New Off-Road Trailer w/Pictures

I thought I'd make a couple of updates on the trailer.

Maintenance:
I recently checked the bearings and found that one needed to be replaced. The other was fine so I just repacked it with fresh grease. I also loosened the suspension a bit and greased a couple of leaf springs' fittings as the trailer has developed some squeaks. I also ground off some of the bed liner spray on a fitting thinking it may be contributing to the squeaking? Well it's quieter but the trailer still squeaks.

Tongue Weight:
Since I added the XO Jockey wheel to the tongue, the tongue weight increased from I believe the previous 95 pounds to 125 pounds. That's now at about 12% (10 to 15% being optimal I've read). I think that I notice that added weight on the rear of the Jeep, so I may play around with moving some heavier items inside the trailer to the back and see if that does anything? But the trailer still tows great and certainly feels safe. Late last night I was returning from a camping trip to the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky and cruising up and down hills at 70 mph with no problem! (However the mpg was a solid 11. :rofl

Also, the XO Jockey wheel is awesome! Wow... I can actually push the trailer around. :thumbsup:

Water:
No matter where I seem to go, I don't seem to have enough water. I think if I was going to build another trailer I'd work in a tank under the trailer. In regards to water, I keep debating to actually remove my real plates and utensils from the trailer as they just use too much water having to wash them after each meal (or I could let the dogs lick them clean). Paper plates and plastic forks are just easy. I see some of those fancy expedition trailers with slide out kitchens, etc., which are nice, but really, when my wife and I go camping, we like to keep things simple. After a day on the road, we often just want to open up the tent and chairs, get out some bread, cheese, and a bottle of ice cold white wine (or some craft beers) and relax vs. having to cook a big meal.

I did find this cool collapsible and heavy duty plastic wash tub which is pretty cool to use as a sink. I like it.



More Gear:
Today I did some cleaning and repacking. I took a shop vac to the inside of the Tepui for one, and found a huge insect under the pad. The midwest certainly has its bugs (sigh). The trip down to Kentucky was a test run of sorts for as I mentioned my next trip out west this coming August.

First, the gel top pad that I had put in over the Tepui's pad was just too heavy and took up too much room inside the trailer to store it. So I bought a couple of Exped Syncellmat 5 pads, which have individual air cells so that the pad doesn't have any flat spots from weight as I'm familiar with having with similar, thin backpacking style pads like these. I'm very pleased with this new pad and I slept like a baby! They also come with an air bag to inflate, which is an awesome design and is very quick to do, and they deflate just as fast.



I also replaced my Coleman Fold No Go stove for JetBoil's new Base Camp. JetBoil took the Coleman design which I really liked and improved everything about it. The packaging is smaller, contains a pot and a ceramic coated frying pan (which I love and want more of). The Coleman's biggest problem was that it only had two settings. HOT and OFF. The Base Camp actually has adjustable heat that works so that I can actually simmer food. The Base Camp not inexpensive, but totally worth the money.









Back to Kentucky:
Along with the bugs here in the midwest, I have to say that I dislike the humidity here vs. the dry climate out west. Each morning the trailer and Tepui was coated in moisture like it had rained. But still, we had an awesome spot on a lake this week. Of course most all camping out here is campground camping with RVs and travel trailers. My setup sticks out like sore thumb and few people know what a roof top tent is so I get a lot of questions, including that my trailer has big tires! When I was checking in, the ranger asked me, "What exactly do you call your setup?"

A few days ago I returned from a 3,500 camping trip with the trailer to South Dakota, Wyoming and ending in northern Colorado. As I've said before, it tows great and I about still can't believe how well it does with a lifted, short-wheel based Jeep?!

I have thought more about further refinement of gear and the trailer itself. I have had a few wear issues with the roof top tent (but I still love it… best nights sleep ever while camping), and I had an issue with very fine Black Hills dust entering the trailer.

Yesterday and today I'm working on cleaning up the trailer as I am attending the Overland Expo East with it this coming October. I'll writeup more soon, but I thought I'd share this picture, as why yes that is a buffalo in the background!



