Lil Beast

Blackwind

New member
A few months ago, I helped a neighbor load several items into a moving truck, and he off the cuff asked if I was interested in buying his little old trailer. For a little steel beast, the price we came to was a steal in my book. I primarily used it for hauling wood from the woods on our firewood gathering runs. Here in Idaho, you acquire a permit for cords of wood, and off you go. A buddy knew I had been shopping for an expedition-style trailer, and he asked, "why not turn Lil Beast into one?" I laughed at first, but we all sat down and started brainstorming. The first thing we did was order a 3500 Dexter Torsion Axle with electric brakes. Pulled the old axle and springs, welded in reinforcements to the bottom, and slapped on the new axle. We removed the original towing point and welded in a 2-inch square tube and ordered an Ark Articulating Off-Road Coupler for 2" Receivers. I'm attempting to locate mount points for Rhino Heavy Duty Bars I had laying around but short of installing an actual track system to the round rail running from front to back, not seeing many options. I figured I would post here for input and updates.

EDIT: Sitting here drinking coffee this morning, I thought it appropriate to lay out all my plans for this little monster. I believe the trailer is an old U-Haul trailer that was decommissioned. 6ft x 4ft. The plan is to install anything on the outside of the trailer and the tongue box leaving the interior open to general use etc.
  • Buyers Products Company 16 in. x 16 in. x 49 in. Black Steel Trailer Tongue Truck Tool Box - Ordered and the plan is to add more 2-inch squares to each angled side at the tongue and mount and weld the tongue box. This should raise the tongue box just high enough not to interfere with the trailer jack. Thought of updating the jack but it works so I think I will leave it as-is unless it proves to be inefficient
  • Electrical - The primary function of the tongue box will be to house two Odyssey Extreme Series Batteries and an electrical system. I plan to install a NOCO Genius 2-Bank battery charger along with a Port Plug power inlet for shore power and BlueSea battery switches. I have a Xantrex 806-1220 PROwatt SW 2000 Inverter along with a Renogy Rover 40 Amp 12V/24V MPPT Solar Charge Controller Battery Regulator that will also find a home in here. We'll center the batteries for weight and go from there
  • Hot Water Heater - Pretty sure we'll also have room to install a hot water system in the tongue box as well for cooking and showers
  • Roam Vagabond Roof Tent with Annex - I already own a roof tent and we are trying to decide if we want to directly mount it to the round bars or have a lift and lower rack system for the tent. If we go with a lift and lower system, we'll fabricate that and use the areas you can see in the first pictures on the sides to weld in square iron on each side for the raise and lower bars. More than likely will go aluminum for the actual towers attached to the tent platform
  • Stabilizing Leveling Jacks × 2 - We are devising a method to install mount points and install these on the front end and or backend as needed
  • Custom side boxes - We are roughing up a few drawings for boxes to install over the wheel wells for various kitchen storage etc
  • Bedliner - I plan to Bedliner the entire interior with black Bedliner and olive drab on the entire exterior
  • Water Tank(s) - Trying to decide how I want to do this. Considering how tall she is now, I MIGHT be able to squeeze a few Valterra RV Water Tanks on her underside


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