[OlympiaFJ60]

Still waiting on ocean shipping rates. Also looking into the need for fire retardant fabric before I announce a price.

The size of the tent closed is 90" (~7.5') long, 66" (5.5') wide and between 6"-12" tall. The width was selected because that is the width of my trailer outside fender to outside fender. I believe the M416 is roughly the same. The base is designed to sit 54" off the ground. Open, the tent is 17' wide and 15' long (7.5' each for main room and awning). The peak is 8'. The tent fabric is 10oz rip stop poly cotton canvas and the floor is 13oz PVC. Polls and ladder are steel. The base is 3/4" marine grade plywood with a metal frame under for added support. There are two hatch doors in the base for easy access to trailer storage once setup. There is a 3" foam mattress. The entire tent weighs roughly 350 lbs.

I am still working on the mounting. I am thinking of offering a mounting frame at additional expense or having the customer provide their own mounting method. The frame would fit customers trailer and have hinges, latches and struts.

[swampman]

wow !! thats fairly heavy .. may not work for me my trailer is 59'' to the top of my racks.. so i wood be bout 5'' too tall.. i suppose i could let some air outta the tires..

[OlympiaFJ60]

A few inches either way shouldn't be a problem. I will mess around with it when I get it set up again. Jack up, let air out and see what range would be acceptable with out causing any strain on the tent.

[Thornton]

That's a sweet looking setup. You've put a lot of thought and work into it.

[OlympiaFJ60]

I am also looking at a slightly smaller tent. About 78" long by 60" wide on the trailer and 10' by 14' on the ground (6.5' for tent and 7.5' for Awning). Otherwise, the same features. Trying to get a weight estimate for it.

[swampman]

smaller is good.. more details pleeeease...

[OlympiaFJ60]

It will be similar to this. I am waiting to hear an estimate on cost and weight.

[Phulcrum]

looks like we have three so far. can you speak to the quality of the tent, material, seams, etc?

[Phulcrum]

once my "prototype trailer is finished and tested i am going to design a replicable , production model expedition trailer. this tent looks perfect for it.

[OlympiaFJ60]

So far the quality looks great. I have only had it set up in the shop though. I hope to have it on the trailer and get it set up outside next week. I will leave it up for a while and check for water leaks and get a good look at the seams from the inside on a sunny day. On the travel cover all seams are taped.

[OlympiaFJ60]

I'm not sure of the etiquette for announcing prices here so I setup a section on my store to discus price and order information. If people think it would be better in the for sale section on mud please let me know.

Trailer Tent Price

I have not seen the small tent in person but it will be ordered to the same specs as the large one I have. I am almost done mounting it on the trailer and will have more detailed pictures.

[GLTHFJ60]

Looks awesome! That would be really handy for a family, for sure.

[swampman]

cool .. im really liking the smaller version..but i still have questions?? #1 if space is an issue can this tent be set up without the second room ? i am asuming it just zips on like the other tent and #2 did you happen to find out the maximum trailer hieght yet ? thanx bryan..

[OlympiaFJ60]

That is one of the changes I would like to make to both the small and large tent. The trial version I have does not have the ability to remover the awning, but I sometimes camp placed that are pretty tight. I think a heavy duty continuous zipper with a Velcro weather flap would work great. For the height, I have finally gotten to mounting it and will be done, hopefully, today. I will set it up for better pictures and to check the flexibility with the height.

[OlympiaFJ60]

Been working on the tent a little bit at a time in the evenings this week. I added a channel to hold the welt of the cover. I think this cover is made for the slightly larger standard tent made by the company. I will request a more snug fit on the edges on the production tents. I also added a little bit of extra tubing the the frame that was supplied as part of the base. This was to add a little strength as well as a better sealing surface against the trailer box.



This also covers a little better the area under the hatch doors. I started welding with the frame on the tent base using a welding blanket with whole in it to protect the tent and cover. I had one spot where the hatch was not all the way closed and burned the foam sleeping pad a little. At least it didn’t all go up in smoke.




Before heading out to set up the tent I remembered to weld on the stabilizer legs. I used a pair of weld-on tongue jacks with drop legs that have a large “sand foot” for the base. This will give plenty of lift to accommodate uneven terrain. They are a 3000# bulldog side crank jack. This is way overkill but I thought it would be easier at the time. I think next time I will go simple and use a steel pole through a color and a T bolt to clamp it down. Theses work nicely as gaurds for the tail lights though



This was my first time setting it up and it took about 20 minutes with the help of my 8 year old son. The tent is unfolded from the trailer and the bottom is staked down (it comes with two sets of stakes, standard and extra heavy duty 12" spikes). Once staked down, the poles are lengthened on the inside to bring all slack out of the tent walls.

Next is the awning. The awning uses it’s own set of poles. Setting this up was the hardest part of the setup. It helps to have a second person to hold one of the poles as you attached the rest of the structure. Four poles attache through the tent wall to the inside pole structure.





Here are a few of it set up

[GLTHFJ60]

That's a house!!! What a campsite.

[swampman]

wow nice set up.. but man that thing is big is this the large version?