Also, while camped here, a really nice guy showed up pulling this trailer below with a JK. We immediately did the Jeep wave and he asked if he could park next to me. I really liked his setup as it was home built and well thought out for a family of four. I'll share some of my observations between our two trailers, which I've already somewhat shared in earlier comments, and as well on even owning and dragging such a trailer as these around with a Jeep. Stay tuned…

grogie said:

A few days ago I returned from a 3,500 camping trip with the trailer to South Dakota, Wyoming and ending in northern Colorado. As I've said before, it tows great and I about still can't believe how well it does with a lifted, short-wheel based Jeep?!

I have thought more about further refinement of gear and the trailer itself. I have had a few wear issues with the roof top tent (but I still love it… best nights sleep ever while camping), and I had an issue with very fine Black Hills dust entering the trailer.

Yesterday and today I'm working on cleaning up the trailer as I am attending the Overland Expo East with it this coming October. I'll writeup more soon, but I thought I'd share this picture, as why yes that is a buffalo in the background!

Also, while camped here, a really nice guy showed up pulling this trailer below with a JK. We immediately did the Jeep wave and he asked if he could park next to me. I really liked his setup as it was home built and well thought out for a family of four. I'll share some of my observations between our two trailers, which I've already somewhat shared in earlier comments, and as well on even owning and dragging such a trailer as these around with a Jeep. Stay tuned…

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Man that spot in the badlands sure looks familiar...



And there was a guy and his wife with a jeep and trailer just like yours there, haha...

It was good meeting you and I hope your trip was as awesome as ours turned out being.

GFA said:

Man that spot in the badlands sure looks familiar...

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Ha! GFA, it was nice to meet you along my trip and I'm glad you found this thread on JF! Our trip was awesome but it went too fast, as I'm sure that yours did as well...

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So while in the Black Hills I had my first experience of having to unhook the trailer on a trail to manually turn it around.

I was heading down a rocky hill to a canyon that I had on my route for the day (S&G Canyon). I had read that the trail was open May through December, which we came to an open gate at the bottom which even said so! But there had also been another sign added on top that said, "No motorized vehicles." Yeah!

As the trail continued on it went into woods and was tight, and not wanting to break the law, I "sorta" backed the trailer off to one side which was a low, kind of a ditch with tall grass, and there was an embankment on the other side of the trail, so even with a short trailer and a short Jeep, I couldn't fully turn around. So I unhooked the trailer and had my wife turn the Jeep around and put it in four-low. That new XO jockey wheel really helped as I was able to push the trailer's tongue around, and then raised up the tongue higher then usual as it as sitting at an angle so that I could get the ball under it. It took some manhandling of the trailer to position it correctly, and was I glad that the trailer wasn't heavier then it was! I then got the ball within an inch of the tongue and dropped the tongue down on the ball.

First of all I should have walked down the hill, but as said the gate was open and I had not read anything about it being closed to motorized vehicles. Of course coming back home and doing another google search I found one link saying that the trail had been recently closed due to abuse. Sad, as it had allowed dispersed camping through it, which I wanted to checkout for future trips! Still, we had a good laugh and it was a good experience. One thing is, I was glad that the trailer wasn't heavier as good grief dealing with an 1100#s was enough. Again I give props to the XO jockey wheel, as if I had had to, I could have winched the trailer to my Jeep if needed!

A few more pictures from the trip…

I suspect that the pickup in this picture gets about the same or better mpg as my Jeep did! (My average was 11.8 for the trip.)



The dirt roads around the Black Hills are like driving on powdered sugar. And my trailer's lid is not 100% dust proof.



It was super fun exploring through the Black Hills. The sign on the gate said to just keep the gate closed when passing through. There are a ton of trails wondering around which I will return to.



A little mud… and it got worse. When I went through the next town for gas, I also found a self-serve car wash. Kind of smelled like manure due to the "locals" that I kept running into.







I had the best sleep in years in the Tepui along this trip. It's so comfortable.



