Suzuki Club UK

Hi all,
I'm toying with the idea of building a 6x4 sized camping trailer out of box section. I'd be trying to keep it light and simple. Preferably less than 500kg when fully loaded. With provision to mount a roof tent in the future.
This is mainly for the daily driver (Skoda yeti) but I was thinking it would be nice to have light off road ability to follow the Samurai.

That got me thinking a samurai rear axle and leafs might be a good base for the trailer that would track the samurai nicely and not look too silly or tall behind the Skoda either.

Has anyone done something similar or would you advise against it?

Thanks,

Larry

Few people have toyed with the idea. Me a few times.

Knowing what i know now, i wouldn’t use a back axle though. Heavy old lump and needs the diff leaving in. Extra drag, more fuel, lower ground clearance blah blah blah....

Two front hubs and an appropriately sized piece of tube with some flanges welded on to mount the hubs.

Yeah, that makes sense I suppose. Just keen to use Suzuki hubs and wheels, bearings etc!

If going down this route is there a preferable hub in terms of strength or bearings? I don't know enough about the internal differences of SJ axles

Hub idea would also allow for adjusting track width of trailer which could be useful for getting a nice flat bottomed trailer bed with not wheel arch protrusions! Obviously not wanting to adjust too much to mess up tracking of tow vehicle.

Also see attached inspired sketch!

Front hubs off any SJ / Samurai on discs. All the same.

Bearings are the same. Same parts that fit your Samurai would fit.

Perfect, thank you. If I decide the trailer is a good idea I'll post some pics when I have something interesting to show!

Please do, I toyed with the idea and even bought a knackered caravan to strip down and use the chassis. Ran out of time so ended up turning it into a flat bed trailer to sell, but was planning to go with a tear drop caravan to tow behind the SJ on longer greenlane weekends.

Hope you do it and share the progress!

Some good inspiration here for the chassis layout - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/off-ro ... ld.986458/

Although it gets a bit too purpose built towards the end for me.. I want something that can do tip runs etc also. So I'd be forgetting about the mounted fridge and I'd go for a removable hinged lid on gas struts.

Quality looking trailer though.. I love the wooden table mounted on the wheel arch! Simple and effective.

So I've kind of wussed out of building this from scratch purely on the basis that I found an absolute unit of a 6 X 4 trailer for a bargain price.
For now it's just a handy, heavy duty run about, but I'm planning to make a lid of sorts for it to make it into a camping trailer.

Off-road wise, the suspension is too stuff for a camping payload and it's braked, the mechanism hangs low between the wheels so either needs to be moved to improve clearance or at the least, protected with box section etc.

Its plated for 750kg but I reckon it's engineered for twice that.

Probably a bit heavier that necessary for the jobs at hand but it's all metal and in good condition.