Bruiser the Adventure Cruiser Cargo Trailer Build

Welcome to the build thread for Bruiser the adventure cargo trailer!

Back story: The wife and I have intentions of selling our house, taking the money, and hitting the road. The goal is to head up to Alaska and go as far north as possible, then make our way down the western seaboard, explore the southwest, then head east. Why a trailer? Well, we have 3 dogs and wanted the ability to drop it at a "base camp" then go off exploring in the truck. To this end, I wanted something as small and light as I could get, something large enough to stand up in, and something that was hard sided and weatherproof. The wife requested an indoor bathroom with a separate shower and toilet area. Our first go at the matter looked like this...

IMG_2484 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

...a 20' Fleetwood Wilderness dual axle travel trailer. It had a dry weight of ~3,200 lbs and took about 4 months to tear the inside apart, replace the rotten floor joists, studs, sub-floor, and then put that all back together. We took it out for it's maiden voyage last July on a road trip with the in-laws and I hated every second of it. HATED IT. It was big, cumbersome, heavy, and plain sucked to tow over the high CO mountain passes. So without having ever spent a night in, it we sold it.

We mulled over all of the options, a-frames, other travel trailers, pop-ups, a flippac, a 4-wheel camper, but none provided the space we needed within our budget and at a weight I thought was reasonable. To that end, I found myself thinking that building a trailer might end up being the only way to get what I wanted. Enter Bruiser the Adventure Trailer.

We purchased from Colorado Trailers (https://www.coloradotrailersinc.com) in Castle Rock, CO. It started life as a 6x12' Cargo Craft cargo trailer that we special ordered and upgraded with the following:

Off road package (32" mud terrains, Dexter independent torsion axles)
Black out package
Insulated walls, ceiling, and floor
Black/Blue exterior
Removable front coupler
Spare tire
6'6" interior height
2 side windows
RV screen door in the rear
Driver's side ladder

We placed the order in October 2017 and received the trailer in December 2017. Tada!

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Got it all hitched up and dragged it the 50 miles home. It weighs ~1,300 as configured so towing it was, other than the abysmal gas mileage, a relative pleasure. As our intended departure date is in June, the build begins almost immediately.

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Nice setup love the tow rig.

 

A few shots of the interior before the disassembly phase begins. I'll be taking it down to the frame to weld in reinforcements in target areas to accommodate the exterior accessories as well as the interior cabinetry. I'll also take the opportunity to begin running wiring to accessories. The trailer will not have huge electrical needs, the fridge, a water pump (maybe), LED interior and exterior lights, and a power inverter to support a toaster oven or electric tea kettle (wife's demands).

DSC_3822 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Tape is laying out the floor plan, an official drawing shall follow.

DSC_3824 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

There is a single roof vent at the moment. This shall get replaced with a Fantastic Fan to help improve the airflow in/out.

DSC_3825 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

 

Made a bit of progress on the trailer over this past week. I will be adding a few exterior accessories that require a bit of work to the frame, namely the awning and a skylight above the bed area. In preparation for the structural changes I pulled off the walls, the ceiling, and all of the insulation. This also exposed the wiring which will receive some attention of its own.

The interior came out pretty easily after I removed an estimated 10 billion screws. The aluminum skin was screwed to the plywood sub-wall that was screwed to the studs. Once those two were removed I was able to label and pull the insulation. Looking awfully empty in there…

DSC_3848 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Wiring is currently dangling all over. I’ll do a better job organizing and securing it as I run wiring to other stuffs.

DSC_3847 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

My biggest accomplishment however was figuring out how I wanted to secure a few miscellaneous items, namely the spare tire, the battery, and the propane tank. My dilemma was such, I wanted the battery to be tucked away in a locked box safe from the elements and prying hands. It would also need enough space to mount a resettable breaker next to it as I want the shortest unprotected cable run I could muster. For the propane tank and spare tire, they just needed to be in a place that offered them secure passage without having to resort to major structural changes to the shell of the trailer to accommodate. Like most trailers, the tongue stood out as being the best place to fit all of this.

