Wrangler trailer tub build

[sammi_davis]

Wait..... Are you G Beasley on JF? Lol, I had no idea. Trailer is looking amazing, I dreamt forever about building one of these, but gave up on it. Can't wait to see this thing out on the trail ;-).

Yep thats me I was on JF years ago , and then I did a 4 year run with samurais so the sammi davis thing came about . More pics from Hendrix , just waiting on them to download .

 

[sammi_davis]

Hendrix wasnt happy with the instagramish feel of the last pics so he sent these .

 

[sammi_davis]

Its in the garage , but will live on the table saw until I can repaint the frame . Also need to spring over the axle and throw some 35s under it .

 

[sammi_davis]

Spring under with one 35 and one 235/75

Spring under with both 35s installed . At this point I was 3" low from sitting even with the LJ .

Torn down and ready for the axle flip . I had the axle built with no crown for this very reason .

Spring over with the 35s left me a 1/2 " to high with the shackles in the shortest position .

The plan is to make new shackle mounts and weld them to the top of the frame . This will allow for longer shackles and a better angle . The other bonus is that it will allow for more height adjustment and this will allow the trailer to be dead level with the LJ .

 

[Chris_Keziah]

I think I'd leave it a 1/2" high springs will settle and sag over time and with weight in it the trailer should ride level with the lj.

 

[sammi_davis]

I think I'd leave it a 1/2" high springs will settle and sag over time and with weight in it the trailer should ride level with the lj.

I am going to set the trailer up 1/2" higher than the Jeep . I really hadnt put much thought into weight and springs settling ... thanks .


I ended up moving the shackle mount to the top of the frame . It went from having 3/4" of clearance between the spring eye and the shackle mount to over 2" . This will allow for final tuning depending on weight by just adding or subtracting some length from the shackles .

New shackle mount material .

Cut to length and cleaned up .

Squared up and tacked in place .

Welded up and ready for the bushings to go in once it cools down . Tomorrow morning I am off to get shackle material and then the tub will get mounted for hopefully the last time .

 

[jovibuilt]

Looks good Greg

 

[sammi_davis]

Looks good Greg

Thank you sir ... how far along are you on the beds ?

New shackles painted and installed . I now have plenty of travel and adjustability if needed .

Everything is lined up and ready to go .

Ranger center caps with a custom steel insert .

The tub is mounted and complete except for the tail lights which will get plugged in tomorrow morning . With a little luck I can make it over to DMV and get inspected tomorrow morning .

 

[sammi_davis]

So after a bit of worrying about the inspection process the angry trailer passed with nary a problem. The State Highway Patrolman gave it a once over , checked to see that the vin was stamped in the proper place and then asked me "did you really build this"? That was nice to hear , and I told him yes except for the fact that I brought in a ringer for the paint and body work . I have had people all day long waving and pointing , its a little surreal .

It tows good , but wags a little at speed due to the fact that I have too much play in the multi axis hitch . I am going to re build it on the mill and get tighter tolerances over the winter . Until then I am going to run a bolt on traditional coupler .

The trailer sits just a little higher than the LJ which means it should be near dead level once its loaded .

I towed it about 40 miles on road and mile or so off road and it does fine other than a little wagging like I mentioned above . I am off to fix that after trick or treating tonight .

 

[criket]

Looks awesome man. Wish I had one. Very nice job. Question - What about rock chips on the front of the trailer? That's some nice paint and I hope that rock chips from the tires on the jeep don't ruin the front of it.

 

[sammi_davis]

Looks awesome man. Wish I had one. Very nice job. Question - What about rock chips on the front of the trailer? That's some nice paint and I hope that rock chips from the tires on the jeep don't ruin the front of it.

I am considering putting a 16" strip of 3M's clear auto armor across the front for that very reason . Theres also going to be a tongue box that will cover / protect most of the middle .

 

[sammi_davis]

Today I made a different tongue attachment and I installed the tailgate cables .

The multi axis coupler is attached to the tongue with a 5/8" shank grade 8 stud . This made it pretty easy to fabricate a traditional hitch to bolt to the tongue .

