Trail Toys - Redneck Hauler Build

SMKYTXN

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I've had my 26' lowboy gooseneck for a little while now, and have finally found a suitable camper to put on it. In hindsight I should have bought a longer trailer as the length of the taco has kept me from picking up several nice used campers. The taco is 18' tip to tail currently.

So this is what I finally found. This is a 2015 Capri Retreat shortbed camper. The target audience for these campers are the cowboys on the rodeo circuit. Maybe that's why no one has complained about the shitty wiring in them. More on that later.

I drove Bandit to Bastrop to pickup the camper from a Dodge dealer. The lady who traded this in was robbed blind.

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The goal of course was to get the camper onto the trailer.

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In order for the overhang of the camper to clear the neck of the trailer I had to build a platform for the trailer to fit on. I used pressure treated 4x4's to build the frame. The longitudinal stringers are through bolted to the steel channels that run across the trailer under the wood deck.

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We successfully loaded the camper onto the trailer with an ancient Hyster forklift. My buddy who owns the forklift failed to mention that it didn't have any brakes when he offered to help. That left me tossing a 4x4 under the tires when I wanted him to stop. Yes, we did make contact with the trailer once with the camper on the forks. That wasn't scary at all!

Needless to say there aren't any pictures of the camper on the lift as I was too damn scared of dropping the thing.

Finally in it's new home!

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SMKYTXN

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The camper is designed to be through bolted from the inside through the bed of the truck. I did that, but added these side plates as well. My thought is that these will keep the camper from possibly shifting side to side. The bolts go into the 4x4 frame and into the lower frame of the camper itself.

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So the camper is pretty tiny actually. That lead me to investigate more storage options. I need to carry the following:

Battery compartment
Spare parts
Camping essentials (chairs, generator, stove, propane, etc.)
Inventory for events

So I picked up a set of belly boxes from Northern Tool. Since these are belly boxes I had to space them up in order for the doors to fully open. I have a 36" and 48" which fit perfectly beside the 7' long camper.

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I'm going to see how these work for me before deciding on the boxes for the other side. That spare axle is going to be fun carrying around if I've used up all of my open deck space. I think it might be time to take the one good shaft and third out of it then ditch the housing.




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SMKYTXN

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So I wanted to see what my tongue weight was going to be with the trailer up front so I ran a quick moment distribution to see where I stood.

Trailer - A distributed load that worked out to 11lbs/in
Camper - 1200lbs dry
Smokey - 6,000lbs (50/50 weight distribution more or less)

I laid out the loads in one of my beam analysis spreadsheets to see just how much weight I'd have on the axles and the neck.

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The first support point is the neck of the trailer and the two behind it are the axles.

The reactions are what I'm looking for. So I have 1800lbs on the neck and 5,000lbs on each axle if I put 3' between the camper and the truck. The tongue weight is a shade low, but will go up as I load the camper and keep adding stuff like the toolboxes. All in all I think it'll work just fine.
 
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tx_shooter

You ever try to roughie a bear?
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Any plans to add a canopy on the side with the tool boxes? It would be pretty sweet to be able to work in the shade when needed. The trailer looks real good. I am more than a little jealous.
 

Taco Loco

Tired and Lazy, married to ‘The Laundry Fairy’
Any plans to add a canopy on the side with the tool boxes? It would be pretty sweet to be able to work in the shade when needed. The trailer looks real good. I am more than a little jealous.


And a stripper pole to the center of the trailer after the truck is unloaded??
 

SMKYTXN

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Any plans to add a canopy on the side with the tool boxes? It would be pretty sweet to be able to work in the shade when needed. The trailer looks real good. I am more than a little jealous.

I need to add a canopy of some sort somewhere. I have a nice ezup style canopy for the booth, but that won't be available if I'm setup at an event. I need another cheap popup that can be moved to where it's needed.

And a stripper pole to the center of the trailer after the truck is unloaded??

I do have a 19' front porch when the truck is unloaded, so I'll need something up there to pass the time. lol
 

the_white_shadow

Well-Known Member
So much want.
 

SMKYTXN

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I tackled the 12V wiring today. I installed a 100W solar panel that charges two 235ah 6V batteries. The batteries are connected in series to give me 12V and 235ah of run time. These batteries are good for 9 hours at a 25amp pull.

If you've ever used rivnuts and installed them with the nut and bar method you know that it's a pain. I picked up a rivnut tool and I have to say this thing makes installing rivnuts a cake walk.

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It always pays to have a junk drawer of hardware from leftover projects. I found four nice d-rings laying around as well.

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All mounted up! They're not going anywhere.

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I didn't use the supplied wires from a compressor or a winch or something, so I had these premade cables laying around that worked out perfectly. I have opted to not run any heavy gauge wire into the camper, so the short length works.

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SMKYTXN

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I'm using a bluesea cable clam to route the wires into the toolbox. I'll go back tomorrow and add the weatherproof plug.

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Here's the setup for now, and yes, I have 12V inside the camper now!

The solar controller is in front and in the back is a blue sea distribution panel. If I get time I'll wire up the running lights on the camper to come on with the trailer lights. That's last on the list though.

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The panel may get shaded here from time to time, but this way allowed me to not have to punch holes in the roof of the camper.

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Boomtacoma01

Tommy want wingy..
Looks good!
 
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