Off-Road Hard Sided Popup Trailer

[schanusa]

Back in mid 2010 I was contacted by a customer to build him a custom hard sided popup camper to be mounted as a replacement for the bed of his truck. After designing the camper the customer realized he wanted more room, so I redid the design to a 14 foot tow-able trailer. I started the project at the end of September and finished it with the customer helping right up to the end of October. This is an old project, though I thought some of you guys on here would like the build.

The Concept

The Result

Details

Body size: 80" wide, 12' base length with a 2' kick up making 14' overall length, 80" inside height lifted and 56" inside height lowered.
Roof is controlled by electronic actuators rated for 200 lbs each with a 24" through.
Double door for access for roof in up or down position.
6000 lbs Solid Axle on leaf springs with air bags for weight control
Chassis is 2x4 .120 wall steel tubing.
Body structure is 1x1 .120 wall aluminum skeleton covered by .040 aluminum sheeting.
Weight once chassis and body complete was roughly 1600 lbs.

 

[schanusa]

Material arrived. 2x4x0.125 tubing

Cutting out all the chassis tubes.

Beginning the layout

 

[schanusa]

Starting the tongue

Marking receiver tube on front of tongue.

Cutting hole to pass receiver tube through.

Drilling hitch pin hole.

 

[schanusa]

Double checking placement of tire and jack.

Max coupler fit check. Had to trim 1/2 inch off to keep grease fitting clear.

I setup a crude way of assembling the chassis on a table using thick c-channel.

While assembling I pulled some sacrificial wire to use a pull string for final wires.

 

[schanusa]

I clamp everything down after laying all the tubing in the correct places.

After tacking the tubing in place I start on the outside sections

When the outside sections are tacked in place I start working on the stairwell.

Then the whole chassis is flipped over to align the axle for mounts.

 

[schanusa]

Once aligned and mounts tacked in place I begin welding up the chassis.

After welding I grind down the exterior welds.

 

[schanusa]

Next I square up the tongue.

Then weld the outside seams.

Receiver tubing is squared up and tacked in place.

The backside of the back tongue tubing is cut out, so I can weld and tie the rear of the receiver tube to the outside.

Then I cut a 2x4 section to continue where the receiver tube ended.

 

[schanusa]

I clamp everything down and weld it all up.

Back to the stair well.

I flip over the chassis again and place it on jack stands. Then finish the stair well support. I angle the ends so there isn't a hard edge.

Base chassis complete.

 

[CHKNFKR]

yo like-o!

 

[pillen140]

Omg, that is sick!

 

[schanusa]

Next I work on getting the axle square with the chassis.

Then I weld up the spring perches.

Then toss on the 35" BFG KM2's.

 

[schanusa]

Now its onto the long process of building the body out of aluminum. The entire trailer was build by me in a CAD program. So from that I disassembled the parts of the trailer (tubing) and made cut lists. A friend of mine came to help start making all the cuts. Jim, the customer, arrived after the first couple weeks of building at took over cutting the material.

All the base tubing is clamped into the chassis.

The outside edges (corners) are welded together with my aluminum wire feed attachment to my welder.

Once welded all of the anchor holes are drilled. The top holes are larger to allow the bolt head and socket to clear.

I made a quick jig on my steel table and made the wheel wells. Then welded them on.

 

[schanusa]

The body frame was secured to the chassis with self tapping bolts. Up rights for the lower walls are also cut and ready for welding on.(on tongue)

Next I start working on the rear kick up. Notches are made to create the correct bend. This was also designed in CAD. Makes production go much faster.

This is how the kick ups are to be placed.

Lower section of the wall welded and kick ups welded in place.

 

[schanusa]

Lower wall mostly complete.

Extra bracing is placed in the corners.

A temporary cross bar was placed between the tops of the lower wall. This helped from warping while welding. Aluminum warps a ton when heat is applied.

So far looking good.

Middle wall started.

 

[schanusa]

The middle wall on the back was tricky to keep square. I used a piece of steel tubing to help. This steel tube was also used on the lower walls.

Top bars on the middle wall set in place.

Upper perimeter completed. The customer Jim standing inside. He's over 6 foot tall by the way. Jim also put in a plywood floor. The original plan was to use a composite material for the floor, though in a time crunch we opted for plywood instead. The underside of the plywood was coated with bed liner material.

A crap ton of clamps were used to fasten the aluminum to the steel tubing, so everything stayed plum and square.

Next I work on the rear windows.