Not my rig but my project "Siamese Dream"

[Kinder]

*** No Bronco's were harmed in creating this project, all parts were salvaged from doom and despair (read already cut/rusted)***

Since I bought my Bronco a little over a year ago I've wanted a trailer to match. I found as many pictures of other CB trailers that I could and plotted my way forward. I knew there were issues with turning the rear of a bronco into a trailer such as poor handling (not enough tongue weight), the front or bulkhead area is always tricky to figure out, keep the hard top or not, and a bunch of other problems that I'm working on. My intent is to create an off-road capable trailer that can be used as a camper (with the hardtop on) or a hauler (for dirt bikes or any other gear needed). So no bulkhead on this thing, I've grafted the tail light/tail gate section onto the front where the doorpost are usually located and I'm going to add a second lift gate to the top (in the front) as well. The rear and front will essentially be the same and open like a sideway double door, hence the name Siamese Dream. I plan on updating the hitch to a pintle style to handle the off road off camber situations and work out fresh water storage, cooking station and other fun items. I'm going to put the spare tire on the front of the trailer on a swing out to solve the tongue weight problem and and another swing out w/a fuel can or storage box as well. Finally this will never be a pretty trailer, there is too much rust in the panels and too many alignment issues, I don't want to create something that will cause me pain if I roll it or hit a few trees. This is my 1st time doing major cutting, welding and fabbing so for me it is a project to learn from and start building my skills.

[Entourage]

The trailer so cool. I want to do one down the road. I would likely do mine as an open utility trailer with a tonneau cover. I am excited to see how it all turns out. Nice job and take lots of pictures. Welcome to the club!

[Kinder]

Bunch of progress today, only makes me realize how little I know about fab/welding/design! My first time welding sheet metal today and it went okay, considering I had some rusted and ragged metal to work with. I ended up needing to fill some sections so it was a bit time consuming. Some interesting things about this build: after cutting the door posts out and trimming to the existing body line, then adding the tail light/gate section the bolt holes for the body to the frame were a perfect match! So as it sits there is exactly the same distance both in the front and rear of the fender wells to the gates. Crazy, I wonder if that was on purpose or just the Bronco's way of saying "I like my world to be easy."

Still need to rework the hitch to an adjustable pintle set-up, wire the brakes, redo the front of the frame where it attaches to the boom for the hitch and then onto the really hard part... the hard top and the front and rear lift gates. I also want to create an adjustable boom set-up so I can run it long while on the road and short when on the trail. I ended up getting my desired measurement with both gates down to a bit over 8 feet and in the future want to section out the fender wells to 4 ft across. I'd love to be able to put a standard piece of plywood/drywall in the trailer when I am working on house projects. I also want to put an air mattress in when we take it camping.

[Rox Crusher]

man, you don't mess around

[75dlydrvr]

Great for camping...

[Brianut]

What are your plans for the front facing taillights?
I am thinking some clear lenses with some High intensity leds would be cool for load/work lights.

just an idea...

[Entourage]

Great idea about loading lights - very inventive. I think you can take the spare tire rack off the Bronco - I bet you pull that trailer 24/7

[Kinder]

Brianut,

That is along the lines I was thinking of for the empty housings, at first I was thinking of how to close them up, but now I'm working on some type of adjustable (possibly retractable) light for work and camping. I'm working on the wiring the trailer brakes today, I finished up the new hitch yesterday so I'll get some pics up of that today. Plus I added a 2nd spare tire rack to the front w/plans to have it carry fuel or a container for what ever. And yes I think it will be attached to the Bronco most of the time Entourage, except when I go run serious trails. I pulled it to the Barbour Fork trailhead, so I could get some bigger parts from Matt, and it pulled great at 70 mph, so for now I've got the tongue weight correct. I'm not sure how far back the weight will push once I get the hardtop on, but I'll tackle that after I get that part together.

[Brianut]

I will keep chiming in with ideas if you dont mind.
Kick me if I start taking over your project, I can get carried away with ideas.

