Stu's camping trailer

[Stu]

So my partner and I enjoy camping, its great exploring and finding new spots etc. But due to the large number of kids we have somehow acquired, there seems to be a not small mountain of shit that needs to be associated with taking them away anywhere.  Gone are the days of just chucking the swag in the back of the car and splitting 10mins after getting the idea to go somewhere.  These days its more like "lets spend the next 24-48hours stripping the house and packing the car to the roof till there's literally breathing space only", and its been seen for all passengers to have bags or cookers or boxes of shit on the knees when driving anywhere. And there's also the required clean up afterwards, including storing tents and chilly bins and crap under the house where's its not quite tall enough to stand up. It usually takes me a good 10 steps to straighten my spine out enough to stand upright after crawling out of said under house void. 

Last year we semi remedied the situation by stealing the in-laws trailer.  Its a pretty well built generic box trailer that we've been using while landscaping etc

 

So for summer 20/21 we loaded it up to the gunnels with gear, threw a tarp and cargo net over, and hoped that nothing fell out.  Its worked reasonably well but we still managed to have too much shit and the car was still pretty full.  It was super handy though, and at one point we had to change camp sites so instead of taking the tent down we threw it on the back and towed to the new site much to the amusement of other campers.

 

Anyway, late last year I decided that our setup was still dumb and that I'd close the trailer in and make it actually work.  The whole idea is that it all needed to be removable so the sides etc can come back off and the it can be reverted to tip dump duties etc.  Luckily the trailer has the vertical square tubing in the corners that you can see in the top photo so I figured I could make sides that slot into those, then make the ends and top slot into the sides.  

Here's the loose drawing:

 

Then got to work:

Its a bit hard to tell from the photos but the ends have welded on plates with key ways so they slot onto fixings in the longer sides and tighten up.  Basically loosen the bolts and then lift the end up and it will pull out for flat packing.  The roof has 32x32mm SHS down inside the 40x40mm SHS corner uprights so it can be removed too.

I picked up some hinges, door seal, and lockable latches from UES and started to make doors and clad the thing. 

 

I was fortunate to be given a couple of fucking huge solar panels for free so slammed one on the top to run the electrics. 

 

And this is pretty much what it ended up like.

 

I also got a couple of lockable drawer slides and made up a support frame that runs across the trailer and supports 2x 12v fridge/freezers Ive got.  One of them is a very old Waeco which we use as a freezer so put that at the back and the newer unit on the front as a fridge.  I bought a solar charge controller from Jaycar, and mounted up a switch board, inverter, washdown pump and large AGM battery that I'd be given, along with some LED lights inside.  

End result looks like this:

 

So this year we had all our shit thrown into the trailer which took half the time, and hardly anything in the car.  It has been a total game changer and now we leave all the gear in it ready to go for next time.  We've been a few places so far and looking forward to using it as often as possible.  Its pretty much glamping now.

Next step is to make a enclosure that fits on the draw bar that holds a couple of 25litre water tanks and houses the water pump rather than pulling it out when we need it, and make a triangle shaped board that a collapsible sink can go it.  I'm also going to put a flood light on the front over the sink and possibly look at a retractable awning rather than taking the gazebo.

#glamping

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stu]

We're off on another adventure this weekend so have sorted a couple of small things on the trailer.  I've added a flood light onto the front that will be over the sink etc when its done and wired it up using the last spare switch.  Made up an extension lead for the cigarette socket so we can pump up air beds etc in the tent rather than having to do it next to the trailer. Im also replacing all the button head fixings with countersunk and will put round white vinyl dots over them to clean things up a bit.  Also put it thru a wof and got a clean sheet.  Will work on the tank on the front etc before the next trip.

The anderson plug at the front is for the washdown pump. The socket on the left of the volt meter is a cigarette plug and the one on the right is a couple of USB charging ports.  The solar charger is just a Jaycar MPPT one - seems to work alright and its a got an app for monitoring the solar panel, battery and load voltages/current etc.  You can set the ideal battery voltages and I've seen it pump ~20amps into the battery so the panel must be 350w or larger I'm guessing.  Its old but seems to work great!  

 

 

[Tele29]

So handy having everything ready to go in the trailer. I want to build one for kayak fishing so I can carry all the gear/chilly bins/BBQ etc and have it secure so the gear is still in the trailer when I return to shore. And have a washdown setup to get all the salt off before loading the kayaks on top. Might be a pipe dream though cause some of the spots I fish in northland have pretty ruthless locals! They'd probably just take the whole trailer, and whatever I was towing it with

[GARDRB]

We've got one of these sitting in our driveway at the moment, storing it for a friend who is an arborist https://southerntrailers.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TIPPER-BROCHURE-0117-np.pdf

They are insane, so modular, gave me some great ideas for a trailer.

It's got a deep cycle battery on it for the tipper which I'm being tasked with charging off the alternator, so I'm gonna set it up like a house battery in a camper with an anderson plug on the drawbar and an isolator in the engine bay of his ute.

[Mof]

A VSR?

[Stu]

Yeah the trailer is super handy and similar deal I need to be careful where I park it. We tend to only unhook in camp grounds which are reasonably low risk. I've got a couple of hunting trips planned this year where it would be amazing to take it but haven't decided if I'm keen to risk it. I lock up the coupling and have a wheel clamp but dunno if that's enough.  Had quite a few people come up for a sharn while away last weekend #trailerbarry.  I'm tempted to get a 12v ice maker but shit they are expensive!  240v ones are ~$140 for a cheap one but that means the inverter will be running all the time and its fan annoys me so would rather have a 12v one.  If anyone has any leads on one new or second hand let me know.

Damn that tipper trailer is awesome! And yeah that's a pretty good idea for the charging setup - could use one of those dual battery controllers if you were feeling rich.  My next project will probably be rebuilding my car trailer - may even remake the whole thing from ali this time. But I'm keen to setup a battery on board the same as your tipper for the winch etc and also have a decent set of reverse lights on it. 

[Stu]

Thread dredge...

For the last 18months or so this has been flat packed ontop of a container at work as it wasn't really needed with the aquiring the caravan. But with the caravan being out of action for repairs and the holiday break looming I dragged it all down and put the trailer back together.  I timed it and it took me 25mins to setup which is pretty sweet. Unfortunately its got some overspray on it from some painting that went on, but overall its still in pretty good condition.

As mentioned above I wanted to put something on the front to hold the water tanks and wash down pump etc.  As luck would have it many years previously I had made a simple aluminium box from some left over treadplate that I was using as storage so that got repurposed and fitted to the front.  

I didnt want to drill into the draw bar so made up a clamp system from bits of ali off the offcuts rack at work.

 

Its not flash, but it works and 2x 20litre tanks fit perfectly with the pump and room to spare.  I cut and folded a piece of ACM to cover the draw bar which acts as a bench for doing the dishes etc. I also swapped in a Victron solar controller in place of the Powertech one which was inefficient by comparison.

We had a great trip away with it - it tows well and it makes life super easy at camp grounds plus having the nicety of the fridge & freezer and light etc.

 

Will probably leave it together for a while then flat pack it again late summer as I will need the trailer for collecting building supplies for some house projects this year.