Innovative suspension Idea

[greekspeedoman]

Adventure Trailers just started manufacturing an off road teardrop. you can see it here:

http://www.adventuretrailers.com/teardrop.html

The most interesting part of all of their trailers is their suspension system. Read up on it here:

http://www.adventuretrailers.com/suspension.html

[Barefoot]

EXACTLY what I had in mind for another build if I did another, only I was planning to use air shocks, pretty much what was added to a van conversion I once owned. Instead of normal height for the road and higer off-road, mine would be normal height on the road and kneel down to go in the garage, yielding a flat foor standie. Glad to see it actually done. I already have a little air coimpressor that runs on 12 volts or 120 volts.

[greekspeedoman]

Barefoot,

If you try it, let us know how it turns out. I've heard nothing but good about Adventure trailers. I'm curious how a home brewed suspension like this would work.

cheers

[Barefoot]

Spent some more time on their web site and found that they offer the air bags separately for home builders, and pretty reasonably. Probably have more usable range than air shocks, too. Bingo, but we'll see if I do another.

[pete.wilson]

Hey

Go visit the "Expedition Portal" forums for some great trailer building idea's also. Mario, from adventure trailers is on there as a sponsor of the thread and you can ask him questions, here is the link:

http://expeditionportal.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=42

Good website, good folks.

Pete Wilson

[Barefoot]

Kewul.

[pete.wilson]

Hey

His name is Martyn, not Mario. I knew it began with an "M".

Pete Wilson

[So-Cal Teardrops]

Martyn Davies and Mario Donovan. They look similar, but are not the same guy. They both own and run Adventure Trailers. Martyn is the "Face man" and Mario does all the work

Mario is "El Coyote" on the Portal.

We've started production on the Overland Tear, they should be hitting the trails in a few weeks.

[greekspeedoman]

Awesome. Is there a place we can keep up with them on their trip?

[ai4kk]

That suspension is pretty cool. the amazing thing is that the utility trailer I was just given has a very similar setup except that it has coils instead of airbags, it has a single airbag in the middle, and the coilover shocks are mounted at a rearward angle as in the next-to-last version of the suspension on that link. It also has a beam axle instead of independent.

Once I remove the 4x4x8 box that is currently sitting on it, the large triangle at the front and long tongue should make it perfect for my 5X10 offroad TD camper build. I'm designing it primarily for disaster response with the added benefit of being able to use it as a family camper or BOV, so it''s not really intended for hard-core rock-crawling like these guys seem to have in mind.

[Endo]

the utility trailer I was just given has a very similar setup except that it has coils instead of airbags, it has a single airbag in the middle, and the coilover shocks are mounted at a rearward angle as in the next-to-last version of the suspension on that link. It also has a beam axle instead of independent.

Sounds interesting......do you have a picture of the suspension?

[Colemancooler]

i am hoping to build a generation 2 style suspension for mine, [quote]We have a large competitor that sells a 4â€

[saltydawg]

The big problems with a trailing arm set up is torgue on the arm and at the mount end. As for a home builder the issues are attaching the hub, and dealing with torgue. It would need a strong pivot point on the trailer end, plus good bushings.

I have been looking at doing mine this way.

[Shadow Catcher]

One of the good things about the accident is that part of the repair will install the air shocks on CR. One of the problems with the original design was that I did not ask for it to be used with brakes and the original bracket to be attached to the torsion arm did not fit. A bracket will be welded to the arm to attach the shocks to.






One of the advantages to this is that some leveling of the trailer will be possible as each can be controlled separately. The added advantage is that the compressed air is available for adjusting tire air pressure.

Yes an air bag suspension is superior for off road use but of no real advantage on road. CR is just too wide for serious off road but being able to get more height for less than well maintained dirt roads is a big plus.