Colorado Expedition Trailer Build

As a lot of people on the site I've been camping pretty much my entire life, almost all of it via a ground tent or hammock. This year for fathers day my wife surprised me with a Odin Designs RTT which will be here in the middle of July. Originally the plan was to just make a simple bed rack and put the tent on that, but since I have a little time before the RTT will actually be here, the wife gave a go ahead on expedition trailer.

Design is pretty basic, 50" wide by 72" long box and 24" walls, as my truck grows the trailer will also have a matching wheel/tire combo, and Flexride torsion axles. I will also be doing a telescoping tent rack in hopes of aiding in travel and keeping the weight low. For now I just want to get the basic build done and get it registered and plated. Eventually adding a water and solar set up as my needs grow. Hopefully this will serve the family on our trips and my trips to Moab.

Basic design, obviously nothing fancy, a box with wheels


Main framework will be 2x3 11ga (.120) wall tubing, with a full trailer length piece of receiver tubing, should give me an option to use a bike rack off the back of the trailer or whatever else I may want to hook up.

 

Update 1:

Got most of the frame cut, ran out of steel because I did a last minute change, and of course the the steel place is closed because of the holiday weekend. Will have to go on Tuesday to buy more supplies, need some metal for me uprights anyways so it wont be a trip for one piece of 2x3.

And on to the photos!

My $100 craigslist saw, and $10 Amazon blade are giving me exceptional cuts, name brand not required, just some adjustment and oiling.


Pre-cut pieces and than once they were notched for the receiver tube and slid into place.


Half way or so welded up. You can see at the back the missing piece that I was short because I decided to do the piece in front for a tongue box.


And unknown to me at the time, the wife got an action shot of me welding, this was before I picked it up and threw it on my spare tool box so I could spin it around.


As it sits now (on my spare toolbox) I am in need of more metal, which I would have bought over the long 3 day weekend if the supply house was not closed, going today though. Axles are in transit and should be here Tomorrow according to UPS tracking. I am thinking about going a different route as far as skinning the sides and floor, thinking about some HDPE sheets.

With today's purchase of metal I will be able to begin on the sides as well as the RTT rack that will eventually be controlled by linear actuators to raise and lower for transport.

 

Looks familiar

 

All these trailer builds!

 

Nice...check out Dinoot.com and this little link I affectionately refer to as...The Rabbit Hole

Lots of tips and info there.

Nice build so far...sub'd.

 

What axle are you thinking about?

#3,500 6 lug x 5.5?

 

did u find that saw on denver craigslist??? i was gonna maybe pick that up!!!!

 

Your trailer was a huge inspiration for me to get out in the garage and build mine. Not that there is any shortage or box style utility trailer builds on the sites

#2,000 lb. Flexiride Adjustable Torsion Half Axles, which I will eventually run adapters for a 6 lug

Yes I did it was too good of a deal to pass up.

 

I knew I should have bought that... i think it was up in brighton or Commerce City

 

Lochbuie, guy gave it to me for $90 bucks and I bought a new blade off Amazon for $10, best $100 investment ever!

 

awesome good deal...

 

So awesome!!! Sub a dub dub!

 

subbd

 

Quick update for everyone.

My axles arrived (yay) but the box was damaged and parts were missing (boo) Luckily I called the great people at SD Truck Springs and they are sending out the missing pieces (lug nuts and the mounting plates) Hope to have those pieces in the next few days. I also received my adapters to run 6 lug Toyota wheels on the 5x4.5" axles.



I did manage to get a little more welding done on the frame, it is now 100% welded, I also got most of the box sides cut and some parts of the RTT rack cut. Hope to make some great progress on it in the next few days and this Saturday.

Stay tuned for more photos...

 

Update!

So I had a very productive weekend, the wife let me loose in the garage and didn't bug me all weekend

Upside down on my "mobile work bench" while I was measuring the axle placement... (upside down mind you..)


And once the axles were squared up and the wheels were on...


I flipped it over by myself, my neighbor was going to help me but when I was ready he wasn't home. and I am far too impatient. It really wasn't bad, actually a lot easier than I thought. I was worried I screwed up the axles with the wheel adapters that I bought, thinking it would push the wheels out too far, but it actually turned out perfect.

I then began to work on the rack for the RTT. This picture shows it before the I threw on the cross bars in the center.


And a picture of the rack in the up position. Not fully up though, I don't have my linear actuators yet, so for the test I just used my Toyota's jack to lift it as high as the jack could take it. It actually moves very smoothly, smoother than I thought, I was worried about it binding and such, but it really didn't.


Next is to source my HDPE plastic for the skins on the sides. For the time being I am going to do a plywood floor until I can afford some 1/2" or 3/4" thick HDPE for the floor.

Lock'n'Roll hitch was ordered yesterday as well lights, front jack and trailer plug wiring.

Hope to have it registered this week if everything goes as planned

 

So yesterday the RTT arrived! And as impatient as my wife is she wanted to see it on top of the trailer immediately, so in fine fashion and me not wanting to spend the night in the crawl space, we threw it up on the trailer.



OF COURSE that was not enough, so I had to hook up the trailer to the truck and carefully (tent is not permanently attached) drive it down our semi steep driveway into the street. Opened her up!



This is obviously in the low position for the tent, didn't feel like lifting it up since it is me doing it manually at the moment. But it made the wife super happy to see her tent up and almost ready to camp in.

This weekend I will install the lights, paint, and wait for my plastic to arrive next week so I can skin the sides.

And after speaking with a second supplier of plastic and an actual engineer (not a sales person) I ended up going with the HDPE to skin the sides. It is a marine grade board that will stand up to the elements and UV rays. He explained to me the ABS the other company was trying to sell me would yellow in a matter of weeks and become brittle, given the fact they were not even trying to sell me a UV rated board. So next week I will attach my Riv-nuts to the trailer and skin her!

 

Looking great buddy

 

Looks good. subed

 

So no huge updates from the weekend, but we do have paint and lights!



I also got to road test it for the first time, considering there is no floor yet or sides I think it towed well. Tracked nice and straight, it was a little bouncy, I think that's due to the fact there was ZERO weight on it.

Going tonight to have it weighed and will register it this week. If everything goes as planned we will be taking it camping this weekend