Considering a camper trailer

stilson

stilson

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Joined
Dec 27, 2011
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1,790
Location
Sunny Balga WA
I hate towing.

I hate towing offroad.

I have a roof top tent.

Everything I need to take camping fits in my car.

BUT,

My wife loves to nest. She wants to set up the tent, shade sails, annexe, annexe annexe and everything else as soon as we get to a campsite meaning my car is captive and can't go and play in the dunes, get firewood or run back into town to grab a bog roll or more beer.

So perhaps a camp trailer that the tent can sit on with a nice little kitchen underneath for her to play in is the solution.

I think I'd get a winch for worst case scenario recoverys.

Obviously it would need to have 5x100 wheels.
A foolproof method for lifting the tent to 6" from its 3" traveling position.
Stabilisers so it can be errected without being attached to the car.
Lightweight design.
Good suspension with dampening.

Thoughts?
 
Firstly you should of got a turbo to tow it. ****ed up there!

Secondly it's a good idea... I'll buy your roof top tent if you want?? Give you some cash to buy a camper trailer..
Speak to adrian about the 5x100 wheels on a trailer, he's done it a few times.
You'll also want trailer brakes which I can help you out with.
Don't go hardcore offroad with in, park it in a semi-offroad area where it isn't likely you'd get stuck.

Lastly with your gearbox you should go 1.59 low range to tow offroad!
 
Are you after a prebuilt trailer or a diy? Diy/paying a fabricator can be great as you can customise it to your needs.
 
Mate, I understand what you are saying only too well.

However, having the two little ones who, like all little creatures, will rapidly take up more and more of that precious space, will force this outcome eventually, sooner or later.

Having a happy wife also cannot be overestimated ...

The EJ-253 is everything you need for towing an unbraked camper trailer that's under 750 Kgs GVM, under even some fairly extreme off road conditions.

My plan is to dump the trailer as per Taza's suggestion, then go to the interesting places unencumbered by the weight of all the crap that makes life so comfortable! I can't rough it anymore. For quite different reasons, you are also approaching that inevitable point.

IME, towing is made more than acceptably easy by having a trailer that tows straight at all speeds. I cannot tell you what a difference fitting the McHitch hitch made to mine as well. Mostly, I am simply not particularly aware of the trailer being there, even when fully loaded at around 500-550 Kgs.
 
^ That does look like a lot of goodies for the money, TB. Great find, mate ... :biggrin:.

Here are the links, ST:

https://www.drifta.com.au/offroad-tourer/

and PDF spec sheet:

https://www.drifta.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DRIFTA-OFFROAD-TOURER-Price-Spec-sheet.pdf

Make certain that you get hubs and offset that match Subie stud pattern, metric studs and same offset. This was one of the biggest problems I had when rebuilding my trailer as a camper trailer.

I note that Luke uses a McHitch connection.

As for suspension, the KISS principle applies. I have never seen any trailer with a broken slipper leaf spring, or a double shackle one either, FTM.

If you search somewhere like myswag.org, you will find people having all sorts of problems with their fancy suspension setups. In order to overcome the problems they have, they tend to end up with suspension systems that weigh more than the rest of the trailer, and are so complicated that a mechanic needs a special certificate to work on them.

Same goes for wheel bearings. Make sure that the bearings are "standard" Holden or Ford tapered roller bearings, and that the wheel nuts are standard Subaru nuts.

Wheels (tyres and rims) and wheel nuts have to be interchangeable with those on the vehicle.
 
Thanks, Taza.

BTW, ST, same thing goes with the axle - KISS. Make sure that you know what wheel bearings you have fitted - this is CRUCIAL!

If you maintain wheel bearings reasonably well, you should never break an axle stub (or a wheel bearing ... ). Breakages are almost invariably caused by a wheel bearing seizing (lack of lubrication) or breaking (hub nut too loose or too tight).

Checking the hub nut for adjustment once or twice a year should avoid the latter (this is about a 30 second job ... ).

Cleaning and re-greasing the wheel bearings every year or two will avoid the former. Of course the period between inspections and cleaning/re-lubricating will depend on the mileage the trailer travels, to a degree.

Back to the axle.