This was an isolated stretch through central Wyoming and we saw few signs of life. We also were stopped by an old guy in a very cool old Toyota FJ (who looked like a mountain man), who was heading back to the nearest town to get gas for an old Jeep "flattie" that was down the road. We eventually passed the Jeep which was driving, as it looked like he had gotten some gas from a log truck that was ahead. Which it was interesting evening seeing a log truck out here...





At our last stop at Steamboat Lake, which was the first campsite we stayed at that had real showers.



Other then that, while cleaning up the trailer for the upcoming Overland Expo East in a few weeks, I also popped open the dust caps on the hubs. I had repacked the bearing last spring, so I just pumped in some fresh grease.

I couple of observations is that as I've said my trailer is about 1100#s, and with cargo and a passenger, that's maybe another 300-400 pounds, so lets say that the total weight is 1500#s. I can't imagine towing/hauling too much more weight then this with a the 4.0 I6. The tear drop trailer the GFA has is super cool and well thought out for a family of four, but that's a bit too much weight for a TJ/LJ, especially out west. With towing my trailer off-road, I find that it's just easier to leave my Jeep in four-low more often just to have that extra grunt when needed unless it's just a flat open area.

2016 Overland Expo East

So I returned from the Overland Expo East Monday evening, which we took the trailer to. I would have preferred to take backroads to and from the Expo as the area we drove through is beautiful, but I had to take the interstate the entire way to make it a one day drive as I had a lot going on with work around the expo and I could only carve out four days (Friday to Monday).

As I've said over and over, my Jeep drives great and tows the trailer no problem at 70+ mph, but dang, it's heavy on the gas the entire way in order to keep from getting run over as the traffic was mostly heavy. Just west of Asheville, the interstate is very twisty through about a 30 mile canyon, and my wife was driving at that point and she was cruising in the left lane around semi-trucks that were a foot or two away! Goes to show the importance of a trailer that the vehicle can safely tow so that you can get to your destination alive...

It was a fun experience, and the expo was held on the Biltmore estate. My wife and I took two hours to walk around the Biltmore, however we didn't have time to do an inside tour so we'll have to do that later. We also were able to each drive Land Rovers on a trail, as they have a Land Rover driving school on the grounds.


Back to the Expo, the classes and courses that we signed up for where awesome! They specifically had classes for women only that were very informative for my wife. One lady specifically worked with my wife on four-wheel drive and trail spotting (they took our Jeep for a ride for about an hour). The experience the instructors had with repairs, equipment, and "overland" travel was very informative and gave us a lot to think about. Me and another guy learned to put a tire back on a wheel with hand tools, and used a compressor to reseat the beed. Cool!

In another discussion, we heard from a US couple that bought a used Land Cruiser in Australia, had it customized with a popup tent and slide out kitchen, and then flew in and spent a month driving 600 miles through the bush. The Cruiser is currently stored there and they plan to go back for more trips, including Africa, and then to import the vehicle into the US when it reaches 25 years old in a few years.

Most attendees left on Sunday afternoon, but the Expo provided a meal Sunday night, which the people that remained were the organizers and those that travel full-time around the US and/or the world. That was a great time for one on one conversations as we got a lot of insight and advice. I also talked with the guy that builds the XP Camper, who use to be a restaurant owner and went out on his own to build what he wanted for travel. Another couple six years ago sold everything and have since traveled by sport bike to 49 countries.

As far as trailers, wow there were a lot of trailer builders there! Some were small, some were large, and all very well thought out. About the large trailers, they're truly an off-road basecamp, and even one version included room on the back for possibly an ATV the size of a Polaris Ranger to fit on, and it still had a lot of storage, slide out kitchen, and a large RTT on top. I also saw some very cool off-road designed teardrop trailers.

I also saw a lot of cool ideas about storage. One guy is designing basically aluminum framed boxes for the back of Jeeps with slides. I've got to get a slide out for my cooler that I keep in the back of my Jeep. Also, we had an opportunity to look at different freezer/fridges. May have to consider one!

As far as the weather, fortunately Asheville is on the western tip of North Carolina so we only had some light rain on Friday, and wind otherwise from Matthew.

