Smittybilt Overland Trailer

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Silverback07

Rank V
Launch Member

Enthusiast III

2,229
Central Texas
First Name
Sean
Last Name
Braden
Member #

3481

Mounted my rear stabilizers storage area. I need to drill out the hole in the mount to allow the pin to drop in.. its too small of a hole at this point.

 
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professorkx

Rank IV

Pathfinder I

Did anyone who owns one take it in to get the suspension aligned?
I picked mine up yesterday, and took it on the freeway at 75 mph first thing. Towed straight as an arrow. My property is in the mountains at the end of a 4 mile long dirt road with washboard and pot holes. I have King 2.5 shocks on my jeep, so I can drive 40+ easily, where my wife's 4 door jeep jumps all around at anything over 25 mph. The trailer towed easily at 40 mph, so the suspension is a winner, which was my only concern. I don't plan to have an alignment.
 

professorkx

Rank IV

Pathfinder I

On my Jeep 2007 4 door Rubicon Progressive rear springs to have nice ride empty then stiffer hitched
I tow a 14 foot enclosed trailer that squats the jeep pretty good. $100 for air bags solved the problem, and been in place for 3 years. Didn't want to risk messing up the great ride I have with a spring swap.
 

professorkx

Rank IV

Pathfinder I

Question on generator. Not sure I need to carry a generator, curious what others will do. I have an 82 quart arb fridge and led lights, but nothing else that takes power. I also have a dual battery kit for my jeep, so will have an extra optima under the hood, and have a solar charger that will help. Not sure it makes sense to carry a generator, which gives me a free storage compartment.
 

Tinkernman

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Launch Member

Contributor III

327
Pittsburgh PA.
Member #

5991

Hello all, I've been looking at these trailers myself. My concern is the powder coating on it, I have seen Smitybilt side steps and other brands that claim to be powder coated, and after a year, the steps get rusty and coating peels off. So for those of you that already have one of the trailers does it seem like it is actually powder coated or just a baked on paint?

The trailer does check all the other boxes for me, and they seem like a pretty good deal, price wise.

THANKS GUY'S.

Sent from my SM-T330NU using OB Talk mobile app
 

Silverback07

Rank V
Launch Member

Enthusiast III

2,229
Central Texas
First Name
Sean
Last Name
Braden
Member #

3481

I picked mine up yesterday, and took it on the freeway at 75 mph first thing. Towed straight as an arrow. My property is in the mountains at the end of a 4 mile long dirt road with washboard and pot holes. I have King 2.5 shocks on my jeep, so I can drive 40+ easily, where my wife's 4 door jeep jumps all around at anything over 25 mph. The trailer towed easily at 40 mph, so the suspension is a winner, which was my only concern. I don't plan to have an alignment.
Mine tows great as well. My concern is that one one side the top of the tire is canted in at the top a slight bit more than the other side. Not horrible, but it is visible to the named eye (and it may just be an optical illusion caused by the tapered fenders). A buddy of mine and me will tackle it in the upcoming weeks using a bubble level, framing square and a tape measure. Hope to get it more vertical like the other side.
 

professorkx

Rank IV

Pathfinder I

What is your tongue weight?


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my tongue weight on the enclosed trailer is just over 350 pounds. I built this as a toy hauler in 2014 to be able to haul our dual sport motorcycle and camp. Unfortunately, my wife is not able to spend as much time on the motorcycle as in our younger days, so selling the enclosed trailer and switching to the off road trailer. Much easier to travel in a jeep in the scrub than on a bike. Here is picture of the inside of the trailer that I built. I move the battery and propane tank inside the trailer at the back when towing to reduce weight, and the bike is positioned to help reduce tongue weight. The bed in this picture folds into the wall to the motorcycle slides in place easily.