Should you be unfortunate enough to break one of the stub ends off, it's a piece of the proverbial for a mechanic to ring up the nearest trailer parts manufacturer/supplier and tell them that he needs (e.g.) a 40x40 square axle, 1,900 mm long to suit Holden/Ford wheel bearings. Things get a LOT more complicated with stub axles and independent suspension, which are more likely to break in the first place (IMNSHO).

Some thoughts about all this in my trailer build thread, particularly here:

https://www.offroadsubarus.com/showpost.php?p=78272&postcount=115

and the following post.

Hope this helps a bit.
 
For brief moment I thought I might have found a taker for these 14" Liberty 5*100 wheels that are taking up space here :-( :cry:

Maybe one day someone will want them for a four-wheel car trailer ...
 
I can vouch for drifta. I have been to their factory and met the family that runs the shop. They are very nice people and their work is the best. Everything can be customised to your needs as basically everything is done in house.
My uncle a bit ago got his trailer(an old landrover) interior fitted out by them and it is awesome.
 
Looking to DIY but might borrow a few ideas from the Drifta.

trying to figure out weights:

Trailer 150
Tent 55
Water 20
Fuel 20
food 20
Battery 15
Winch 15
Tools and reco gear 20
Spare 20

~350kg with dirt and bugs on it?

Love the Mchitch RB, what did it set uou back?
Great advice re: suspension axles and bearings too, i browsed through the independent suspension for offroad trailers but it is all so overengineered out of necessity it weighs 100kg and costs more than i plan to spend on the whole thing.

If i can figure out the right weight and select a set of leaves based on that with shocks to match I would think that would be just fine.

i did consider cutting the back end out of an impreza lol.

Thanks foe the replies and keep the suggestions coming.
 
Honestly I would consider a forester half cut trailer. What my uncle did was a rear half cut then extended the front with checker plate.
 
^ ^ McHitch was $169 delivered, ST ... Couldn't have designed it better myself :lol: :cool:. BTW, thanks ... :).

You need either slipper or shackle springs with a gross capacity of slightly more than your towing vehicle is rated to tow. 700 Kgs each side should be more than fine. Any heavier than this will cause the trailer to bounce badly rather than ride when loaded. It is normal for a trailer to bounce more than a car when empty.

IMNSHO, shocks are another unnecessary complication. Where you really might need them (off road), you will never be going fast enough to need them! On the open road, they are simply irrelevant. Maybe on a rough-ish dirt road (think dirt with ersatz speed humps), they may have some utility. This need is greatly lessened by not over-springing.

Methinks that you need to re-estimate weights.
Bare trailer is about right at 150 kgs. My 7x4 weighs 143 Kgs with lid, spare, decent jockey wheel and most mods completed. Probably weighs 10-15 Kgs more now.
Tent and sunroom weigh 115 Kgs with poles and pegs.
My creeper winch weighs just under 40 Kgs.
Compressor, spare light weight battery and other recovery gear weighs another 30-40 Kgs.
Each (steel) 20L fuel and water Jerry can weighs about 22 Kgs full. You need at least 40L of fuel and 40L of water for 2 adults and 2 small children. The water is in addition to anything that you may carry with you in the car. Having separate drinking bottles also allows you to monitor whether the kids are getting enough water to maintain hydration.
My basic set of tools weighs about 15 Kgs!
Spare wheel and tyre is about 20 Kgs.
Kitchen in trailer or similar equipment is around another 20-30 Kgs.
Camping gear for the children.
Chairs for everyone, some camp tables.
Miscellaneous annexes, pegs, ropes and tarps.
ONE bog roll! :rotfl:
Etc, etc.

If building/buying from scratch, make sure the trailer sides are 500 mm minimum, and that everything you currently have will fit the size you choose.

I've got to get another coffee .... :iconwink: :lol:.

[EDIT]

Have made a couple of minor changes above after re-infusion of coffee and breakfast.

Try to get a swing-out rear gate, and mount the spare on that. It is a mistake I have made with mine, and will have to rectify at some stage. Having the spare on the drawbar seems logical, and it's where most trailers have it. It makes it far too hard to get the tow ball weight right!

Think about which direction the rear gate swings, and how it will interact with the rest of your kit, such as annexe/s, trailer mounted kitchen, etc.

Also consider the placement of your number plate on the trailer. This is covered by regulation, and MUST be visible from all sorts of angles; cannot be higher than {whatever}, etc. Spare must not intrude into any of these view angles.

