Thread: Defender Cab Chassis, spare wheel storage?

Originally Posted by austastar

Thanks for the photos, that's exactly what I wanted to see - and know that it can be adapted in various ways to suit individual trays/rails etc.

I can identify with the previous owner's concerns about spindly legs when free standing, they look precarious in the photos - haven't seen one in the flesh yet.
It occurred to me that a bit of diagonal bracing with stainless steel wire and turnbuckles could steady it up considerably.

Hey you won't bore me with details of your planned mods, please feel free to email me if you don't want to put it up on the forum, I love looking at peoples' ideas and some of the clever things they come up with.
(drleesatgmaildotcom)

cheers

Just in case there is someone else who is a bit interested, but is too shy to ask , I'll reply here rather than a PM.
The Trayon does come with stainless steel guys which can be attached to pegs to stabilise it when it is removed from the vehicle.

If you have a look at this photo, which is roughly the view in the rear vision mirror, you might be able to see how I plan (one day) to modify the leg brackets.



As you can see the mounting bolts are separated a lot more than on the original. That has got to be stronger. It is also made from quite sturdy tubing.

The legs need to sit out that far from the camper, otherwise it would be very difficult to back under the camper between the legs.

My only complaint really is that the extensions that the legs slide into block my view a bit in the mirror and make the vehicle wider than it needs to be. At one stage I was worried that the width would be an issue on the ferry over to Tasmania, until I found out that the vehicle is a campervan when it has the Trayon on the back and campervans are allowed to be much wider than normal vehicles.

My idea was to remove the little short bits of tubing that the legs fit inside and cut an opening about 30 to 50mm tall in the outer face of the long piece of tubing about 1/4 or 1/3 of the way from the top. I would then weld two L shaped pieces onto the legs. The top one would slip through the hole and the bottom one would fit in the bottom of the tube.

This drawing might help. The real thing would have closer tolerances than my drawing. What do you think? Better than the current design and a lot steadier and sturdier than the original?

Originally Posted by roverrescue

Thanks VNX,

out of interest, does your tray have a middle cross rail of that 80mm Al section as seen in your photo? Or is simply the front one pictures and the rear one along the rear cross member.

The structure beneath is the same as my DC tray however the cross rail is mounted to the brackets at left of your picture, obviously the towers are covered by the rear cab.
the reason I ask is I have welded the front mounts once and they are cracking again, 44s of fuel and cape roads dont mix!!!! I was thinking of adding a third set of chassis mounts next time the tray is off!.

By the looks of your photos there is heaps of room for tankage. In regards to rubbing on full compression, I raised the tray maybe 20mm to fit the tank and lined the underside of the tray with rubber above the rear tyres. My 75L tank sits between the lengthwise 100mm C sections up nearly to the deck height and is mounted on two steel rails that tie the existing front and back mounts. I really should take a photo or two!


Steve

I have just the one cross rail at the front and one at the rear.

I did have little problem with one front mount a while back and the other side one is looking as if it may need some attention soon.

Tray Mounts on Defender

Maybe I should look at fitting an extra cross rail.

Originally Posted by numpty

Do you owners of single cabs find the lack of cabin space a problem. I'm a fan of the Trayon and am contemplating this upon retirement, but cant make up my mind whether to go 110, or 130 single or double.

you are a fare bit shorter than ho har but and that is why we got the DC over the single because of his height and you have seen we do not lack space in our camper and the trayon has a DC model

get the bigger cab


Mrs ho har

bout time I posted more photos


the 2 spares are under the tray with all sorts of other stuff like legs, shovel etc the tool boxes on the sides carry a heap of gear


with the camper on



hope this gives you ideas


Mrs ho har

Hi vnx205,
I quickly read your post about 2 hours ago, and now the photo and drawing are not visible - am I going (more) nuts.
Any how if I remember correctly they were bolted on via a spacing tube and were sticking out a long way and you had designed a cut out bit that the leg could slide into.
Was this so you could take the legs off whilst the camper is on the tray?

Originally Posted by austastar

Hi vnx205,
I quickly read your post about 2 hours ago, and now the photo and drawing are not visible - am I going (more) nuts.
Any how if I remember correctly they were bolted on via a spacing tube and were sticking out a long way and you had designed a cut out bit that the leg could slide into.
Was this so you could take the legs off whilst the camper is on the tray?

I can still see my photos and drawing. Are you looking at the right post?

I can take the legs of now when the camper is on the tray. It would be a bit of a worry if I couldn't. Imagine driving along with the legs hanging down.

The planned modification is just to reduce the overall width of the camper and to get rid of the little bits that seem to stick out just where I want to see something in my rear vision mirror.

Hi,
don't know why I can't see your illustrations now from post 18th September 2009, 04:15 PM.

But any way, some thoughts.

Looking at some of the American sites, Happijac etc, some of them have swing away brackets.



The quality of the photo is not great, and I'm hanged if I can really figure out how they mount these things.

The other thing that surprised me was the (seemingly) light weight material used in the manufacture. Again the photos are not brilliant


so it is a bit hard to judge.

Any how you may find it possible to adapt some thing to that idea.

I can see some sort of a notch on the hinge, not sure what it is for, but I would hope that it is some sort of lock to stop it swinging when under the load of the camper, other wise it would be very unstable.

I did like the idea with the above jacks, where you can lift the camper, and lower it to some sort of support, and then lift and lower for a second bite.

I'm not sure that would suit the Innovan, I think it has the steps as an integral part of the camper and are not removable.

cheers

Can now see photos Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!