An alternative trailer approach.

[gregjet]

I have just read " considering a camper trailer" thread and it occurred to me that everone apprears to be thinking from a conventional 4X4 the heavier the better philosophy to some extent. There is a source of VERY light and very useful camper trailers. Obviously the people on this forum are using Subies because they DON'T want a big fat heavy 4X4 . Ergo approaching the question from a perspective of actual lightweight trailer to suit our lightweight lower torqued vehicles would solve the problem a bit easier.
Motorcycle campertrailers HAVE to be light. And there is a lot of them. They fold out into very serviceable camps. My girlfriend Sally did exactly this to buy a trailer to tow behind her Corolla. The weight at the drawbar is so low I can lift it with 3 fingers . We are both in The Uslysses club so the idea wasn't a big stretch as many of the club guys have motorcycle camper trailers ( we are old and like our creature comforts). The club is a source of second hand ones as well as people get too old to ride of just want to upgrade. They usually have impeccable towing manners as any nasties will show up bike time if you are towing with two wheels.
Sally's is a simple steel frame with aluminium almost everything else so it is extremely light. It folds out into a base tent and bed of 4mx3m not including the attachable annexes.
Don't know if this link will work but here goes. Some ideas: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...2&ved=0CCkQsARqFQoTCKiD6IjzoccCFcQypgodJuYCTQ

 

[Kevin]

The link works just fine; some good ideas there.

 

[Ratbag]

Gidday Greg

Agree with Kevin, some terrific little trailers there :ebiggrin:.

My own CT is 'minimalist', but still tips the scales at 700 kgs, fully loaded. "Ball" weight is 40-50 kgs. The ball is actually a stainless steel pin ... the ball weight shouldn't be too light, as that can lift the rear of the car, causing very serious stability problems.

By their nature, off road and semi off road trailers have to be pretty sturdy. Geez, the hitch on mine must weigh 10-15 kgs. The tent and baseboard weigh about 100 kgs. Fuel and water add another 60+ kgs, and so on.

Better to be towing it than having it all in and on the car, IMHO. Hardly know mine is there when towing on road.

Agree about the weight aspect. People over at myswag.org seem to like towing 2.5-3.5 tonne monsters!

 

[guzzla]

Agree here that light and simple is the way to go. I can't believe some of the heavy monsters I've seen on my travels across northern outback Australia.

I'm still a fan of my Stockman Podtrailer www.podtrailer.com

For me it has everything I want to be comfortable yet is very good to tow over poor terrain. It weighs 350kg unloaded and 450kg loaded with full gas bottle, food, kitchen ware, food, clothes, bedding, 60L water and 2x20L petrol. Mine has the off-road springs, lengthened drawbar, spare wheel, Trigg offroad hitch, LED lights, a slide out kitchen unit with 2 burner Smeg stove, sink with pump and 3 storage drawers, deep cell battery for LED lights, 180cm x 140cm bed (I'm tall and wished it was a little longer)bars to carry my kayak which does not have to be removed when erecting the camper and has a 47kg hitch load when fully loaded. It is unbelievably stable to tow to any speed (and I'm talking about speeds a NA Forester would have trouble reaching without a trailer) and tracks straighter than my Forester itself over rough stuff - it was brilliant over the corrugations on the Gibb River Road. It gets many admiring comments and inquiries by other campers when they see how simple, fast and effective it is to erect.

It's great to see other makers are into these other trailers as there is a growing market for them it seems.

 

[Ratbag]

Hey Guzzla

Glad you like your Pod, but your arithmetic seems a little off (as was pointed out to me about mine ).

350 kgs plus 60L water and 40L of fuel adds around 100 kgs without anything else ...

Might I suggest that you go through the exercise I did?
Weigh it with all 'fixed' gear, then carefully weigh everything else in accurate scales.

I have two certified weighbridge certificates for mine - there was over 200 kgs difference between the two weigh notes!!

Apparently the government certified weighbridge had been checked between my two weigh ins. I wonder why!

 

[guzzla]

It has been Ratbag. I was only quoting the manufacturers figure and this can vary a bit in reality depending on options and how the trailer is specced. It can vary a bit depending where we go and I don't always take my kayak which weighs another 12kg. It was actually 346kg at a weigh station a few weeks after I got it and was heading off across the Nullarbor to Shark Bay. That was with bedding, kitchen stuff, spare jack, full gas bottle and a few other odds & ends.
It was 452kg with water, fuel and clothes added the second time it was weighed. I carry my esky in the car. I assume the 60L of water weighs 60kg but I do know my 20L fuel containers each weigh 15kg full of 20L petrol. I didn't realize this until I stood on the bathroom scales with the full fuel containers. Petrol obviously weighs only about 70% of water.
I have never tried measuring how much water the tank holds but assume the manufacturers quoted 60L must be fairly accurate. Just like I never bother to weigh clothing or food.
That loaded weight can vary a bit depending if my wife comes with me. She's not a great fan of camper trailering now - thinks because we should be able to afford motels that we should use them. I love the camping life. The loaded weight was done before I went on my own up to the Kimberleys in 2010 and also doesn't include the 2 extra spare Forester tyres I carried in the back of the Forester. Incredibly I didn't need any of them.

 

[Ratbag]

^ That's what I mean, mate.

My trailer (the one I've had for 34 years - sort of, almost; well, some of it is original ... ) is a more or less standard 7 x 4 x 1 foot box trailer that's been a tad modified, as you know ... :rotfl:.

Because it has been substantially modified to be all but indestructible - more so than my old Landcruiser, let alone Roo2 ... it isn't exactly light weight, as Stilson and Lefty pointed out to me ....

I'm also reminded of one of our members here who got rid of several hundred kilos out of his Dad's van, only to find that it was still about 400 kgs over its legal GVM ... .

With absolutely everything, mine is about 690 kgs. That includes my tools (heavy), winch (very heavy), other recovery gear, fuel, water all my bedding, clothes, meds (very heavy ... LYING, they travel in a cool bag in the car with me). The 6.5J x 16 Forester OEM steel rims and spare add considerably to the weight, as do the heavy duty 45x45 axle and hubs.

Roo2 will tow this trailer much faster than my licence allows, and get there with remarkable rapidity ... This trailer has been towed at over 130 kmh behind Number One Colt, and my '93 Impreza, back in the old days ...

BTW, the top speed of a turbo Forester is not all that much higher than that of a N/A, even if the artificial limit is removed by re-tuning. It just gets there faster. Besides, doing 190 kmh is sufficient for instant, on the spot loss of licence for a very long time, plus a jail sentence when convicted ...

 

[ateday]

New definition:
Tad=substantial.......
Some nit picking bast....s around.....

 

[Ratbag]

^ :lol:

There are some parts of it that have been there since 1981. Not very many, I'll grant you .