20150411_123601.jpg
 

professorkx

Rank IV

Pathfinder I

I spent the weekend prepping our new trailer, so thought I would give my first impression feedback:

1. The trailer is not wired for power, and not even setup to put a battery in the front box. Not sure if a battery hold down system is available, so be ready to fabricate something and wire the battery to the vehicle power.
2. I put the fridge in the rear compartment in the drawer to the right as you look into the rear (I bought the 82 quart ARB), as that drawer is recessed and holds the fridge well. When you pull the drawer all the way open, the drawer slide locks, and you have to fiddle with the slide lock on the track to get it unlocked so it will slide back in. Don't really like this feature, but may change my mind once we get it on the trail camping. Minor nuisance, nothing more.
3. I am running 35 inch times on 4.75" backspaced rims. The tires fit well under the fender, but the cable is only about 1/4" from the side of the tire. I'm going to either make an offset brake arm at the wheel or build a spacer off this stock brake arm to get the cable away from the inside edge of the tire. No way I could run 37 inch tires on the trailer without modifying this bracket, and no way a stock jeep Rubicon wheel is going to work without a spacer. I will have to carry a spacer with me in case I have to use the spare on the trailer.
4. The drawer for the stove...fail. Finding a stove to fit that spot is going to be difficult. I knew it was short, but when you add the length of the back of the T handle bracket, you lose almost 3 inches. I've done a bunch of research, and have not yet found a stove short enough to work unless we use a one burner stove. We setup a 2x4 table at a right angle to the stove drawer as a test (we have an awning on that side of the trailer), and we can run the stove on the table and use the drawer to hold a tub with cooking utensils, so we have a solution. However, if they are going to make a drawer that doesn't fit any stove on the market, they should provide a stove option.
5. I travel way too much for work to want to deal with putting this trailer together, so just paid 4-wheel parts to put it together, 4 hours labor at $105 per hour. This was the first trailer they received in the Post Falls, Idaho store, so this was their learning curve. They said they spent 11 hours putting it together. That included putting on the roof top tent and the awning, but quite frankly, those two items couldn't have taken longer than an 1.5 hours, as I have already unbolted and re-positioned both, and it was easy. Trailer assembly didn't look that hard on the instructions, but since I wasn't the guy turning the wrenches, I have to take their word for it. I know I had to delay pickup 1 day, as they were not finished on the day they started the assembly in the morning.
6. No lights inside the compartment. I guess they figure at this price point, you get to finish these kinds of things. This won't be that hard to deal with, just a disappointment.
7. The prototype trailer I looked at had a water tank, a cool feature, but no water tank on the production trailer. I have a water tank that I am putting in the spare tire spot, along with a propane tank, so no harm, but would have been nice to have the water tank and faucet option.

Overall still very pleased with the purchase.
 

Silverback07

Rank V
Launch Member

Enthusiast III

2,229
Central Texas
First Name
Sean
Last Name
Braden
Member #

3481

I put a group 31 Oddyseey battery in mine and wired it up with lights and 12v/USB outlets. Takes a bit of time and there really is no good way to get the power into the boxes. Would have been nice had they provided some predrill holes with sealed grommets or something. But for the money, its fine. I figured it out. The thing with mine that ticked me off the most was the fact that I had to run all new wiring when I got it. I started to assemble it and the instructions were talking (reading?) about some connector... well it was not there. I called SB and they said, its in the wiring harness box (never got that).. they overnighted it to me (awesome). Anyhow, now I have the wiring harness box and its instructions and it tells me to pull all the wiring and replace it with the stuff in the box! WTF?! Was not happy at first. But hey I used that as an opportunity to "upgrade" the wiring to larger gauge and add a couple more for future use. Maybe with the newer trailers they have alleviated this issue and are rewiring them before they ship them out... which would have been nice.

The stove slide, totally agree.. wayyy too small.. but the Eureka one will fit. If I find its a POS I will contact Partner Steel and have a "custom" 18" version made with a front exit propane line. Not a deal breaker, but yeah, that area is WAY too small. Time will tell on this stove.

Water tank on the spare tire area is good.. I'm just concerned with tongue weight. As it is the thing is tongue heavy IMO. There really is not much weight out behind the rear tires.
 
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Silverback07

Rank V
Launch Member

Enthusiast III

2,229
Central Texas
First Name
Sean
Last Name
Braden
Member #

3481

It would. But I read some really awful reviews on it. And for $300 I'd rather have a Partner Steel. Just my 2cents