Thread: advice re offroad trailer construction

Jeelan, first, welcome to this forum, seems the bloke you asked about the army trailer wants to sell you one of his crap boxes. As far as the strength of the army trailers go, well the Australian Armed Forces use and abuse them and they seem to think they are all right. I have a workshop Trailer chassis that I am going to build a lightweight camper body on, I like the simplicity, the single drawbar setup which allows you to jack-knife to a greater degree and they have Land Rover suspension and hubs and wheels, there is a camper trailer section elsewhere on this forum, go and have a gander at what others here are doing, Regards Frank.

Jeelan,

I agree with Tank on this.

the army trailers are a great design.

I made and designed less hiddens trailer he used in his TV shows.

this was based on the army concept but with a few changes he wanted.

the single drawbar is brilliant and well worth persuing.

Michael.

With most trailer builders, as soon as you go away from their standard design and say custom, that means more money for them and an empty wallet for you.

One of the members here has an army workshop/No5 trailer for sale, that has been converted to a camper, Private Message "The Entertainer" i'm pretty sure it's his trailer.

Baz.

he frank

thanks for your prompt response.

Like you, the simplicity of these trailers is what appeals to me.

That being said, i wouldnt hv the Landrover hubs and running gear etc, it would basically be whatever the manufacturer uses ie in this case an Alko Springs setup.

His comments were basically that if he were to manufacture to this particular design, it wouldnt be able to be rated to higher than 750kgs for carrying by virtue of its design. Would this be correct? How much would a trailer like this weigh? and would it be possible to install a braking system (either disc override or electric) on such a design? if i had a payload of around 400kgs, i dont anticipate exceeding this however i'd prefer the option to be there incase i ever want to add a camper top etc.

again, any thoughts appreciated

cheers
Jeelan

Ive personally barrel rolled one 3 or four times behind a perentie FFR while it was fully loaded and all I managed to damage was the tarp....

I reckon if they can deal with being thrashed cross country behind an M113 at full pelt I dont think your going to break one....

Originally Posted by Jeelan

he frank

thanks for your prompt response.

Like you, the simplicity of these trailers is what appeals to me.

That being said, i wouldnt hv the Landrover hubs and running gear etc, it would basically be whatever the manufacturer uses ie in this case an Alko Springs setup.

His comments were basically that if he were to manufacture to this particular design, it wouldnt be able to be rated to higher than 750kgs for carrying by virtue of its design. Would this be correct? How much would a trailer like this weigh? and would it be possible to install a braking system (either disc override or electric) on such a design? if i had a payload of around 400kgs, i dont anticipate exceeding this however i'd prefer the option to be there incase i ever want to add a camper top etc.

again, any thoughts appreciated

cheers
Jeelan

Brakes can be fitted.
the design has no bearing on wether or not brakes can be fitted.
just a matter of ordering an axle to suit.

the alko axle is great made a few western mining when in townsville
alko do both braked and unbraked axles.

Have made many both braked and unbraked.
brakes an be either o/ride or electric, o/ride would be my choice as less togowrong as in the parts in the elec brake hub. (rattle to pieces).

Michael.

Originally Posted by Jeelan

he frank

thanks for your prompt response.

Like you, the simplicity of these trailers is what appeals to me.

That being said, i wouldnt hv the Landrover hubs and running gear etc, it would basically be whatever the manufacturer uses ie in this case an Alko Springs setup.

His comments were basically that if he were to manufacture to this particular design, it wouldnt be able to be rated to higher than 750kgs for carrying by virtue of its design. Would this be correct? How much would a trailer like this weigh? and would it be possible to install a braking system (either disc override or electric) on such a design? if i had a payload of around 400kgs, i dont anticipate exceeding this however i'd prefer the option to be there incase i ever want to add a camper top etc.

again, any thoughts appreciated

cheers
Jeelan

Jeelan, I have the specs sheet somewhere, I will post it up when I find it, my W/shop trailer (before I stripped it to chassis) weighed 360KG with body, Tarp and Hoops, the bare chassis weighs 310kgs, I believe the original payload was 500kgs giving a total weight around 860kgs, don't listen to this trailer bloke, he hasn't a clue, you could not go wrong with one of these trailers, I don't see why you couldn't fit brakes, electric would be the easiest, check out the markets for one, it will be stronger and cheaper than this bloke can build, Regards Frank.

Just watch what you put on the top of them as No5's have an abnormally high center of gravity to start with and many have been rolled in operational use.