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Overland trailer


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Ok it’s winter project time, and I have decided to build an overland trailer, I know that there are lots of discussions about this relating to taking a “Caravan on tour” etc but my needs are as follows:

• Use my Landy for work but want to be able to come home on a Friday night hitch up and go.

• Want to be able to set up camp but use the Landy if need to (drawback of roof tent)

• Would like to clear some space in my workshop by stashing camping gear elsewhere.

• 2 Kids who are growing up so think I will need a second tent considering an Oztent or Caranex to go with the trailer and roof tent on the trailer will create Options for different setups.

• Kids and wife need a toilet they are not as happy to dig a hole!!

After a lot of looking around and trawling web sites I have decided that I can’t afford to import one, and not sure that they have what I need. So design and build it is, I am now the proud owner of a disk braked Sankey wolf trailer (£180), I went for this option as I want to extend the draw bar end as others have done and the disk brake option makes this a lot easier. (see photo below)

Looking at strength to weight the fact that I want to put my roof tent up top and bounce it over the mountains etc I have decided 1 ½” Aluminium box to make the frame and 2mm chequer plate sheets fixed against the frame with 1” angle and sealed with Tiger Seal and rivets.The door will be made up of a sandwich of 2mm chequer plate and marine ply with an o seal onto the frame to make water tight and locked with truck door fastenings.

This will also mean that the whole thing can be unbolted from the trailer chassis if needed.

The roof rack will unbolt and lift off allowing for quick removal and storage of the roof tent.

One side will house a pull out sink, cooker and grill electrical control panel storage boxes an oven, and propane fired water heater, luxury I know!! The over side will house storage boxes and storage area for chairs etc, the back will house my fridge on a pull out more storage boxes the toilet battery and fuel will be stored on the wheel arch compartments and an internal water tank.

Just about to start the build and now it’s time to put it out there to the masses for comment please?

I know that this is not everyone’s cup of tea and is hardly travelling light but works for my needs.

Cheers, Jason.

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First thing I would say is steer clear of rivets, as trailers take a hell of a beating and rivets tend to fret and pop in such situations .

Have a look at o/r trailers from OZ/ZA as they both are hostile environments . Any containers need to be very well sealed , and strongly made, and well secured. I built a few trailers of varying ruggedness when living in OZ , you really need to build to suit the usage , as you can go a lot lighter if you only intend for soft use . You also need to try and keep weight down if going extreme use as muchh as poss , as they create a lot of drag off road .

re drawbar length, as long as compatible to ramp over angle of towing vehicle . I would suggest only use ali for locating items not as major load bearing structure stay with steel, as handles fatigue better . Your design does look promising JMHO :)

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First thing I would say is steer clear of rivets, as trailers take a hell of a beating and rivets tend to fret and pop in such situations .

Have a look at o/r trailers from OZ/ZA as they both are hostile environments . Any containers need to be very well sealed , and strongly made, and well secured. I built a few trailers of varying ruggedness when living in OZ , you really need to build to suit the usage , as you can go a lot lighter if you only intend for soft use . You also need to try and keep weight down if going extreme use as muchh as poss , as they create a lot of drag off road .

re drawbar length, as long as compatible to ramp over angle of towing vehicle . I would suggest only use ali for locating items not as major load bearing structure stay with steel, as handles fatigue better . Your design does look promising JMHO :)

Thanks for the comments JMHO, I have spent the first part of this week in Toulouse and have now decided that the panels will be "chemicaly bonded" or glued as it used to be called they stick most of the bits together on the A380 and i have figured if it is good enough for an aircraft is is good enough for me spoke to the chap that is in charge of the production showed me how they have to clean the surfaces first with "acid" wet wipes and then bond the surfaces together the flexiablity in the system is really good it is more sold then a weld but never sets which allows movement.

I did some computer modeling and to figure out the length of the draw bar with both spare wheels attached and with the proposed length will give me a big enough entrance/departure angle for most needs.

