2018 Three Feathers Mfg. 'Trail Head' (1 Viewer)

[80t0ylc]

Took a short drive with the trailer in tow and decided to take some pics. Trailer and LC weren't loaded for a trip but some exterior pics were in order. Tongue appears to be riding almost perfectly horizontal, which is good. Looks like the hitch jack wheel might help keep the tongue off the ground in knarly terrain.

Offset front and rear shots

The trailer wheels track with the outside edge a couple inches outside of the LC's track. I'll have to keep that in mind offroad.

 

[80t0ylc]

I'm satisfied with the tongue and Maxcoupler clearance at almost 90*. The spare tire might contact the tongue on an extremely tight RH maneuver in rough terrain.

You can see the Anderson connector in this shot.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Nice complete set up. Look forward to seeing it person. What is the estimated trailer weight?

 

[80t0ylc]

Nice complete set up. Look forward to seeing it person. What is the estimated trailer weight?

Thanks, Phil! Approx 1400 lbs wet - before gear is loaded.

 

[80t0ylc]

Got a little crazy and hooked it up to my F350 to see how it tows it. I'm not sure if the truck knew it was there. I couldn't tell the difference - unless I checked the mirrors. I had to make some changes on the 7 pin trailer connector on the truck, anyway. So, I made sure it was compatible to tow this trailer. Normally, my Lance slide-in camper is connected through that connector. The PO had modified the connections, so I had to eliminate a wire connected to a pin to be compatible. It wasn't used anyway, so it wasn't a problem. It seems easier to back up with the F350. I guess the longer wheel base helps.

 

[ntsqd]

What I've recently learned to do when backing up a short trailer is the make short steering inputs and then return to center. Make a stab, center the wheel while moving. If it wasn't enough make another stab and the return to center. Short trailers are too responsive for continuous steering input. Longer WB TR's do make it easier because they aren't too responsive to direction changes.

 

[80t0ylc]

Makes sense. That's probably why semi drivers can look so good at warehouses. Plus repetition makes them even better. Thanks for the tip!

 

[80t0ylc]

Well as an update, I attempted to meet up with my Expo ROF group for a RimRocker run in Colorado and Utah but had a setback. I wasn't paying close attention to tongue weight and the capacity of my rear springs. In the pic below that I previously posted, both trailer and LC were unloaded:

As you can plainly see from the gap above the tire in the rear wheel well, it's already hunkered down. Loaded up for the trip and weighed in at the local truck scales the trailer was 2000 lbs and rig was 7500 lbs, including tongue weight. I don't have any pics of that but, IIRC it didn't seem any worse. And while towing it the perfomance and handling was pretty much what I expected. So, I set out for meeting the group. I have a 24 gallon LRA aux fuel tank mounted in the OEM spare tire location, which adds to the droop, somewhat. This aux tank transfers fuel into the main tank by a dash mounted switch/gauge:

There's an amber LED above the switch to indicate pumping or transfer is in progress. A sequence of 4 green LED's tell the level - full, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 and a red LED at the bottom to indicate empty. As your main tank gauge goes down you start up the transfer. I choose to do it in 1/4 tank intervals. It's not quick, but it's effective. You watch the main gauge and the LED's to monitor the progress. Well, I was doing my second transfer between Burns, OR and Winnemucca, NV, but it appeared there was no progress after what I thought was reasonable amount of time. So I pull over. There's 2 other checks you can make to be sure that it's working. 1st is to listen for the fuel pump (toka-toka-toka) sound. 2nd is to open the fuel cap to hear the gurgle of fuel being pumped into the main tank. Well I could hear the fuel pump (sometimes you can hear it while driving - depending on road noise - wind - surface). Ok, now to open the fuel cap. The 80 fuel cap takes several turns to remove, so as I'm unscrewing it I hear the sound of escaping pressure. Unbeknownst to me, my recently replaced charcoal canister was malfunctioning. I had replaced it with an Autozone VC120 when installing the aux tank, a year ago to avoid this exact problem. It's a common issue with the 80 series, given their age and a substantial number of guys still running them. Well, the pressure release continued and increased as the cap was about to come off. It's a good thing I had a firm grip on it or it would have been blown several feet away. Wet fuel was being blown out also. I was able to block most of that by holding the cap close to the spout. This continued for well over a minute, but what was terrifying was the sound of the fuel tanks contracting back with the pressure release! Hmmmm, time for a decision. I was not far from Orovada, just into NV so I recapped the tank, stopped the transfer and continued to Orovada and pulled into the dirt parking lot. Did some more "on the road" troubleshooting. Decided to pull the tank hose from the charcoal canister and loosely cap the tank, but Colorado was out. The tranfer now seemed to be normal. So, I topped off both tanks and headed home, but decided that on the way back, I could do some exploring. Stopped for another tank topoff and no pressure was building up, so I headed off road. Going slower with the windows down and the tires aired down I could hear what seemed like, something was rubbing occasionally. It was sort of like when I was a kid and clothspinned a card into the spokes, but muffeled. The exploring wasn't working out anyway since I stumbled on an unexpected "no tresspassing" sign and it was too late to pick an alternate rout to my destination, I decided to pack it in and headed home. A good friend, @LandCruiserPhil, noticed my troubles when I posted on Expo what my issues were when I dropped out of the run and had a suggestion. I had not thrown away the OEM charcoal canister so was able to put an end to this problem with the fix from his thread - Thank You, Phil!!! But the rear sag and rubbing issue still needs to be fixed. Did some research and some Air Lift air bags were ordered. They're supposed to arrive today. I've prepped the LC and am waiting - which is also why I'm posting. Here's some pics of a rig waiting for a fix:

