My offroad Camper

[Steve F]

The build has begun, well the main rails have been cut, all the rest is made from angle and will be bought and cut when I have the main frame tacked together to make sure I get the right amount of steel.

Here is the final rendering, notice the wheels are now tucked in a bit to keep the track the same as the jeep, better for towing in deep sand and ruts etc.



Welding starts on the weekend Obviously the A-Frame goes under the main frame. Be interesting to see how close to the original rendering I get it and how good my measurements turn out.



Like my Um'd 666 numberplate



Cheers
Steve

[Kankujoe]

I really like the lines & profile of what I've seen in you CAD drawings. I'll be eagerly following your progress... hope things go smoothly.

Please take & post lots of photos...

[wawilber]

I have been checking this site for years and finally signed up some time ago.

I am very impressed with the quality of people ..including the administrator, posting info and replies.

This latest is at least equal to the best I've seen.
These artist renderings/CAD drawings are perfectly awesome.

I have owned a '98 Jeep Cherokee since new and have always invisioned making a small camper to pull along behind it.
I have had three campers in my life and my favorite was a "Burro-like'' fiberglass design not made anymore. It was so light that when pulling it with my full size van, I had to look in the mirror to see if it was there. That was a far cry from the 22' behemouth and much more enjoyable.
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I like the ''Grasshopper'' style I have seen in here but have some ideas of my own.
One comment about the one in this post is that anytime you include a triangle in the design, you add strength. The 'Grasshopper has plenty of triangles. The only major change I would make is to replace the roof with a 'rectangular truncated pyramid'. Imagine removing the top 2/3rd of a rectangular pyramid and putting the remaining pyramid bottom on the top of this design. With some wiggling, you could still keep the same excellent anlular look to the side view as it is now. maybe evne keep the same slight angle to the top of the roof. This would raise the center for more 'head room' and add some rigidity to the roof. (More triangles.) It would also add to the syle if not too high.

[Jeeper92]

I ma still mulling around a buch of ideas before i start mine, the last day of work for me is tom. Id liek to start by july and finish by august, 8 hour days will ensure that

What size traielr are you constructing?>

[Steve F]

The trailer is 2.7m long and 1.6m wide not including the draw bar, the draw bar ia another 1.3m. So after a quick calculation the body is 106" long, 62" wide with a 51" drawbar. Most of the sizes were picked based onthe sizes of ply I can get here in Australia etc and to have it the same track as my Cherokee (2000 XJ)

I've posted these somewhere else but I might just update the build progree here. Here's the frame so far, took about 6hrs last weekend





And the rendering changed slightly, the frame reflects this.



I'm hopeing to get the springs this Saturday if I can find somewhere that has the sort I want.

Cheers
Steve

[CHUCKLEHEAD69]

looks a little like mine

[Steve F]

looks a little like mine

Is the same sort of style

Bought my springs today, 1000kg (2200lbs) offroad springs, they have greasable shackles and a rebound spring on top to help with dampening. Also plenty of clearance.





Cheers
Steve

[Nytewyng]

In keeping with the Jeep look Maybe you could find an old jeep grill and use it as a stone guard to protect the jerry cans

[igofshn]

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v82/igofshn/teardrop/
Similar to my design.

[Steve F]

Springs are on and I've decided to raise the floor at the rear 2" where the spare goes. This means the spare is tucked up that little more and gives me some extra clearance. It will also mean the mattress will be slightly thinner at the feet, but with a 4" to 6" mattress losing 2" at the feet is no big deal. In fact with the length of the interior my feet might not even go down that far

Now to order an axle and hubs





Cheers
Steve

[Toolie]

Steve,
I just found your thread today, awesomely beautiful! Another tremendously talented man!
Just as I was getting hooked on the boxier design you switched to the Grasshopper! I love the addition of the front windows. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

[jagular7]

Good deal there Steve. 2200# springs eh. Think they will be to hard?

Your setup is very similar to the USMil M101 3/4 trailer. The springs are multi-leaf, thin, have greasable bolts at both ends. I've got one and will be using for my Pinzgauer ambulance box transition. It needs a little extension to fit the box.


I'll be eliminating the axle and several leaves, relocating the leaf pack back using the stock hardware, welding the tongue and adding a single coupler bar similar to your layout. I'll be using a Dexter 3500# parking brake axle under/on top of the leaves (haven't figured out the weight just yet) with 14" tires (free wheels/tires given to me).

I noticed your frame is boxed all around. Think it was necessary? M101 is 'C' channel and the only crossmember boxed is the one over top the axle. The original trailer box was secured to the outer side of the frame with 90* brackets. Maybe the box had enough stiffness in it to add to the rigidity of the frame.

What is the length of your spring pack following the top spring curve?

Looking forward for me pics.

[Steve F]

The springs may be too hard, if they are then I'll take a leaf or two out As an aside these are the lightest offroad style (60mm wide instead of 40mm) springs I could find. Length wise they are about 880mm long (mount to mount, not sure on spring curve length) which is about 35" I think. Longer would be nice but it was easier to buy an off the shelf setup rather than a vehicle leaf pack and mucking about with shackles and mounts.

Not sure if boxing the fame all round is necessary but I wanted the section the springs mount onto boxed so really it was only adding the front and rear crossmembers, the other crossmembers and outriggers are angle.

That trailer looks neat, I'd love to pick up something like that but here in Aus there's not much around.

Cheers
Steve

[PaulC]

Not sure who made those springs Steve but the ones I have go as low as 650kg(about 1350# for the others) Similar in design with the rebound spring etc.
Cheers
Paul

[Steve F]

Hmmmm, I think I'll be taking a leaf or two out then

Cheers
Steve