My new cargo trailer/Toy Hauler

MuddyBuddy wrote:

Boy you got some skill!! I think you might of inspired me as well!! I think I might have to get me a enclosed and start the transformation....

I am thinking the same thing. However, it will have to wait. I have a house to build......

8ball_99 wrote:

My little half Ton truck pulled it easily even with both machines and the front loaded with camping stuff. I had NP running 70-75 on the interstate. I even passed a dodge diesel going up a hill on I-40. He was pulling a 5th wheel toy hauler which I'm sure weighed several thousand pounds more, but it was still kinda of funny to me.. He passed me later, on level road since I had cruise set to 70. (same when I passed him :) )




11ish saturdaynight

12:30ish sunday morning lol


Packing up to go home

I'm looking at a 26 ft by 8.5 today, I drive a 1/2 ton as well, I was a little concerned about pulling it, but sounds like I shouldn't have a problem. Plus this trailer has no water tanks, just a furnace and cabinets....

As long as you use a load leveling hitch and SWAY control you should be fine. I know my 24' x 8.5' sure moved my 2500 Cummins around before the sway control. I have air bags so I didn’t need a leveling hitch on mine but with a 1/2-ton you will.

Big-R wrote:

MuddyBuddy wrote:

Boy you got some skill!! I think you might of inspired me as well!! I think I might have to get me a enclosed and start the transformation....

I am thinking the same thing. However, it will have to wait. I have a house to build......

Sane here I gotta finish redoing my downstairs before I make any MORE major purchases

A 26x8.5 is a bit more trailer then mine. That 8.5 width adds a lot more drag going down the interstate then the 7 wide does..Not sure how much it matters. A lot of it comes down to the truck.. I've got a buddy that would get knocked around on the hwy just pulling a 6x14 with is 1500 chevy. But he had a standard cab and I'm not sure how the truck was setup.. My Tundra is a 4 door, has the 5.7 motor so it has 385 hp and 401# of torque. It also has a tow package with transmission cooler, ect, ect.. Its rated for something around 10,800 for towing. I can tell you 100% that it pulls my trailer Easily.. I just got back from windrock not 6 hours ago. Its over a 4 hour drive for me. I pulled this trailer from macon georga to Huntsville AL, Then from AL to brimestone twice and now to windrock. It hasn't gave me a lick of trouble. Half the time it was in the rain like today. I do have a EQ hitch but no sway control. If the trailer is loaded right and the truck is pretty big it shouldn't sway much at all. Some times going down large hills the trailer will sway while trying to push you.. If you just bump the brake control it fixes it.

Great looking trailer. Did you remove some of the metal floor joists to fit the tanks in? Did you place them directly beneath the toilet and shower, or did you set them in the middle of the trailer and run pipes to them?

All nice stuff.....Double-Tree for me tho...........

dwball7 wrote:

Great looking trailer. Did you remove some of the metal floor joists to fit the tanks in? Did you place them directly beneath the toilet and shower, or did you set them in the middle of the trailer and run pipes to them?

A standard cargo trailer has the joist at 24" on center.. I had mine built with them 16" on center.. Most holding tanks are 20-23 wide. So if you really don't want to mess with moving the joist your better off just getting them 24" on center or maybe just have the first 6' of trailer like that.. I was fine with moving a couple of them. The way I looked at it if you pick the exact spot where you want the toilet or shower drain to go and there is a floor joist there. If they are 16" and you move it over 4 inches no biggie now you have a 20" gap between those two.. But if they are already 24" center and you want to move it over 4" well then you end up with a set of joists thats almost 30" apart.. Right where you will be sitting or standing.. I figured it was better to have more joist then you maybe need vs not having enough..

One thing I'll point again though. If you guys want to add holding tanks and hot water to a cargo trailer. You need to get a trailer that has decent ground clearance and enough toungue space for Gas and a battery. If you get one with drop axles you can always add a lift to it for like 50 bucks. Its just blocks for the spring hangers. Straight axles like whats on mine though are really want you need besides they are 200.00 cheaper the drop axles. Torsion axles will work depending on how they mount them. Holding tanks will need to stick down below the frame at least 3" for the dump valve. Consider that when we camp we are pulling off the road in fields, driving on back roads, ect. Your not going to want a race car trailer with 6" drop axles that you cant roll a basket ball under in the drive way. Your just going to end up dragging your tanks and plumbing off it.
You can still get a V nose and have room on the tounge, But you have to get one with an extended toungue.. You also need that if you want to run a standard weight distribution hitch. Extended by how much just depends on the company.. Some trailers have almost no toungue while others just need an extra 6" or so. If you tell them you have a weight distribution hitch that should be about right.

BTW we still love the trailer. I haven't really done anything else to it. Wife added curtains. I made a spice rack for the kitchen area. Stuff like that.. I did add a Bluray player above the fridge not to long ago.. We found one minor issue with the way I had it setup up.. The radio is also a dvd player and is connected to the tv and all the speakers in the trailer. Which is great cause you can watch a movie and have the sound over the trailer speakers.. Problem is say you have a 4 year old laying down fixing to go to bed watching a movie. Well there is no way for us outside to have the radio on while he had a movie in. So now we have another DVD player so he can be watching a movie inside and we can still have the radio on outside..

Took some measurements of my trailer today and it looks like I will need to raise it a little. How deep/tall are your tanks and how much clearance do you have from the bottom of them to the ground or in your experience with you trailer what would be a good minimal clearance to have? Is your fresh water above the deck?

Ground clearance depends a little on the length of the trailer and where the tanks are.. Black and grey water tanks on mine are about 8"-9"tall. My fresh water tanks are mounted under the trailers floor and they are 12" tall. Trailer is about 18-19" off the ground measuring from the bottom of the joists. The floor Joists are 6" tall. So you figure from the bottom of the floor to the ground I've got about 2' foot. Only reason why I my freshwater tanks are ok hanging down so low is because they are mounted between the axles in the middle of the trailer. My trailer is a little taller then it has to be. I like it cause hell I can hop a curve with it if I need to lol.

For just normal grey and black water tanks I'd say you probably want the bottom of the trailer to be 12"+... Plumbing will be down atleast 3" So that still leaves you a good 8-9" of clerance. Just have to figure enough room for pot holes, drop offs, curves, ect. On the longer trailers when you pull into a steep drive the front of the trailer dives down. Kinda of like when you pull off a hill the rear of the trailer tends to drag. Since the holding tanks will be in the front this can be an issue with a long low trailer..

Very Nice job!

This is an awesome build !!!

This is why I don't bother cleaning up my Rzrs till I get home.. Got to say it feels like Im cheating a little when its time to clean the trailer. Blow it out with a leaf blower then a hose pipe and scrub brush makes short work of it. Start in the bathroom and work my way back

Nice..... Cheater

Did a little upgrade to the redneck toyhauler. I've been wanting a second battery onboard cause when we camp with out hook ups the one battery doesn't go to far. Besides I have been wanting to add an inverter so my son can watch TV and so we can charge things like walkie talkies, camera, ect with out needed to run the generator. No room on the tongue of the trailer for two and even if there was I wouldnt' want that much weight so far forward. After seeing a few trailers with cargo hatches in them for spare tires I figured why not make one a little deeper for batteries.. Since I had to cut a hole anyway I went ahead and made it a little bigger to hold fold out chairs, ect.





Picture of the 600 watt true sine wave inverter. Its mounted under the cabinet and has a remote witch up to for turning it on and off.. Its wired in to the same circuit the outlets are on with a transfer switch. So long story short. Push the button and it will flip the inverter on and power the outlets in the trailer. Even if the trailer is plugged in the transfer switch keeps the inverter from back feeding.


Last but not least I added some solar panels and a charger. I have two more on their way but doesn't look like they will be here before next weekend.. So I went ahead and installed the two I have. All four panels will equal 320 watts. It should Really cut down on the need for the generator. Also when the trailer is sitting at the house there won't be any need to keep it plugged in!

Very Nice

Damn Will, you are pimp-in that thing out. Way cool!

Big-R wrote:

Damn Will, you are pimp-in that thing out. Way cool!

Thanks, Haha well you know when you don't have a trailer payment it makes it easier to add little odd and ends The inverter and the extra battery are things we have kind of been needing. I have a small honda generator so the solar panels wasn't something we really had to have. When we dry camp though we leave the vent fans running to help keep the trailer cool. Both fans running pulls around 4 amps. So with that constant draw and running the pump and a light here and there the battery would need charged by afternoon when we would come back from a ride. Even with my small honda it seemed like a waste to run the generator just to charge the battery. The plan is the panels will off set the power usage during the day and should even replace what we used the night before.. So the only reason to run the generator is to power the AC or the microwave.
I had the same problem in the winter with the furnace kicking on and off. The battery would get a little low after running all night and during the day. So again the battery would be low when we would come in. It pulls less power then the two fans so even in the winter when the panels output is lower they still should be enough to keep the batteries charged. Guess we will find out! If anything atleast I can say I'm green after I get out of my diesel 3/4 truck and rip around in the woods with our SxS because I have solar.

GO GREEN !!!

I had a few people ask how the panels were working at brimestone so I figured I'd post a little update.. The panels are awesome.. We never needed the generator. Between the panels and the two batteries we had all the power I needed.. I even ran our 110v awning lights off the inverter for several hours a night with np.. By the time we would come back to the trailer for lunch the batteries were already charged from the night and mornings usage.. After seeing how much power we had from them I kinda of wish I would have went a head and got a 1000 watt inverter so I could run the microwave off it.. I haven't really measured their output, but right now both my vent fans are running in the trailer and the radio is blasting and the charger is showing the batteries are fully charged. Since I installed them I have removed the fuse in the converter. This keeps it from being able to charge the battery at all. So the only charger on the trailer has been the panels.. Well worth it, we can camp anywhere now with out me having to run the generator several hours a day just to maintain the batteries..

Excellent job on the hauler /camp station.