XJ Expedition Trailer

After deciding we wanted a Roof top tent , I looked into what the guys that had them had posted about their experiences.
This made me decide I did not want to mount it on my jeep but on a M416 trailer , so we bought the tent and began looking .

Since buying the tent we have mounted it over the bed of the tow rig quite few times and Love it , but I want to be able to wheel out to a great spot and Camp so I had been searching for a M416.
After narrowly missing out on one for like $500 I kind of gave up on the M416.

One of my close friends Chachi wrecked his Xj on the highway and
I remembered seeing a hacked Xj into a trailer that looked pretty cool , It used to be the XXXpedition rig .
This is a nice looking example,
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=931446

He bought another Xj the same color and we started by cutting the front off of the wrecked XJ, And then he let it sit for like a year.
After He started getting tickets for it calling it junk he gave it to me for Free !

Anyway that's when I let go of the M416 dream and started into Making my own XJ trailer and mounting the RTT on it .

I have never built a trailer and kind of just flew into this blind , so feel free to Give me advice !

So Far It has been built all out of Scrap , I measure cut and clean the parts and they get welded by Chachi .

The First thing we did after I got it home was weld the rear Hatch Off My 01 to cover most of the front hole .



The hatch had been backed into a tree Wheeling and when I replaced the glass the Defrost was Bad , between that and it being dented I replaced it with one I got off Flex at WF .



I also used some Box tubing I got from the scrap area of where I buy my steel.
it was only $40 for a couple big sticks of it and the only metal I have bought for this so far.

Then the Fridge stopped working and ruined all of my food , the up side was I now had a large Table to make cuts on now that it is laying on its side out back.

It did not take me long to decide to start cutting sheet metal off of it for the trailer Build , that I used to skin the front corners.

I used More of the Scrap Box tubing I bought To build the Roof rack to mount the RTT .



We tied the two front and then rear feet for the rack together with a 1" flat bar between them to spread the weight out and give us more area to weld .

Chachi was able to get a hold of some free Heavy duty Box tubing So the project Continued on .

My first thought was it was too big and heavy to be useful.
We figured out if we cut one side it would just slide right over the unirail , So we cut Two that would slide over the rails back to the Front leaf mount .



Here it is fitted up ,

Now I have to Figure where I want to go from here I have a bunch of that Huge Box tubing But it is kinda too heavy I think to make the rest of the tongue out of .
I am thinking angle together at 45 deg. and add a pintle Ring and trailer Jack , Wire lights and finish capping off front . Then get registered as homemade trailer .

Also have to figure out what to do with the front open end of rockers.
I had considered using them for the trailer frame to come out of so they didnt get cut at a curve and skinned originally.
Also need to figure out where to mount the E-Brake handle , I am thinking out front on the tongue area .

It would have been cool to be done before Moab but , I am doubting I can get It finished and thoroughly tested locally In the rocks up on Bald Knob .

Dude! Gonna be sweet.


Subscribed!

Definitely kool!!

I am extremely jealous right now! I've been planning on doing the same thing forever now.
Here's a photochop of my plans.


Suggestion:
Maybe use another set of tail lights for the front corners of the trailer. You can use the amber for running lights and set up the whites on a seperate switch to be used for work lights. Will come in handy when trying to hook up at night. Maybe connect the license plate lights up to those as well. You can paint over the red section to cover that up. Will help clean up the front corners of the hatch. Thats my current plan anyway.

definitely subscribed!

I like the fact you are only building it forward (backward?) of the rear doors. I've seen a few of these where the guys go all the way to the firewall and doing that throws the weight distribution way off. On a trail you really don't want a crapload of tongue weight.

I will be watching this one closely.

Re: Re: XJ Expedition Trailer

DrMoab said:

I like the fact you are only building it forward (backward?) of the rear doors. I've seen a few of these where the guys go all the way to the firewall and doing that throws the weight distribution way off. On a trail you really don't want a crapload of tongue weight.

I will be watching this one closely.

Click to expand...

Totally agree with the cut location. It seems that it will have a nice balance.

Hurry up and get it done.

He needs to hurry up and get it done for MOAB

XJ Eric said:

I am extremely jealous right now! I've been planning on doing the same thing forever now.
definitely subscribed!

Click to expand...

Well now you can see how mine pans out before doing yours .
Thanks for the Ideas !

@ Moab and Wheeler , Originally wanting the M416 pushed me to keep it as small and maneuverable as possible .

RAM-ROD said:

He needs to hurry up and get it done for MOAB

Click to expand...

That is the goal , I have the wheesl in motion to make that trip happen and I want my trailer there !

Okay I am on the fence here and I need to Decide Today about my lunette for the trailer , so I can get the parts ordered .

I really like the M416's rotating sprung lunette , so when I looked for that style I was disappointed to find that this is a military only thing that was only done on specific trailers .

In looking I have found that for what I would have to pay to get one now (when I need it ) , I could pay a little more and get a Lock N Roll Off road setup or something like it .

After some research It seems The Off road specific hitches can get bound up and bent when jackknifed but are nice and quiet.
The pintle style wont bend but could break your mount If jackknifed hard , they are tougher.
I also read that they spin too freely and your trailer can roll too easily.

