 | Home > Expedition & Overland > An Anorak's Expedition Trailer |
 
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| AJC Member Since: 30 Nov 2015 Location: Lancashire Posts: 1329  
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i actually don't have any recent pictures of it. saying that, it hasn't changed since phase 2 of development.
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8th Jun 2022 1:34pm |
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| AJC Member Since: 30 Nov 2015 Location: Lancashire Posts: 1329
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 Click image to enlarge Thats all i took from last jaunt |
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8th Jun 2022 1:36pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240 
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Ha ha, I'm not sure that helps
 I think the last picture that you shared was when you were fitting the fridge door - the rest was just a shell with a big hole in the side. Darren
110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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8th Jun 2022 2:14pm |
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| AJC Member Since: 30 Nov 2015 Location: Lancashire Posts: 1329
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i'll have a route through the archives tonight to see what i can find
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8th Jun 2022 5:03pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240
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After many weeks of work, I finally managed to take the trailer on its maiden voyage last weekend to the Land Rover Legends show at Thruxton Racing Circuit. Towing was, as expected, uneventful and I even got in a bit of mild off-roading on arrival:
Click image to enlarge Setting up took a while, partly because I'm still finding my way around the best way to do it and partly because I was 'flying solo'. Got there in the end, though: Click image to enlarge All of the bits and pieces that I've done to it worked as intended (except the gas safety cut-off, which it turned out I'd wired in backwards  ) and the lights in particular were a big success:
Click image to enlarge Next things on the list include making mounting brackets for the solar panel and refinements to the kitchen storage arrangements. There's nothing like a bit of real world testing to find the weak spots! Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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14th Jun 2022 9:56pm |
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| stew 46 Member Since: 26 Jan 2012 Location: Wadebridge ,cornwall . Posts: 561  
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Looking good
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14th Jun 2022 10:32pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240
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Over the last week or so, I've been making brackets to fit the solar panel to the front of the trailer. I've mentioned before that in the original build the solar panel was on the roof but was removed with the fitting of a much larger tent. When we bought it, the panel was loose and for its use so far has just been propped up on the A frame. It was always my intention to re-mount it on the trailer though and the front panel was really the only option:
Click image to enlarge I knew from the outset that I didn't want to reinstate the complex sun tracking system that was fitted originally but I did want to be able to angle the panel somewhat, to make the most of the available sun. To achieve this I came up with the idea of using a pair of window friction hinges. They're self-contained and easy to fit, more than strong enough for the weight of the panel and made of stainless steel so won't rust: Click image to enlarge Having removed numerous old fittings from the panel frame, I drilled new holes on each side to receive the hinges, which were each fixed with 4 no. M5 stainless button head bolts. I also sandwiched a length of black plastic angle between each hinge and the frame, which act as covers for the hinges when the panel is in the stowed position. I'm hoping that these will protect them from road grime and grit. On the trailer, I mounted two lengths of 40mm aluminium angle, each with 3 no. M6 bolts and each drilled to correspond with the other side of the hinges. I fixed neoprene gaskets to the rear faces of these brackets to keep water out of the trailer and more neoprene between them and the hinges to separate the two metals. All of the bolts were isolated with nylon washers, too. Click image to enlarge There's still quite a lot more to do to finish this off: I need to make some sort of catch to retain the panel in the stowed position when travelling, re-route the cables from the roof to the front panel and probably also make a travelling cover for the panel to protect it from stones. I think the latter will probably be made of some sort of plastic sheet but haven't fully decided yet. Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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10th Jul 2022 4:38pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240
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An early start this morning, to beat the heat, allowed me to install some more substantial brackets to retain the gas bottle. As bought, it had a single curved plastic one of the sort you'd find in a caravan gas locker, which in itself wasn't bad. However, the fact that it was only secured to the wall of the locker with a couple of small self-tapping screws was, particularly when coupled with the fact that it was restraining a 15kg bottle. I think the only reason it hadn't pulled the fixings out was that the securing strap was also pretty poor as it used a friction buckle that didn't stay tight.
