holy... enough water cans
are you going to be washing your truck while offroad or what...

but seriously. nice build, wish i could get something like it for my kick to pull.

I just threw the water cans in for ideas.

Looks pretty stylish so far.  That is a lot of black. 

Are you going to add any U-Bolts or Tie Downs to the front end so you can strap all of your water bottles and gas cans in with a ratchet strap?

Yes sir, thats in the works.



Here are a few pics I took wheeling the trailer today.  I was happy to find that the trailer didn't hurt me going uphill in loose sand and dirt as badly as I thought it would.  Plus, I conducted this little test with my street tires.  Also, the hitch performed a lot better than I thought it would.











After wheeling, I was in love with my trailer again so I made the long trek to Fazzios (metal supply).
I bought:
Steel plate
Bar stock
1" box tubing
a pintle setup
some tiedowns
mud flap material
rubber stretch tiedowns
and some stuff to build a spare tire carrier for the jeep
I'm sure theres something else I am forgetting

I spent about 4 hours at the place because it is really a mad scientist's dream store.  They even have what they call the "army room" which is full of everything from treads for robots to parachute parts.  I found a cool bering in there that I am going to use for the swing arm on the spare tire carrier.

I took the trailer down there to test gas milage and to haul supplies.  The spare was wobbling a lot on the highway so I stopped and took it down and threw it  in the bed for the rest of the trip.   Amazingly, my gas milage did not seem much worse with the trailer.  I am VERY happy with the trialer's ride and suspension.  I can barely feel that it is there.  I have to shorten my safety chains a little because they scrape too often.

Anyway...  I got a late start on the trailer construction because of the trip.

Here's what I got done today.


I used two triangular pieces of 1/8" steel to reinforce the sides of the spare tire carrier.  Then I used two pieces of 3/16 bar stock to finish off the front and back and box it all in.  I could fill my spare tire with concrete and this would not even flinch now. 






Then I reinforced the tongue.  I turned it into a composite tongue by adding two pieces of the 2x3 box tubing that I had originally used for the tongue.  I anchored them to my front tongue crossmember and to the sami's frame and reinforced that with 2x3x 3/16 angle stock.  I grinded and sanded everything down, prepped and painted, and I am ready for whatever I decide to do tomorrow.  I can pile 800-1000lb of cargo into the trailer now based on the tongue strength formula.




   Also, I am getting a couple of goodies in the mail around next tuesday.  A guy paid me to build him some rock-crawler style bumpers a few years ago when I had a race shop at my disposal.  They were on his fourwheeling rig until he rolled it recently.  I must have built the bumpers pretty sturdy (I think I used 2x5x1/4 rectangular tubing as a starting point if I remember correctly) because even though the truck was totaled in the rollover, the bumpers were undamaged.  I traded him something else he needed so I could get the bumpers back.  I am going to adapt them to my wrangler as soon as they get here.
   He said that the woman at UPS asked if he could package the bumpers in a wooden crate because she knew of a chrome bumper for a vintage car that was damaged during shipping once.  His reply was something like "Lady, your guys couldnt damage these bumpers if they tried."

OOh thats a nice trailer, you could make some money should decide to start production (without using sammy bodies of course ).

Too late to add  "DON"T BE CUTTING UP NICE SAMI'S"  as it has already been said. The bad thing is it was cut up just to be towed by a heep. I would have given you a tub and frame for your project in trade for the Sami you killed. And I would rest easy as a tree took a bite out of the front end so making a tralier out of the left overs would be cool as I thought of the same thing.

Man, I feel bad for cutting up the sami before I asked around for interest.  Sorry guys.


I got tied up with some stuff other than the trailer today so I didnt get a lot done.

I had to take the little monster (maybe not so little) to the vet for her yearly poke and prod.  She approves of the trailer.
She got 3 shots, gave blood for a test (without flinching) and she didnt even try to eat any of the other animals in the waiting room this time.




I spent a little time trying to get the dent out of the tailgate.  I am no bodyworking expert but i think it worked a little.




I installed my swing away tongue jack thing.  I think I may move it a little one way or the other.  Having this on the trailer makes me feel lazy but I know it will come in handy when it is loaded down.





I pulled out a bunch of the stuff that usually goes with me when I go wheeling and started thinking about what will be permanently assigned to the trailer.
This got me thinking about adding a lockable box to the trailer too.  I rounded up one that I had stored at a buddy's house, another one from my parents' place, and conned my dad out of a third one that he isnt using anymore.  I will take pics of the boxes tomorrow.  I am not sure wich one (or ones) I am going to use yet.






I did a little thinking about where I was going to mount some long handled tools.  The "Here I am, Shoot at me" Yellow shaft of the shovel was bugging me so I sprayed it desert tan.  Then I started thinking about a camo job for the trailer...  I convinced myself that flat black is easiest to touch up so no camo for now.






I am thinking about adding panels of either aluminum or steel to the trailer from the exhisting body in the rear up to the level of the top of the rack.  I would then add aanother rack on top of that and stick with my soft cover idea, OR use a piano hinged hard lid with a rack on top of that.  Still just in the idea phase though.  Here is what it could look like a couple different ways.
Soft or no cover



Hard Cover with basket



I am kinda liking the hard top...

And even though you did kill a nice Sami, it turned out ok. Kinda late now but seeing as you did cut up a sami just too make a trailer out of it. Why didn't you do more cutting? Hack the rear wheel wells down the center as well as the front wheel wells and mold them together? Then you coulda used the shortned front end as a storage area as it would have the hood covering the front storage area as well as having the rear area open.