I hadnt thought of retractable but that actually makes the most sense.
Hows about a retractable cord reel, http://www.harborfreight.com/30-ft-retr ... 66832.html
Mount that inside the trailer with a cover or something to close and seal.

then for the other side run an air hose reel hooked to a co2 tank.
My ideal trailer would need rockwell axles for all it would weigh with the gadjets my brain dreams up sometimes
just ideas.
I may use some when I do my trailer build


BTW where are you in Parker?

I am near blackbear golf course.
Just a few miles east of Parker road off of main street.

[Kinder]

Brianut - are you kidding, some of MY best ideas come from others... keep them coming. I'm west of Parker Rd, up Main St, so just a couple of blocks away.

I cut the second top rear section out and placed it up against the 1st cut top, I'll do a little trimming tonight and try to make a good fit. I had two rusted out tops that were severely damaged, so I'm picking pieces from each to make the best section I can. I'm still working out the best way to seam them together. I think I'm going to overlap the top section and butt the sides, with a small reinforcement section along the bed rail. I got the brakes wired up as well and did a short test run around the block, it went okay but I think I need to push a bit more voltage back and probably adjust the drums as well. The pintle ring is setting a little higher than I'd hoped, so I may add another small box section to increase my adjustability. But I went the route to have both ends of the hitch adjust so I may just live with it. I still need to do something about the front of the frame and the way the boom attaches as well. My plan is to bring a 2x4 box section off the front of the frame and tie it to the boom, then cut out the smaller bracing that is there now.

Some of you may notice a change to the front gate, the yellow one was rusted out (likely beyond a repair), so the green one that I picked up from Matt has taken it's place.

[Kinder]

Last night's work to get the sheet metal lined up for a tight fit

[Kinder]

This afternoon's work was frustrating since it was my first time welding thin sheet metal. I hooked up the gas and tried my hand at real MIG welding and immediately burned a hole, and then another. So I went back to flux-core wire and burned a bigger hole, finally finished with the MIG and got better with each weld. The sheet metal isn't exactly smooth anymore even though I tried to space out my welds, I guess I put too much heat to it. No worries, that sun roof that I cut out will find a new home across the seam on the top. That way when I'm camping out and lookup I'll see the stars! Soon I'm going to have to do something about the color(s), it will likely end up rattle-can black.

[Lobobronco]

Nice work Kirk....

Saw this in person and he has tested it out with some miles... Thought I would hear that thing coming up the dirt road several miles away, but nothing. This is going to be really cool/neat!

What is the plan for the side windows?

Keep it up! And...wow...you work fast!

Matt

[Kinder]

Thanks for the kind words Matt.

Still working on the side windows, I'm thinking of putting the originals back in w/a small additional section to fill the gap. But on second thought I might also do a snap in section for access (made of the same stuff as a soft top) and make a second set made of screen for nice weather.... too many choices, but I need to get it closed up before the 1st snow fall or I'll be hauling snow around. Progress tonight included getting the shock mounts welded to the axle and having my son weld a small reinforcement section to the hitch area that extends above the boom. He is getting pretty good at laying down some beads and will be better than me in no time.

[Viperwolf1]

That is really cool.

[hockeydad4-22]

Thanks for the kind words Matt.

Still working on the side windows, I'm thinking of putting the originals back in w/a small additional section to fill the gap. But on second thought I might also do a snap in section for access (made of the same stuff as a soft top) and make a second set made of screen for nice weather.... too many choices, but I need to get it closed up before the 1st snow fall or I'll be hauling snow around. Progress tonight included getting the shock mounts welded to the axle and having my son weld a small reinforcement section to the hitch area that extends above the boom. He is getting pretty good at laying down some beads and will be better than me in no time.

If you decide to go with glass, let me know. I can help with the custom size. Gaskets are available as well.

[Kinder]

Thanks hockeydad, for now I've cut some plexiglass to fill the area so it is closed to the elements.