Also think about the s/h market.

If you are prepared to wait and then pounce, you can buy a lot of trailer for the money. Often comes with some very expensive extras already fitted - e.g. BIG secondary battery with solar panels or input for same; water tanks and electric pump; camp kitchen; etc, etc. It is very easy, ridiculously so, to drop around $4,000 for a trailer electrics setup!

Avoid the cheap Chinese imports. These all come with 15" rims AFAICT. So do many s/h camper trailers. You need to factor in the cost of a new axle, hubs, brakes, rims and tyres.

Also the pain and suffering of having it all certified as it will no longer comply with the Compliance Plate if made after 1988. The bombers are getting very hot on these things in the last year or so!

[end edit]
 
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Very reasonable price for the hitch.

Might I suggest your winch may be overkill?

My tent weighs 53kg
Doubling the water is not a bad idea even if I do carry 32+ L in the car. 40kg
40L fuel is unnecessary. 20
Last camping trip food including the stove weighed 20kg
45 AGM Battery weighs 14.5
4000lb winch 11kg
My current tool kit weighs 6kg
Recovery kit 5
I think you included spare wheel weight in the 143kg but I'll add it for good measure. 20

Under 340kg and the tools and recovery gear realistically will ride in the Forester.

Plenty of room in the forester for the fridge, clothes and camping gear.

If I could keep the weight down to 300kg offroad I would. If I had to tow 400kg offroad I think I could live with that too.

Suspension design is one for the experts because I don't know anything about it really, but I would thing GVM would be a higher contributing factor than tow vehicle rated towing capacity.

Keep it coming!
 
^ A quickie.

You're right, I have double counted the spare.

High fuel capacity is really in case you get a hole in a tank and run dry before the ECU throws a code, or before you can fix it. Need to be able to effectively refuel from your carry on baggage, as it were.

There is not even one micron room for error when there are children involved ...

Same caveat applies to me, for a different reason. I am too old, with too many health problems, to take avoidable chances.
 
My winch has a WLL of 2,400 Kgs and a SWL of 1,600 Kgs. I.e. it can manage an all but dead lift vertically of either my car or trailer. What makes it very heavy is the long, heavy actuating lever and the long steel cable. The winch body by itself probably only weighs around 10-12 Kgs ...

The long and very strong lever means that it is possible for me to work it!

Having a creeper winch instead of a battery powered front winch also means that I can winch the trailer out backwards, then recover the car backwards. No way am I going to winch myself further into the sh1t! My "coward nerve" is far too well developed at my age to even contemplate doing the latter.

With the car engine running, one can use the power steering to set the wheels at the right angle. Then turn off the motor and the power steering will hold the wheels in that optimal position for recovery.

I also agree that the lighter you can keep the trailer, the better. Regardless of what some might say, I have not found my Forester brakes inadequate in any way with my trailer fully loaded. Having towed this trailer for tens of thousands of kms, I am very used to towing it.

The smallest, lightest car I have towed it behind was #1 Colt with its 1,400 cc donk. Even that towed it OK except for the extremely steep hill at Anthony's Cutting on the Ballarat/Melbourne road in the early 1980s. A good runup helped (140 kmh on the down hill part), and a friendly copper with a radar gun who waved me through with a grin on his face :biggrin:. Seven return trips from Adelaide with the trailer loaded up when I moved myself from there to here.

The spring rating I have suggested is really so that there is an approximate 2x safety limit for the trailer GVM, unbraked.

One important factor is the length of the springs. Many modern springs are too short, IMO.
The slipper springs on my trailer are about 1,100 mm x 55 mm. The length contributes to a less choppy ride IMO.
 
According to people over at myswag.org, the McHitch ones are far easier to align, mount and dismount. Also far better articulation - up to 90° in all directions.

The universal joint in the McHitch is a standard Landcruiser propeller shaft UJ - I.e. available pretty well anywhere if it should fail. Hard to see it failing though. Hugely over-engineered for the use AFAICS.

Since nothing attached to the car moves at all, the McHitch should be completely silent, which is my experience. Also very accurate reversing is easily done, much easier than a ball hitch. I have about 40 years experience backing with ball hitches ... :iconwink:.
 
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