Note that the trailer originally came with a generator platform up front. 20 minutes with a BFH and an angle grinder and it was off. I was left with this real estate to work with.

DSC_3831 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

And my proposed configuration:

DSC_3832 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

I will build a pre-runner type cradle for the spare tire so it can be held down with a ratchet strap. Propane tank will have it’s own platform that will span two of the frame rails. They will both be shielded by a locking, weatherproof metal box that I purchased from Harbor Freight to house the battery. My only concern with this configuration is the amount of weight added to the tongue. If I am doing my maths correctly, it is an estimated 190 lbs (70 lb battery, 40 lb tongue box, 50 lb spare tire, 30 lb propane tank). Tongue weight must have been in the neighborhood of 150 lbs or so empty, so I’m sitting a bit north of 300lbs before building out the inside. With the kitchen, main storage closet, and water tank (5 gals) sitting behind the rear axle, I’m hoping that the tongue weight evens out a bit more relative to my proposed 2,200 lbs’ish gross trailer weight. We shall see…

A few more pics of the proposed configuration:

DSC_3833 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

DSC_3837 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
Look at all that space! I’m hoping the layout is compact enough that I can store other items such as wheel chocks in here as well.
DSC_3835 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

There is adequate space between the propane tank/trailer, spare tire/trailer, and propane tank/spare tire/tongue box to ensure that shifting during operation doesn’t let them contact. Propane tank and spare tire will be offset outboard enough to let the battery cables run unencumbered out of the back of the tongue box and into the trailer along the centerline.
Now, I could have mounted the tongue box by grabbing some self-tapping sheet metal screws and rammed them home. But that would be sloppy, ugly, and have relatively little thread engagement for holding down a 100 lb box that could be bouncing all over. Instead I did it in what I thought was a more elegant way, rivnuts. Step 1 was to get the trailer box in the proper position and evenly spaced on both sides of the frame rails (it hangs over by 1.5”), square to the frame and square to the trailer. Once this was done I traced the frame rails on the underside of the box with a silver Sharpie. With my frame rails positioned I marked out locations of the holes. I chose to go with 6 holes utilizing M8 fasteners.

DSC_3840 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

I was using step drill bits to drill these holes as it gave me a nice chamfered edge. My shop tip, mark the flat of the hole size you want to achieve with a Sharpie. That way when the sharpied line disappears you know you are at the right size.

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With the holes in my box drilled I went back to the trailer and replaced it in the desired location. I transferred the bolt pattern in the box to the trailer frame, checked once, checked twice, then started drilling into the trailer frame. For an M8 rivnut, the hole had to be a 7/16”. The two outer frame rails I was able to bore through with the step bits while the center section was double thick and required a second pass with a 7/16” drill bit. After all holes were drilled I shot them with a quick coat of primer and paint.

DSC_3842 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Given that the middle of winter in CO isn’t the best place to ask paint to dry, I hit it with the heat gun after to try and get the paint to dry quicker. It was moderately successful, I think as long as I give it a bit of time to dry out it will eventually. Then came the rivnuts. I hadn’t had an opportunity to use this tool yet, but it was quick and easy to set all 6 nuts.

DSC_3843 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Before inserting them I coated the outside with black RTV. This should minimize the ingress of water from the rivnut/frame rail interface.

DSC_3846 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

All in all things went smoothly. My bolt holes lined up and the box is very secure on there. No pictures of it mounted as I picked up a group 31 Diehard deep cycle battery that will be going in there shortly and it seemed easier to mount the battery tray and breaker with the tongue box off the truck.

 

Thank you sir! It should be a much more appropriate match for this cargo trailer compared to the old one. The 4.0L offers adequate power but the elevation in CO neuters it a bit. Methinks I'll be swapping out the differential gears to help handle the additional weight and take some stress off of the drivetrain.

 

Not a bad idea on the regear I feel ya on the elevation my folks live in Montrose. Up there my truck is gulping for air.

