Loki's 416 build (finally)

[loki646]

Well yesterday the trailer saw its inaugural visit to pavement and even some off road. Thursday evening Fed-ex dropped off the new Max Coupler from Adventure Trailers. It was a pricey purchase, but I already love it far more than the Pintle & Lunette set up.

The Max Coupler ($251 shipped from AZ to FL)

Here you can see the new tongue stand with caster. This makes moving the trailer around extremely easy. The only down side I have found is, the stand does not bring the hitch to the correct height when fully extended so I still have to lift the trailer about 3-6 inches to make the actual connection. I could have lowered the stand and mounted it, but I wanted to retain the clearance of the stand when it is in the stored position, so I'm willing to lift the tongue during the hitching process. If it becomes too heavy once the trailer is loaded to lift, well that's what I have a Hi-lift for.

Here I was trying to show just how close I managed to get the trailer's tires to the same width as the Jeep's. I'm about 4-8" less than the JK's tire tracks on either side. This helps in two major ways for me; One, now I can actually see the damn thing in my side mirrors and two when off roading I can judge where the trailer tires are going to be in relation to the wheel placement of the JK's tires during off camber rock crawling. Then so will the camera that will ultimately be coming in the future.:laughing:

Here is another shot to show the resulting clearance between the rear of the JK and the front of the tub. Even though I still have a small battery box and a Pelican 1600 to mount I will still end up with major clearance.

Before:

After:

And finally a cheese shot from the gas station. I needed to fill up the JK so I decided to do a temp wiring of the lights and test the trailer out on the road. As I returned home I found a small construction area that offered a few off camber positions so I played for a few to see how the Max coupler performed and as expected.....perfectly!

Today's agenda: Lining the tub, more permanent wiring and my find of the day: TWO, that's right two Pelican 1600 cases for $160 and they are brand new, barely a scratch on either. One of them will be mounted to the front of the tub to house the switches and radios while the other's use is still undetermined...Possibly a tool box or mess kit.

 

[xcmountain80]

dANG Loki! That trailer looks great! I guess I have to get mine going.

A

 

[loki646]

Well another productive day spent on this thing. As I said in my 3am "I can't sleep and wanted to post this last night but the girl had my Mac all night" post; I got the entire inside of the tub lined with Herculiner as well as found and mounted the secondary gas strut for the lid. All the bare metal is now covered with the exception of a small section underneath that I will hit tomorrow morning.

I just got back from picking up the two Pelican 1600s that I mentioned earlier and even though they are not the most current models, they are still basically new cases, they even still have the tags and paperwork still inside.

Freshly lined

Here is the new strut in the location I mentioned in my original video

You can see how little it interferes with the tailgate opening

...and even a short Qik Flick
YouTube - Qik - M416 with new strut Demo by loki646

The new cases

And at least one of the two's future home which I'm going to work more on tomorrow as well.

 

[rdsk8ter]

looking good

 

[telwyn]

looking really good!

 

[StaceyE]

That is very sharp looking, you do amazing work.

 

[loki646]

Spent the morning putting in the first stage of the "Comm Box". Though I had already mounted the box to the trailer, I had to pull it this morning in order to solve the first problem; how to mount each independent component. The solution was pretty obvious, using a piece of 1/2" plywood. In addition to the plywood I also added the portal for the wiring to pass through.

Using a 3/4" PVC connector I maintained the waterproof seal on both the box and the tub.

Here you can see the inner seal (O-ring) before the plywood was installed.

Next using the same type of fitting, I put in the hole for the CB antenna coaxial to pass through. Once I complete the final stage I'll seal the excess hole with silicone. Sure I could have simply stripped the end of the coaxial cable off and went with a smaller hole, followed by re-soldering the connector once it was inside the box...but I decided on the simple route...

Here is the first part of the install. The end result will consist of a finished "face plate" that will hide all the wiring and actual components. In the end the only thing seen will be the actual outlets, cb hand piece, switches, and the radio (still to be purchased)

 

[loki646]

Past posts update

The following posts were posted elsewhere and I forgot to bring them over here.

 

[loki646]

So today was both productive and disappointing. I picked up a set of Procomp shocks and got them installed.

After hashing out a few options the gang @ Jeepersden and I decided the Procomp ES1000s would be a perfect fit for the trailer. I'm heading out to 5A tomorrow for a day of testing and teaching.

Now for the disappointing part of my day. Against my better judgement I elected to try and weld the 20 gauge sheet to the lid frame rather than pre-drilling holes and simply pop riveting it down. The lid frame warped on me from the welding and now looks like complete ***. Sure I could use a pair of draw latches of some sort but the main problem is I would know it was screwed up.

So now I'm going to try and ignore how F-ed up it is until I can afford to send the trailer over to my friends @ American Metal Products and have them fab me up an aluminum lid.

 

[loki646]

From Jeep Beach

A few Jeep Beach pics:

 

[loki646]

Nothing major to add other than finally adding the faceplate to the "Comm" box. Toggle switch for the lid, rocker switch for the inverter, two outlets from the inverter, and the handset for the Cobra 75.

 

[loki646]

Spent most of my day today getting my CB coax put in and the EVAP protected...However I did spend a little time on the trailer adding so lights.

I took some old LEDs that I had originally used on the TJ as rock lights, they are now being used to provide light to the cargo area without disturbing one's "night eyes". I would prefer deep red ones, but hey these are already paid for. Regular light is provided with a standard propane lantern that gets mounted on a Coleman tank tree.

Next in line are the LED marker lights. I've got one side drying now (using the Loctite from post #38) and when they are dry I'll do the other side since I only have two of these handy wood working clamps. The Loctite is merely used to create a water tight seal, I'll be adding self tapping screws to actually fasten the lights in place.

 

[Dezdan]

Looking good! Thanks for including the parts numbers on the shocks!

How did you wire the inverter to the face plate? Did you open it up and just solder the connections? Also, any fears of the inverter over heating seeing it is now in an enclosed environment? I managed to fry one just having it on the floor board of my jeep and having enough stuff packed around it to diminish its airflow.

 

[loki646]

Looking good! Thanks for including the parts numbers on the shocks!

How did you wire the inverter to the face plate? Did you open it up and just solder the connections? Also, any fears of the inverter over heating seeing it is now in an enclosed environment? I managed to fry one just having it on the floor board of my jeep and having enough stuff packed around it to diminish its airflow.

I simply took a 110 repair cord and plugged it into the inverter and then hard wired the other end to the receptacle. The inverter is more of an emergency use item to me and I doubt I will run it very often or for very long. But there is a lot of open space inside the box. However I do plan to install intake & an exhaust fans using a computer fans like the one pictured below. I'm still working out how to run the power for it though. My initial thinking is to open up the inverter and solder into the existing fan on the inverter.

 

[loki646]

Well I think this build is done with the exception of the new lid. Everything from here on out will be just me tinkering around and adding little things.

I'm now starting to consolidate my notes and things and designing up a new frame and system for building these things taking everything good and bad that I learned from this one. I may even consider selling this one and start on its replacement either this fall or by spring.

The new design will be a more modular approach so I have a true multi-purpose trailer like I had originally intended for this one. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions , recommendations, and compliments. Its been a fun build over all and can't wait to do another one....:victory: