A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby dirtsailor2003 » Mon Aug 08, 2016 2:18 pm

Cool I like it! Pretty much along the lines of what I want, just 8' with an extended front.
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby Texican » Tue Aug 09, 2016 12:08 pm

SCwood wrote:I also went down to Plywood Company of Ft. Worth and picked up some plywood for the cabin. They have a lot of wood.


Can any person off the street buy from Plywood Company of Ft. Worth or do you have to have a business license or minimum quantity purchase?
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Tue Aug 09, 2016 4:13 pm

Thanks everybody! I'm not sure I like the chrome nuts on the wheels but those were the blackest ones I could find at the time. I'm going to look into painting or plasti-dipping the nuts at some point.

Cheese leakage? I hope not! All the cheese needs to remain inside the camper at all times. According to my calculations and the specifications of the hypothetical axle I've ordered BOB will fit out the garage door with 1" of clearance, but that's without a roof vent or solar panel on top. I'll drop it down on casters and roll it out if I need to and then attach the final items.

And yes, anyone can go buy wood from Plywood Company of Ft. Worth. I don't have any special licenses or anything. All I did was request a quote through their website on a Wednesday, they emailed me back Thursday to say they had everything I wanted in stock, and then on Friday I picked up the wood. The only downside is they're only open weekdays 7:30-4:30. There was a guy there loading up a single sheet of plywood so I don't think there's a minimum order unless maybe you wanted to special order something they don't typically stock.
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby Captain Monkeyshines » Tue Aug 09, 2016 6:43 pm

I like the shiny silver/chrome on black in the wheels.

Ok. I like the B.O.B. altogether! Nice build!

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A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Sun Aug 14, 2016 7:19 pm

Thanks! Didn't make much progress this week as I went out of town this weekend and weekends are when I usually have time to build. I did manage to do a few little things during the week though:

Added some black silicone where the trailer frame and floor meet to try and keep water out so they don't rot/rust
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Drilled some holes for marker lights and painted the holes

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And installed the lights. They're clear now but the front ones light up amber and the rear ones light up red when powered. I'll run the wires at the same time I run wires to the electric brakes

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Also - big news. I received an email from UPS today that I have a delivery from Timbren arriving tomorrow! I'll finally have a rolling trailer. More as soon as I get the axle installed.
Last edited by SCwood on Thu Oct 17, 2019 2:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby aseawood » Tue Aug 16, 2016 3:51 pm

If your Timbren axle finally arrived yesterday I'm guessing you finished installing it around 1:00 this morning?


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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Tue Aug 16, 2016 4:36 pm

Ha, sadly no. I spent the free time I had yesterday running errands. One of which was going to Ace Hardware and picking up some grade 8 bolts to mount the axle. The kit only comes with bolts to attach the spindles to the spring assembly and you have to provide the bolts to mount the assembly to the frame yourself. And the package was missing a nut because the box had been beat to hell and was falling apart so I had to get that too. At least the axle is here!
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby S. Heisley » Tue Aug 16, 2016 7:55 pm

By the way, I saw a couple bea-u-ti-ful autos in the driveway; but nothing that most people would use to pull a trailer off road... :thinking:
Also, I've never seen anybody hang a trailer from the ceiling before! :o
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby Camp4Life » Wed Aug 17, 2016 10:51 am

Looks great so far! I looked at the Timbren axle-less kits but had no idea how to mount up brakes to them. Will you post pics of that when you do it?

Also, for clearance getting out of the garage, I wouldn't worry. With those tires you could air down enough to get well over an inch or two down to pull it out and then air them back up. Did that before when installing offroad roof lights in my garage and then realizing I couldn't get out lol. Just let some air out of the tires, rolled out and reinflated. Easy :thumbsup:
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby FredSB » Wed Aug 17, 2016 11:29 am

VERY COOL

planing on the walk way and useable fenders as well. i will have to have others weld i have neither the skill or equipment lol
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Wed Aug 17, 2016 1:01 pm

Thanks, everyone!

S. Heisley wrote:By the way, I saw a couple bea-u-ti-ful autos in the driveway; but nothing that most people would use to pull a trailer off road... :thinking:
Also, I've never seen anybody hang a trailer from the ceiling before! :o


Funny story - I once knew a guy who towed a 22ft. Catalina sailboat with a 1990 corvette (although I do believe he had the suspension reinforced). So stranger things have happened! I'm not that crazy though. The tow vehicle will be the silver 4runner that appears in only a few pictures. It's the car my wife drives and she's coincidentally/conveniently/intentionally?? not been around when my brother and I have been doing most of the work. She did help paint the trailer though!

The trailer on the ceiling is one of my favorite things about my garage. I mean, I wish my garage was bigger and I could just park it, but it's not and my house is on a small lot, so on the ceiling it goes! I put an 800lb hoist in the attic to lift it and then there's four redundant safety cables too so it doesn't fall on any of my cars. It's been on the ceiling for about 8 months and I haven't had any problems yet.

Camp4Life wrote:Looks great so far! I looked at the Timbren axle-less kits but had no idea how to mount up brakes to them. Will you post pics of that when you do it?