Oh yes, and my loaded trailer, patiently waiting for some action.....

 

[80t0ylc]

The air bags arrived and are installed, in spite of Cottonwood season, here.....ugg. Here's a tip for those who might install a set in your rig. The instructions lead you to believe you can install the line on the bag after you have re-installed your springs with bags back on the axle. I imagined how difficult that would be and installed lines on the bags, placed bags into springs, ran lines out through spring coils to keep them out of harms way as springs were put in place. The uninflated bags will slide up and down inside springs easily, so I used a little duct tape to temporarily hold them high in the springs. Once springs are in place, the lines can be easily threaded through hole in bottom spring perch and routed to your fill point(s) or 'T'. Then pull duct tape off and guide bag down, nozzle through hole in perch to it's resting place. I also sheathed the line with wire loom to protect it. Install in progress:

I chose to have separate fill points. The runs are less than 3 feet and in the same place on both sides:

With door closed, the shrader valve is protected by the rubber end piece on the front of the wheel well flare:

The LC now, has a better stance. 35 psi is max, according to Air Lift. This is at 32 psi. The way it was riding, I think I could have dropped the pressure some and not lost any in rear sag or droop:

 

[ntsqd]

I've given some thought to deleting several of the leaves from the OME's under the rear of my '88 and going to air springs with one of these valves to control ride height: Air Suspension Component Distributor - Leveling and Height Control Valves for Motorhomes and RV's OBA makes this possible and I could easily put in one of these regulators: McMaster-Carr to limit max pressure in that part of the system.

 

[80t0ylc]

I've given some thought to deleting several of the leaves from the OME's under the rear of my '88 and going to air springs with one of these valves to control ride height: Air Suspension Component Distributor - Leveling and Height Control Valves for Motorhomes and RV's OBA makes this possible and I could easily put in one of these regulators: McMaster-Carr to limit max pressure in that part of the system.

The only reason I added the air bags is for the sag or droop from the tongue weight plus the recent aux fuel tank. I subscribe to k.i.s.s. as much as possible and if these air bags give me any grief at all, I'll yank 'em out and put in beefier springs. 10 years ago, I never would have thought I'd need a higher capacity setup, but the weight added for long term overlanding adds up. 1st it was the RTT and camping gear - in addition to the armor in the LC. Since moving RTT, awning & a lot of the gear to a trailer, the weight has somewhat transfered, but still needs to be tugged along for the ride. At one time I was shooting for being able to live on the road with possibly South America, the Eastern Hemisphere or Australia in mind. But with the world-wide unrest and now even our country is giving me 2nd thoughts for traveling in or near any larger city.

 

[titanpat57]

Very cool unit...good luck!

 

[80t0ylc]

Very cool unit...good luck!

Thanks, I'll be giving it a short test camping trip soon to check it all out. It seems to tow fine both on & off road. I'll report back with details.

 

[ZackR]

Thanks, I'll be giving it a short test camping trip soon to check it all out. It seems to tow fine both on & off road. I'll report back with details.

Looking forward to hear how this setup works out. We are also in the market for a teardrop style off road trailer and there's a lot of options out there (way more than I would have guessed).

 

[80t0ylc]

Looking forward to hear how this setup works out. We are also in the market for a teardrop style off road trailer and there's a lot of options out there (way more than I would have guessed).

Yep, the market has exploded. And if you want a new one, you're looking at a wait for it to be built. I don't know if the lockdown has affected wait times, but back in December I was looking at over a year wait for a Lead Dog Extreme. The sky is the limit with options available, too. But the $ adds up fast. Some that are imported from Australia are all decked out already & way out of most folks price ranges. I wanted the basics and do the mods myself. Some mods need planning, though. If you're going to be installing electrical yourself, you can work with them to install the wiring to your specs as it's built to avoid having to tear into existing paneling and insulation.