 

Nice!!

 

Part of the plan has been to hang an 8' ARB awning off the side of the trailer. In non-windy situations, it does a great job at providing protection from the elements or a nice place to hang out in the evening. Deployed it looks like so:

20160528-IMG_1374 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

For those unfamiliar, the back of the awning is a slotted aluminum extrusion that accepts M6 hex head bolts.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

The slots are sized to provide the bolt head with anti-rotation when a nut is installed, however, this also means that the awning needs a bracket of some sort to mount. I haven't seen a ton of awnings on trailers like this, but when I do, the most common way of mounting seems to be extending L-brackets from the roof line down and attaching the awning to those. To me, they never look streamlined, necessitate that the awning is spaced out from the trailer body, and don't provide an interface that I'd trust to hold up to years of abuse.

Instead, as my walls are is 1" tube steel, I decided to weld some brackets on the inside so the awning could mount directly against the body of the trailer. This of course provided a very convenient excuse to justify purchasing a welder. I grabbed a Hobart 140 that I am running flux core wire through.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

I started with 1" x 1" x 1/8" angle iron which was cut into ~3" (8) sections then ground to length.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

I drilled 2 chamfered holes for the awning bolts, radiused the corner that sits against the aluminum skin, and drilled 3 chamfered holes in the flat that rests against the stud. This is what it looks like tacked into placed.

by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Why the 3 holes? I really only have access to weld the interior edge joint. I was concerned that trying to weld too much of the lap joint along the top and bottom edges would push the puddle too close to the aluminum and burn through. I drilled those three holes so I could rosette weld the brackets to the sides and provide additional support so they don't peel off. Given that the extend tof my MIG welding experience is limited to the couple of coupons I ran on Saturday, more welds (provided I don't burn through the material) are probably better, increase my chances of good adhesion. Here they are all tacked in place. Position was established parallel to the roof line.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Test fit was spot on, so I went ahead and finished welding them in last night. I welded the full edge seam, did a partial along the top and bottom flats, and filled all 3 rosette welds. I won't profess to be the world's best welder, but this doesn't look too bad with only a couple of days under my belt. A little bit of wandering, maybe a tad too cold, and a bit more control of the puddle should get these looking much prettier.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

As I have insulation and plywood walls interacting with the tubing on which the bracket sits, I flap disked it all smooth. Good news is the welds showed very little porosity and good penetration into both metals. I don't foresee these going anywhere.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

There was a little bit of heat distortion as I dumped a lot of heat into relatively thin walled tubing, but probably no more than 3/32". Hoping it didn't move things around enough to throw off the hole alignment, that was one of the biggest risks doing it this way and putting as much weld as I did into those brackets. Got some lap sealant on the way and will probably get things bolted in for good later this week.

 

Nice work on your trailer... I have a Cargo Craft that I am working on installing some rivnuts in the studs to attach interior L-track. Do you know how thick the stud metal is? Also, was the aluminum skin flush against the studs or was there any gap behind the skin?

 

The studs are ~.060 ish wall. The exterior skin sits flush against the studs, the interior has 1/2 ply screwed to the studs, then the aluminum skin is screwed to the ply.

 

Very cool, excited to see the rest of the build

 

Progress has been slower than I hoped for. Who would have thought building a trailer in the middle of winter might pose some challenges.

Awning is on and it's going nowhere! Given that I'm a stubborn SOB, I managed to install it by myself (just had to prove my wife wrong) using a couple of ratchet straps looped over the trailer and secured so I could lift it into place. Originally I had bolts that were just about spot on the right length, but it proved too difficult trying to line up 16 bolts along an 8' span and get them all through their respective holes. So I switched gears and bought longer bolts that allowed me to get the top row through and with a nut on the back side, but still have enough slack to get some slightly shorter bolts into the track and in the right spot. Afterwards I coated the bolt hole area on the back side of the awning with non-self leveling lap joint sealant, put blue loctite on the nuts, and snugged everything up. Bolts were cut to length afterwards.

