48' Crawler Hauler build up

[akozman]

For the last 3 or 4 years I've been drooling on my buddy Dar's crawler hauler that he built (26' bunkhouse & 12' deck) and after we went tent camping with the kids this last 4th of July we swore off ever doing that again. So I did some searching on here and found the Mobile Marriot & Texas Dick's builds and picked up some ideas from them. So I've been spending the last 3 weeks working long weekends with friends & my bro on my wife's camper & my trailer as she puts it, lol. We're getting somewhere, should be setting the camper on the new frame this Friday. Right now paint is drying from this weekend.

Started with a 2005 Dutchmen Classic 28' Bunkhouse to hold my wife, 3yr & 1yr old. This should provide us with years of usage. It is ~48', 16' of deck with in floor storage 8'x6'x14", triple axle.....don't worry I'll check my load cycles to be sure they 5.79230 nertdars from the 47^84 quadraceptor +/- 13.4 nertdars.

Back from Sand Blasting



All painted, got a nice epoxy primer and urethane paint










build pics are uploading..............

[akozman]

The first weekend's progress

Day 1 - 5hrs of work




Day 2 - 15hrs later

[akozman]

Weekend 2 progress

Brother burning the gooseneck


Jake burning in floor storage (5'x8'x14") should be plent of room


all 48' of the trailer


bottom of in-floor storage


Ramp holders under the beaver tail


Gooseneck Done!


Gooseneck DONE!


Extra 40 gallons of fresh water

[akozman]

Ramps & Rear Bumper


Rear Bumper


In-floor storage



1 Axle & Tire on, gotta rig it to drive it to sandblast like this


Weekend 3 - was this weekend getting painted. I'm guessing about 160hrs worth of shop time at this point + paint time.

[Soundguy]

Where did you get the rollers from? Looks damn nice so far.

[TexasDick]

Looking good..... I'm going to enjoy this build. Going to check in every now and then grab a Coors light not grimis once at all the small things that have kicked your ass during the day and just enjoy the end of day finished product. OH and also every now and then will throw in some 20/20 hindsight advice, like your fresh water is going to freeze.....

In all seriousness it’s looking cool...... digging the storage

Going with 5k axles?..... if so I'm going to be the first naysayer and predict after all said and done loaded up to the hilt that you will be over on axle weight. Just saying funny how the weight starts adding up.

[LOGANSTANFORTH]

Just curious, why 6 lug axles...At this point I would of went 8...

[yellowk20]

Originally Posted by LOGANSTANFORTH

Just curious, why 6 lug axles...At this point I would of went 8...

If its a Dexter Axle then there's no difference between the 8 and 6 lug axles just swap the hubs and drums . same backing plate and spindle

[PIMCOTRANS]

First to say "It will never work"

double check your load cycles.....

Are you going to put a genset on this thing? If so dont post pictures of the exhaust....it will bring out the haters.

What is the weight of the camper?

Looking sweet, I love all the storage.

[JKOZ]

I think the single axle is going to make it so nice for the ease of turning.

[akozman]

Originally Posted by Soundguy

Where did you get the rollers from? Looks damn nice so far.

Tri-state surplus on eBay $20 each, they're just pipe capped off with a 3/4" rod thru them, if I new that I would've just made them but it wasn't worth returning once I got them.

Originally Posted by TexasDick

Looking good..... I'm going to enjoy this build. Going to check in every now and then grab a Coors light not grimis once at all the small things that have kicked your ass during the day and just enjoy the end of day finished product. OH and also every now and then will throw in some 20/20 hindsight advice, like your fresh water is going to freeze.....

In all seriousness it’s looking cool...... digging the storage

Going with 5k axles?..... if so I'm going to be the first naysayer and predict after all said and done loaded up to the hilt that you will be over on axle weight. Just saying funny how the weight starts adding up.

Looking soooo forward to your insight, I think.....yours turned out bad ass! I wanted the side storage like yours & PIMCOTRANS but the in-floor saved me some dough.

Shoot, thanks for letting me know about the tank freezing never thought of that being in Michigan . Maybe I should get the camper on to help with that. Once winter hits here the camper gets put away & we go skiing/snowboarding, any wheeling trips will be at an econolodge or super 8 if we feel like high rolling . It'll get the 1/4" insulation on the bottom of the frame that I pulled off the camper and I'm sure that won't do squat to keep it from freezing just like the oem tanks but I can say I tried.

Originally Posted by LOGANSTANFORTH

Just curious, why 6 lug axles...At this point I would of went 8...

Originally Posted by yellowk20

If its a Dexter Axle then there's no difference between the 8 and 6 lug axles just swap the hubs and drums . same backing plate and spindle

As for axles, the new axle is what I would call a derated 7k, since it is 6 lug they stamped it as a 6k but it has 1/4" wall tubes rather than 3/16" found on 5.2k & normal 6k's. I'm figuring on the hole thing weighing about 19k+ loaded and a pin of about 2.5-3k so roughly 16k on the axles, and I have axles rate for 16.4k or 17.4k depending on how you look at it. If I'm wrong on my weights i'll get new beams & springs for the 5.2k axles to make them 6k (or as I say derated 7k). I'm on a budget so 3 new complete 8 lug axles, 7 wheels & tires aren't gonna happen. Plus my 10k car hauler has 6 lug so for long trips out west I can have lots of spares to take with me even though I shouldn't need those with all new Maxxis tires going on, those are rated 3k each, my fingers & toes tells me that's 18k so I should be good. Maybe someday when I can afford a double wide without tires holding the roof down, then I'll put 8 lug hubs on it and get those fancy aluminum wheels , probably not though. A new tarp might put me over the edge right now.

