upgrades

[hugh]

Well after reading the thread about brakes I decided to do some upgrades to my little trailer. It was painted green with marine paint but I have been sanding it and repainting it white. There are and will be flaws such as some runs I did not sand out completley and some dimples in the wood from scratches etc but I am happy with it. A few coats and it will be done. Then I will apply some type of decal to it to break up the white and hopefully hide some of the paint boo boos.
The trailer as it sits now has a 48" wide hub face to hub face 2000 lb axle with way too stiff 3500 lb springs. I took it to the scales and weighed it at 1150 lbs. Anyway I bought a 3500 lb axle today that has the brackets for brake hubs and I also picked up some 2000 lb springs that fit along with a set of shocks. The 3500 lb axle has a larger tube and bigger bearings. The new axle has a width of 6' so the track will be 1' wider on both sides which will give it better stability. As soon as I can save up the cash for a brake system that will go on also. Plus I picked up a marine battery awhile ago so a tongue box will be built once the paint is done. Tomorrow after applying another coat of paint I will take a picture and post it up.

[dh]

Jurt curious, do you have an off road rig? Probably would be better off financially going with a dexter torflex with breaks.

EDIT:

After looking at you album, previous statement retracted.

How high does that thing sit up off the ground?

[SonofT@B]

Hugh, I'd say that's a serious off road unit you have there. It does look like you have a height to width extreme. Does that affect handling? I would love to see some inside pictures. Looks like you did a good job there!

[hugh]

here are 3 pictures. The first shows the 3500lb axle that will be going in this weekend although my back picked this time to go out so it may be delayed. The shocks are sitting on the sawhorse, they are munroe gas shocks.
The second and and third show the frt and sides with the new white paint job. The new axle will put the wheels out board 1 ft on each side and a buddy is making me a set of fenders. Also a couple of red stripe decals will be applied to break up the extreme whiteness of it

[hugh]

As it sits now it does have to much height for the wheel width, outboarding the wheels should solve that. It should be much more stable now. Plus based on advice I got here I took the trailer to the local highway scale and it weighed in at 1140 lbs. With the heavier and wider axle plus a bit more 2x2 tubing to adapt the axle it should come in around 1250 lbs. It is a 3500 lb axle with a thicker tube and larger bearings than the old 2000 lb unit, I bought slightly longer leaf springs with a rating of 1200 lbs each versus the previous 1750 lb each. Along with the shocks it should ride much better. Although I must say at the speeds I travel [100 km = 60 mph roughly] there was no sway and it pulled real nice.. Also compared to the first off road pictures when it was green the axle has been moved to a spring under configuration to lower it several inches. When I get the new axle mounted there will be a picture posted with the trailer behind the tow vehicle. And as soon as I get a couple move pay checks from my part time job a set of brakes will be added.

[kennyrayandersen]

it's looking good!

[hugh]

With help from 2 friends I got the new axle installed today. Also installed a set of munroe gas shocks. The fenders are coming in a day or 2 and will be installed at home in my garage. My back is still out so my 2 buddies basically did everything while I drank a couple of beers and helped where possible. The road to the friends is a concrete highway where all the slabs have heaved over the years. Going there with the orig narrow axle [48" hub face to face] and no shocks I kept the speed down to about 40mph, coming home with the wider axle [72"] with shocks 60 mph felt fine. You can see the wheel well left a large space, on the drivers side will be a shelf and that is where the marine battery and trickle charger will be placed, just over the axle. On the pass side thanks to a link Madjack had posted up will be a small 10 gallon water tank so the space won't be wasted. Here,s a couple of pictures, and the trailer is still due for some more stripes.

[hugh]

Here,s a couple of pictures of the inside, not up to the quality of workmanship usually seen on this site but still nice and comfy. The first is looking in the open door. You can see a cabinet my neighbor gave me. So far we have been using it for canned food ,dishes, coffee pot, cutlery etc and a couple of small green propane cylinders. The small triangular piece in the top right houses a speaker. On the right you can see the wheel well. In the next 2 pictures you can see the seat that folds into a bed, the chrome posts hold up a small table which when taken down is the base of the bed. You can also see an overhead shelf which houses 4 adjustable 12 volt lights and a car stereo in the top right. Under the seat is where the electrics are located which is a GFI for the 110 and a switch box for the 12 volt. A small storage shelf is also slated for that area to hold our sleeping bags and pillows.

[Miriam C.]

Don't know about the tracking but it is really nice looking. Doesn't look as awkward.

[hugh]

Thanks Miriam, this site has been a continual source of inspiration

[SonofT@B]

Lookin' better all the time!

[HossHoffer]

With help from 2 friends I got the new axle installed today. Also installed a set of munroe gas shocks. The fenders are coming in a day or 2 and will be installed at home in my garage. My back is still out so my 2 buddies basically did everything while I drank a couple of beers and helped where possible. The road to the friends is a concrete highway where all the slabs have heaved over the years. Going there with the orig narrow axle [48" hub face to face] and no shocks I kept the speed down to about 40mph, coming home with the wider axle [72"] with shocks 60 mph felt fine. You can see the wheel well left a large space, on the drivers side will be a shelf and that is where the marine battery and trickle charger will be placed, just over the axle. On the pass side thanks to a link Madjack had posted up will be a small 10 gallon water tank so the space won't be wasted. Here,s a couple of pictures, and the trailer is still due for some more stripes.

Are those TJ flares on your XJ?

[hugh]

Sorry for the late reply but it took me awhile to install the brakes and battery and get my fenders made. And yes those are 7" wide flares from a TJ. Anyway I installed a battery tray and walmart marine deep cycle battery in the old wheel opening on the drivers side. Then came a set of electric brakes and a rather ungainly aluminum set of fenders with rd/amber clearance lights installed on them. Heres a couple pictures plus one of Sydney who came out of the cedar trees to look at the trailer.

[jeprovo]

I really like how the build looks Hugh! The wider axle looks much more proportional. Any new pics?

Do you ever feel that the 72" wms axle is too wide offroad? Do you still have factory width axles on the XJ?

[hugh]

The 6' wide axles don,t seem to cause any trouble out on the trail, but I did need to take my chainsaw to a couple of spots where the fenders just didn,t clear. And the XJ has stock axles but to compensate for the 6 " of lift I put some rims with less offset and also added 1 1/2" wheel spacers to each corner to widen the track width. This was done to make the Jeep street legal since the laws here about wheelbase versus lift are very strict. I took the trailer out a few weeks ago when there was still snow on the ground and did post up a few pics, but here is one again. I will be taking it out again hopefully in early June to another remote area then again in the summer to a blues festival near here.

It got down to about 15 below celcius that night but I tried a LIL BUDDY propane heater and even with window open and the door ajar it got nice and warm inside.