Off Road/Grid Comanche Camper Project

[Airborne Janitor]

Not sure where to put this project, it is "technically" Comanche....

 

A few year ago I was in search of a replacement long bed for my MJ and stumbled across this deal on craiglist, a few states over in Montana. Older gentleman had pieced together the frame, long bed, and a camper shell for a trailer project, but never got around to putting the pieces together.

 

 

So I took a trip out to Montana and drove home with all the parts.

 

 

I'm going to pick up where someone else left off and then some...I want this to be a camper I can park at the trailhead when I go wheeling/hiking and still have several modern conveniences. Running water, propane for heat/cooking/hot water, solar panels for power, air conditioning, and a nice mattress to sleep on.

 

I began to build out the tongue. The frame was cut right where the front of the bed is and measures 3"x7" inside the "box". Finding 3x7 tube steel was near impossible, so I found some 5x3 and 2x3 in 1/8" thickness at the local metal supplier. Because I want to use this trailer offroad I wanted a hitch set up that would articulate well. I found the Max Coupler by CU Offroad after doing some youtube research, and ordered their MC5000 50* bolt/weld coupler kit.

 

https://www.cuoffroad.com/product-lines/max-coupler-line/

 

This made it a littler easier to build out the tongue and measure out my materials. The inside of the coupler actually measured out to 54*, and I ended up welding it to the tongue, maybe I should've bolted it for easier maintenance? Oh well...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Oh man, this one's gonna be good

[89 MJ]

This is the way campers should be. I like the plan you’ve got going. 

[MiNi Beast]

In. 

[Drahcir495]

Excellent - something I would love to do myself. Will be following 

[A-man930]

Following!

[Airborne Janitor]

Cool to see so much interest in the project already. Got the safety chains welded onto the tongue.

 

 

Had a few MJ leaf packs lying around, so I picked the "best" ones out of the bunch and separated them to knock off all the rust. They'll be getting the POR15 treatment soon.

 

 

Took the Dana44 from my parts MJ and pulled the cover and the shafts. I know it's kind of a waste to have this axle under a trailer, but it was available, was already set up for spring over, and did not require any additional fabrication or money on my end. Gears and axle bearings looked good.

 

 

I think I'm going to move the big drum brake backing plates over to my XJ. Which begs the question, do you need brake hardware to run the axle? Since it's for a trailer can I just shove the axle shafts back in and bolt them up? Are there any issues bolting the wheels to the shafts without a drum?

 

 

[A-man930]

14 hours ago, Airborne Janitor said:

Are there any issues bolting the wheels to the shafts without a drum?

 

 

I can't think of any problems it would cause, unless the hub "pilot" were sticking out too far for the wheels you're using 🤷‍♂️

[M.T.Hands]

Looking very nice

[MiNi Beast]

Balance issues maybe. Run it and fix it along the way. Less weight the better. Means you can pack more bacon. 

[Airborne Janitor]

Got the bed on today!

 

 

 

 

 

[Drahcir495]

Looking good

[Airborne Janitor]

Springs rebuilt with new hardware. 

 

 

Waiting for the paint on the shackles to dry...

 

 

Rear axle prepped and waiting for paint.

 

 

I was missing a few of the dual thread studs that mount the bed to the frame. They are size M10 x 1.5 x 50mm. I found some turbo/exhaust studs that were a close enough match.

 

 

Got the diamond plate fitted up to cover the front bed gap. Going to weld up the floor/platform in the next few days. 

 

[fiatslug87]

I would be banging my knees into those sharp corners daily.

[Airborne Janitor]

2 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said:

I would be banging my knees into those sharp corners daily.

 

I know right, the plate is gonna get cut to follow the contour of the frame.

[Airborne Janitor]

Got the diamond plate platform cut and welded into place. 

 

 

 

Axle painted and reinstalled. In reference to a question I had earlier I do have to run some type of brake backing plate on the axle even without brakes, otherwise it creates a gap between the axle retainer plate and the seal. Tightening down the retainer plate puts too much preload on the seal and will cause it to leak without something to fill that gap. 

 

 

Here's the trailer jack I'll be using, the Ark OR500 off-road trailer jack. This thing is a beast.

 

[M.T.Hands]

Very nice work, and I sure like that jack

[Airborne Janitor]

Got some painting done...

 

[jeff351]

Very cool. Great fab work there!

[Airborne Janitor]

Thanks!

 

Paints dry and I got the wheels/tires on. To fix the issue of not running any brakes/backing plates I got some extra axle retainer plates and bored them out so they could go over the axle seals, but still be used as a spacer to fill that gap where the backing plate was.

 

It definitely sits pretty high, especially with no weight in the bed. Eventually with all the extra options like a 20 gallon water tank, propane tank, batteries, etc it will come down in height. But right now my main goal is to keep it under 2000lbs because then I can register it as a utility trailer here in Idaho which is an easier process than registering it as a camper.

 

[M.T.Hands]

Looking good

[Airborne Janitor]

I spliced the MJ tail light wiring harness into a 15ft 4-pin trailer harness. Have not tested them yet. Got the spare hoisted up to add a little weight. 

 

 

Got the Ark trailer jack installed. Probably the nicest trailer jack I've seen, everything operates nice and smooth without any binding. And thankfully it's tall enough to work with this current set up.

 

 

Rear bumper arrived today, just in time.

 

[M.T.Hands]

NICE you may have mentioned it in this thread and I've overlooked it but who did you get the rear bumper through???, I like it and would like to replace the aftermarket bumper the previous owner had installed on my 88

[Airborne Janitor]

3 hours ago, M.T.Hands said:

NICE you may have mentioned it in this thread and I've overlooked it but who did you get the rear bumper through???, I like it and would like to replace the aftermarket bumper the previous owner had installed on my 88

 

It's the Fey/Westin 63000. I've been running it on my MJ for years now and have been happy with it. It is not a heavy duty offroad bumper, but a nice light duty bumper. I've never paid more than $200 for it including shipping, either off amazon or ebay. The mounting brackets are separate, part #97900

 

[M.T.Hands]

1 hour ago, Airborne Janitor said:

 

It's the Fey/Westin 63000. I've been running it on my MJ for years now and have been happy with it. It is not a heavy duty offroad bumper, but a nice light duty bumper. I've never paid more than $200 for it including shipping, either off amazon or ebay. The mounting brackets are separate, part #97900

thanks