So, my solution was to fit two brackets, fixed with M5 bolts drilled through the wall: Click image to enlarge On the other side, each fixing has a spreader plate made from 6mm nylon sheet (the bolts were a bit longer than I needed): Click image to enlarge One fixing point is inside the adjacent wardrobe whilst the other is within the wheel well. To these I added a couple of straps with cam buckles that are both easier to tighten and much more likely to stay that way: Click image to enlarge I'm now happy that the gas bottle will stay put and not rattle around the locker: Click image to enlarge Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia Last edited by LandRoverAnorak on 16th Aug 2022 10:03pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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13th Aug 2022 12:44pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240
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Another heat busting early start allowed me to finally install travelling catches on the solar panel.
There's a bit of a saga to this as my original cunning plan was to make a cover from an acrylic sheet with brackets that would hook over the panel at the top and then be secured at the bottom with anti-luce fasteners. This would serve double duty to pin the panel in place. It didn't go to plan, though. Having made all of the brackets and glued them onto the sheet, I hung the cover over the panel with a view to marking and drilling the holes for the fasteners the next day. However, the glue failed in the heat and the cover fell off and cracked. It was a significant waste of time and money (the acrylic sheet was £40 alone) but on the up side, it didn't happen when driving along 
All of this told me that a more mechanical solution was called for and I found a pair of stainless steel, sprung shoot bolts that fitted the bill. After a bit of trial and error, I bolted them to the bottom edge of the panel: Click image to enlarge The solar panel frame is some sort of composite, which prevented me from fitting them too close to the outer corners and because they were further inboard than I'd hoped, I had to make a couple of spacers from some nylon block that I had kicking around. I drilled and tapped an M5 blind hole in one side for fixing to the panel brackets and then carefully marked where the shoot bolts touched to drill for those on the other side. As the shoot bolts are asymmetric, both parts were slightly different: Click image to enlarge The spacers were bolted to the bottom ends of the brackets that support the solar panel: Click image to enlarge The shoot bolts engage with the spacers with a satisfying clunk and keep the panel firmly against the front of the trailer: Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge I've still got to make a cover for the panel but I think I'll go with something more lightweight that can be fixed with velcro or press studs. Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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14th Aug 2022 11:16am |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240
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So, after the disastrous first attempt, I've now come up with a different solution using an old ground sheet. Carefully cut to size and trimmed with sticky-backed velcro, the inside is lined with thick felt, which should keep the panel safe whilst travelling:
Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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24th Aug 2022 5:06pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240
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It's been a bit manic this week as we're prepping to take the trailer away for the weekend with the whole family for the first time. Anyway, one of the jobs that I really wanted to get done was to build some brackets for transporting a pair of waffle boards.
If you're going to take a trailer off-road, particularly a relatively heavy one such as this, then I consider some sort of bridging ladder to be essential kit. When the ground gets lumpy, it's considerably more difficult to pull a trailer up and over something than it might be to drive over and these can help enormously in those sorts of situations. Plastic waffles fit the bill as they serve for both bridging and as a traction aid, and also have lots of other uses around camp. They're also relatively inexpensive. They are quite big though, and the nature of their use means that they can get very dirty, so a means of carrying them on the outside of the trailer was needed. Options for location were limited and on the front below the solar panel was the obvious one. I was surprised that I couldn't find anything off the shelf and so I set about making my own brackets. These comprise a couple of lengths of 40mm square aluminium tube, a pair of M12 antiluce fittings and some matching threaded sleeves. A bit of careful measuring, cutting and drilling resulted in these: Click image to enlarge The square tubes are bolted to the front of the trailer with two M8 bolts each, the right hand one re-using some existing holes and also covering up a couple of others. They have neoprene gaskets on the rear faces to seal the panel. Each 'arm' comprises an M12 bolt passing through the tube from behind (the rear face has been drilled to clear a 19mm socket) and incorporates a thicker piece of ali as reinforcement. Onto that was fitted a 50mm long threaded sleeve, leaving about half of it empty. Another sleeve was cut down, so that together they are the same length as the thickness of two 38mm waffle boards, and threaded onto the antiluce fitting. The protruding thread was then cut down to about 25mm and screwed into the first threaded sleeve. It was quite fiddly to get all of the measurements correct for the antiluce to work properly. I drilled out a couple of thick circles of ali chequer plate that were left over from the jerry can bracket refurb and lined them with neoprene to act as spreader plates, like so: Click image to enlarge There are some compromises: the waffles have to be mounted far enough to the left to clear the front marker light, which then obscures the mains connection socket. Not the end of the world as the waffles will likely be in use when we're camped somewhere. Also, the brackets aren't particularly central as I really wanted to use and hide some of the otherwise redundant existing holes. That's just aesthetics though and over all I'm really pleased with the way they've come out: Click image to enlarge Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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24th Aug 2022 10:57pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240
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Much like the AUTO REVERSE BRAKE PIPE, the way that the towing electrics cables had been routed and supported left a lot to be desired, mainly comprising randomly placed cable ties.
Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Once again, it was enough to make my teeth itch and so I fixed it today with the installation of a series of stainless, rubber lined 'P' clips bolted to stainless rivnuts set into the bottom face of the chassis rail. The work also included re-routing and re-fixing the air intake pipe for the space heater but this uses existing threaded holes that I think were for part of the original wiring loom. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge The thicker conduit is for the cable to the 12 pin towing socket whilst the thinner one is a reverse light feed to the auto reverse brake valve. Ideally, I would have run this lot on the inner face of the chassis rails but a Sankey chassis has a surprising number of obstacles that make that impractical. The final task to complete this area will be to make/relocate keeps for both the 12 pin towing socket and the Anderson plug charging cable but I still need a cunning plan for that. Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia Last edited by LandRoverAnorak on 5th Sep 2022 2:56pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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31st Aug 2022 10:34pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240
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I also planned to give the two Jerry cans a bit of a spruce up today but got carried away and ended up dismantling them for a complete re-paint
Click image to enlarge Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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31st Aug 2022 10:42pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240
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For anybody that's still reading this, you may remember that I'd wired up the emergency gas shut off button backwards a little while ago and it should have been a ten minute task to change it around today. However, whilst fiddling around with the button, I discovered that it wasn't actually fixed to the trailer. The button is a panel mount unit but as the thickness of the trailer walls is greater than the length of thread on the button body, it was sort of just wedged in the hole
Consequently, it hadn't sealed properly and had let some moisture in 
Click image to enlarge The above photo also shows, on the right, the hole for a connector socket for lights that were underneath the awning, which again was barely secured and not sealed against the body. My solution was to open out the hole for the button to clear the whole of its body, which allowed me to cut out the damp bits, and make a cover plate from thick plastic angle that it could be properly fixed to. I've used plastic angle as it's easy to work with and provides some weather protection. The rear face is lined with neoprene foam to seal against the trailer body: Click image to enlarge I've left off the awning light connector for the time being, as the wiring to it was a mess and was removed when I reworked the KITCHEN WIRING, but the option is there to reinstate it if required: Click image to enlarge Also shown in the above picture is a new number plate light. The original was an LED unit but some of the individual LED's had failed. It also didn't quite project out far enough to properly light the plate since mounting that on spring loaded brackets, so a plinth was also required. Unfortunately, again the trailer wall thickness proved a challenge as the mounting bolts on the light weren't long enough, so I cut down the plinth to about half of its thickness, which seems to be good enough: Click image to enlarge Again, the rear face of the plinth is lined with neoprene to provide a seal. Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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1st Sep 2022 11:42pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11240
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And today I finally sorted out the wiring that started the whole sorry saga:
Click image to enlarge The stop button controls a solenoid valve on the gas line that serves the hob, which it turns out is a 'powered closed' type rather than the 'powered open' type that I'd assumed. This means that when the button is pressed, it needs to make a connection to feed power to the valve, which in turn means using a different set of terminals. Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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2nd Sep 2022 11:42pm |
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