I cut a piece of 2"x2" box tube diagonally and welded an end it . Then I centered it up and drilled a hole so that it could be attached to the tongue . I welded what you see here and then all six of the plug welds on the top and sides .

All welded up and painted .

Installed and ready for a test tow . I think its going to make a huge difference as there is no play in the tongue now .

Next up was to get the tailgate cables installed before I screwed up and dropped the gate on the bumper ! After some rough measuring it seemed like the cables and hardware from an 04 explorer sport trac would work out just about perfect .

The Ford factory torx bolts thread right into the CJ tailgate , but they need to be trimmed down so that they clear the when opening and closing.

I had hoped to attach directly to the old inner fender but the tub flange pushed the cables out of alignment. Two pieces of 1.75 tubing and some slightly modified factory pivots allowed better alignment of the cables .

The explorer sport trac cables and hardware worked out nicely . I did make the spacers cam centric so that I could turn them to adjust the slack of the cable . Sounds silly ,but it made for easy adjustment .

Last but not least , no Monkeys were harmed in the fabrication of this trailer .

 

[Chris_Keziah]

Turned out very nice. I like the added length to the main beam. You could prob add a rack in front to carry jerry cans and other things.

 

[REDLYNER]

Love it! Nice work.

 

[sammi_davis]

Turned out very nice. I like the added length to the main beam. You could prob add a rack in front to carry jerry cans and other things.

Thanks . I think I am going to add a triangular tongue box to the front with jerry cans mounted to the sides of it .

Love it! Nice work.

Thank you . When are you building a white version of it


Today we took the trailer all over the county , even on the interstate so that I could get up to higher speeds . I am relieved to say that the trailer has no quirks at any speed now ! Heres some pics from the day .

It was a great day of towing around and running errands with nary a wiggle from the trailer .

When I get back from Minnesota the aluminum for the tonneau should be here and I still need to cut the tongue jack so that I can add some length .

 

[jeepyj1129]

Man looks really good glad to see my old tires and wheels go to good use

 

[sammi_davis]

Man looks really good glad to see my old tires and wheels go to good use

Thanks , sorry I didnt pm you a link to the thread . Thanks again for the deal , the tires and wheels have been great on the LJ and now the trailer .

 

[REDLYNER]

Thank you . When are you building a white version of it

Lol... not on my current mod list, I don't think it would be safe going 80mph at KOH . My plan would be to make sure you are on my wheeling trip so I can toss all of my gear in your trailer .

 

[sammi_davis]

Lol... not on my current mod list, I don't think it would be safe going 80mph at KOH . My plan would be to make sure you are on my wheeling trip so I can toss all of my gear in your trailer .

We are heading West again this summer , but I dont forsee us hitting 80 mph even on the interstate ...

 

[sammi_davis]

The proposed radius for the tonneau corner .

The tonneau looks a little funny all squared up . Once the train table is nailed and glued up I will try to get some work done on the tonneau and the LJ .

 

[HAPPY]

Very nice!

 

[sammi_davis]

Very nice!

Thanks , I cant wait to hook up to it and head West .
Made a little more progress today .

Got my matching rims in and mounted today .

The rims are the same model and manufacturer as what I have on the LJ . But after installing them the size of the holes are slightly different . I can live with it as the difference is very minor and they are shiny

 

[RustyAutoholicGuy]

Dude that thing looks awesome, I would love to build something like that for my 75 CJ5!

 

[sammi_davis]

Dude that thing looks awesome, I would love to build something like that for my 75 CJ5!

Thanks , it makes it easy to go camping now .

Today I made it over to Mark at Metalmorphosis and he tigged up the corners on the tonneau for me . This is him at work on low and high as he starts and finishes the welds .

I didnt get many pictures today as we were pretty busy but I did get a few after I got back home tonight .

Super custom White Oak prop stick .

I will get some better pictures tomorrow as I work on the struts and the bracing.

 

[catfishblues]

Yeah. It looks much better after we tidied up the corners. I'm curious to see how that piano hinge holds up! For a last-minute design idea/happy accident, I think it's working out well so far. It was fun getting you up to the shop to do some work today.