RTT Trailer on a Budget

[theheineken]

So I'm just wrapping up my build on my trailer and figured I'd put it up here to show folks the route I went. I couldn't justify $4k+ for an offroad trailer to put my tent on, plus I really wanted more versatile cargo capabilities than most of the little box trailers offer. The goals:

• Serve as a base-camp for our RTT
• Carry random cargo, small and large
• Remain fairly lightweight as well as short
• Use the same wheels/tires as our 4Runner

In my mind, the easiest way to accomplish this would be to find an old Toyota short-bed trailer -- preferably one with hooks on the bedsides and tailgate latches on the sides like the Land Cruisers I lusted over in Africa. Over the course of a year I looked at a handful of long beds and a few rusted-out short beds, but could never find a good candidate.

So I started expanding my search. Datsun short beds were readily available, but they tended to be rusted out. Then I got lucky and found a '76 Ford Courier trailer on the local Craigslist.

Here's how it all started:

More to follow, if folks care...

 

[Justin Forrest]

This is a great idea. Can't wait to see the rest.

 

[theheineken]

From the beginning I had an idea in my head of what I was after. I didn't want to put a topper on the bed, even if it could possibly be made to support our RTT. Reason being, I wanted the overall height to be right at the height of the 4Runner so the trailer wouldn't be as much of a sail running down the road. Also, the looks. It's gotta look at least a tad bit cool, and the size/design of toppers for this era of bed would be anything but.

That meant I needed some kind of rack system. I kicked around the idea of running angle iron around the top edge of the trailer, but after debating long and hard I decided I wanted the rack to be removable with the possibility of transferring to a Toyota bed if I ever found a good candidate. Bad decision, considering the amount of time and effort I would end up putting into this particular trailer... At this point, the only way I'd ever change anything is if I found a very nice condition Mazda REPU bed somewhere.

So I picked a footprint that not only fit our Ford bed, but it would work in a Toyota if I were to come across a primo example. Again, were I to do it over again I'd run a strip of angle around the top edge of the trailer with supports coming up from there.

Anyway, I wanted to be able to visualize the rack and see how long the legs needed to be, so I mocked it up in PVC first:

To give a rough guesstimate of the height it'd be after I lifted it, I stuck some landscape timbers under the tires to give it a few more inches of lift:

Little did I know it'd end up with a couple more inches of lift than this, plus bigger tire size!

One benefit to the Courier truck bed trailer is that from the get-go it had the correct bolt pattern to accept our factory 4Runner wheels. I just had to keep in mind that the driver's side lug nuts were lefty-tighty -- a lesson learned the hard way!

 

[VCeXpedition]

This has real potential. I can see some cool LED tail lights in the original holes, a water filler where the fuel filler was, a cool high-angle departure rear bumper.

Oh wait, this is YOUR trailer. Sorry... looking forward to see what you do.

Dan

 

[theheineken]

This has real potential. I can see some cool LED tail lights in the original holes, a water filler where the fuel filler was, a cool high-angle departure rear bumper.

Oh wait, this is YOUR trailer. Sorry... looking forward to see what you do.

Dan

Get out of my head!

 

[Craig M]

I've had my courier trailer for a few years!

 

[Craig M]

This has real potential. I can see some cool LED tail lights in the original holes, a water filler where the fuel filler was, a cool high-angle departure rear bumper.

Oh wait, this is YOUR trailer. Sorry... looking forward to see what you do.

Dan

Led idea works well!

 

[theheineken]

I've had my courier trailer for a few years!

Holy cow, talk about coincidence! In a million years I didn't expect for someone else to have built a RTT trailer out of a Courier bed. Yeesh.

Feeling rather unoriginal at this point. Haha.

 

[theheineken]

So while my wife and I were enjoying a business trip to the Czech Republic, we dropped the trailer with a family friend for a bit of welding. Armed with my crude scribbles, he built our tent rack and mounting brackets as well as shored up the front tongue with some extra plate.

One of my bright ideas was a way to mount to the bed without crushing any of the rails and while distributing the load of the rack and tent. I cut pads out of horse stall mat and notched them to match the ribs of the bed -- one on top and one on bottom to be sandwiched between the rack mounting plates.

 

[theheineken]

About this time I decided on a paint color. I wanted something to remind me of the trucks we bombed around South Africa on:

So something in the white/tan spectrum. I also wanted it to be readily available for years to come, and found my answer at the local farm store:

From here on out, I'd be snapping up every rattle can of 'Gloss International Off White' that the two Orscheln stores in my area got in.

 

[theheineken]

The first deadline placed on me was to at least have the trailer usable for my wife's birthday, since we always take off and go camping to celebrate. So with our new rack 'in the white' and with a freshly-painted bed front, we loaded the CVT tent on top and trekked down to a secluded lake we enjoy near where my wife grew up.

