Overlanding, with or without trailer?

[ACAD_Cowboy]

A plywood body would pay a weight penalty and you’d be fighting water degradation constantly. But a different option does exist, you could use ply to form a skeleton that is skinned in FRP to give a composite benefit, the strength and flex of ply with the water resistance and stiffness of FRP.

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[steffen707]

I'm going to thread jack my own thread temporarily.

EDIT: Fine fine, i moved post to its own thread for all you trailer lovers, lol.

 

[PK2]

Here in Australia towing camper trailers is very common, and you can easily spend 60000 aud on a well set up offroad camper. For another 10000 you can buy a full offroad caravan with toilet and shower and all the luxuries, but there you go.
We do a lot of 3-14 day trips, often into the outback with no one within 100 km. Love it.
I tow a $7000 camper trailer, with literally a five minute set up and pack up, and it's been fantastic.
Why tow a trailer? Comfort I suppose, everything is there, and it takes no time just to throw the food in the Ute and some clothes, the rest is already in the camper and it's stored, ready to go, in the backyard.
Next trip is September into the outback of Western Australia, and the camper will be following.

 

[PK2]

Set up on the river after New Years this year

Packed up, this is the same as mine:

 

[Ole Cowboy]

Under 3k with what kind of suspension and wheels/tires?

Single 3500 lb axle, leaf springs and round fenders. I personally would strongly recommend to anyone that the investment in shocks is well worth it for the on/off road stability. Maybe looking at another $100 depending upon shocks, I used the Rancho RS 5000 series.

One of the things that pushes up the price is the amount of steel and welding to be done. You are looking at extreme duty or you find yourself sitting on a trail in the middle of nowhere awaiting parts while wondering how pizzed off the boss is as you go into week 2 of your 1 week leave.

All my welds are full welds not just shorts that in most cases work.


The guy who spe'd it out came by later and added a tent to it.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

I see a lot of interest in Overlanding on this forum, let me pass on a rule that if you violate you will come to regret it.

My good friend who owns and started Dynatrac axles, there is no better, we were talking at his shop when I was having my axles built and I asked the magic question: Jim, what proprietary parts are used in your axles? Jim gave me the exact answer I live by and needed to hear.

"I don't any proprietary components except the reinforced housing we designed and if that breaks on ya I will personally come out replace it."

Take away, in Dynatac's case they start with a Dana 60/80 unit and make it stronger for extreme offroad use, but the internal components that may fail such as bearings, etc are available at any good auto parts store.

Over my years of extreme wheeling and just fun time wheeling, I have seen a lot of failures out on the trails. Some guy spends a lot of LARGE to buy a magic component after he read a writeup in Jeeps B Us mag. A part failed, the company that made and sells it is in BumChuck, they are on vacation for 2 weeks and you are in the middle of nowhere broke Richard on the trail for a minor part that failed.

I learned as an engineer in R&D that failure is your friend, but to make it your friend you have to do a PoFA (Point of Failure Analysis). When I built my driveline for my Jeep and ordered my axles from Dyantac I specified a 1310 U Joint at the pinion or the rear and front axles, ALL the other u joints were of a much higher spec. I got a call from Dynatrac asking if I had made a mistake on the 1310. I said NO! The 1310 is the most likely to fail and by putting it on the pinion it is the easiest to change on and off camber trail, every other u joint is a challenge to replace on a good day. That is what I call my FUSE.

I will say I never had one break, I did have on fail due to mileage, but I carried with me a spare Tom Woods driveshaft complete and the time it failed I was on the way to Moab, pulled over on the side of the highway and swapped shafts.

Make failure your friend so you know where he hangs out all the time and you are in control of failure, not failure in control of you and your Jeep...

 

[steffen707]

I see a lot of interest in Overlanding on this forum, let me pass on a rule that if you violate you will come to regret it.

My good friend who owns and started Dynatrac axles, there is no better, we were talking at his shop when I was having my axles built and I asked the magic question: Jim, what proprietary parts are used in your axles? Jim gave me the exact answer I live by and needed to hear.

"I don't any proprietary components except the reinforced housing we designed and if that breaks on ya I will personally come out replace it."

Take away, in Dynatac's case they start with a Dana 60/80 unit and make it stronger for extreme offroad use, but the internal components that may fail such as bearings, etc are available at any good auto parts store.

Over my years of extreme wheeling and just fun time wheeling, I have seen a lot of failures out on the trails. Some guy spends a lot of LARGE to buy a magic component after he read a writeup in Jeeps B Us mag. A part failed, the company that made and sells it is in BumChuck, they are on vacation for 2 weeks and you are in the middle of nowhere broke Richard on the trail for a minor part that failed.

I learned as an engineer in R&D that failure is your friend, but to make it your friend you have to do a PoFA (Point of Failure Analysis). When I built my driveline for my Jeep and ordered my axles from Dyantac I specified a 1310 U Joint at the pinion or the rear and front axles, ALL the other u joints were of a much higher spec. I got a call from Dynatrac asking if I had made a mistake on the 1310. I said NO! The 1310 is the most likely to fail and by putting it on the pinion it is the easiest to change on and off camber trail, every other u joint is a challenge to replace on a good day. That is what I call my FUSE.

