Off-road expedition trailers - good idea or bad?

Just on with a convention now a Douglas trailer cutting the drowbar of and new one on 600mm longer so he can fit a box to house a National Luna 80 lt fridge in a box with a slider then drop the top trailer frame down to the top of the trailer then build up another one on top to take the large Howling Moon tent that gives him a shelf under the tent




OLd bar

new one

i have a spare set of disco steel wheels in the garage that need to go if you want them yoda let me know

Great ta will pick up at Landy meet jan if thats ok

thats fine ( by a set i mean theres 4 of them ) i will pop them in the Event Office trailer

Fridge box in now with slider 80 LTR National Luna

looking good

I't for ENT of the D3

Now THAT'S a fridge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bit jealous of it i have only a 45 national Luna but he is a good mate and he lends it to me when i need to take more beer

I'd wondered why he sold me is engle.

think he still has one left

Strewth, you're not kidding, you could start a mobile pub with that capacity. Great for cooling down, just climb into the darn thing!

had it in Moroccow last August 54c nice cool

Interesting thread this is. Out of interest I took my ordinary trailer down a few lanes recently, one of them just about manageable in my Terios.

It handled absolutely fine. It's just a steel angle frame,wood panels, 6ft x 4ft wheels out, unbraked with no "real" suspension as such and 13" wheels.

I am seriously thinking now.... it already has a lid on it so chop it about a bit..creat storage areas, tent on frame on top (does not have to be expensive "rooftet) add some shock absorbers and 16" wheels/AT's ....bingo.

I would HAVE to go this route as my Terios is limited to 500KG Unbraked or 1.3 T Braked ( but I would not take that weight off road with it as it would not cope too well.)

Food for thought!

Over the winter Ive towed the normal Ifor Williams style trailers in and around woodland alot, mostly full of logs or fence posts and wire, they seem pretty strong, but then again I am not a aggressive driver. Cargo and trailer are usually not over 1 ton And I've gone through quite a few ruts and watery mud with them.
Could be a good starting point for someone looking to turn it in to a Expedition Trailer.

Also have a look at these:

http://www.expeditionswest.com/equipment/adventure_equip/adventure_trailers/chaser.html

TJ

Yep Ifor Williams trailers are very strong and well built and a lot of them have "proper" suspension so would not take much - only problem is that they are blinkin expensive and good used ones are not easy to find.

maadmaan10 wrote:

Yep Ifor Williams trailers are very strong and well built and a lot of them have "proper" suspension so would not take much - only problem is that they are blinkin expensive and good used ones are not easy to find.

The one I use is only a single axle, not too sure of measurements about the same with as my vehicle and not far off 2 meters long, hitch to tailgate. The tail gate is more of a V shape than straight, was damaged badly but a sledge hammer and its all
It has a front ladder rack and a useful pivot hinge on the rear so I can manual crank the front up to unload logs. I found it in the local paper for £1100 cash, only 4 years old. I removed the original tyres and fitted taller van tyres. Its about 50mm higher which helps in the woodland.

Some interesting comments on here. I've had problems accessing the site for some time.

We found on our last trip that piutching the tent was becoming a problem, so much that last September at the Scorton Vintage Machinery weekend the tent didn't get pitched correctly.

When in ZA we looked at both off road trailers and off road caravans.. We both like the idea of the caravan but at £20.000 it was a no no.
When we arrived back home we started to do the maths and the drawings...So we have a wooden 1:1 scale model being built here.

We want a bed where we can open the door and crawl between the sheets. We still want to live outside on a trip like campers.

I sat over all the information that we had and have started.

Have a look here.

http://landytown.myfastforum.org/ftopic6288-0.php

The basic drawing has been changed considerably.

Look also at www.conqueror.co.za
www.echo4x4.co.za
Both make superb trailers.

Gemini, looking at your comments I would have thought something likehttp://teardroptrailers.co.uk/ would do if there are only 2 of you. There is anohter brand who do a proper "off road" version of these,will see if I can find it....

maadmaan10 wrote:

Gemini, looking at your comments I would have thought something likehttp://teardroptrailers.co.uk/ would do if there are only 2 of you. There is anohter brand who do a proper "off road" version of these,will see if I can find it....

Nope.
1 it's wood.
2 you can't stand up in it
3Land Rover track
4 where does the Engel with the Two-Zone go
5 Land Rover wheels ?
6 is it less then £5,000
7 how long would that last on a corrugated gravel road

I'm using Margaret's computer 'cos mine will not let me use this forum, I can hardly cope with this computer either

If you'd read my link. You would have seen that the axle is here and the fridge slide made. Off to Newcastle tomorrow to buy more alli, then make some fixtures to make the hinges for the doors

gemini wrote:

I'm using Margaret's computer 'cos mine will not let me use this forum, I can hardly cope with this computer either.

Try using the following web browsers; Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer 9.

I will also re-synchronize this forum in an attempt to enable more efficient access and quicker page loading.

Jason

maadmaan10 wrote:

I would have thought something likehttp://teardroptrailers.co.uk/ would do if there are only 2 of you.

I quite like that. Quite a good little design from the looks of it. Price wise they are not too bad. You do get a new trailer/camper for around £5,000. Myself I would probably spend £400 on a nice tent, and then the other £4500 on a full sized caravan.
You could always use that caravan as a base of over-landing operations, pitch it up and go off on your own, head back, hitch up and so on.

TJ

Jas. It looks like my computer...I don't like the keyboard on this one...

As for pitching up, how do we move from one place to another 200miles away on corrugated gravel roads with the trailer ?

Where do you find a good tent as cheap as £400 ?

gemini wrote:

Jas. It looks like my computer...I don't like the keyboard on this one...

As for pitching up, how do we move from one place to another 200miles away on corrugated gravel roads with the trailer ?

Where do you find a good tent as cheap as £400 ?

As the pitching up caravan was an Idea for myself, I would probably pitch up in the uk around south of Edinburgh and then tour Scotland heading up to John'O groats, wild camping for a week or two, then return to the caravan, re stock, hitch up take to the Malvern hills and then go over into Wales up to Bangor for a week or two and so on.

As for tents, look at fishing tents. I have had quite a few and IMO they are better quality & value than most roof mounted tents I have come across. And we have sold a few Oz Tents and Hannibal roof racks/tents. Anyway, there are different materials, sizes, camo options, fly screens, roof vents, shapes and best of all, if you get in to the £200 tents all will have the quick build features.
You are looking at 5 mins tops at your first assemble, 2 mins when you have done it a few times. Including getting the tent out of the bag, laying it out, using the quick build snap together frame feature or the umbrella style assembly and pegging the base mat that is all connected in one seam. No need to faf around connecting everything on the inside. I often start packing up camp from bedchair and sleeping bag to stove and clothes and in 5-10 mins I am driving away.

I did a review on one here: http://www.4x4overlandtravel.com/t162-fox-ground-tent-easy-dome-review

Jas

And here are a few examples:

http://www.chapmansangling.co.uk/fox-voyager~8756.html
http://www.chapmansangling.co.uk/fox-royale~8758.html

http://www.chapmansangling.co.uk/jrc-quad-continental-dome-~jrcQuadContinentalDome.html

http://www.bivvies.co.uk/tfgear-bivvy/tf-gear-dave-lane-hardcore-bivvy.html

nice trailer and tent for sale on Defender2 site at the moment Ken