AND YET AGAIN: Paul and Mike Try to Build a Hard-Sided Do-It-All ADV Trailer

[mhiscox]

Well, the days are getting shorter, Paul's vacation trip is over, and it's been six months since we finished the last project, so there's only one thing left to do: Rummage around to try to find something else ExPo-worthy to build.

The best candidate we had was my "there's-an-adventure-trailer-in-here-somewhere" project, a project which has varied between dormant and dead for at least five years. Born at a time of great inspiration, it had been back-burnered while other, more straightforward stuff got built. But I truly had the best of intentions.

I had owned an Adventure Trailer Chaser trailer for a while, and while a fine unit within its design parameters, being as hard-core off-roadish as it was called for more compromises than I thought most people needed. Being physically small, the Chaser had limited storage space, and most of that storage was just the big central, uncompartmentalized tub, an area challenging to fully access if you were height-challenged. My vision was of something a bit bigger, though nowhere near as big as the pop-up camping trailers from the big RV manufacturers. It would still be off-pavement worthy, just not black diamond gnarly trail worthy, and it would work for owners from solo travelers to the being the basecamp for a big family. The principal attraction of this setup was that you kept the trailer fully-loaded with nearly everything you needed for the trip, so when the weekend/vacation came, you hooked it behind the daily driver (which could be anything from a Honda Odyssey to a G-Wagen), had your adventure, and then parked it until next time while your truck/SUV went back to family life.

I picked this out as the basis for the rig:

.

It's a Stahl Challenger TR Service Body Trailer, and if you are thinking, "Why that ain't nothing more than a truck service body on a trailer frame," you are correct, sir. Stahl has made, and still makes, lots of these service bodies for all your 'Muricun cab and chassis units,

but apparently one day, someone there in the Ohio office thought, "We could mount the Challenger service body we're making anyway to a frame and a good axle and be in the contractor trailer business." So they did, for a while anyway. It doesn't seem to have been a huge success, since if you do an Internet search on "Stahl Challenger service body trailer," you get real close to nothing. There is, however, courtesy of Arrowhead Truck Equipment, a copy of the sell sheet that got me all enthusiastic:

http://arrowheadtruckequipment.com/Brochures/IWvOY-CEPCO-EGtfL-Service_Body_Trailer_02.10_-_Sm.pdf

I won't go into all of the gory details about why I thought this was exactly what was needed. The most important things were good made-in-USA quality, big wheel openings, a flat bottom with substantial ground clearance, a good overall size to tow, a 4x8 opening between the wheel wells so you could use it as a hauler, and a reasonable weight of 1500 pounds empty while having 3500 pounds GVRW, so a full ton of payload. And it has a Dexter Torflex axle which, if you're not going in for a full-on custom off-roading suspension, is a solid choice. But probably the biggest thing that sucked me in was this view:

as I thought it'd be really cool to use this space to allow all of the water and batteries to go down low while still being easy to get to, and you'd still have room (with adjustable shelves and bins and attachments) for all of your other stuff. And there was even a full size bed slide so things could be retrieved from the center section without effort. Having had problems trying to retrieve things from the depths of the Chaser's center pod, that seemed really appealing.

Anyway, I felt I had good reasons why this trailer idea was just what the world needed, and I even got a business name and started talking to fabricators about building out my trailers. But a little ways into the effort, it struck me that (oversimplified) I undoubtedly had things I'd rather do with my life than haul my trailer around to trade shows around the country to show off to people. So plans were scaled back all the way to zero and the Challenger TR sat, basically new, under my carport. I'd periodically offer it, along with my brilliant ideas, to friends and random passers-by. But still it sat.

Until last month, when the cheerful motivation of finding another project to work on with Paul carried the day and we set out to do the best we could to build a comfy, living quarters, hauling, off-pavement trailer. So pull up a metaphorical chair as we jointly see what Paul's going to put together.

 

[mhiscox]

Ummm . . . after posting the saga above about what didn't get built, I see I've neglected to say what we were actually gonna build.

Here's a list of the project's design requirements as we envision them now. They are (no kidding) subject to change as Paul and I jointly work out actually what's possible to do within a reasonable budget and chance of success.

When done, we hope the trailer will . . .

-- Be reasonably lightweight,

-- Pull well behind anything with a 3500 pound and up towing capacity,

-- Easily handle the great majority of all NFS and BLM roads,

-- Sleep two people comfortably in an enclosed area,

-- Sleep up to four people if necessary,

-- Have enclosed full food storage and prep facilities,

-- Have an interior potti,

-- Have hard sides for the living area,

-- Have good views to the outside,

-- Have an interior with standing height at some location,

-- Be secure when unattended,

-- Have comfortable inside places to sit during bad weather,

-- Have the maximum possible storage for personal belongings,

-- Have a full AC/DC electrical system with inverter,

-- Have substantial on-demand water,

-- Capture grey water when required,

-- And a whole bunch of other stuff we'll think of as we go.

And then there's the two "elephant in the room" requirements, though they're basically the same thing . . . manage one and you've probably managed the other:

-- Securely haul a motorcycle (up to, say, big adventure bike size) or an ATV under 48" width, or other funtime stuff (deflated raft, short kayak, SUP, etc.) including, of course, SURFBOARDS!

-- Haul stuff, especially sheet goods, from the big store to wherever, just like the trailer was originally built to do.

Managing these last two while meeting all of the previous requirements will be the clever bit, and we're prepared to give up if/when we need to. Worth a try, though.

Incidentally, we're not under any time constraints, so this build may move a little slower than our others. Given that nothing's been done in five years, any progress is going to impress me.

And with that, I'm outta here, appropriately turning the build thread over to the builder. Your dice, Mr. Jensen.

 

[GR8ADV]

It was just last night I was thinking to myself that Mike is being waaaaay to quiet of late. Funny I should get this today. I am subscribed and excited.

 

[Herbie]

Subscribing, even though the picture attachments seem to be broken. ;-)

 

[java]

Sub'ed !! I have always thought a service body would be awesome. Heavy though, I have had my eye out for an aluminum one, but they are like unicorns apparently.

 

[fowldarr]

Fix the pics please. I'm thinking of doing something similar

 

[mhiscox]

Subscribing, even though the picture attachments seem to be broken. ;-)

Not sure what to do about the pictures. They're nothing special and they're just went in with the image button. I suspect it's related to the line:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 23 in [path]/includes/class_wysiwygparser.php on line 458

appearing three times at the top of the screen when I'm on the editing screen. Needless to say, I have no clear what this means or why I am aflicted.

That said, I can try the pictures again in this post:

Everybody see three pictures?

 

[mhiscox]

When I hit the Post Quick Reply button, I got the same error. I've been doing this for, let's see, 2,397 times, so I've no idea what's different now.

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 23 in [path]/includes/class_wysiwygparser.php on line 458

 

[SCBrian]

Subscribing

 

[mhiscox]

On to Plan B, load them into Photobucket and link them here:

Of course, by now, some of you probably have four copies of the same three pictures.

 

[uscg2008]

Hahaha yep but still sub'd

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

I am excited to see what you two come up with. My build started with largely the same ambitions/requirements, and although my trailer is 90% functional, it is far from finished.

 

[java]

I can see the pics now! Cant wait to see the build.

 

[Gemini]

Sounds like Scrapheap Challenge ...

I wonder if you're going to have enough height (above the service body) and existing trailer length for your wish list ....

Wouldn't it have been easier to scratch-build the trailer?

(note: I'm not against the concept, just wondering on the engineering and economics since it's a pretty big wishlist)

 

[mhiscox]

I wonder if you're going to have enough height (above the service body) and existing trailer length for your wish list ....

Thanks for the thoughts. Well, I guess we'll have to see. I'm not expecting everything will go as planned. Making the trailer longer would make life simpler, for sure, but would make it less appealing off-pavement.

Wouldn't it have been easier to scratch-build the trailer?

I'm pretty sure not, as the quality of the Stahl body is really high, and any chassis I built would end up being a lot like the one we have. It pretty much boils down to whether having the service body setup with the "pods" and outside storage is a worthwhile as I hope.