I will say I never had one break, I did have on fail due to mileage, but I carried with me a spare Tom Woods driveshaft complete and the time it failed I was on the way to Moab, pulled over on the side of the highway and swapped shafts.

Make failure your friend so you know where he hangs out all the time and you are in control of failure, not failure in control of you and your Jeep...

Nice! I like the idea of FUSE. I had a Lowes trailer(actually still do) and after so many years the bearing pack exploded on me. The hub was just right that it wouldn't fall off the axle tube, but ended up machining a lip around the axle tube that the hub then rode on.

This all happened while bringing home a commercial oven for my wife. When I noticed the problem and pulled over I was stuck with the choice, drive the remaining 30 miles home (after 300 already driven) or call a tow truck or swap axles on the highway.

I drove home, hub held up and nobody died from complete trailer failure.

Luckily a new axle was sourced just down the street from me for $110 with greasable bearings that I now grease once a year.

This was not an off road trailer, from Lowes, (probably slightly better than harbor freight) receiving regular use but never abused (except for my lack of repacking the bearings with fresh grease), DOH! My point being, I doubt a harbor freight trailer axle will hold up to moderate off road abuse, (even with regular maintenance) , it'll be the FUSE, so better carry a spare axle.

LMAO, this came to mind.... See you on the side of the trail.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

Nice! I like the idea of FUSE. I had a Lowes trailer(actually still do) and after so many years the bearing pack exploded on me. The hub was just right that it wouldn't fall off the axle tube, but ended up machining a lip around the axle tube that the hub then rode on.

This all happened while bringing home a commercial oven for my wife. When I noticed the problem and pulled over I was stuck with the choice, drive the remaining 30 miles home (after 300 already driven) or call a tow truck or swap axles on the highway.

I drove home, hub held up and nobody died from complete trailer failure.

Luckily a new axle was sourced just down the street from me for $110 with greasable bearings that I now grease once a year.

This was not an off road trailer, from Lowes, (probably slightly better than harbor freight) receiving regular use but never abused (except for my lack of repacking the bearings with fresh grease), DOH! My point being, I doubt a harbor freight trailer axle will hold up to moderate off road abuse, (even with regular maintenance) , it'll be the FUSE, so better carry a spare axle.

LMAO, this came to mind.... See you on the side of the trail.

Working in R&D at the beginning of my career was a great thing. You are testing systems, looking for failure and ways to mitigate it. But you learn there really is no bulletproof so what you want to do is install a fuse somewhere that can be your first point of failure which you OWN. Then the criteria become how fast how accessible and how cheap and easy to you come back online. I design large, complex mission CRITICAL IT systems that failure is NOT an option, failure = catastrophic results anywhere form loss of life or $Millions of dollars.

Some systems require a near 100% uptime, HARD to achieve so to fuse the system you PoFA and install a sub-architecture based upon failovers. Shame we cannot do that with our Jeeps...

 

[Jowen]

I overland and parts of my list is set of bearing with races, seal and cotter pin. I also carry small can of grease for packing. Plus the right tools to do replacement if necessary. I always check bearings a lot for heat and lug nut torque, a lot preventive maintaince having pulled a m416 trailer for twenty years in the army i have seen just about all types of maintenance issues. The biggest problem is lack of maintenance and inspection, I always crawl under the jeep when ever I can because you put the mark one eye ball on the under carriage you can spot a issue before it become a problem, like a failing seal or loose items.

 

[VORSHEER Trailers]

I think that YouTube video breaks it down pretty well.

Where trailers really shine is for groups of people (aka your family). Chances are, one of them will really enjoy taking a hot shower after hiking or fishing and other creature comforts. If you're staying out for longer than a weekend, trailers start becoming more appealing.

Also trailers make it much easier to just hitch and go.

 

[Sunnysideup]

I made my own... I do base camp it a lot, on more difficult trails it is normally my return point. Thus far no one has stolen anything. I also took it on the White Rim trail years ago... it was great have 15 gallons of water and room for lots of food for two other jeeps. I still go without it on really difficult trails... just throw in the tent. It is way more comfortable and has been 100% dry in all weather... which I can't say happens on the ground. When I go camping out of state... on long trips... it saves money getting to the location. It gives me a chance to go camp in a remote area that I have never seen. It was built over time, it changed a little bit but has been in use for 10 years now!

 

[Expedition JT]

I also rebuilt an older Coleman Colorado. Everything new with a lift.

 

[Expedition JT]

Here’s some pics

 

[Slapping_Rabbits]

We tow a Conqueror 490 trailer. Did it with a 4Runner for the last year and found that we were putting gear on the roof rack way too much. Just bought the Gladiator Rubicon so we can use the bed instead.

I saw the big version of that conqueror. It was really nice. It was really really expensive haha.

 

[gladi_recon]

I tow a Turtleback Expedition trailer whenever on extended trips or I have the family with me. When its a solo
trip I normally just take the gladiator unless I'm setting up a basecamp for longer than 3 nights.

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