Trk3263
Active Member
- First Name
- T2
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2021
- Threads
- 0
- Messages
- 36
- Reaction score
- 21
- Location
- Upstate SC
- Vehicle(s)
- Jeep Wrangler JLUR
This is great info and pics. Thank you I am starting to clean up my frame for some fresh paint this weekend and will slowly be building mine up. Probably will be like your build where it will change and have additions over the months/years.Sorry it took me longer to get these posted than expected--sunset comes early it turns out!
This trailer started its life as an 8X5 utility trailer from Tractor Supply about 8 years ago. The racks are made from superstrut, purchased from Lowes or Home Depot. The design has evolved over time, which is an enormous advantage of using superstrut rather than welding. I've adjusted the height of the upper and lower racks to accommodate new boats, different garages, or ideas about how to make it easier to use. We have put hundreds miles on it over the years, dragging it through the Carolinas--originally behind a minivan and now behind the Jeep. It's solid and has not yet had any mishaps (knock on wood). Because it is homemade, I tried to build in as many safety redundancies as I could think of. It can easily carry two canoes on the top rack and two kayaks on the lower rack. You can get more on there with finagling, but we only do that for local travel.
I did some fairly heavy maintenance and modification when I got the Jeep. It rode way too low for the height of the Jeep, so I flipped the axels and added bigger tires. I repainted everything and added a bunch of tie downs. I also revised the setup to allow for the roof top tent. This has worked well for campsites near water. If not near water, you need a roof rack so that you can leave the trailer at the camp while you launch the boats. One downside of the RTT is that it kills off some of the utility trailer functionality of the setup--when it was only a kayak trailer, we used this for moving furniture and such, but it's much harder to get bulky items on the trailer now.
Here are some pictures and more description.
Side view:
Tires are 205/75 R14. Much larger tires would fit the trailer given the flipped axel, but I wouldn't be able to get it into my garage with the canoe on top. I debated getting larger tires anyway, but decided being able to get on the road in a hurry was worth more than big tires. These are already larger than the ones that came with it and served me well for quite awhile anyway.
Front:
Added the front wheel when I added the iKamper. It was easy enough to move around by hand with only kayaks but I wish I had done this a long time ago! Definitely need it with the RTT, though--lots heavier.
Rear:
I cut the tailgate down to the same height as the side rails. I never lower it, but I still could. Somehow this picture makes it look not square, but I just got out the level and confirmed it is.
Pillar anchors: The front pillars are bolted to the frame. The rear pillars have side supports. Both pillars and the rear side supports are secured through the floor to superstruts underneath the trailer which are also tied to the frame. They are basically sandwiching the floor. I couldn't get good pictures of this.
Rail attachments: Superstrut makes two bolt and four bolt right angle supports. I used the four bolt type so that no angle is dependent on a single bolt. I used to use shorter bolts for these connections, but in the recent mod switched them to longer ones that go all the way through the superstrut to a washer on the other side. This makes it easier to check the nuts haven't loosened up (all have blue loctite, none have ever come all the way off, but I have had some get a little loose).
RTT supports: I added center support pillars when I added the RTT. The crossbars to which the RTT are connected are round steel pipe connected to the superstrut with U-bolts (regular superstrut is too tall for the iKamper brackets; the thinner superstrut is not rigid enough to avoid wobble--ask me how I know!). The other RTT support of sorts is the green ratchet strap you see in the first side picture above. If you don't have boats on the top rack, the aerodynamics of the RTT are weird and cause it to wobble while driving. The ratchet strap connects to D-ring tie downs on the side rails to stop this.
Endcaps: Seems minor, but I cut my scalp *so* many time on the ends of these bars. Finally I discovered that superstrut makes end caps. Huge difference!
Padding: This is the extra thick pool noodle. These wear out over time. I think this is my third set.
RTT open: Almost forgot to add pics of the tent! An advantage for our family of having the RTT on the trailer is that it is much lower to the ground. It used to live on the van and my wife was not excited about the height. When camping, we use stabilizers under the four corners.
And just for fun, here is a picture of it going back in the garage--you can see there is really no room to spare!
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