[OlympiaFJ60]

Originally Posted by GLTHFJ60

That's a house!!! What a campsite.

Yeah, wait until I put the walls on the Awning

Originally Posted by swampman

wow nice set up.. but man that thing is big is this the large version?

Yes this is the large one. Here is a paint pick, the red line showing the approximate size of the small tent. The small tent is also shorter on the trailer.

[swampman]

looks good but i think the trailer hieght is gonna kill me.. im 59'' to the top of my racks .. your trailer looks at least a foot shorter

[OlympiaFJ60]

Actually it's 54" to the top of the box. I'm going to jack it up and see how high a trailer it would handle before adding too much stress on the tents side. I think there is a bit of room to stretch there.

[titanpat57]

If it goes up to 6'-3" let me know...

I love that tent, but if I start thinking about it, I'll be redesigning AGAIN! You're no help here.....lol

Looks like you put new metal on the rear of the trailer..are there kitchen improvments looming on the horizon also?! That will make the trip enjoyable no matter what the weather..great move.

[OlympiaFJ60]

Originally Posted by titanpat57

If it goes up to 6'-3" let me know...

I love that tent, but if I start thinking about it, I'll be redesigning AGAIN! You're no help here.....lol

They already make a tent for that high, it's called a ROOF TOP tent.

It's nice to finally have something that I can use an is what I originally envisioned. I started on this project about 5 years ago and have made several changes. For the tent I kept going back and forth on what to do, did I want to import one from Australia ($$$), try and make my own or have one made locally ($$). When I found this tent manufacturer they said they don't normally sell direct to customers but when I explained that I thought their tent would do well in N.A. I've been working with them for nearly a year, trying to get the changes I wanted to the tent. I would Skype with them most nights sending pictures back and forth, asking for this change or that and they would check with their design team and get back to me. I also asked them to come up with a little bit smaller one, and it looks like it turned out nicely.

Even if I don't get the 8 initial buyers I need to place an order right away, I hope to have saved up enough to make a purchase by mid summer. Hopefully that won't be too late for the camping season.

[OlympiaFJ60]

Originally Posted by titanpat57

Looks like you put new metal on the rear of the trailer..are there kitchen improvments looming on the horizon also?! That will make the trip enjoyable no matter what the weather..great move.

I had to change the rear door because of the drain hose for the sink. I decided having a swing out rather than a drop down tail gate would be best, plus it will add a little wind break for the stove. No other changes planned for now, except a cover for the stove that when up will shield the tent from any unexpected flare ups while cooking. I am going to change the water tank to one that will fit between the frame rails to open up ALOT of space inside the box. I will loose a few gallons, but not bad. I'm also going to add a trailer mounted waist tank so I don't have to use the role around except to dump if it gets full while at camp. I have found the tanks I want, I just need to figure out where I'm going to put all the fittings and order.

[sirenmoses]

Neat concept, excellent follow-through. Brings to mind a modern version of the old cowboy pack tent -- just substitute 4xd & trailer for horses & grain.

[OlympiaFJ60]

Here are a few pictures of the Awning (annex) walls installed as well as a few of the other bits of the trailer.

The tent wasn’t difficult for me to set up by my self the first time, but two people will be helpful. I started by removing the cover, removing and setting aside all the poles, guide lines, stakes and awning (annex) walls. Next I pulled the tent off the trailer spreading the PVC floor out as tight as I could. This also pulled the two ground length internal poles off the





The walls for the annex are as simple as Velcroing the three panels together and to the tent. They also Velcro along the top. Fully deployed, the tent has two windows with rain covers and six windows that can role up. All windows as well as the two doors have mosquito netting to keep bugs out.





The Kitchen slides out through the opening in the tent panel at the back of the trailer.



The roof vents, there is one in each outer end of the tent.



And the tent stakes. There is a set of the standard size metal stakes as well as an extra heavy duty style that is about 3/8″ thick.

[GLTHFJ60]

Wow that's cool. I love how the kitchen is accessible from the tent.

Question about that, what do you use for the burners? Is the exhaust from the burners a concern?

[OlympiaFJ60]

The burner is a from a RV wrecking yard. I think it is an Atwood two burner model. I have the current version bookmarked someplace and will try and find that. At first I thought the exhaust may be a problem, but it won't be much different than the Coleman pop up we had, or a regular RV for that matter. That is one of the reasons I had them NOT put a window to the bed area above the stove as well as the vent at the top of the tent.


Although, I will have to really get back to you after our first camping trip

[GLTHFJ60]

Yeah I saw the vents, and I know for natural gas or propane burners in houses were obviously safe, but I didn't know if it became a concern in such a small dwelling. Either way, let us know how it goes!

[swampman]

damn that is a sweet set up.. i think its gonna be too large for my purposes though .. nice if your stayin someplace with lots o room and if your gonna be stayin im the same place more than one night

[OlympiaFJ60]

Yeah, a real basecamp. I hope the smaller one will be a little better suited to wheeling camping. With the small footprint and a removable awning it should be better. Still not as small as a roof top tent though. Maybe I'll have to see about getting those with the trailer tent order