Originally Posted by PIMCOTRANS

First to say "It will never work"

double check your load cycles.....

Are you going to put a genset on this thing? If so dont post pictures of the exhaust....it will bring out the haters.

What is the weight of the camper?

Looking sweet, I love all the storage.

I already checked my load cycles, didn't you see my calc's above? If you think I should double check them I will.

No genset for now, left space for it under the front of the deck if I end up with one so the haters can stay away for the time being. 99%+ of the time we camp at water/electric sites and that was in the days of tent camping.

My camper weighs 8200 dry according to the sticker, I ordered 3700lbs of steel, maybe 200lbs in scrap.

Originally Posted by JKOZ

I think the single axle is going to make it so nice for the ease of turning.

I didn't pay you so much to have you spouting off like that go back to killing bambie you have a few more tags to fill. But man that would be sweet with 1 axle, the frame flex was SCARY going to the sand blaster though!

[Soundguy]

Originally Posted by akozman

Plus my 10k car hauler has 6 lug so for long trips out west I can have lots of spares to take with me even though I shouldn't need those with all new Maxxis tires going on, those are rated 3k each, my fingers & toes tells me that's 18k so I should be good.

Forget what I said earlier about it looking nice.

[akozman]

Originally Posted by Soundguy

Forget what I said earlier about it looking nice.

you say that as if your opinion counted for something in the first place

[akozman]

Gotta put a shout out to my crew of helpers.....

1st like always my brother from Koz Off Road, I wouldn't have half the shit I do if it wasn't for his help all the time!

Jake for welding about 25 hours straight on this thing, he cut out a few days worth of work for us.

Matt for cutting tons of steel, literally.

Thom, my electrician for getting me welding plugs and the 2nd mig welder to keep this going.

Chuck for getting me a rediculous hook up on sand blast, primer & paint, and for laying it all down for me....to think I was going to try some stupid shit myself.

You guys helped rock this thing, I was thinking tonight that we only had 7 days of fab time, 2 people solid, before it went to paint.

[Jeep07]

What's the going price for that I beam in your area? Build looks great. Keep it up.

[hadfield4wd]

If those ramps are 1 1/2" angle there is a good chance they will bend. I did the same for mine and they bent the frist time out. I have fixed this though.


Trailer looks awesome.

[joshgammill]

Are your storage boxes going to take in rain water or did you already account for that?

[akozman]

Originally Posted by Jeep07

What's the going price for that I beam in your area? Build looks great. Keep it up.

Thanks, they we're about $190 per 40'.

Originally Posted by hadfield4wd

If those ramps are 1 1/2" angle there is a good chance they will bend. I did the same for mine and they bent the frist time out. I have fixed this though.


Trailer looks awesome.

good thing I went with 2x2 then, glad you like the trailer

Originally Posted by joshgammill

Are your storage boxes going to take in rain water or did you already account for that?

no way water tight, with piano hinges it would be rough to get water tight. I'll put some weather stripping on the lids, the bottoms are sealed off with weld & seam sealer so nothings coming in from the bottom/sides/front/back....after thought would've been to put a gutter around the inside and give it a place to drain, next one. Also the latches, I've looked for latches that would make me happy but I came up with nothing that was perfect to me. I wanted flush ones so when I'm rolling around working on the jeep I don't have a latch in my back so I settled for teh same latches that are on truck tool boxes and I'll make a rubber flap to go over top of them to keep rain/snow out of the lock cylinder and handle. I know they'll be an issue but I coudln't find anything better unless I wanted to spend a $100 on each latch and even then I wasn't convinced

[blue p.o.s.]

trailer looks sweet, as a side, i always wondered what happened to your jeep, and if it was still around.

[akozman]

Originally Posted by blue p.o.s.

trailer looks sweet, as a side, i always wondered what happened to your jeep, and if it was still around.

We've had 2 kids in the last 3 years so I've been a little busy with them. I've been on a few trips each year but been a little low key. This next year our youngest will be 2 so no holds bar is back on again since he'll be able to walk no problem on the trails with momma's help over the big stuff when it gets to ruff in the Jeep or if I feel like trying to break it . Already have a few trips planned for next year, definetely hitting Harlan for Memorial weekend think it's been 2 maybe 3 years since I went there, and that's just sad! The club I'm in always heads to Canada, haven't missed that one yet since it's close to home for me. Plus last year I started going on a 3day/2night on the trail spring thaw run in Canada after the snow mobilers are done, typically they have many feet of snow on the ground but there was basically no snow last year, hopefully this year we see the white stuff.

[sjdiesel]

Originally Posted by akozman

Thanks, they we're about $190 per 40'.

WOW That seems really cheap. What size beams are you using??

BTW Killer build!!

[akozman]

Originally Posted by sjdiesel

WOW That seems really cheap. What size beams are you using??

BTW Killer build!!

Thanks, steel is right around $0.50+/- depending on what u get, they are W8x10, used that & C4x5.2 for the most part.

[72blazer]

Killer build man. I'm definitely gonna need something like this once I actuAlly start to wheel

[montecarlo31]

Too much reading and not enough new pics.....

[akozman]

Originally Posted by montecarlo31

Too much reading and not enough new pics.....

some of us have to work to finish projects like this
















they're coming, it's done.