I saw a post somewhere where the guy said he found in the manual for his military trailer that you tighten the rotating lunette to the point it takes a 3 ft breaker bar to rotate it .

He claimed this resistance forced the trailer to actually use it suspension first and then when it rotates past a 45 or so where a solid lunette would bind it would have enough resistance to possibly prevent a rollover , while allowing enough movement for it not to bind up .

If that is the case which seems to make sense then I would prefer a rotating pintle over the off road specific ones .

Here is what I have found ,

A cheap adjustable solid mount Lunette That will bind when twisted past a 45 or so .
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LUNETTE-RIN...-10-/111070248687?hash=item19dc4d7eef&vxp=mtr

Or This military sprung Lunette I found On CL , It looks like there is a tab on top to prevent it from rotating though and its hard to tell size from the pic .
http://stlouis.craigslist.org/pts/3958280273.html

And Finally Option 3

I can find a M415 Lunette for like $200 here and in a couple other places
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221267781975?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

And the mount here for $75 ( everwhere else I found it it was like $200)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/330940646413?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648

Or I could make one of these on a mount where it spins .


I suppose If I just do a solid one I could get a rotating pintle For the Jeep to grab the lunette But I bet all of those spin freely .

I have $40 into this trailer so far so spending almost $300 to get the m416 pintle seems crazy but I like the setup A lot .

Any opinions ?

OutkastBoss said:

I have $40 into this trailer so far so spending almost $300 to get the m416 pintle seems crazy but I like the setup A lot .

Any opinions ?

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I agree, too much to spend, with time you'll find one for somewhere around $50 at a surplus place or yard/junk sale... :thumbup:

For the time being why not use some of that metal and make your own setup? Depending on how you go about it, you can use bolt tension to give you some resistance, something like this:
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f37/tj-wrangler-trailer-build-1427938/index2.html

Not as good as the M416 but good enough in the interim?

Looking great!!

G2WANIT said:

I agree, too much to spend, with time you'll find one for somewhere around $50 at a surplus place or yard/junk sale... :thumbup:

For the time being why not use some of that metal and make your own setup? Depending on how you go about it, you can use bolt tension to give you some resistance, something like this:
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f37/tj-wrangler-trailer-build-1427938/index2.html

Not as good as the M416 but good enough in the interim?

Looking great!!

Click to expand...

This is probably what I should have done but instead I have done what I wanted to do .

These parts will only become harder to Find.
So I have tracking numbers On The Front Casting, Lunette eye, Lunette washers/spring/nut, and Safety chains From the M416.

After looking All over none of the Military trailer part sites that listed the lunette actually had one when I called .

The Lunette I didn't buy sold for $500 !
I also found reproduction ones I didn't buy from omix ada for $400
The other center casting I didn't buy had a starting bid of $200 !

The total of everything I did buy was under What Just the Omix Ada Pintle costs.

If the trailer doesn't work out I feel like I can get the $ back out of it and if it does , I have the setup I really wanted .

We have done more work to it but I will post that up soon !

Hey! What's up with this?

I'm not going to let you stop now!

Get to work!

Fore Wheeler said:

Hey! What's up with this?

I'm not going to let you stop now!

Get to work!

Click to expand...

I am actually uploading some new pics as we speak to celebrate the fact that It will be sprayed Silverstone grey to match my Xj in the morning as long as it doesn't rain on us .

Then all It needs is The Rooftop tent mounted and inspected and plated ..

I also have a Set of the stocker rims with the same center caps I have on my D windows on my Xj . I am looking for a pair of cheap used 31's for them .

Then its done for a while ..
Until we start with the reserve gas tank out of the xj tank. and then the propane water heater w sink/ showerhead !
Arb fridge freezer ?
Pull out awning off the side ?
( next year maybe)

My M416 parts came in and they have worked out great for me .
I didn't get a pic of the front casting before it got installed.



Here they are Installed , You can also see the open ends on the frame we have cut those at a 45* angle and capped them since then.



Then we cut out a piece of a s10 tailgate to fill the hole where we removed the front portion of the trans hump.

I left the rear portion to divide 3 compartments for storage that will be under the platform floor I will add to make the floor even in the trailer .



Here you can see it connected it was able to jack knife to 90* before we even cut the front corners of the frame at a 45*.


This was the first day it moved, we towed it around the neighborhood.



This was the first trip out of the neighborhood, we made it up to 40mph on the windy,hilly back roads by my house.
I removed the sway bar on the trailer before this.
( still unsure if it will stay that way)
Chachi followed me in his Green XJ



And finally we drove it on the highway out to Chachi's and broke 70 Mph on a long curve with a few bumps, It seems to tow Very Nicely and backing it up isn't so bad either really.

Out at Chachi's my buddy Corey Did lots of sanding and finishing and will be Spraying it With Silverstone grey metallic If all goes as planned tomorrow morning.

Here it is after we painted the frame and roof rack with a semi gloss black , and then started on the taping off of the roof rack, frame, windows and did some final sanding.

Sweet!