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Like it was meant to be that way.

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Also got into the ceiling vent. That's probably fine for a cargo trailer, but since we'll be living in there, I wanted a multi-speed vent fan. I tried to be nice when removing it, I swear, but there were enough screws hidden under the lap sealant that I got frustrated. And then it was hammer time.

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Would you look at that, I can see sky now!

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

The other thing I've been working on is installing some small, single row LED light bars along the roof of the trailer. They'll all be independently wired and switched, but having exterior lights will be awfully nice. Now when it came to mounting them, it was either use self tapping screws or bolts. I opted for bolts to ensure that the threads made it into the steel tubing instead of having them grab primarily on the exterior skin. Rather than drill and tap each hole, I grabbed some DeWalt impact driver drill taps that made quick work of it.

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Highly recommended, they made quick work of it. Lights tuck up nicely!

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From there I had to get the cables into the interior of the trailer. I was hoping for a cleaner solution than a grommet and lap sealant, and purchased some Heyco cord grips, which I must say are slick little pieces. They use a buna-N washer to provide a seal against the roof, and have a segmented seal that snugs against the cable as the nut is tightened. Several snow storms so far and the subsequent melting has demonstrated that these things are indeed water tight and I have nothing to worry about.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

It was a little bit nerve wracking popping 5/8" holes in the roof of my brand new trailer, but I'll have to look at it as good practice for when I have to start making really big holes. This is what it looks like all put together.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

I have 11" light bars along each side and 6" bars along the front and back. Now to dive into wiring everything...

 

The highlight of this trailer was always going to be the skylight above the bed. One of the best parts of camping to me is getting out far enough away from light pollution that you can see the countless number of stars and the Milky Way overhead. The prospect of falling asleep to that sounds quite nice.

When the trailer was built, they put a 1.5' wide strip of plywood down the center of the trailer, presumably to add camber to the roof for drainage. Given that this wouldn't provide support around the entire perimeter of our 14" x 30" (inner dimension) skylight, I had to remove the wood and put a wider piece in. Busted out the track saw for its maiden voyage and had myself a 36" piece that tucked up there nicely.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

With that in place I set about reinforcing the structure to handle the skylight. My worry was that flexing of the structure would transfer some load to the skylight and either break it, or the repeated cycling would create weak points that would leak. Additionally, with only a few cross members supporting the roof, I didn't have a whole lot of confidence in its strength.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Then came the big moment, time to cut a hole in the roof. I drilled the perimeter of the opening with a 3/8" bit to give myself a guide, hopped up on the roof with my jig saw and metal cutting blade, and made a big hole.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

The steel frame did a good job at keeping the jig saw blade on track, but I cut it a smidge smaller than the final dimension. This was followed up with a flap disk in the angle grinder to bring things to the final dimension and make the edges smooth and burr free. Daylight!

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Then came time to mount it for good. I'm a bit averse to water leaks, so I went 110% when it came to getting the butyl tape on there. I put a 2" wide strip along the entire flange and followed this up with another 1" strip underneath the screw holes. Once the skylight was in place, I took some more of the butyl tape, folded it to make a rope, and crammed this under the perimeter so I could have a protruding bead. Screws were snugged down, I was happy to see the butyl squeeze out uniformly, then I took a heat gun and softened it up a little so I could cram it under the perimeter again. This will at some point be covered in

$1,400 self-leveling 165FT/50M, drain pipe inspection camera built-in 512hz transmitter, meter counter, with microphone speaker DVR recorder, 16GB TF card, guide wheel (5mm cable)

self-leveling lap sealant, but the temperature and wind picked up yesterday afternoon and I didn't have a chance to do pt. 2 of the waterproofing.

Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr

 

Looking great! Love scrolling through this non-Tacoma builds to see the impressive skills some of you guys have.

Matt

 

Thanks! First time attempting like this, so this thread is half reference for anyone attempting something similar, and half hoping those who have been there done that can step in when things go awry...