A TJ sized camper

Jerry Bransford said:
Yeah that's the drawback to the tiny tires on mine. I have often wanted to do a spring-over conversion for more ground clearance for bigger offroad worthy wheels and tires but that got away from me and later became too big of a job for this guy who's well past retirement age.

One time, after taking a "shortcut" as suggested by my GPS at night to a big desert 4x4 event, I ended up rock crawling in 4Lo on a black moonless night in a desert canyon with my tiny tired tent trailer behind me. Too dark and narrow to back out and not knowing how much worse it was about to get I continued on. The Jeep & trailer got so cattywampus a few times it even bent my bumper upward when the Jeep was going up and the trailer was still going down. It tore the rear fiberglass panel mostly off too as it dragged over the rocks when transitioning from a downward to upward direction. Nothing serious but...
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My long term plan is to pickup a used pop-up and just replace the entire chassis with a heavier duty one I will build.
I did that exact thing to a previous Kamparoo that I had. I also had an drop axle custom built upside down that provided the correct camber while giving same ground clearance under it as my Jeep had on 35” tires while the trailer had 27” tire, worked out awesome.
 
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I have been researching the Braxton-Creek model 10SS, went and looked at one and might be a summer purchase!

Braxton-Creek

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Good to see this thread resurface. I've posted a few pics of my trailers here; two are getting lots of use and one is on hold while I'm working on a square drop trailer build.

My tear pop is getting a lot of use and is now in it's 5th year with no problems at all. I'll continue with the mods but they're all small ones now.

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My off road trailer now has a RTT and is what I use for solo trips. My wife hates it which is great! (y) I painted it grey as an experiment. It turned out well so I painted my LJ to match.

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My Jeep themed fibreglass trailer (post #208) is on hold while I work on my square drop build. About 3 years ago I went to look at a trailer that was for sale. That didn't work out but while there I picked up, for next to nothing, one of the ugliest trailers I think I've ever seen. The guy selling it had just bought a farm and was getting rid of things he had no use for. Neither of us (he wasn't a farmer) had a clue as to what this "trailer" had been used for. About a year ago I did some internet searching and am now all but certain that is was once a mobile chicken coup. Basically a farmer pens off an area around a movable coup. After a while he moves the coup to a new area and reestablishes the pen so they can continue grazing. This thing was crude but it was properly welded and as square and flat as can be. For a couple of hundred bucks, and a lot less than the cost of the steel, I figured I could make something out of it.

Here it is as I picked it up. I towed it home behind my TJ in a utility trailer I built about 10 yrs ago. The build pics lead up to where it stands now. They're a little hard to understand as it looks a bit like a bird cage ... which seems appropriate given its past. It will be all steel, aluminum and composites to eliminate rot. The only possible exception will be the interior walls which I will likely do in pine T&G.

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Note the axle but no suspension. It was towed around a farm field and never on the road. What I cut out I'll be making into a yard trailer for my garden tractor.

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And finally an example of where I'm heading ... I hope! This is a top of the line Off Grid Trailers Expedition 2.0. It's one of the best out there. I'm not trying to duplicate it but rather using it and other similar trailers for inspiration.

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Me and my brother built this in his garage over about 3 months.

1300# with the RTT and 2 full 5 gal gas cans. With gear it's probably close to 1600#. It's the same track width as my TJ and tows like it's not there. We were trying to be cognizant of tongue weight when we built it, and it's extremely well balanced. Fully loaded the tongue weight is about 90#. I've taken it all over NM behind the Jeep, and into Colorado, Utah and Wyoming behind the Tacoma. The top as well as the tent is removable, so it can be used as a utility trailer when needed. It's on a 3500# Dexter axle with electric brakes.

It's really served us well these past few years. We camped out of it for a week in Yellowstone in June. I honestly don't think I could be happier with the setup unless I moved to a camper van. I've had pop-ups before, and I like this more for the simplicity.

All in, including the RTT, I'm at about 5k for materials.

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PeteN95 said:
I have been looking at this, Sunray 129 Sport. It is 1840 dry, so a but close, but really checks all the boxes (big bed, air, toilet, etc.) for a reasonable price. Anyone have any experience with these? I am thinking of renting one to try it out.

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Ive heard that the build quality isn’t the best and the front window tends to leak… but if you are at least semi handy… go for it. But join the facebook groups for solutions.
 
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