WOW, I just had a thought. I'm going to do the same thing with a YJ to yank around with my Sami. Thanks for the updated idea, might be kinda funny looking but what the heck.lol

And even though you did kill a nice Sami, it turned out ok. Kinda late now but seeing as you did cut up a sami just too make a trailer out of it. Why didn't you do more cutting? Hack the rear wheel wells down the center as well as the front wheel wells and mold them together? Then you coulda used the shortned front end as a storage area as it would have the hood covering the front storage area as well as having the rear area open.


WOW, I just had a thought. I'm going to do the same thing with a YJ to yank around with my Sami. Thanks for the updated idea, might be kinda funny looking but what the heck.lol

I had looked into that but I wanted the rear more than the front and grafting the two toghether would have been more work than I wanted to do.

That would be a great picture.  Sami with a jeep trailer and jeep with a sami trailer.  I bet we could get a magazine article.

And then we could trade trailers.lol

I got a lot done today, but not all on the trailer.

I cleaned and reorganized the garage and picked up some more things I needed like welding wire, hardware, etc.

I bought another set of the ratchet straps I like, test fitted a 6x8 tarp on the trailer (a tad small when loaded with all the boxes and some other test bulk), and helped my buddy adapt a new head to his weed whacker.

Here is a pic of the tie-down D-rings I bought the other day.  I bought two 4-packs because I wasnt sure how they would work out...  they worked out great so naturally I need more and cant find them anywhere.





Here are the three boxes I mentioned yesterday.  The camo one came off an old Marine Corps welding trailer that we sent to dermo about 2 years back.  I miss free leftovers from the Corps.  The grey one is a crew box which actually folds flat but is still pretty sturdy when it is erected.  It is NOT weather tight though.  The black one is a Contico box I got from my pop.  It is pretty sturdy and seems weather tight.



Here is a pic of the smallest box (from the USMC trailer) in the front of my trailer.  It is pretty heavy steel and I would guess it weighs about 30lb.  It is pretty weather tight and lockable.  The only thing is that I lose a lot of space if I use it in the front here.  It does fit in the back with the crew box so If I put the black Contico box in the front I could transport all 3.



Crew box in the back.  I like this fit the best.



I had another Idea...
I am thinking that I will not permanently mount any of the boxes.  I will use them as needed based on the situation.  I will get a few of the waterproof/resistant duffel bags that walmart sells too.  This way I can just throw everything in the trailer and not need to worry about a covering.  I am going to see if I can get my hands on a section of cargo net that I could throw over the whole thing.  Then I really only need to tarp it for a real downpour.  What do you guys think?


Heres a pic of my buddy's dog.  Canines seem to approve of the trailer.



Heres another little piece of gear I am glad I have never needed.  When I build/adapt my bumpers and spare tire carrier/basket and finish the jeeps roof rack, I will decide if this is going to live in the jeep or the trailer.




I am pleased to say that I have decided on a small lift for the jeep and will be getting it in a week or two.  I will get some 32-11.50 / 15 Swampers  or some 33-10.50 / 15 BFG MT's for the truck and as soon as the bugs are all worked out (if any) locally, I am planning a cross country treck.  I want to visit a few Marine Corps buddies...  one is in Oklahoma, one in Alabama... and I am thinking about stopping off in Louisiana to meet my mothers dad (technically my grandfather) for the first time.  Thats a whole other long, crazy story. 

I will have to get some suggestions on where to stop off along the way and what rought to take.  A little Moab UT wheeling is a must.  I actually got the go-ahead on this from my fiance so I am not going to pass up the opportunity.  I figure that the trip will be a GREAT bug out test run especially since I will be going alone.  I am stoked to say the least.

The trailer rocks dude and the lift and tires for the Jeep will tie it all together! Nice work.

Yesterday did a lot of brainstorming and only a little actual work on the trailer.

Heres a pic of the trailer with all the boxes in it.  I just took the pic because they were all in there overnight and I thought it would be a good sizing reference.  I dont think any of them will live in the trailer.




My pop suggested that the trailer should have mud flaps for the street.  I decided that it was a good idea but I wanted to be able to remove them easily so this is what I came up with.
1" box tubing.



Cut to length, prepped, painted, and predrilled.



Cheapest mud flaps I could find.  The metal dealer I use had purchased a stack of them about 6' high.  I picked up 5 for under $20.  I have been to Texas and I did love it there, but I decided to go with the lower profile look so I painted the white parts black and mounted them backwards. 



Cut to size.



I decided to mount them inside the tube crossmember at the rear of the frame.




Heres how they mounted up



And the end product




The gas cans were vulnerable to rock strikes or other debris from under the trailer in the front and from within the wheelwells to the sides of their location.  I mounted one full mud flap in front of the "Gas can dispencer" and a piece on each side.  I don't remember who called it that but I loved it.





Here is a pic from the outside of the wheelwell




Today, I did absolutely nothing on the trailer.  My fiance and I decided to take advantage of the great weather and went for a paddle. 




I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE HORRIBLE CAMO JOB ON MY CANOE
I bought it for $150 and thats how it came.  I JBwelded the gash that the drunken moron previous owner managed to put in it and replaced a lot of rusted fasteners but I have not gotten to the cosmetic aspect of it yet.  Its on my list.

i thought camo paint was supposed to make things HARDER to see... lol