Thread: Turning an Army trailer to camper?

Originally Posted by lowbox

I have an ex- NZ army trailer which I've been using for camping duties - just has a cover over the top to keep the rain out.



Now my old tent is wearing out I've started to look at fitting a trailer based tent - like those ones from 3Dog or similar to my old army trailer.
http://www.3dogcamping.com/trailers.html#

Has anyone done this before? I'd like to know the problems and any photos would be great. So far I can see that the army trailers are a bit smaller than most camper trailers and I'd have to either make a smaller tent or fit it hanging over each side a bit - which isn't too much of a problem. I'd also have to put a tailgate in the trailer to be able to use the storage.There are already stabiliser feet of sorts front and rear so it sort of seems reasonable.

good idea or madness?

ct
www.lowbox.co.nz

Check Numptie's Missus (NM)'s recent thread on some repairs to their trailer - a camper built off essentially the same trailer (Oz though). Theirs has had a fair bit of work on it, though, from standard.

Usually the tents on smaller trailers overhang the sides and you miss out on having a complete lifting base as a result - not the end of the world IMO.

There's also an Oz No 5 on our ebay at the moment - has a hard top bolted on. Might give some ideas.

Unusual placement for spare tyre on trailer dont you find it cause problems when moving over uneven ground

On my goldstream off road the trye was fitted on the draw bar with a upright wheel holder welded onto the frame also had lpg gas bottle holder on opposite side of bracket found it to be convenient arrangement

BTW There is not much modification made to our trailer. The aluminium tub we had made is the same dimensions as the original steel tub, and the chassis has been galvinised otherwise is standard. Had to have somewhere to house the spare and this seemed like the logical place, although as Missus says it does fill up with muck, but I'm working on that. It has a water tank fitted inside plus drawer and storage arrangement to suit our particular wants and needs.

Great - thanks for the info. looks like I need to figure out if the modifications required are worth the effort. I think it needs a jockey wheel and some decent rear stabilisers, a tailgate and I may have to reposition the spare as it's likely to be in the way...


The trailer is 1900 x 1450 and the standard tent base is 2200 x 1800 so there is about 150ish mm overhang on every side - that looks about the same as your trailer and doesn't look too bad IMHO

Do you have any photos of the tailgate, drawers water tank and rear stabilisers?
cancel that just found the photos on this thread...
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread.php't=37250

Is the tent fixed in place or does it lift off? I might think about some gas struts to lift it up...

The camper guys I talked to use 25 x 25 steel for the frame and then 12mm treated ply on top so it seems quite straightforward.

forget any normal type jockey wheel arrangement for that trailer, By the time you get it to the right height the slightest indentation on the ground causes it to deflect and go all wonky,

Balance it right in the first place and you dont need the jocky wheel, just reset the stand (weld a series of tabs on it that fit through the tab holes on its existing bracket to help with security) so that it sits with the ring half way down your open pintle hook reverse up and then just nudge it in.