Embedded Files
The first set of photos shows us collecting the plant trailer from Dwellingup. Then in no particular order, me doing the first set of measurements and cuts for the steel fabrication, test fitting Punimog to get all of the openings in the right places and finally, the first bits of steel going together. The measurement pic was taken 05/11/2023 The trailer was on the road, and on the way to our first destination after the weighbridge trip in 3 weeks and 6 days. Not bad for an amateur... With help of course... Cheers for the help Dad.
Collecting the Trailer from Dwellingup
Test fitting Punimog on the trailer bed. The original intention was to place the car dead centre on the trailer, but due to the width of the Jimny, it made the boxes on both sides too skinny.
We decided to move the car to one side to allow for much wider storage boxes on the passenger side of the trailer.
Continuing on with the steel work - Main structure is 100 x 50 RHS Duragalv with 3mm wall. I tried to keep much of the profiles long side vertical to provide strength, however, in some places, reducing the height was more critical.
Where required, welds are ground flat to allow the cladding to sit flush.
We elected to keep the open expanded mesh floor for two reasons, it was already there, and we couldn't be arsed removing it and replacing it with what would have been a more maintenance intense material.
The Gasless Mig welder came in handy again.
At this stage, I will point out that if you intend to do something like this yourself, you will need to choose between making all of the parts fit as required or making the parts according to measurement and altering the fitment as you go... I discovered through time, that the trailer was far from perfectly square and without prior damage, causing some areas to need packing up or alterations to parts to allow for the inconsistencies across the trailer bed... Cladding is a great deceiver...
I chose to make the canopy for the trailer removable for two reasons.
1, It makes the trailer adaptable, allowing me to remove the top and use it as a flatbed again, and 2, The canopy can be treated as a load in the sense that it has no impact on the TARE of the trailer. We had the trailer weighed at the local weighbridge and got an official invoiced weight of 2360kg. The original TARE on the plate is 1360kg - therefore meaning we have a 1000kg load fixed to the flatbed attached with 16 High tensile M16 bolts.
Along with the 100x50 RHS, we have used two lengths of 50x50x 3mm SHS. These provide horizontal and vertical connections to give structural support and fixing places for the hinged doors.
You will also notice small but important gussets bracing the main beams. These are included for diagonal bracing to prevent the frames from flexing from left to right in wind, rough roads and cornering.
Elsewhere, I used 25x25 painted SHS to create dividers and supports for less critical areas like shelf supports.
Doors are made with 25 x 50 RHS Painted, They are made in place using window packers to create even gaps, then using a secret welding sequence taught to me by years of experience ( Bull S&*^%), I blasted them together with the gasless mig and hoped that they came out close to straight... (Most of them did... A couple are pretty crook but nothing a quick flogging with a hammer and lever didn't fix.)
The bottom of the box, you will notice is a further 25x50 RHS. This was installed to provide a surface to act as the bottom frame of the openings as the original trailer sides are a little worse for wear. The LHS is 12mm out of level through the centre of the main beam, so this acted in two ways to improve things. Providing the lower door frames and hiding the bend in the trailer...
On either side of the number plate are two doors, behind which are a set of 2.950m aluminium ramps. We were really lucky with these as a bloke was clearing out some stuff from a plumbing business and we got them for a steal... $500 bucks from memory. Not bad for 3t rated ramps. I did have to re manufacture the sliders underneath as the previous owner had different ramps that he required for his next project.
I used 25x50 RHS around the bottom of the box to provide not only strength but a uniform bottom frame for the doors that would be coming later... As mentioned earlier the trailer has had some heavy use in it's past and as a result, the sides are less than perfect, so these stringers also act as a place to later attach some flashing to tidy up the sides (should we decide that it is necessary).
Doors done, but unlike the Mog canopy doors, these are made to be flush with the framework. I was not too worried about dust and water ingress with the trailer, though, the way I executed the doors and cladding, we have achieved a pretty dry and dust-free environment inside the trailer.
Photos below show the trailer frame complete with all of the door frames made, just prior to a second test fit of Punimog.
Off to the park to see how close we came to smashing the roof of the car into the beams in the trailer roof.
Once the car had the front wheels over the top of the ramps, we still had 60mm clearance between the car roof and the closest beam... bargain.
A Suzuki Jimny JB74 has a rampover angle of 28 Degrees. Our ramps are 2.950 Metres long and the trailer is 890 to the back of the tail giving us a ramp angle of 26.6 degrees. Obviously, the car went up without issue.
We will still need to pay attention to our levels when on rough terrain though. If the ground behind the trailer is a fair bit lower than the trailer, we could, in theory, increase the ramp angle to more than 28 degrees. We can compensate for this though by lifting the trailer with the front wind-up leg support of the trailer.
Nice shot showing the HD ramps we picked up. They are nice and light and stow securely under the trailer floor.
On with the cladding... We chose 2440 x 1220 x 3 mm Aluminium composite board. It has three layers with one side being Gloss white ally, a middle layer of polyethylene (HDPE) sheet and a further layer of ally in matt grey.
When applying the cladding, we used Sikka Flex 11fc to all contact surfaces to bond the sheets to the frame. Then, the cladding was pop riveted using 4.8mm x 9mm blind rivets.
All corners where required are flashed in a 50x50 ally checker plate corner moulding that we had custom-bent at a local sheet metal shop...
You will notice a busy beaver here in these shots providing a valuable lending hand... That would be Keith, my Dad.
The large door (Shown below), gives access to the Punimog driver's door when it is in the trailer. At first, I had calculated that we needed two 1000NM gas struts to open and support his door due to its weight and size... Well, once installed, I went to test the door and damn near broke the frame. I go 90 kg (I wish) and could practically hang off it. Back to the drawing board... After consulting the experts at Strut Specialists in Osbourne Park... I walked away with two 650 NM 1300 long struts.