I did look at a lot of web sites prior to my design the problem with most of them is that they are made up of folded aluminium boxes clearly for the weight however I don't have access to that sort of equipment hence the frame and panel design.

I will keep this posting updated with photos as the project moves on.

Cheers, Jason.

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Great project, one that I keep planning but have never started. A bit of a vapour project really.

Photo's will be great please.

Are you sure about checker plate? Difficult to bend neatly and makes everything look a bit home-made.

Hi Landmannn,

thanks for your feedback, I did a lot of reading before deciding on chequer plate, decided for the following reasons:


I am not having to bend any of the chequer plate as i will use 1" angle to secure it to the frame.

The plate will be in Panels slightly recessed into the frame so hopefully will not look like I have just stuck it on (more work but a better finish I hope).

The guy that is welding the frame has a very large guilitine and will be able to cut all the sections I need keeping it neat.

Trailers take a bashing from rocks etc thrown up behind landy and can start to look rough after a short while, where chequer plate hides this better.

I intend to paint the whole thing in the same colour as the Landy when finished (drawing just for concept)so hopefully it won't look that homemade.

I have been planing this for a while and picked up the chequer plate for a very good price 6 full sheets for less than £100 off ebay.

Going to start and strip the trailer down this weekend so will start updating photos, the frame build will start some time next week when the materials arive subject to be not having to go away with work. I intend to complete the trailer over the christmas break so it will be a fairly quick build for me!! although I have been planing it for nearly a year!!

Cheers, Jason.

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Just a quick thought brought on by your pebbledashing comment on trailers , try and make allowance to fit a frame on drawbar that you can put canvas or some such on to deflect stones down that get thrown by tow vehicle . This helps protect front of trailer, and helps you keep a rear window in your tow car . :huh:;)

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Just a quick thought brought on by your pebbledashing comment on trailers , try and make allowance to fit a frame on drawbar that you can put canvas or some such on to deflect stones down that get thrown by tow vehicle . This helps protect front of trailer, and helps you keep a rear window in your tow car . :huh:;)

Thanks for that great Idea, I have seen many canvas shields on trailers from SA and Oz, so think I will add this to the design.

Cheers, Jason.

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Thanks one of the many I looked at was very impresed but not as lucky as you to have access to the equipment to fold all of that metal at a reasonable cost. I must say it is a very good looking trailer though if mine looks half as profesional I will be very happy.

Cheers, Jason.

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Things are going well, I have just built a scale 1"/10mm model of the trailer to test my design before I commit to the build. I am pleased with the way it looks, (although I hope the welded one will be straight!!) I have also made some scale boxes fridge etc to test it works the way I want it to. I may do a full mockup of the inside, later before the interia ,again to check everything works, I found this method of building saves a lot of time money and effort in the end as bugs can be eliminated before I cut anything expensive. rolleyes.gif I am still not sure that the doors will open as per the posted design but the model will also allow me to have a play with that and see what works best, going to make a mock up of the roof tent to see how the tent will effect the doors.

Actual build will start next week, still got to strip the body off the trailer, if anyone out there wants a sankey Mark 3 wolf trailer body in OK condition let me know, I dont want much for it, otherwise I will stick it on e-bay.

got to go away with work the second part of this week so I will order the material before I go and hopefully start the build when I get back, also I need to clear some space in my workshop for the next phase.

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Things are going well, I have just built a scale 1"/10mm model of the trailer to test my design before I commit to the build. I am pleased with the way it looks, (although I hope the welded one will be straight!!) I have also made some scale boxes fridge etc to test it works the way I want it to. I may do a full mockup of the inside, later before the interia ,again to check everything works, I found this method of building saves a lot of time money and effort in the end as bugs can be eliminated before I cut anything expensive. rolleyes.gif I am still not sure that the doors will open as per the posted design but the model will also allow me to have a play with that and see what works best, going to make a mock up of the roof tent to see how the tent will effect the doors.

Actual build will start next week, still got to strip the body off the trailer, if anyone out there wants a sankey Mark 3 wolf trailer body in OK condition let me know, I dont want much for it, otherwise I will stick it on e-bay.

got to go away with work the second part of this week so I will order the material before I go and hopefully start the build when I get back, also I need to clear some space in my workshop for the next phase.

Very interested in how you get on. Just picked up a Sankey myself this weekend and will use it for carting stuff about before ultimately converting for expedition use. I was thinking of trying to build an expedition set to drop into the current body so I can preserve the trailer for lugging at home and still have the expedition setup for touring.

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Very interested in how you get on. Just picked up a Sankey myself this weekend and will use it for carting stuff about before ultimately converting for expedition use. I was thinking of trying to build an expedition set to drop into the current body so I can preserve the trailer for lugging at home and still have the expedition setup for touring.

I will keep this updated, I am already making some changes to the mock up as I found a coulple of bits didn't work/I could make better. I did think of making something that would fit inside the trailer however decided on the demountable unit for a couple of reasons

1. I thoutht the weight would be to much.

2. It will use the same mountings as the original box so it theroy i could swap the boxes back over or put it on another trailer.

3. the height of the original trailer lip is to high to have a slide out cooker and be able to cook at a sensible height this also means that the kit will sit higher, currently my design alows the cooker to pull out at 10" above the trailer base or 38" from the ground.

I am now really keen to get on with things but work looks like it will stop me at the moment!!

Cheers, Jason.

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  • 2 months later...

Right, Project not going well this has been down to four things:

  • Lack of time, work has been manic!!
  • When I did get time I got swine flu!!!
  • Guy I found to build the frame went bust!!
  • Weather, (I didn't fancy striping the trailer in 2ft of snow!!)

However the time has allowed me to revise the design and cut out some of the material, I have a tendency to over engineer everything and build strong!! Whilst this is a good method and has never let me down sometimes I can lose flexibility to alter things later and it was getting heavy!! I am up to MK5 in the design now!!

The great thing is I now have all the parts for the inside sink, cooker electrical etc. I am really glad I built the scale as I have adjusted the design to allow the doors to open etc!! It would have been too high so learnt some lessons and scaled it down.

Trying to find someone else to build the frame now, so if anyone out there is any good at TIG welding and would like a couple of day's work welding let me know!!

Just about to start to strip the trailer but this has posed a few more problems.

· Where do I get MK3 Sankey parts from?

o There are lots of Sankey parts suppliers out there but they all seem to be for earlier trailers.

· What should I do with the trailer when it's stripped?

o Primer paint wax oil?

o Red Oxide?

o Two Pack?

· How far should I strip it? (Which leads back to the question above!!?)

o New break lines?

o Bearings etc?

o Electrical parts?

Anyway going to the dump in the morning to get rid of all of the rubbish that has filled the trailer and going to start to strip the body off, one thing I have learnt is I need another on for day to day use!!

Again any feedback would be welcomesmile.gif

Trailer M5.pdf

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Jason,

I assume form the request for a TIG welder it's going to be aluminium? My limited understanding of metallurgy says that ali is more prone to work hardening and fatigue failure, and that finding ali welding facilities in outer wherever-land might be difficult. Would thin wall steel be better?

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Jason,

I assume form the request for a TIG welder it's going to be aluminium? My limited understanding of metallurgy says that ali is more prone to work hardening and fatigue failure, and that finding ali welding facilities in outer wherever-land might be difficult. Would thin wall steel be better?

Yes Simon,

I chose aluminium for the frame as it gave me the best strenght to weight for load etc, Looked at steel but the weight I would need to put the weight on the top, make the doors etc would leave me little weight to load the trailer!!

after a lot of calculations I decided on 10SWG 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 aluminium box would be best, and would also give enought space to put down a decent weld.

the strcture is two part frame and panel so when I bond (Using aircraft type glue that is stronger than weld but never quiet sets so very flexable) the sheets to the frame it will add additional strength whilst retaining flexiablity.

