UKCRD

I'm about to try to turn this:



into a fully functional expedition trailer with a budget of $500.. including the purchase price of the trailer.

I'll update this thread as often as I have time for but I'm blogging everything each day here as usual. Let's see if it can be done. My wife is not convinced.

Saharaunlmtd

I'm very interested to see the outcome because of the price point. Good luck.

UKCRD

Well, I'm virtually done and we've just scraped inside the budget at a guesstimate. I'm going to start posting the updates and the costing over the next few days. Some will have varying definitions of what constitutes an "expedition trailer". For me, I need a trailer big enough inside to accommodate all the camping kit including a large Waeco CAB 40 fridge/freezer. It should have a roof rack on top capable of carrying the same kind of contents as inside and also one that is capable of supporting a tent. I'll not use mine with a roof-top tent as I have a large North Face base camp tent that we use for that, together with a good size awning which I made for the JK for $150 about a year back. It should also accommodate a good size jerry can for fuel. I'm currently searching for a used flat fresh water tank that I'll bracket under the trailer but that may take time to locate as there aren't many for sale locally. The hitch needs to be an upgraded one that will easily cope off-road. The wheels should be at least 10" with good 4 ply tyres. I don't need cupboards or shelves of sliding drawers as I already built that for the back of the JK here. There's a thread here on that latter build somewhere. The top needs to be lockable and so does the hitch preferably. I don't need a cooker in there as I use this tailgate table for cutting and cooking on. So there's the brief. Fairly simple but very functional.

UKCRD

OK, all done! Did I make it within budget? Just!

Full article and pics here.

UKCRD

Conclusion:

So did we stay within budget? Pretty much right to the last dollar but we just scraped it. Of course, a few of the parts I already had and other bits were recycled. Had I needed to buy these I’d have probably exceeded the budget by $100 or so. That said, parts and base trailers are much more expensive here than in, for instance, the States, so if you’re US based and trying this you shouldn’t have any problems doing this for under $500. But for me that’s by the by. I was handed $500 to spend and for that $500 I got exactly what I needed. Result!!

Cutman

Thats pretty badass. I'm gonna have to check out your blog. I have a 2 dr, a kid and a kayak. So we can't get very far in my Jeep or stay for too long. Nice work!

UKCRD

Cheers mate and sorry to everyone for not posting it all here but it's a long article and re-formatting it to work with BB code will just take forever.

I used to sea kayak when I lived on an island off the south west coast of Sweden. I could mount two sea kayaks on this trailer without any probs and have all the gear I could possibly want inside. I've just used it properly for the first time today. My 6 y/o son and I drove down to West Wittering on the south coast of England (UK) and it's been a joy to use. There'll be some guys on here who need bigger wheels and mounting a new axle and wheels would be very easy but in all honestly, how many here are taking their trailers down the Rubicon trail or swamping across Africa? I know a couple but for the most 10" wheels will do the job just fine.

I bought a couple of ex-RAF boxes for $50 and turned them into an expedition setup in the rear of my 2 door JK with the rear seat out. I made an expedition awning for a further $150. This trailer adds another $500 but I'm still at around $1000 for a fully kitted out vehicle which will deal with most trips or expeditions my life can currently throw at it. And if you're pedantic it can all still look the part, too. You can blow $50k plus on this kind of stuff in an heartbeat but you don't have to if you're prepared to put in some hours yourself. Plus my solutions suit my brain. They won't suit everyone but they suit mine! LOL. (Now freezing my butt off outside my tent whilst my son snores and I type this in zero degrees C!)

UKCRD

OK, just designed and fabbed a bracket that will allow me to mount a 25L water tank for onboard water. Will post some pics and a full report later. This will take me slightly over the $500 budget but only by about $40 bucks.

MDRoots

But hey that's ok, the fact that something related to a Jeep can stay near a budget is impressive

UKCRD

LOLOL! Spot on!! TBH, the trick is to stay away from buying the stuff pre-made and endeavour to make it yourself. The moment you start paying for someone else's profit and overheads you're going to pay through the nose.