Thread: No.5 Camper trailer build

Originally Posted by cactus

have a look on ebay at the moment there is a no5 camper set up you may be able to steal some ideas from. not associated in any way. I have my own no5. also a workshop chassis with a ute body on it waiting to be converted into a wagon rear camper thing. have the sides and roof, just need motivation.


cheers

This one perhaps?
OFF Road 4x4 Army Camper Trailer in Gracemere, QLD | eBay
I quite like it.

Yea I'm pretty sure that is the one he was referring to. I couldn't find many others....

After a bit more playing with the welder I think I have the whole welding Ali with a mig closer to 'under control'. The answer to my woes was MORE POWER! It's not real pretty yet, but definitely getting better.

Today's max temp was 34 I think... but felt like 41. So today was a bit of a struggle to get much done. However I did get one inner guard removed, took out the little angley bit, flipped it, and tacked back in. I have to take the tub back off the chassis and weld it out, then cut out the other guard and repeat... I'll have to take some pics to post.

Although my welds still look pretty average, at least now they are getting good penetration. I found that a big chunk of plate held under the weld was very helpful to disperse some of the heat.... kept it all looking a lot better.

So after plenty of chopping, grinding, cutting, welding, headscratching, welding, grinding and of course measuring.....



So there she is painted on the inside and underneath. Not the best paint job ever.... but it's a working trailer so it will do and plus this is only stage 1, it'll probably need a whole respray by the time I am finished with it.



And behind the 90. You can see that I've got it sitting slightly nose down.



I actually had it mocked up to that height.... I've got a 'drop' hitch that is too low to tow the trailer nicely, so I was testing it 'flipped', see below



Now the problem is that I can't run that hitch flipped because the spare is fowling; both to hitch it up and if it was to articulate. The way I see it there is 3 options:
1 - Remove the spare when towing the trailer.
2 - get a longer tongue hitch
3 - get a swing away carrier that moves the spare to the right side of the car more.

I'm thinking option 1, then option 3 when I can afford it.
Option 2 to me seems not a good choice; lengthening the tongue will make the car tow less desirably?

What are your thoughts? I'm keen to hear other options/ideas.

How about a different tow hitch? Pintle would have sorted it or a treg etc?

Forgive my ignorance but I'm not up to speed with different hitches... Do you have an example or link to something?

the pintle hitch bit has been removed from the trailer to fit the brake system hitch bit thingo....

I'm very interested in how this turns out as I've just acquired a No5 Trailer also. I'm thinking of putting my hannibal rooftop tent on it first then fit it out a bit more later down the track.

Originally Posted by debruiser

So after plenty of chopping, grinding, cutting, welding, headscratching, welding, grinding and of course measuring.....



So there she is painted on the inside and underneath. Not the best paint job ever.... but it's a working trailer so it will do and plus this is only stage 1, it'll probably need a whole respray by the time I am finished with it.



And behind the 90. You can see that I've got it sitting slightly nose down.



I actually had it mocked up to that height.... I've got a 'drop' hitch that is too low to tow the trailer nicely, so I was testing it 'flipped', see below



Now the problem is that I can't run that hitch flipped because the spare is fowling; both to hitch it up and if it was to articulate. The way I see it there is 3 options:
1 - Remove the spare when towing the trailer.
2 - get a longer tongue hitch
3 - get a swing away carrier that moves the spare to the right side of the car more.

I'm thinking option 1, then option 3 when I can afford it.
Option 2 to me seems not a good choice; lengthening the tongue will make the car tow less desirably?

What are your thoughts? I'm keen to hear other options/ideas.

All you need to do is get a longer tongue, to get the ball further out from the car to clear the spare, that tongue is too short and not designed to be flipped, because of that angled design.

Work out how far out you need to go to clear the spare, then get the tongue to suit.

This type is the one that is suited to be flipped, it measures 22.7cm from pin hole to ball, with 3500kg rating, the next one longer is 32cm from pin hole to ball, but rated to 2500kg;


Baz.