Kamparoo Trailer suspension (1 Viewer)

[alia176]

Hi all,

I have a trailer that I need to tweak the suspension on after last week's maiden voyage. The leaf sprung suspension on this trailer is very stiff and hardly any room for up travel. The Kamparoo trailer followed the 80 quite well through the rocks but I had to use the tires as 10 psi as shocks since it doesn't have any

Anyway, watching Kurt from Cruiseroutfitters, I learned the need for longer leaves for a more pliant suspension. Since there are no fenderwell for the tires to tuck into, I'll need to lift the camper a bit to accommodate for up travel. I'll also need to add shocks to this mix.

Is it worth my time to simply remove one leaf at a time to see how the suspension behaves? At some point the trailer will simply flatten out the remaining leaves due to the weight I presume. Currently, the trailer weight is around 1,400#s.

How about I remove all leaves but the main one and then use helper air bags that are used to level the rear of pick up trucks? I can air them up/down as needed. The leaves can be used as axle locaters while the air bags are used as load carriers. Still, I'm back to the original question of limited up travel due to short springs.

These springs are from Australia and uses a *slipper" on one end. Perhaps the air bag concept won't work since I don't have both ends of the springs captivated with shackles?

Inputs?

 

[J-man]

this is why i built my own trailer. I used leafsprings from a 98-04 tacoma with 4" shackel hangers in the rear. If you wanted to, cut the hangers off you currently have, and go with some leafs like i did, or start reasearching the various trailer builds that are currently going on and ones others have completed and youll get some great ideas.

 

[450 DUDE]

Ya I think I would try the KISS method;
and perform the remove a leaf exersize.
That might get you where you want , slap some shocks on and done.

Good luck.

ken

 

[REZARF]

Was this the kamparoo at the Rising Sun Ralley this year? Sweet little trailers, I have only seen that one ever, very rare.

How 'bout a few pics!

Drew

 

[alia176]

Was this the kamparoo at the Rising Sun Ralley this year? Sweet little trailers, I have only seen that one ever, very rare.

How 'bout a few pics!

Drew

Yeah, that's the one I bought.

This thread has pics and videos from the trip we took last week. You can see the trailer in action. I'm very pleased with this purchase to say the least. It's very rare to be able to drag a pseudo popup camper through the rough stuff and come out unscathed.

Some people were dubious as to how I drove through E-hill normally (as in not backing down the hill with the trailer). I think the secret is the length of the draw bar which made it easy to turn around and drive normally.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=183073

Thanks for the inputs everyone. Let me remove a leaf and see what happens. Although, I'm not sure which one to actually remove!

 

[J-man]

i forgot to mention too that its a really cool rig to tow. If you went with a flexier suspension, would you have to move the wheels outside the box to allow for more articulation = new axle, etc...? Its actually kinda cool looking having the wheels underneath.

 

[alia176]

Thanks J-man for the words. It's a very practical trailer to tow I must say.

My local cruiserheads are offering me their mini, 40 and 50 springs so they can have their garage space back. I might check some of these springs out to see what'd work. A longer spring would be nicer I think.

My plan is still to leave the wheels under the camper as the track width is perfect for the 80. I'll just have to give a "little" lift w/o sacrificing the COG. This will be the winter project I guess.

 

[Augie]

This is the one they offer for off road model

Longer 65 mm leaf spring with military wrap

Independent model

 

[alia176]

Looks like I'll be mimicking the top picture!

 

[rusty_tlc]

You might consider a torsion axle
It looks like you can retro fit pretty easy with these
One nice feature is you get lift and more axle clearance with a torsion suspension. The preload can also be adjusted for whatever kind of ride you like. If you add airbags you can change the ride to suit the terrian just by changing pressure in the bag.

 

[alia176]

Dan,

I have the Dexter torsional axle on my utility trailer and I don't see it being a robust solution for the abuse of off-roading. Though it has some positive attributes, I'm more concerned with a reliable and easily replaceable suspension parts should some thing happen in the trails.

There were some past posts on this exact topic and the majority told me to stay away from anything torsional for a severe duty trailer.

I found bunch of 40 and Taco springs that can be used locally. Evidently, they can't wait for me to pickup their springs!

Thanks for the input however.

 

[REZARF]

You might consider a torsion axle
It looks like you can retro fit pretty easy with these
One nice feature is you get lift and more axle clearance with a torsion suspension. The preload can also be adjusted for whatever kind of ride you like. If you add airbags you can change the ride to suit the terrian just by changing pressure in the bag.

Torsion axles tend to fail on washboard roads after a good amount of use. Just a thought, but the rubber deterioration within the axle rendering them useless. Most off-road trailer companies steer clear of them for this reason. I am not saying they can't be used, they are amazing on the street, but there are not used that often for trails.

Just my .02

Rezarf <><

 

[rusty_tlc]

Interesting.
I was thinking if you went with a 3/4 ton spring on a light trailer it would handle the load.
My thought was to get something that would accept a hub with the same lug pattern as the tow vehicle. For my 40 that would be 6 on 5-1/2", pretty much 3/4 ton stuff.
I can see that washboard would wear the rubber pretty fast though, even if it were way over spec'ed.

By the time I get a trailer I might know what I'm doing.