Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Converting Cargo Trailers into TTTs

Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby L3TT3RS » Tue May 15, 2018 11:17 am

jmanscotch wrote:
L3TT3RS wrote:I've still yet to take delivery. Should be two to three more weeks. 6-8 turned into 10. All I need to take it camping when I get it is two steelies and some spacers.

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Always fun how that happens. I know you had it setup with most the basics like wiring, vents and all but there's not going to be any build out of the inside or anything else? Ugh...if so, you're a smarter man than I haha
We will use it a few times to see how we want to set it up. My truck is going to have a drawer system with tools and basic camp stuff like kitchen and whatnot. I've not decided on buildout. Will likely have a raised platform for bed for storage underneath. I plan on 10x10 pop up canopies for the pass side entry door and rear doors. Hopefully with Walls ( still trying to figure that one out) for changing area and toilet etc. Right now we are already pretty efficient as far as what we take with us. I can usually load up and be gone within about 30 minutes. Right now, I'm rolling around with all my camp gear in the truck so all I'd need is food/cooler/clothes and be out of town. In excited to see how that's gonna change. I just knew I'd not have the time to be able to tear one down. I wanted to be able to get it and use it immediately.

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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby JRAnt74 » Sun May 27, 2018 7:59 am

jmanscotch wrote:Hung the Jeep CJ-7 leaf springs, they're going to be so much better than the stock trailer springs.

Factory CJ-7 front and rear spring hangers:

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The factory CJ-7 u-bolt perch with built in lower shock mount (I still need to figure out a top shock mount):

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Jake


If I may offer a suggestion for your upper shock mounts. Get a piece of steel tube that the bolts will fit thru, a little longer than your frame is wide, drill frame to except tube and weld it in. Put bolt long enough thru frame tube and shock and tighten it down. Just a 2 pennies worth.
James
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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby jmanscotch » Sun May 27, 2018 7:06 pm

JRAnt74 wrote:If I may offer a suggestion for your upper shock mounts. Get a piece of steel tube that the bolts will fit thru, a little longer than your frame is wide, drill frame to except tube and weld it in. Put bolt long enough thru frame tube and shock and tighten it down. Just a 2 pennies worth.
James


James, thanks for the suggestion sir. That's more or less the idea I was going to pursue.

Ultimately, a friend suggested that some Wrangler TJ shock mounts would fit the CJ-7 shocks, and they were $20, so I snagged a pair and I'll be mounting them to a new cross member that'll be added in soon.
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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby jmanscotch » Sun May 27, 2018 7:26 pm

Small update:

Installed 100 new bolts and nuts to replace the self tapping screws that held the skin and trim on. We have lots of washboard roads around here and I didn't want the screws to rattle out over time. Plus there's was concern of the small headed screws ripping through the aluminum skin.

(small headed screws on left, new bolts/washers/nuts on the right)

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Getting the roof rack finished. Using the no weld towers from Scott and some 1"x" square tube for the crossbars. Also installed the LED porch lights.

The base mounts offer great style and clearance for the roof. They rise enough to clear the roof with plenty of space to flex and will be a great place for the ARB awning to mount to.

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I spaced the crossbars about 36" apart. It seemed like a common spacing and worked well to put the bases mounting in a good sturdy location on the interior framing. I set the entire system back, straddling the axle on center (or real close rather). This will both keep weight in a good location as well as leave me ample room for the roof vent to be mounting at the head of the trailer.

Speaking of; fitted some bracing for the roof vent and did the dirty dead of cutting my first hole in the roof :NC

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Finished a few other chores, from rewiring the trailer side of things, finished rebuilding the rear door, applied bed liner to parts of the frame that won't be touched again and prepped the new 2.5" receiver tongue to weld that on this week.

Our doors will be in this week and I'll get those installed, finish the rock rail/sliders and build the front platform and fenders out. Soon, we'll be on the road of building out the interior!

Jake
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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby JRAnt74 » Sun May 27, 2018 7:42 pm

jmanscotch wrote:
JRAnt74 wrote:If I may offer a suggestion for your upper shock mounts. Get a piece of steel tube that the bolts will fit thru, a little longer than your frame is wide, drill frame to except tube and weld it in. Put bolt long enough thru frame tube and shock and tighten it down. Just a 2 pennies worth.
James


James, thanks for the suggestion sir. That's more or less the idea I was going to pursue.

Ultimately, a friend suggested that some Wrangler TJ shock mounts would fit the CJ-7 shocks, and they were $20, so I snagged a pair and I'll be mounting them to a new cross member that'll be added in soon.


I'd be interested in seeing those mounts. I'm getting ready to start a build myself and will be doing a single axle to dual axle conversion. I've thinking about possibly putting shocks on at least one axle to help with the pot holes around here. :thinking:
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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby Joel.brian » Sun May 27, 2018 8:08 pm

I love the off road clearance and tires! I guess I’m stuck with paved roads lol


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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby jmanscotch » Sun May 27, 2018 8:28 pm

JRAnt74 wrote:I'd be interested in seeing those mounts. I'm getting ready to start a build myself and will be doing a single axle to dual axle conversion. I've thinking about possibly putting shocks on at least one axle to help with the pot holes around here. :thinking:


They're basic, but considering they cost me about the same as fabbing up something (since I don't have a parts pile to rummage through to build even small projects like these mounts), and knowing they'll do the job well...I can't complain.

I'll include some pictures once they're on, but for now here they are on Amazon. If you'd like some dimensions on them, let me know and I can snag those tomorrow.

Image

There's also lots of others I found that are similar but more conducive to mounting them, say, on the side frame rail. This would mean you don't need the perfectly places crossmember and instead could install them anywhere along the frame rail.
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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby jmanscotch » Sun May 27, 2018 8:31 pm

Joel.brian wrote:I love the off road clearance and tires! I guess I’m stuck with paved roads lol


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:thumbsup: Not only the clearance but the ride of these Jeep leaf springs is going to be phenomenally better than the stock springs. I got such a good deal on the tires too...couldn't pass them up. Only concern is they're E rated truck tires, so I don't think airing them down and having the "light" trailer on them is going to make the sidewalls flex much at all, oh well.
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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby McDave » Mon May 28, 2018 1:40 am

:applause: :applause:
Tuff enuff fo sho!

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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby JRAnt74 » Mon May 28, 2018 8:05 am

Jmanscotch,
Thanks for sharing those brackets. I'll have to look into those when I get closer to that part of my build. Will certainly simplify mounting!

James
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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby jmanscotch » Sat Jun 02, 2018 11:59 pm

My father and brother are coming later this month for a long weekend trip and we're going to head into the mountains and get lost. I have a new goal to get the trailer to a usable, if only bare bones, condition in the next few weeks and so my focus has been on the things needed to make that happen.



I installed an aero vent cover for the roof vent. This will allow us to keep the vent open in those random summer rains. I used acetone to clean the surfaces where the roof vent would mount, then placed butyl tape under the rood vent flange. Once I dropped the vent into it's cutout, I used #8 by 1" self tapping screws to secure the vent to it's frame. To further seal the vent, I used 4" white Externabond tape to seal the screws and flange joint. I wanted to use their silver/aluminum product so it'd blend in, but it was $80 and the white was under $20 (for 10').



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The doors arrived from Challenger as well, so I measure and cut the holes for both, using a jig saw.



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Same installation method as the roof vent. Acetone prep, butyl tape under the mounting flange and self taping screws. I only placed a few screws in for now. I ordered some #10 black oxide self tapping screws so they'll blend in with the door frame better. Once those arrive, I'll finish securing the doors to the trailer, cut the excess butyl tape off that has squeezed out and then caulk the edges with some black caulk to keep the aesthetics nice and neat.



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I'm pretty happy with the doors from Challenger. They're 26" wide by 32" tall. They're keyed alike, have windows in them that slide vertically and have a catch to keep the window open with a sliding screen as well. Having the windows in the doors will help save us some real estate on the side of the trailer, which is needed since we'll be building the galley deep into the trailer and it was going to occupy the space windows would've if they weren't in the doors.



I also finished installing the Jeep CJ-7 shocks by installing the new cross member and bolting the top shock mount to it. The difference they made with my 200 lbs jumping in the trailer was great, so I'm hopeful the ride quality is going to be what I'm expecting on the trailer.



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That's it for now. The plan for the next few weeks is to:



- Install new 2" receiver tube tongue along with the Lock-N-Roll hitch

- install flooring

- maybe install insulation and interior side walls

- maybe install tree sliders, finish fabricating front landing and install fenders, rear bumper with jacks for leveling




That should get it to a usable state for the trip we're planning. It'd be a good short two day trip that'd be a chance to shake down the trailer and see if there's anything that'd need improved thus far.



Jake
Last edited by jmanscotch on Mon Jun 04, 2018 7:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby hankaye » Sun Jun 03, 2018 8:22 am

jmanscotch, Howdy;

Dang Hoss, likein' what you've done with the CT so far. :thumbsup: , :thumbsup: .

Especially like your 'security system', as seen in your last 2 photos and the one showing
the Driver's side of the unit.

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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby jmanscotch » Mon Jun 04, 2018 7:34 am

hankaye wrote:jmanscotch, Howdy;

Dang Hoss, likein' what you've done with the CT so far. :thumbsup: , :thumbsup: .

Especially like your 'security system', as seen in your last 2 photos and the one showing
the Driver's side of the unit.

hank


Thanks Hank.

Yeah I went with the beefy chain through the wheel and around the leaf spring as I felt it was the simplest and cheapest way to be pretty secure. Chain and lock was about $60 total, so not bad. The chain has a black sleeve on it so it doesn't mar up the wheel (and the holes in the wheel are a good size to allow the chain to pass through) and this serves a slight double purpose of concealing its existence since it blends in with the wheel for someone just glancing at it.

Someone might not notice the chain and could still hook up to the trailer and drag it away...but it's going to be noisy and cumbersome with that wheel locked up and dragging. Way better than those crap hitch locks I see for sale. I feel this, combined with the Lock-N-Roll hitch that'll be on soon, will be a good attempt at keeping the honest people honest.

Jake
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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby hankaye » Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:01 am

jmanscotch, Howdy;

Googled that hitch and right away I thought, after seeing the GIF on their homepage,
how the heck do ya back that thing up ??? The casual thieves wouldn't bother, in
Albuquerque, they won't care, they generally have some sort of hoist to pick-up the
front end of the trailer and then just drive away with their new acquisition ... have
seen this from news reports that have security video of them in action.

hank
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Re: Off-Road Worthy 5x8 Conversion

Postby jmanscotch » Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:38 am

hankaye wrote:jmanscotch, Howdy;

Googled that hitch and right away I thought, after seeing the GIF on their homepage,
how the heck do ya back that thing up ??? The casual thieves wouldn't bother, in
Albuquerque, they won't care, they generally have some sort of hoist to pick-up the
front end of the trailer and then just drive away with their new acquisition ... have
seen this from news reports that have security video of them in action.

hank


Haha it actually backs really predictably, same as your standard ball hitch. It's also a lot quieter offroad as it doesn't bounce around on the ball like a standard hitch. The hitch I got is the limited rotation unit, so it won't allow the trailer to flip on its side should I hop it off a rut or something.

I'm adding 3' of length to the tongue too, which will make it back nicely but also gives me room to turn the trailer exactly 90 degrees to the truck, which will help on tight trails, either to get through them or, the more likely scenario, turn around in a tight space easier since the A frame of the tongue will be just beyond the edge of my truck.

Interesting, so they must be using a tow truck of sorts, otherwise you'd think it'd track like a wild trailer and small into their vehicle everytime they stopped...and that'd alert anyone who saw them going down the road. But yeah, this setup should make it painfully obvious they're driving away with a stolen trailer...tire locked up and smoking, screeching, etc.

Jake
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