it was 2.6t with full tanks and two people! I told my colleague at the time he was a fat bastard, pity he is below the average, must be me... When we go camping there is about 200 - 250kg in the trailer so still much less than the unbraked 750kg limit.