My overland camper trailer

[Shayne]

Sod it my truck is 6 inches wider than the rapier at its widest point so no doubt i can match up the track with spacers made to order . I'm gonna start looking for someone to make me an aluminuum tub no point in throwing notes at something that will never be what i want .

 

[stumog]

No just trying to work out in my mind what to go and measure for you. I run 8.25 wide tyres on tge landy so will give you a idea. Give me a bit.

 

[Shayne]

Don't worry about it Stu it wasn't the lack of a reply that did it for me , i'm not quite that impatient lol , I just simply made a decision which is to do it right full stop . I accepted i have two choices which are A spend a small fortune trying to adapt the trailer into something it was never meant to be , or B ditch the tub and get a purpose built one . Option A will definitely end up weighing more than option B and might actually ending costing more for less .

 

[stumog]

Have you got a idea of what you want? I used to build aluminium bus bodies. Are you looking for a full custom trailer tent or making a body to fit what you aready have together?

 

[Shayne]

Whole lot from scratch to be bolted on the rapier chassis is the plan

 

[Rich Sims]

Just stripped my rapier down and put the box in the garage to start work

 

[Shayne]

Visited my local friendly fabricators today .... and they don't play with aluminium

 

[Shayne]

Is this how it sits with the suspension pin out and 33 inch tyres Rich ?

 

[Rich Sims]

Yes, i have welded small 1" blocks onto the original stops to stop the tyres hitting the mud guards so a can still move it around.

 

[Shayne]

Thanks Rich I guess that's another tick in the replace tub column , not so much because of how it sits but because I want a wider track so mudguards which are huge anyway would need to be wider again and making the exterior bulk bigger with no interior space benefit doesn't make sense .

 

[Rich Sims]

here are the 1" blocks welded on


Here are the link arms that i shortened on the trailer compared to the original

 

[Shayne]

To be honest I'm not sure what I'm looking at there and its too dark and I'm too stuffed with spaghetti bolognaise to go outside and see . I assume you shortened the link arm to reduce travel and it doesn't effect height ?

 

[Rich Sims]

you shorten or lenthern the link arms to adjust the height. I've shortened mine to lower the trailer as original are designed for the trailer to be towed behind a bedford MK.


the little rusty bits of box in the first picture and the axle stops when the height pins are pulled out to lower it right down.

 

[Shayne]

Ah right , I ended up on a bit of a pub crawl today so didn't even get to take a look . So without shortening the arms I imagine there would be about another 3 inches between the tyre and the mudguard in the pic above I assume .

 

[Shayne]

Got a better look at things today between granddad and taxi duties , I can see what you've done about height now Rich and I may follow suit so thanks for that

From my own investigation the link arm offers just 2 settings dictated by whether the arm is pinned in a vertical position to give you low or horizontal to give you high - but I'm sure I'm missing something very important ?

Why would they even bother with the low setting when it's less than an inch above the bumpstop , especially when its still rolling when sat on the stops as shown below ?

I'm convinced something other than the link arm is adjustable and there should be 3 settings Bedford , Defender and Storage , might have to pull the whole thing apart in the hope I stumble upon the answer .

 

[Shayne]

Just found this and it looks to me like the arm to which the suspension rubber is attached should drop when the tubs lifted and the pins removed , I tried moving that and its seized solid so if I can free that up maybe I have found the middle setting .

 

[Rich Sims]

Extended my trailer this week to take my box.

And made me arches wider


Just need to take the old rear frame off with the lights on and paint it this week.

 

[Shayne]

Not progress exactly but its a start at least , i'm dreading pulling the brakes apart and ending up on a wild goose chase for obsolete parts

 

[Shayne]

Now have to decide if can salvage this any cheaper than i can build a copy

 

[Rich Sims]

Got mine back on the trailer yesturday and mudgurds back on