A few pictures:

































This JK had a popup tent on the roof, bat wing awning, and the really cool slides/boxes that I liked. Wow... it was an awesome setup.



This was Sunday evening after most everyone had left. The two nights before, everyone was packed in side by side in this large field. It was tight, but okay for a few nights as we weren't there to hang out at our trailers/ tents. So Sunday night was great as I had the Camp Fire in a Can going and enjoyed a peaceful night sleeping on the Biltmore estate.





You can read more about the Expos here: www.overlandexpo.com

I have to say long term, I really like the truck campers, such as the four wheel camper brand. I think eventually I may end up with one. At that point, I'd remove the RTT from my trailer and mount bike racks on top of it, and either tow the trailer as a camping supply box, or tow my Jeep. I actually did talk to three different guys that have that setup... a pickup, four wheel camper and then tow their Jeep. They all love the setup... :drool:

As for today, I need to finish cleaning the trailer up as tomorrow it's going back into storage for the winter.

Just read the majority of your thread, great post and pictures. The wife and I both have wranglers. I've got an 03 that I'm completely redoing(I'll see if I can find a link to it here on JF) and the wife is in a '12 JKUR. We recently picked up a Free Spirit Recreation Off-Road trailer and have a trip to Moab and Ouray, CO coming up in June. If you're in Indy, were not too far from you(about 35 mins south of Chicago). This will be our first trip of this kind. We're really looking forward to taking our 5yr old camping. Just hope a 13 day trip isn't too much for him.

jeep'd said:

Just read the majority of your thread, great post and pictures. The wife and I both have wranglers. I've got an 03 that I'm completely redoing(I'll see if I can find a link to it here on JF) and the wife is in a '12 JKUR. We recently picked up a Free Spirit Recreation Off-Road trailer and have a trip to Moab and Ouray, CO coming up in June. If you're in Indy, were not too far from you(about 35 mins south of Chicago). This will be our first trip of this kind. We're really looking forward to taking our 5yr old camping. Just hope a 13 day trip isn't too much for him.

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Wow! The Rubi and trailer look great! :thumbsup:

You'll have a great time as one can't go wrong with Ouray and Moab. (A couple of campgrounds I've been at around Ouray are Ridgway State Park and Amphitheatre, of course, you can find dispersed camping as well easy enough.) I do also want to get back to Utah eventually, especially to explore more through Capital Reef NP and the Grand Staircase.

The added space a trailer adds to trips makes it worth the towing. As you probably read from my ranting, it may take some time to get your trailer's cargo/setup just right. I had to come to terms to leave stuff at home that I was carrying just because I now had this added room over previously just carrying what I really needed and fit in the back of my Jeep. Currently, I'm working on installing a slide in the back of my Jeep, for eventually putting in a fridge/freezer (no more cooler), so I'm probably going to move the extra battery currently in my trailer to the Jeep to power the fridge when I'm not driving.

As far as your five-year-old, as a kid, my dad took a month off each summer and we went camping all over the west. My brother and I would get so dirty that they'd just hose us off at night. So your kid will have a great time just getting dirty.

As far as this summer, the wife and I are flying to the Seattle and will rent a Jeep, but I am going to as well try and make it back up to the U.P. again with my trailer. I'm also planning the next two-week Jeep trip for 2018 to the New England states as that will be fun to camp through.

Anyway, enjoy your trip!

-OIIIIIIIO-01 said:

Great trailer build, love all the pics and your camping adventures.

Since you seem to frequent MI for some of your trips, check out the Jeep Creep in Gladwin MI. It is a 3 day event, and lots of fun. (Oct 27-30)

https://us.eventbu.com/gladwin/jeep-creep-2017-6th-annual/2784084

Maybe I'll see you there. :cheers2:

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Thanks for the comments and the Jeep Creep link! :thumbsup:

Since I'm here, the only thing that I've done to the trailer this year is to remove the Bluetop battery, which I put the battery in my Jeep to power a Snomaster fridge/freezer with a National Luna split charger. I'm okay with removing that weight from the trailer and giving it a little more space inside. Honestly, I rarely used the battery and I was mostly just hauling it around because I thought it would be nice. Frankly, electronics are charged in my TJ and we never use any lighting at night, and having a fridge in the Jeep is an awesome improvement for camping and travel. I would not put a fridge in a trailer because the trailer is not always with me.

