60’s Sears Allstate “Luggage” / Off Road Trailer?

I wheeled with a Jeep up in NH with the round version of these. They were bright enough that it was annoying during the day every time he backed up. Similar to pods.

I’m curious to see how they do at night.

 

This is good. I’ll stay tuned

 

Like my reverse lights?

 

Yup

 

Now I’m getting somewhere.

 

I also beefed up the side panel reinforcements the other day.

The PO added these vertical supports. However, where the props attached to the side panels, it was just sheet metal. I could see the sides twisting with the weight of the rack and awning while propped up.

I cut the original tabs off, added a horizontal piece of angle attaching the vertical supports on each side, then welded a short piece of angle on top of the horizontal supports to mount the props to. Much more sturdy.

 

I'm surprised those tiny little props can take the weight of the roof rack and everything...it opens smooth with all that?

Matt

 

The props aren’t tiny actually. They’re solid steel and like 1/4” thick. They’re way overbuilt for the roof as it came from the factory.

That said, I’m trying to come up with something to use in conjunction with them.

I started looking at struts, but almost immediately got a headache trying to figure out what to order... I need to get back on that.

 

So siiiick

 

@pray4surf is a certified strut guru hopefully he'll chime in.

 

A conjuntion would be great...
Struts would be great to help lifting any weight you may have at any given moment and with the props in the lock position it will alleviate getting said weight off of the strut...

 

No, no certification here, but I had my own one-off build requiring gas charged struts...
I also had the assistance of a local manufacturer/distributer - LiftSupportsDepot.com

Basically, you decide where you will be attaching the strut and find a strut with the same extended/collapsed measurements at the strength you want.

Here's my one-off build - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-rtt-owners-thread-with-bs.312269/page-180#post-10127277

 

I got all my stuff from mcmastercarr. They have a great selection of mounts and struts.

 

That’s awesome. Nicely done.

I always forget about these guys.

 

Well all right then. Pictures make them seem smaller, I guess just relative to the size of the trailer.

Redline makes a bunch of strut kits, maybe they have one for this use...usually they’re just to support hoods so not sure if they have any to support more weight.

Matt

 

Tim idk about up by you but my local advanced auto carries a whole line of struts. They just started within the last year or so. I know they are labeled by lifting strength but I’m not sure if they give the extended and collapsed length but I feel that they should be labeled with that too because it makes no sense not too

 

Cool, thank you Steve. I’ll check that out. There’s an Advanced Auto right by me now.

 

Been in the garage since 8:00 AM. Damned close now. Just a few more bolts to put in, some waterproofing on the inside, Fluid Film inside the original “frame rails”, and apply the decals.


Tractor Supply, poor mans bed mat

Color matched LP tanks

@loosnut has a good decal guy that he deals with at work. He had him make these for me (and won’t let me pay him). Thank you again Jerry.


Found these on eBay Canada buy accident.

 

Damn Tim! you really knocked it out of the park! I love it!

 

Thank you David. This was a fun project.