Guess what, they worked a treat.
It's quite funny how many people ask how we get the car off and on the trailer. A couple of people have wondered how we get into the car when it is all closed in...
The trailer has a set of 4 x 250 watt solar panels on the roof providing 1kw of 24v dc to the solar controller.
All electronics are laid out on the marine ply board shown in the following series of pics and in them you can see the general layout of the items that make up the system.
We have an Epever 60 amp MPPT Solar controller, a 3000w Itech world Inverter, a 40 amp AC BC Lithium profile battery charger as well as the usual bus bars, switches, outlets and fuses that one would need to stay ontop of the power situation. We have also installed a Victron Smart Shunt that allows us to monitor our current battery and load status via a smartphone app.
All of this supplies power to a pair of Kings (Yes Kings) 200 amp lithium batteries of the Blue Top Variety. Having 400 AH on board is great.
If the Solar supplies are a bit on the low side and it is needed, we have a Honda 2.2KVA genset that we run to send power directly to the 40 Amp battery charger that keeps the battery bank topped up.
We also have the option of running our 240v gear directly off the genset too if need be.
All of the other doors have been fitted out with gas struts via UES they are available from Bunnings warehouse and we used 350nm 600mm stroke units. Only about $22 bucks each from memory.
This shot also clearly shows the steel checker plate we installed to give traction plates in between the wheel tie-down points.
We used good quality synthetic turf for the floor and it can easily be washed down to remove dirt and dust should we need to.
Has anyone noticed the dummy rails?... I used 40mm NB Black Pipe, the same material as the bar work on the Mog. The idea behind the rails is to provide a guide to get the car centred correctly in the trailer and they have proved to be a perfect addition to the build as there is no room to have the side mirrors in the normal driving position when loading or unloading the Punimog.
Having a toy hauler to carry The Punimog and extra stuff is great, but, the fact that the trailer is enclosed makes it a bit difficult to secure the car when in transit.
After a few attempts calling various departments of Transport, none of whom had any real answers for us concerning what we legally had to do, we got some info from the WA distributor for Lock and Load.
Allan has a tow truck driver mate who suggested that three fixing points at a minimum are required.
So with that in mind, we had to work out a way to get to the left (passenger side) wheels... The ones against the inside wall of the storage side of the trailer.
The solution came with the inclusion of two slide-up doors that work on sail track for runners. A bit rudimentary, but hey, they function well.
The Lock and Load Transport System was then purchased to complete the requirements to secure the car during transport.
Each strap is rated to 2000kgs and the clip-operated strap fixings make them a breeze to use.
To get yourself a set of these if you are in WA, please get in touch with Allan at Quality Batteries in Maddington
If you are outside WA please go to the Dealer Locator Page HERE
We have done about 1500km with the system in place and have had no real issues other than user error which we are now all over. (Had one come loose due to a strap in the wrong slot)
A really quick Lock and Load Video showing the way the system works.
Our Porta-bote is housed beneath the car and as can be seen travels strapped down to the floor. The seats and other boat related parts are stored in the overhead bunks only accessible from in the trailer once the car is out... You can see in the photo below, that the area above the top line of the outside doors there is a storage are accessible from inside that is about 600 x 600 mm were we keep all sorts of stuff. Securing the doors are three padlocks.
The front of the trailer carries two 9kg Gas bottles that are removed when in use. There are also 2 spare Kumho MTZ 235 85 r 16 wheels located on large all thread rod for quick release when required.
Protecting the cladding from flying stones and rocks is a sheet of 2mm ally checker plate.
The trailer carries a Kings 110 litre Upright Fridge in the front bay, alongside of which is the battery storage section, and it also is the area where we charge all of our electronics etc.
Further along the trailer, behind door 2 is the place where (depending on the nature of our trip) can have a second fridge. (in this case a dual zone 95 litre Travelmate by Evakool). We also carry bulky items like bedding and spare cartons of grog. This fridge has since been replaced by another CFX3 DZ95 Dometic fridge. It was purchased on Jan 5th 2023.
The rear door on this side is where I carry the tools and spares for our trips away. Oils, filters, Hoses and belts.
The driver's side of the trailer has another door right at the front... Behind this is our washing machine. It is a 9.0kg frontloader and is a much cheaper option than the usual caravan-style units that can be over 2k to buy. This was less than $%00 bucks and it works like a charm. We wash on cold water, so it draws about 12 amps when running on average... A load runs our batteries down by about 10%.
Although we have 1000kw of Solar on the roof of the trailer, we can also set up one or even two sets of Itechworld 300-watt solar blankets. I can switch between Roof Panels and Remote panels using a rotary switch to choose where the solar power is coming from.
This photo shows us set up at Greenbushes Pool around Christmas time 2023.
Trailer Specs:
GVM: 4.5t
Tare:1360kg
Length: 5.0 m bed plus 2.2 drawbar Total Length 7.2m
Width 2450mm
Height to bed from the ground: 950mm at the middle when level 850mm at beaver tail
Total height at top of box 2650mm
Brakes: 4 x 12-inch magnetically actuated electronic drums with six stud hubs. The trailer is also fitted with a breakaway system.
Rims: 16-inch Landcruiser 6 stud heavy-duty 6-inch
Tyres: 235 85 r16 Kumho MTZ x 6 including spares.
Hitch: Pintle.
Weight when loaded with car: 3460kg or 3.460t. This leaves just over a further 1000kgs for an additional load to remain under legal weight.
A few minutes of the build on YouTube
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse