My mobile base camp build

[alia176]

The tongue is on, and the trailer is now sitting on(only) its tires and a jackstand under the tongue!

I need to finish the coupler attachment and then I will take it around the block tonight for its first tow! I'm super excited

wooohoooo, the end is near....

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

I towed it out of the garage tonight!

YouTube - First tow of the trailer!

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Then my brother and I drug the tent out for a test fit

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

One more pic showing the kitchen box a little better.

 

[prado t]

Wow! Looking Good! . I like people who tow things at night with no lights. Kinda reminds me of things I used to do

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Wow! Looking Good! . I like people who tow things at night with no lights. Kinda reminds me of things I used to do

It probably looks pretty sketchy in the video. I live in a very quiet dead-end neighborhood, so the chances of someone running into me are slim. My neighbors usually slow down to glare at me and shake their head when they pass my house anyway

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Back on this lately and will be until we depart for Colorado in August(with this in tow).

Spent a good chunk of Saturday staring at the "mechanical closet" which is the rearmost driver's side cabinet. Inside will be the 5-gallon air tank, dual Viair compressors, Shurflo water pump, and an Eccotemp L5 water heater. It's not a huge cabinet, so it took some careful planning to get it all to fit.

Found 5 minutes to throw the new water filler door on.

Then I set to work on finally removing the rest of the old floor, clearing way for a much lighter version that will also afford me a couple of precious inches underneath to fit the water tank.

I also spent some time whipping up a series of brackets for the limit straps, bumpstops and shocks. Not sure if I've mentioned it, but I LOVE my torchmate. I built a pair of the shock brackets below in about 2 hours. Would have taken me a day with traditional methods.

I hope to be posting much more frequent and substantial updates in the coming days/weeks, so keep an eye out

 

[alia176]

Very nice, keep it up. Bunch of us are heading up to Ouray on the first weekend of Aug so maybe we'll run into you.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Very nice, keep it up. Bunch of us are heading up to Ouray on the first weekend of Aug so maybe we'll run into you.

We'll be getting to the San Juan National Forest on Monday night/Tuesday morning and be there through Thursday night.

Doesn't sound like our trips will overlap, but if they do it would be a treat to meet up.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Hit the trailer hard this weekend and got a fair number of things done.

First off was to finish the suspension. The shock mounts were done, but hadn't been welded on. The limit straps were on hand, but none of the mounts were done.

I started off getting the shock mounts welded on, then moved on to the limit straps. I had originally wanted to sleeve through the frame crossmember so that I could through-bolt the limit strap that way. Well I looked all over town and couldn't find an appropriate sized piece of tubing(or pipe, or conduit, or....) so I moved on to coming up with a new plan. I had visions of going over a big unforseen bump and this thing getting airborne in a hurry. With that in mind I wanted to make sure the limit strap mounts were stout, aka double shear.

I made an inner tab that the nut sits behind and an outer tab that should reinforce things nicely.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Then I welded on a pair of simple tabs for the bottom and bolted up the strap.

After all of that was done I wanted to get the rear stabilizer legs done. I started with some 2x2x.188 tubing that's welded to the frame and passes through the floor of the rearmost boxes. To this I welded a spring-loaded pin with T-handle. Insert some legs with CNC cut holes and voila, stabilizer legs! I still need to weld on some "feet" but they're otherwise complete. The idea for these is that I can drop the legs down prior to dropping the trailer and they will carry the weight of the trailer in camp, removing the sway that the tires/suspension would give otherwise. They're also handy for keeping the trailer from tipping over backwards when it's not hooked up to the tow vehicle and someone wants to climb up onto the rear platform.

Last project of the weekend was to finish the rear bumper and get it welded on. I wasn't sure what I would want for a hitch, d-rings, etc so I decided to just put the lights on and plan on adding the rest at a later date once I have a better idea of what I want to do.

 

[REZARF]

Looking REALLY good! Nothing like a trip to motivate you! I am spending 3 days on the white rim in moab this october which really lit a fire under me to finish up!

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Been playing with some aluminum the past few nights.

Got the "clip-on" sink mount wrapped up. This will clip on to the rear of the trailer immediately below the faucet. The faucet will be contained within the kitchen box but will have it's own door out the rear of the trailer. This will allow quick access to water without having to hassle with anything inside the kitchen box.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Also been working on the fridge slide. It's almost done, but not quite. This will all get recessed in the cabinet next to the kitchen. I got the structure in place over the weekend for the slides to attach to. Then I set about building the base and sides for the "tray"

Hopefully I can wrap up the fridge slide tomorrow as it is driving the completion of the water tank mounts(there may or may not be an interference issue that will need to be addressed).

After that it's on to plumbing/wiring. T-minus 2 weeks, hopefully I get everything finished

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Got the tent mounted last night. Decided to set it up to open forward so that the floor of the trailer would be like a porch.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Fridge is all but done. Just need to finalize a few welds, but it was close enough for a demonstration video

‪Fridge demonstration‬‏ - YouTube

 

[Dcon]

Just found your trailer build! Nice work! How is it working out ? Really interested in your independent suspension setup. I did one a couple years ago and have neg. camber issues when the trailer is loaded. was going to go back to leaf springs, but now there is hope. You have some great ideas!

 

[93yotasr5]

damn thats looking bad ass!!! cant wait to see more pics and progress!!!

 

[spressomon]

Finally read, after following your thread start and then I forgot about it, the "rest of the story". Look'n good Arya! Good design stuff going on!

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

I didn't realize I never updated this after our trip to CO.

I only have one picture on this computer, but I'll update more soon.