Been wanting a small overland trailer for a while. I want something that I can leave in the garage loaded and ready to go (moving to CO in June and will have the opportunity to spend a whole lot more ducking the office and running to the mountains). I want to mount my RTT on it, have a decent amount of interior lockable storage, and have some somewhat-self-sustaining power systems onboard.
I'm also ballin on a budget and a big fan of jumping in the deep end, so I'm going to build it myself. Figured I'd document here, because I'm sure I'll make some mistakes that others will be able to avoid in future.
I'm starting with a mostly 2x2 11ga steel lower frame. The tongue will be 2x3 11ga. I expect that this should be plenty strong for my purposes. Looking to go with Timbren axles with electronic brakes, and some decent-sized tires. Most components above the lower frame are going to get hammered out "on the fly"... kind of working on one piece at a time, as I've got a good couple months before it needs to be wrapped up.
Couple notes: I've only welded a few times before and not anything that needs to be as structurally sound as this, so I'll be spending a while welding scrap metal as practice before I dive in on the frame. Also, my product design skillset is deep, but limited to SolidWorks and 3D printing, so this should be fun. Hence, if yall have any advice on common practices in welding/frame building/design principles in this realm, I'm all ears.
I'm also ballin on a budget and a big fan of jumping in the deep end, so I'm going to build it myself. Figured I'd document here, because I'm sure I'll make some mistakes that others will be able to avoid in future.
I'm starting with a mostly 2x2 11ga steel lower frame. The tongue will be 2x3 11ga. I expect that this should be plenty strong for my purposes. Looking to go with Timbren axles with electronic brakes, and some decent-sized tires. Most components above the lower frame are going to get hammered out "on the fly"... kind of working on one piece at a time, as I've got a good couple months before it needs to be wrapped up.
Couple notes: I've only welded a few times before and not anything that needs to be as structurally sound as this, so I'll be spending a while welding scrap metal as practice before I dive in on the frame. Also, my product design skillset is deep, but limited to SolidWorks and 3D printing, so this should be fun. Hence, if yall have any advice on common practices in welding/frame building/design principles in this realm, I'm all ears.