Have you put the 110 together yet?

Jason.

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Fair enough Jason.

I do know a good TIG welder in Wantage if that's local enough for you?

Wantage could be an option, I don't really need them local, can you PM me his details please Simon?

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I like the plans smile.gif

I am planing the same, but going another route. I have a wokl spec sankey (free). I am going to change the body to 110 hi-cap rear body with a truckman top. As this is fiberglass it is light and water proof. I plan making it so I can sleep inside.

Paul

Thanks Paul,

let me know how it goes, I did consider using a Landy back seen a few done like this but it didn't give me what I wanted didn't want to sleep in it just carry all my gear.

Jason.

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Gonna keep my eye on this as well, seems everyone has vastly different ideas!

I'm picking my Sanky up this week. Have decided to keep and use the body rather than remove it. It's going to be used for UK camping mostly, so it will need to have an indoor living area (tented) as well as sleeping area. I'm trying to make it more of a trailer tent than a trailer with a roof tent if you know what I mean :huh:

I was planning on using underseal on the chassis (stone chip protector) after waxoyling as many places as possible.

Don't have access to anything too fancy so it will be steel poles and a sailmakers for the canvas etc.

I am considering making the kitchen unit removable so we could put it in teh back of teh Disco if we wanted to take just that, or for BBQ's/parties etc.

Anyway, will keep my eye on this thread for more ideas :P

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Gonna keep my eye on this as well, seems everyone has vastly different ideas!

I'm picking my Sanky up this week. Have decided to keep and use the body rather than remove it. It's going to be used for UK camping mostly, so it will need to have an indoor living area (tented) as well as sleeping area. I'm trying to make it more of a trailer tent than a trailer with a roof tent if you know what I mean huh.gif

I was planning on using underseal on the chassis (stone chip protector) after waxoyling as many places as possible.

Don't have access to anything too fancy so it will be steel poles and a sailmakers for the canvas etc.

I am considering making the kitchen unit removable so we could put it in teh back of teh Disco if we wanted to take just that, or for BBQ's/parties etc.

Anyway, will keep my eye on this thread for more ideas tongue.gif

Do you have any drawings of what you planned to do? I did consider the tented route, you can pick a striped down Field Kitchen trailer for no money and I was considering using one of these or a ex-radio BFR trailer but all seemed to restrictive, in the end went for a ground up design, although I will have to go to MK 6 after this afternoon as the wheels will stick out to far so will have to extend the sides.

Cheers, Jason.

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So moving to Mk6 in the trailer design now, I stripped a wheel off the trailer today after a trip to the dump, I need to buy new flexible brake lines shoe’s and pads. I may also need to buy some new brake callipers but finding a source may be more difficult!!

One thing has been confirmed the Sankey MK3 was the right choice for a base, it is the best built piece of engineering I have seen in a long time!! Built to last, I used/worked with Sankey’s when I was in the RAF but nether really took a lot of notice of them. They will outlast my 110 and still keep going given the build quality.

Anyway I removed the wheel and the hub cover/lifting ring fitted an alloy I will need to cut the lifting ring off the hub cover but I think a bandsaw will separate the two without difficulty!! I will need a Minimum of 35mm spacers to fit the alloy but will probably go for 55mm to match the Landy, this will also mean I need to extend the frame to cover the wheel I think it will need to extend another 3 inches, again good to discover these things before it’s to late!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

hey, been keeping an eye on this. finished painting my sankey at the weekend, the photo isnt great, but you get the idea.

its not an overland sankey yet, but having a black chequer plated roof that folds in 2 places and roof/bike racks.

once done, will put more photos up of the tail gate, lid, wheels/spacers etc. should be in 2 weeks time i hope. (just need to fix the car then :S )

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