[Sandman]

OK, a friend of mine has the remains of a really nice 34' fifth wheel. It was rolled on the freeway and the body has been removed. What is left is the frame, the floor, water tanks and some of the hardware for the two slide outs that it had. It has the jacks, wiring and the battery compartment is there. Basically the whole bottom end. Axles are good heavy duty and the frame is nice and heavy duty.

What I have is a slide in Camper for my truck and my car trailor.

He wants to trade this setup for my car trailor.

I'm thinking I could mount the camper on the front part and turn the back part into a car hauler so I could have one unit for Moab trips and stuff.

The drawback is I loose my easy to use car trailor. The gain is a cool setup for wheeling trips. Even on camping trips I could have a big deck and a place for my four wheeler.

What do you think?



Planet | 4X4 | Forum

 

[muddinmike]

Most camper frames are not anywhere near strong enough to hold the weight your talking about. Check that out before you get too excited. I had a free 20 something footer I could have used but my bronco would crush it.

 

[Towpro]

2 considerations......
1. that much weight on the tongue of a trailer means you better have a tuff tow rig
2. 34ft is a lot of trailer in the fisrt place...can u say "sway"
just something to think about.

 

[JoshH]

Well it is a fifth wheel so it shouldn't be too bad. What would you be towing it with?

 

[Sandman]

This has the frame. Its 10" I beam. It was one of those laaarge 5th wheels.

I have a 1 ton dually xtra cab 4x4 that I tow with. The truck can handle it.

Maybe I'll go take a pic and post it up and then see what people think about it.

My biggest concern is the easy short distance towing to just haul a car around town or something. this would be kinda big to do that all the time.



Planet | 4X4 | Forum

 

[Sandman]

I'm going to head over there in a bit to see if my camper will even fit on the front.

Axles look to be 10,000 pound units. I have decking material and use of ramps and stuff so it looks doable. The tongue area looks pretty beefy also.

I'll post up pics in a bit.



Planet | 4X4 | Forum

 

[muddinmike]

if you decide not to get it see how much cash he wants for it and double check on the axle weights would ya :thumb:

 

[gripguru]

One of my close wheeling buddies used a scrap travel trailer to make a trailer and he hauled his yota on it. We put my jeep on it once too. No flex or bowing on the trailer at all. We only had 4Klb rigs tho. What a long trailer. :deal:

 

[JoshH]

Axles look to be 10,000 pound units.

If they are 10,000 lb axles they should have dual wheels and should have oiled hubs. At least on all my dad's trailers with 10,000 lb axles are like that.

 

[Sandman]

That could be but I've seen plenty of them here with only single wheels. Maybe they are 7500 pound. They look bigger then 5000 pound ones to me.

OK, it used to be a 32" fith wheel. It has a 24' 9" Deck with a 8" 9" Overhang. It has one of those extended hitches and its rated for 15,000 on the hitch. The axles are plenty beefy looking, Much larger then the ones on my car trailor. The frame of the trailor is 10" I beam. I would get all the wiring, the flooring, with water lines, all tanks, axles, wheels, The only thing the guy wants is the hydraulic stuff for the three slidouts that were on it.

I could put my slid in camper on it and extend the front so I can use the entire overhang part for the bedroom. The boxes are there for the propane bottles and the batteries already. With the slide in on there, I would end up with a 16' deck which is what I have now anyway. I could dovetail the back some later. I have wood for a floor and I could replace it with metal when I could. The deck would be wider then my car trailor which is good.

Here are some pics:



Planet | 4X4 | Forum

 

[Sandman]

:deal:



Planet | 4X4 | Forum

 

[Sandman]

:finger:



Planet | 4X4 | Forum

 

[AJ]

fawk.... you haven't jumped all over that thing yet? wassamatta wit you... :finger: :finger: :finger:

 

[AJ]

lol... what does the wife say about having that thing in her driveway? :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

 

[str8six4me]

been done before

Hey my dad done the exzact same thing you are doing, and it worked out great, and did not cost that much to get the hole thing up and going. . . jump all over it. . . :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Sandman]

I told the guy that I would do it. I'm going over there later today and we are going to take off the stuff that he wants and then hopefully haul it over to my place.

I've got plenty of room for it. That parking area that I dug out last year is 55 feet long. :deal:

I've got a new summer project looks like. whistle

Anybody got some scrape metal laying around? Looks like I need some. :?



Planet | 4X4 | Forum

 

[muddinmike]

BLING BLING rims yo!

 

[Sandman]

I got it home. Looks like the slide in is almost exaclty the same width. The camper jacks fit around the original deck so putting it on will not be as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Still going to be pretty ******* for a bit. :gay:



Planet | 4X4 | Forum

 

[AJ]

I got piles of metal and access to old farm machinery that you can cannibalize metal off of if you want..

 

[Sandman]

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind. Maybe I'll bring these sleds up and grab some metal from you one of these weekends for trade if that sounds OK.

I have to do some work on the back and set it up for some ramps and stuff like that. I would love to dovetail it.

I modified the temp floor today and lifted the camper up onto the back. Let me tell you, that was no easy job. doah



Planet | 4X4 | Forum