Also, for clearance getting out of the garage, I wouldn't worry. With those tires you could air down enough to get well over an inch or two down to pull it out and then air them back up. Did that before when installing offroad roof lights in my garage and then realizing I couldn't get out lol. Just let some air out of the tires, rolled out and reinflated. Easy :thumbsup:


Will do on the brakes. Timbren makes kits with and without flanges to add brakes so you just have to make sure you order the right one. They don't sell the actual brakes and drums though - those came from etrailer. And thanks for the tip! Airing down will be way easier than trying to roll the whole thing on casters.
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby aggie79 » Thu Aug 18, 2016 9:01 am

Very nice work! I just now stumbled across your build but will follow it from this point forward.

What part of FtW do you live? We're in Watauga, so not too far away. The heat has been crazy this summer. Stay hydrated! :beer:

PS - I like the flag and cornhole board. Are you the Aggie in the family? :thumbsup:

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Tom
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A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Fri Aug 19, 2016 6:26 pm

aggie79 wrote:Very nice work! I just now stumbled across your build but will follow it from this point forward.

What part of FtW do you live? We're in Watauga, so not too far away. The heat has been crazy this summer. Stay hydrated!

PS - I like the flag and cornhole board. Are you the Aggie in the family?

Take care,
Tom


Thanks! I'm just down the street in Keller so we're practically neighbors. Small world! And yes, I'm the Aggie. What's not pictured is the corresponding Baylor cornhole board that goes with it (one of them had to be relegated to the floor to make room for plywood so it was an easy choice). The wife went to Baylor, but I still tolerate her.

I got excited when the axle showed up and made some progress during the week. First up was drilling holes to mount it. Unfortunately, SOMEONE went ahead and permanently mounted the floor to the frame so I couldn't fit the drill on the inside of the frame to use a step bit for easy drilling, so I had to get creative and use a series of different sized bits to drill the second hole for the bolt through the first hole I drilled.
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Everything was going great until... I realized that that same SOMEONE designed the frame with a cross member right where the middle bolt needed to go. So there was absolutely no way to put a nut on the inside of the frame. What I wound up doing was getting a shorter bolt and tapping the outside of the frame with threads. This probably isn't the best solution but I wasn't about to cut out a cross member at this stage. I doused it in loctite and will watch it as soon as the trailer is mobile. I also decided to go with the optional 2x2 square tube that connects the axle-less axles (thereby forming an axle??) to help keep them aligned and in place. Image


So everything was back on track until... I decided to stand back and admire my work. Something just didn't look right so I started measuring. It turned out that Timbren's specifications of their axle were not correct. I had measured and marked three times over before drilling any holes, but the holes were in the wrong place. The center of the axle was off 2 1/4". I probably could have dealt with 1/4 or even 1/2" off center, but 2 1/4" off wasn't going to work. So what to do? Drill more holes!!
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I welded up the extra holes the next day. Let's keep this our little secret.
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After that things went pretty smoothly. Timbren actually includes excellent instructions for mounting brakes or hubs. But that said, there was a request for pictures, so here they are!

It's pretty straightforward to put the brake assembly on the axle. Four holes, four studs. Just make sure it's upright (the magnet goes on the bottom, wires on the top).
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Add some nuts and lock washers (which aren't included?? I noticed when I was trying to find the thread size that etrailer sells a nut/washer kit for $1.65. You'd think they could just up the price of the brakes that much and include them)
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Pack the inner bearing with grease and drop it in
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Gently tap in the grease seal
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And push the brake drum onto the spindle. I went with 6x5.5 drums to match the 4runner so I don't have to carry a spare tire for the trailer.
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After that pack the outer bearing and place it on the spindle, followed by a washer, castle nut, and cotter pin that come with the Timbren kit. At this point I did deviate from the instructions though - you need to use a grease gun to fill the hub with grease before installing the dust cap as opposed to after, because the etrailer brakes don't come with a removable plug to access the grease fitting.
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And there you have it! A rolling trailer, finally. I would've taken it for a victory spin but it was raining. It has 17.5" of ground clearance at the bottom of the tongue when level. The 4runner has 13" so that should be plenty.
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The tread of the tire comes out juuuuust to the edge of the fender. The wheels I ordered didn't specify what backspacing they had but I ordered them anyway and after receiving them realized they would stick out farther than I wanted. I had originally planned a 12" walkway, but had to extend to 13" after measuring where the tires would hit the fenders. I'd actually like them to be in another inch or so, but this will do.
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Last edited by SCwood on Wed Dec 06, 2017 12:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby aseawood » Fri Aug 19, 2016 7:04 pm

If the axle moved 2" does this mean that the crossmember was no longer in the way?

Looks good having wheels on it!


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Re: A big offroad(ish) benroy (B.O.B.)

Postby SCwood » Fri Aug 19, 2016 9:19 pm

aseawood wrote:If the axle moved 2" does this mean that the crossmember was no longer in the way?


Unfortunately, no. 2" mistake + 2" crossmember = still a mistake. Just on the opposite side


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