Pictures from my Jeep build thread...

Well, I'm still towing the trailer around! It has not been as much as I'd like, as work and other commitments seem to get in the way of a good Jeep trip. For 2018, I did more trips that were either by plane, with a new 4Runner, or I just didn't camp out to where I needed the trailer with my Jeep. However, the trailer did make it up to lower Michigan again, being closer to home.

I also towed the trailer in early November 2018 to Overland Expo East, where the fields turned to mud, mud, and more mud, thanks to it raining most of the opening day, followed by freezing cold weather. Fortunately I had my Campfire in a Can and an extra propane tank. Interesting enough, even though temperatures hit a low of 23 degrees, the temperature inside the Tepui roof top tent remained above freezing. I had one of the best camping spots next to a creek thanks to being a short Jeep and a short trailer.



Before Expo East, I did get the trailer back to Sun Fire Off-road (who built it) for bearing service, and it's in good shape. I also replaced the Tepui cover, as they've released a black version that just looks better.

I'm currently getting ready for a 4,000 mile trip to Arizona and then into southern Utah. I'm first going to be touring the back trails of Arizona with a group, followed by attending Expo West. So I've been busy repacking the trailer. I've been told before the Expo that I need carry extra fuel (as the Jeep is not light on it), so the trailer is going to be carrying an extra nine gallons.

I have also upgraded the XO jack to a new black version. I'll admit that it was purely for cosmetics, however I was pleasantly surprised to see that the spring that kept the wheel in place (when the jack is in the up position) had been redesigned to just a simple "nipple". With my previous XO jack, I immediately ruined the spring, and no replacement parts from Australia were available. (sigh)

The black version looks great on my black trailer. I forgot how heavy this jack is... I could say it's overkill being that my trailer is only around 1100#s loaded, however, it's also perfect for it! I have actually dragged the trailer around in the dirt and it makes it easy to do so, and I have no worries about it breaking like the very basic one that I first had on the trailer. This level of a jack can take abuse!



I set it up just like the previous one. It just barely fits on my trailer's small tongue.



So this shows the new "nipple" design. This is a huge improvement as this solution actually works perfect. The wheel can be put in multiple positions (I have it straight up). Nice improvement Ark!



So the trailer is ready to go to Arizona, and still has some mud on the tires from the previous (mud, mud, and more mud) Expo East.

As I mentioned, I will be carrying extra fuel for this upcoming trip. I have three, three-gallon Rotopax. I went ahead and drilled an attachment to the front left side of the trailer to carry one Rotopax on the outside. The other two will ride in the trailer. My plan will be to fill them up at the last gas station before hitting the dirt, and then start drumping them into my Jeep as the Jeep sucks gas.



Or, I also have their black storage box that I'll otherwise keep on the outside. Which it is an odd size box with the hole in the center, and frankly I'm not sure what to put in it? Gloves? Granola bars?!



Some humor here... how many keys does your Jeep and trailer have? How about 10?!

Nothing new here as far as the build, but I recently returned from the latest trip that was just over 4,000 miles. It started out that I was invited as a reader for FourWheeler magazine's first Overland Adventure through Arizona, along with attending Expo West with other readers, their staff, and sponsors. I have a trip review here with photos, but I thought I'd add a few to this thread as well.

My Jeep is well set up for long travel, but I think what also got me invited for this trip was the trailer. There were other trailers apart of the group that whereas unique and well thought out. With mine, as I've stated before, it was built in mind for what a lifted Jeep TJ could tow, and tow well. Whether it's on the highway at 70 mph, or gravel, dirt trails, or slick rock, the trailer followed along for more comfortable camping.







Camping at Alstrom Point, Utah (above Lake Powell).







I had to get this picture in Durango, CO.