Thread: Leroy's SIII/Defender Trailer STARTED!!

Id like to say I have made progress on this, but in reality It hasnt moved at all, have been too busy with other things.

planning to get stuck back into it on the christmas holidays, my concern is that I have made the draw bar too short though. I made it longer than origionaly planned jsut seems to short now.

should I extend the draw bar at the hitch with a single piece of RHS? or cut off the draw bar and build a new one that is longer? (not that worried if I have to do that, as long as its the better option)
or does it look long enough to people?

Still waiting for the wheels to become available till I can get an accurate idea as to how the trailer is going to sit, but it looks as though it will sit 50mm higher than the rear of the car, once loaded up it should sink down to the same height though.

anyone a good painter on here? not sure my own skills will be up to the task of spraying the tub white when the time comes.

Leroy

Originally Posted by Leroy_Riding

my concern is that I have made the draw bar too short though. I made it longer than origionaly planned jsut seems to short now.

should I extend the draw bar at the hitch with a single piece of RHS? or cut off the draw bar and build a new one that is longer? (not that worried if I have to do that, as long as its the better option)
or does it look long enough to people?


Leroy

Looks long enough to me.

The No 5 army trailer drawbar is only 1200 long and I never had any trouble with that length on my previous camper. The new one, being a smaller trailer, I cant see being a drama either.

Perry

It also looks ok to me, looks roughly the same as my box trailer. Again no expert, but my understanding is that the main benefit of a longer drawbar is easier more predictable reversing.

As long as the body of the trailer isn't going to hit the tow vehicle on any reasonable side to side or up and down angle then it will be fine your only concern then will be how twitchy it will be reversing.

It's certainly easier reversing my bigger longer drawbar camper trailer than it is my low short draw bar box trailer but with a little practice and some patience it is perfectly fine.

Andrew,
I did take the trailer for a quit spin (with 2 wheel nuts on each wheel and only one u bolt on each side of the axle)[in my back yard, not ont he road], and reversing it seemed like a mission compared to my 7x5 with extended drawbar. I guess its just going to be a matter of getting used to the shorter drawbar and lighter trailer. hopefully fully loaded this trailer wont even weigh as much as the 7x5 empty (which is 365kgs)

Ive got a rear cross member now that I will use for the rear mount of the tub, just need to figure out how to mount the tub at the front. cut down the roof I have, get some of those split hinges, and some gas strutt mounts (already have some struts I hope will work for what I need)
cut down the rear door and get a new locking mech with key for that, still waiting on my 16" wheels (not really in a big hurry for them though i have 15's with 31's on them for now) need to find the extra cash for the draw bar box. then after a paint and some creative fuel filler plumbing should be done. I think if I get all the parts I should be finished coming out the other side of the Christmas holidays ready for a test camp with the trailer in the new year

this is closest to what its going to end up looking like I suppose, just imagine black wheel arches and a white body.


Leroy

Having been looking at another thread in this section reminded me about this one. That last pic looks good, and your drawbar length looks great too. Your other option for the strength plates is to use 4 pieces of 40 x 10 flat bar at approx 500mm long and weld them above and below your join, keeping the side flat.... Just looking at the last pic, don't forget that the hardtop sides taper in, so the 'lid' won't be the same width as the top rails on the tub. Hope the Xmas bonus came as Im keen to see the next bit of the build!

Originally Posted by Sitec

Having been looking at another thread in this section reminded me about this one. That last pic looks good, and your drawbar length looks great too. Your other option for the strength plates is to use 4 pieces of 40 x 10 flat bar at approx 500mm long and weld them above and below your join, keeping the side flat.... Just looking at the last pic, don't forget that the hardtop sides taper in, so the 'lid' won't be the same width as the top rails on the tub. Hope the Xmas bonus came as Im keen to see the next bit of the build!

Hi Sitec,
Ive measured the lid, and it will still give me about 10mm of contact on each side of the tub, initially I was trying to think of ways to widen it, but I think this will work, ill probably add some alloy angle to it that hangs over the edges so water will not get in.

not much progress unfortunately, managed a big stack on the mountain bike which has left my right arm a little useless for now haha, but have attached the rear cross member for the rear mounting on the tub, hopefully will get the front mounts done in the next few days if I can, but doenst look likely, but you never know.

here are a few photos, not the best but they show the rear cross member in.

This is what I should have built.... keen to see what you get up to with your build

Originally Posted by debruiser

This is what I should have built.... keen to see what you get up to with your build

to be honest, if I was to do it again, I would approach it a little different, I would have used a 110 ute tub, a long wheel base sierra chassy or a s3 chassy (the sierra chassy is just so perfect its not funny though) I would use stock height leafs not lifted ones. and Id have gone straight to electric drum brakes.

all in all though I am real happy with how its coming together, still not sure how im going to mount the front of the tub, ill eyeball it again soon and do a drawing and then some welding.

also now have a disco1 diesel tank too, so need to make mounts for that in place of the sierra tank I had in there.

Leroy