JazzVinyl wrote:I realize that #2 is built and in the history books...I really like what I see.
But, in the first message of this thread, it appeared that you would leave some room to store some gear on the outside of the sleeping compartment.
That is what I want, a "sleeper" big enough for one (me) and still have some room on the deck to store some gear. I like to carry a "changing tent", for instance, and a few other items.
I realize that if you leave room up front, (let's say 21 inches), that this will interfere with your door, as the fenders will be too close.
So let's say we leave 21 inches in the rear, for some cargo. Install a small cargo box, and place the spare tire on the tongue (to balance weight).
What are the potential caveats, of a design like this that I have not thought of?
Inability to build to the rear trailer edge, and water runoff is one, what else comes to mind?
Cheers...
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Yes. I would imagine that you could build either way. If you moved the body to the rear you could make a rear entrance door. Everything would stay the same if you opted to move the storage area to the rear for the cabin. If I was to use the rear for storage I would leave the floor open and just used like a rear hitch cargo carrier bolted to the frame that way water could not pool anywhere.
Things to consider:
-I placed the door where I did so that it is easy to get into the trailer. With where they are at all you have to do is sit and then swing in, pivoting on your butt, and you are in the sleeping position already. No need to readjust. On the shorter version, like I posted earlier, you would have to crawl into the sleeping position.
-Rear doors you will have to crawl in and out of the sleeping position.
-Rear doors do not allow easy extra storage on the back such as bike racks, cargo carriers, spare tires.
-The rear is more dusty than the sides.
With that said my first post was actually a smaller unit than what I had built. It was 6'1/2" and in that configuration the HF frame would have needed to be shortened and I had planned to add a tongue extension to be able to add the items on the tongue. In this configuration you could also add a cargo carrier to the rear.
My actual build is a full 4'x8' HF build and is a work in progress. Taking my time first to see if it is truly capable of long term off road use, which it is doing just fine. I have upgraded the tires/wheels to 13" and have added a extended tongue/frame stiffener. 2'x2" tube steel that runs full length under the HF frame and ends with a 2" rear receiver. This addition is needed for off road usage especially since I will be eventually moving the axle back to clear bigger tires in the future. In it's current configuration I am finding that it really does everything I wanted it to do. Most of the camp gear rides inside and it is unloaded at destination points. I can literally set up and tear down camp in under 5 minutes. So most modes now will be just because I can do it.
This would be a closer representation to what I am trying to achieve now. Probably will not have the extra window in the shown position though.
- Bug Out Long
- Bug Out Long small.png (50.32 KiB) Viewed 3480 times
Good luck, George.
by ghcoe » Thu Oct 18, 2018 6:52 pm 