The true "Teardrop" has the streamlined shape with the door that opens up in the rear. Traditionally that's kitchen access. But, that wouldn't work well with my 270* awning & wall kit which I had purchased well before a trailer. When I 1st became interested to move from a RTT to an off road trailer, I had my eye on the Lead Dog Extreme, which is more rectangular in shape and the door has the hinge on the left side which would work well with my 270* & wall kit. This trailer has a similar shape with the side opening kitchen door. I also like the solid axle with leaf spring setup. It's simple and reliable. You just need to shop and decide what would work for your needs & budget. Some even get a rack and mount a RTT on top to provide sleeping room for kids. My rack won't do that - it's made for carrying gear, but I don't need the additional sleeping room anyway. I was quite blessed to find, almost exactly what I was looking for - used. Be patient, but persistant. The classifed on here and Expo are excellent sources if you want to go that way.

 

[80t0ylc]

Exploring this week

On roads like this - which is not much trouble on the flat, but I had a descent of aprox 2000' and then will have to climb out of in 100*F heat. Thank God for the excellent A/C in my LC!

Made it to my camp and just as I was deploying awning and trying to set up wall kit by myself, 30 - 40 mph wind gusts hit. I was struggling with one wall and decided to wait, but dusk was coming. See the clouds in the distance? Somehow missed them - I was concentrating on the heat on the way in which was showing on my outside thermometer. My only solice with the wind was it's cooling the 100 degree heat, now that I was outside.

Weather front was hitting which I missed because ODOT NOAA weather forecasts on Tripcheck is a week behind. Some pics around sunset of weather that miraculously missed me. I got a few drops, but that was all, thank the Lord!

 

[80t0ylc]

As wind was calming down, I finished setting up camp. Next morning, the heat was hitting early and so were the insects, biting flies, knats, kamikaze bees, hornets and a good size spider or two.

My wall kit does not protect me much from insects. My under the trailer barriers helped the 1st night some, but eventually, the pests invade. I put tarps down inside the "annex" for a floor, which really helps because the coco burrs or whatever they were - were terrible on bare feet or your knees when kneeling down. And I can hear the pitter-patter of the big spider's foot steps on the tarps, so they don't surprise me as much... So I went exploring in the morning in the LC to the end of the trail, where the Owyhee River ends and Lake Owyhee or reservoir starts. And kayaking on the lake in the afternoon.

I have no idea what the stack of cut rocks or bricks were.

So back to camp. Dealing with the heat and the insects and constant dry mouth, I decided after kayaking to pack it in the next day. Thank the Lord for my National Luna fridge and bringing plenty of water! Reflecting on the trip in and concerned about tackling the climb out in 100* temps, I reviewed below pics from the trip in. I wanted an early start for cooler temps, but I also wanted whatever protection the annex gave me as long as possible. So I decided to do all packing in the morning, leaving whenever I was done and rely on the LC and the preps and mods that I've made to it for this kind of travel.

Looking down to where I would camp from above, on the way in. The end of the lake is visible. Just powder puff clouds - nothing threatening in sight.

 

[80t0ylc]

Road was relatively smooth near the top. There were no sharp hairpins as on the Flint Trail in southern Utah, or I might have had a problem.

Some scenery of terrain dropping down to the lake. You can see the road if you look close in the next 2 pics.

About 1/2 way from the top to camp.

The trip was a success and the trailer performed very well. The LC also perfomed well as the tow rig. I need to find a way to secure things in the kitchen and sleeping quarters better. It just takes time to find out what moves and bounces around and a practical fix, but we'll get there. About the only thing that I physically have to fix is the sharp corners on the trailer's fenders will hit the outside tread of the tires when the suspension flexes in the rocks. There were some slight gouges in the tread that had me wondering about the quality of the tires, until I figured it out. I think I can trim the fenders down without a problem, though.

 

[ntsqd]

Spectacular pics!!!

I've one trip into the Owyhees under my belt. It merely whetted my appetite. And I know first hand just how slimy the Basin-Range can get when wet.

 

[80t0ylc]

Spectacular pics!!!

Thanks!

I've one trip into the Owyhees under my belt. It merely whetted my appetite. And I know first hand just how slimy the Basin-Range can get when wet.

Yep, that was foremost on my mind when I was down by the lake - the drive out. The road down was rocky and rut free for the most part. But down by the lake and up on top were ripe with ruts that were dried up from recent previous wet weather. The local ranchers have a unique way of fixing the water damaged sections & ruts on the roads that I crossed on their property. They'd haul in fist sized gravel and smooth it out as much as possible. Quite effective and it should last. Kind of hard to wash out that kind of fill. But you also want to be careful about hitting those sections with any speed. Didn't bother me much - either way I was in no hurry. I was just thankful that I didn't have to crawl through those sections to keep trailer from bouncing around so much.