The Frey-dog standing guard:

Ugly, but functional!

Storage room in the bed did not disappoint.

 

[theheineken]

At this point I could really assess how I liked the trailer for the intended purpose. It pulled incredibly well, soaked up the bumps and was very stable even at higher highway speeds. Knowing that we were good to go, I began swapping on some necessary parts. A new 2" trailer coupler brought it in line with the other trailers we own, as well as new safety chain and a temporary Amazon trailer jack to get us by until the lift was on and we knew what height to weld the permanent jack at. I also bent up a piece of steel and mounted it as a cradle for the full-size spare tire, mounted with eye bolts going through the frame to hook in the ratchet strap that held the tire on.

A bit of wire-brushing and the tongue got a coat of self-etching primer and then satin black implement paint.

This put us to the opening of pheasant season, meaning it was time for me to go west, living out of the tent for 5 days utilizing dog-heat as the overnight temps dropped to a surprising 17 degrees with a stiff breeze. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, but I didn't pack enough bedding and don't have any heat source for the tent.

At least we got a cold weekend for the opener, but man I could do with a good 2" of snow to hold some birds!

 

[VCeXpedition]

Digging it so far, keep 'em coming.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using OB Talk mobile app

 

[theheineken]

This spring it was finally time for it to come apart to lose some weight, get a new axle and a fresh coat of paint. Eight bolts liberated the bed from the frame:

Several hours at a time and armed with an angle grinder with a wire wheel, I stripped the bed to bare metal, primed it with a self-etching primer and painted it with implement paint. The interior of the bed was done in four sections. Here's after session #2:

 

[theheineken]

At the same time, I gave the frame a fresh coat of black paint and installed a set of rear jacks for stabilization.

After looking all over the web for a low-profile jack, I came across the Bal C-Series jack. With 31" of drop and a 3k lb. capacity, it was a no-brainer:

Mounted high up under the frame with some access holes drilled through the bumper, the jacks stow completely out of sight.

 

[theheineken]

Next order of business -- dropping some weight while gaining some lift.

Something I've wondered for a very long time is why folks don't take a 4" drop axle and flip it so that it's a lift axle. When you start looking up info on the web, the only decent answer is that the camber would be off, making the trailer pull poorly. Looking at drop axles, I was able to find them with and without camber. So why not use the one without camber built in?

Talking to my local big-city trailer supply store, they gave me the run-around on if they'd build the axle for me with my strange dimensions. Finally, after stopping by once and calling them twice, they quoted me $550 for a 4" drop axle, trimmed to the width I needed with spring perches top and bottom (to allow for a spring-over lift down the road) and with 6x5.5 hubs so it'd still use Toyota wheels.

I dunno about you, but $550 is more than a tad steep for this. It's downright lunacy.

So I called a small-town trailer company that came recommended by a work friend. Though Jerry, the nice old guy who runs Chanute Trailer, thought I was crazy, he took down my measurements and said it'd be done in a week. For a whopping $175. That's what I call reasonable.

Beautimous! Time for the old Ford axle to take a hike.

Just the axle swap allows me to drop 110 lbs. from the trailer, plus the opportunity to ditch an ugly assortment of wires, brake lines, e-brake cables and brackets.

My old factory wheels bolt right up. Here's how the axle will be oriented in the trailer:

Installed in the trailer using the factory bottom plates and a shiny brand new set of shocks:

Ground clearance with the new axle is everything I expected and more. This lift axle does for my trailer what portals do for a truck -- it lifts every suspension component and the axle itself:

 

[Craig M]

Now that is pretty awesome! I just put a standard strait 3500lb axle on mine. Over the springs was a little low, and under the springs just a little too high. I ended up keeping it low and cutting out the fenders to allow the bigger tires. Sure wish I thought of this before cutting!

 

[Mark D]

I used the torsion type axles to eliminate the axle running between the tires and minimize the chance of the axle getting hung up on obstacles on the trail. They worked great on a recent 9 day trip trough Utah.

 

[theheineken]

I used the torsion type axles to eliminate the axle running between the tires and minimize the chance of the axle getting hung up on obstacles on the trail. They worked great on a recent 9 day trip trough Utah.View attachment 28508

Torsion axles are neat, but those puppies are something like $350 for the set. Also, I'm using a truck frame which has a hump to allow for axle travel, so mounting them to the frame isn't so easy -- the tires would be stuffed up in the wheelwells. Lastly, I really like having shocks!

 

[Mark D]

Yes, they were about $350. I was curious if I would need shocks because the rubber seems less "springy". So far they seem fine, and I can always add them.


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