Only small progress made in the last couple of days, primed and sanded, cleaned up some of the wiring. I've been running it around town a bit to see how it handles and so far so good. The tongue weight still seems good after I put the hardtop on (i added a hi-lift jack to the boom for some additional weight). Next up is grinding some ugly welds out, making some patches for the floor sections that were removed due to rust, sorting out the frame sections that out of the front, thinking of ways to make the canvas camping curtain sections and props for the lift gates for camping, etc....

[Entourage]

Saw your "Siamese Dream" younger Brother . . .

[PonyCorral]

That is some great imagination! How much weight do you think it will hold? Here is a suggestion if you are going to use it for camping maybe integrate some scissor jacks at the two rear or all four corners and as you drop down the tailgate's you can snap awning around the opening's and enclose both ends like a pop up...Sorry, just thinking outloud!

[Raptoracer24]

Kinder not to sound weird but I am at my friend's house all the time who lives in Clark Farms and I always see your Bronco and was checking it out the other day as I drove by. We live by Southeast Christian Church. So weird. Very nice rig too.

[Jesus_man]

Very nice trailer!! Are you going to add rock sliders to it for protection? I would think if you did that and some sort of over-the-wheel-well tubing, you could keep the trailer off most trees and rocks.

I just saw this thread and I was hoping to get to you before you did the hitch. Here's one a friend of mine re-engineered that does away with the clanking of the pintle style:



There was a toyota bed trailer here in town that I have been eye-balling for months. Already has some lift on it and larger tires with spare and those factory tie-down hooks around the perimeter of the bed. The guy wanted $300 for it, but I never got the time to go look at it closely. I don't see it in that lot anymore, so I wonder if he sold it.

J.D.

[Kinder]

Entourage - That is way too pretty for me, but damn nice and it matches the tow Bronco perfectly.

Pony - Thanks for the kind words, it has a 3500 lb trailer axle under it w/some older 2.5 in lift leaf springs so I'm sure it can handle 2k easy and the hitch is rated for 20k, plus it has electric brakes so it won't come around on me. That being said I'm sure i'll keep the cargo to under 500 lbs. The scissor jack idea is great, I'll just need to find something that will expand that far and I'll want to make them detachable. The canvas Idea is what I've been thinking about since I decided to make both ends pop open.

Raptor - That isn't too weird, I'm outside quite a bit so if you see me outside stop and we can chat.

J.D. - that is a sweet hitch and I'll likely go that direction in the future, I went pintle for know b/c I had all the parts already. I will definitely be adding rock protection in the future but not going overboard since I built it out of old metal that I won't mind a few dings and scratches in it. I don't want the trailer to look better than my Bronco after all.

For now the trailer is in storage and won't be getting any additional work until I return from my upcoming deployment, I'm focusing my attention to all my household preps so my wife won't have any problems while I'm gone, or at least have as few as possible. And I'm trying to find time to assemble my garage project bronco, not going to finish it but it'll be rolling and stored by the time I leave.

[Kinder]

Siamese Dream bigger brother, being built by a guy in the NW, I think it's for sale if anyone wants to take a road trip.

[Jesus_man]

Wow! How long is that?? Just a touch of paint and that thing would look great!

[Kinder]

Time to change things up a bit, I'm going down the expo path with my trailer. I picked up a RTT from a expedition overland dude a couple of days ago. Plan is to build a rack that will bring the tent up to the Bronco's roof level and have shelf and drawer storage below. For the moment I added a couple of 1.5" HREW cross bars after I popped the top off so I can press the tent into service while building the other parts.

[Kinder]

Opened up.

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[Moab Mike]

I like it, you selling the pop up and going with this?

[Kinder]

This an addition to the camper family, the wife likes the popup more so this will be a boys only thing.

[Colorado75bronc]

Sweet dude! I like it!!


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[akaFrankCastle]

You still have room on that ladder. Take it up another 24" or so to keep Yogi from waking you up with a foot massage.