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offroad trailer

A

awspence

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Salisbury, North Carolina or NCSU
Im in the planning stages of building a small trailer, mainly for used camping along forest roads and easier trails
I have the basics of the thing down, but im wondering about what type of hitch i can use. i know a pintle would be best, but that is a lot more $$ than a standard ball, since i have to buy the ring, pintle hook, pintle hook adapter etc that i dont already have.
If i go with a ball type hitch, would a bulldog type coupler allow a greater range of movement than a standard coupler??? I want to do this on the cheap if i can, but i dont want to break any couplers out on the trail from putting them at too much of an angle.

Also if there are any pictures of any you have built, post up, im still open for ideas!!!!
 
You could also hunt around for a rusted out M416 trailer with a solid frame and build what you want on top of it. As for the pintle setup, I have mine mounted on my tomken bumper above the 2" receiver that the bumper came with. The pintle, which is the rotating kind the military uses, cost me $35 NEW, another $5 for a piece of backing plate that is behind the tomken bumper.
 
that coupler looks simple enough to build, no can anyone tell me where i can get a block of very hard rubber to make somehtign like this out of??

coupling.jpg
or
Tregg1.jpg
 
When I built that I picked up the rubber from a place that dealt with earth moving machinery. I cant remember what it did though but was some sort of stop. Maybe for a tipper?
What about using two suspension bush setups in a cross arrangement? Have two sleeves welded with one vertically and the other horizontally and use my arrangement exactly the same with the U forms overlapping each other so the force pulls against each other rather than on the joint of the two sleeves which hold the bushes. Just interlock your two hands using your thumb and fore finger in each hand to see what it mean. ;)
 
RichP said:
You could also hunt around for a rusted out M416 trailer with a solid frame and build what you want on top of it. As for the pintle setup, I have mine mounted on my tomken bumper above the 2" receiver that the bumper came with. The pintle, which is the rotating kind the military uses, cost me $35 NEW, another $5 for a piece of backing plate that is behind the tomken bumper.
Click to expand...

M416 trailer is what I want. Good article here on a guy that restored one for off road use:

http://vegasauto.net/m416.html
 
What are yall's thoughts on the dimensions of the trailer?? i am running identical wheels and tires , should i aim to have it the same track width as my jeep, and what about wheelbase? any guidelines i should follow??
i think i remember reading that the distance from your rear wheels to the trailer wheels should be the same as your wheelbase, but i feel like this would make the tongue too short and limit the amount of stuff i can fit in it
 
i think it really matters about what you want to do with it
 
You must have the axle far enough back on the trailer chassis to maintain an appropriate amount of tongue weight. This distance also affects how responsive the trailer is during reverse maneuvers. AFAIK, a 60/40 split of overall length is a good rule of thumb.
 
You should always run the same track as well so when pulling through mud or sand it follows in the same ruts your Jeep made. Otherwise your will have more drag as it has to make it's own ruts or I have seen them jump from one wheel rut to the other all along too when it is not matched. If you dont ever use it under these conditions then it does not make much difference except if you are squeezing between trees and the track and trailer is wider, you could be in trouble!
 
awspence said:
mainly for used camping along forest roads and easier trails
Click to expand...

For this application I wouldn't even worry about it. We beat the crap out of a simple Datsun pickup bed conversion with a standard ball hitch. We used it for everything from carrying 2 atvs and 2 motorcycles to rock crawling. Only real probem was the trailer swayed when heavily loaded/overloaded, but we didn't really expect less with a srpring over and 33s :D I'll look for some pics.
 
My appraoch was to use a 8 foot trash trailer and pop up tent, made for a Chev pick-up bed. I found the pop up, in Gander Mountain cataloge, on sale years ago. I avoid the nastier inclines.
The trailer has a suspension, I´ve never seen around much. Independant, coil, shocks, and some kind of a trailing "A" arm on each side. Got to say the suspension works really well, stabile at any speed.
 
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