Sankey Wide Track "Expedition" Trailer Build

Thought some people might want to see our Sankey "expedition" trailer build for those considering doing it. We are not the type to make things fancy and we want to keep it on a low budget as possible so we are fabricating everything we can ourselves - soo perhaps it might help/inspire a few others! If it shows any interest, I will keep the thread updated as progress is made.

It's for the Range Rover, not the Series - a few reasons why they want to go for a trailer - of course to store all the equipment, jerry cans, camping stuff, spares, etc etc...but also they want a roof tent...but don't really want it on the Range Rover as for a start it means taking it on and off the rack when it's not in use...and actually getting a roof rack which doesn't flap about in the breeze is proving a little difficult. Also means that everything is in a contained unit - so when it comes to trip time (they also do quite a lot of camping in the UK), quick checkover, hitch up and off you go!

We actually swapped the trailer for a very tired Series 1 chassis and a few Series 1 bits - we were never going to build the Series 1 in reality so made sense to get rid of it. So the first job was to strip everrything apart and replace most of the mechanical bits - hitch, brakes, electrics, lights (NAS lamps) etc. Chassis was in very good fettle and that was mainly clean up, inspect and paint:





The plan is to put the jerry cans in the trailer. The annoying thing is that the body is not quite tall enough for the cans to sit upright, which is just not good enough, so cut the top off the trailer and created a lift for it. The gap you see will be filled in with metal sheet and stregthened where/if required.




On the Sankey, the rear tailgate opens out downwards, which will be annoying leaning over that to try to get stuff out (the
trailer will have a cover, and a roof tent on t, so you wont be able to get at stuff from above). So that has to be changed. So set about making our own tailgate:



Using standard LR Hinges which I think keeps in look with the trailer:



Obviously need a door hitch/lock so created a frame for a standard LR Series door lock:



And from the inside...you will see we welded a thin frame for the tailgate to butt up to, as well as acting as an edge for the seal and for the tailgate lock.



Thats pretty much it for now! Next job is to tidy up the frames etc, paint everything up and put a skin on the tailgate.

:clap2: that looks brill m8y

Thanks

Looks cool

I like the idea of a camper.

What welder do you have? are youy still learning

oooooo.....liking this alot!

keep it coming

That looks smart keep the photos coming.

looks good definitely a lot less of a ball ache than my one is going to be lol

Glad you all like

Moss does all the welding! And he certainly isn't a beginner! The welder not sure what it is, but has seen better days tbh, and doing it in the wind isnt so fun. Obviously none of that welding is finished - most of that is just tacked in!

looks good definitely a lot less of a ball ache than my one is going to be lol

Click to expand...

I take it yours will have a few more features then!

I like that very cool! Be interested to see how the project progesses

Looks great Rusty.

Now someone told me it would be a real ball ache of a job to change the nato hitch to a standard hitch ??

Any thoughts or words of wisdom anyone

Bromsgrove Defender said:

Looks great Rusty.

Now someone told me it would be a real ball ache of a job to change the nato hitch to a standard hitch ??

Any thoughts or words of wisdom anyone

Click to expand...

you can get an adaptor.........dont know how good they are though. I've got a nato hook in the standard place on my rear xmember and a ball on the bottom of a drop plate. Can get most lightweight ball hitches on no trouble but have to remove the nato hook for heavyweight ball hitches...........only takes 5mins and I mostly tow a sankey anyway.

you can also get dual purpose nato/ball hitches but I understand they vary in load rating so you need to be careful.

Dont see why it would be problomatic to swop the ring for a heavy duty ball socket. Would have thought at worst you may have to weld a mounting bracket on but thats not exactly rocket science

blue beasty said:

Dont see why it would be problomatic to swop the ring for a heavy duty ball socket. Would have thought at worst you may have to weld a mounting bracket on but thats not exactly rocket science

Click to expand...

Thats kind of what I thought and most of my towing would be the tin tent anyway. Thanks Beasty

Bromsgrove Defender said:

Looks great Rusty.

Now someone told me it would be a real ball ache of a job to change the nato hitch to a standard hitch ??

Any thoughts or words of wisdom anyone

Click to expand...

Yeah you could change that over I suppose - but we did not want to. I reckon the Sankey hitch is going to better and stronger when bouncing about off road at speed than using a standard ball hitch?

Instead, we changed the Range Rover about. We have the Sankey trailers but we also tow regular ball hitch trailers. So we have made a removable Nato-style hitch so we can quickly swap between the two types of hitches - and also means that there wont be a hitch in the way dangling down for when it is not needed (green laning, regular road use, etc)

The hitch mount itself is made from 12mm plate using 16mm pins. Have not just bolted this to the bumper and hoped for the best...using a very strong home made bumper, which has spreader plates around the hitch mount and stronger mounts and extra plates connecting it to the chassis...it is likely that the chassis will pull off before the mount does!

Bumper mount...

rustyrhinos said:

Yeah you could change that over I suppose - but we did not want to. I reckon the Sankey hitch is going to better and stronger when bouncing about off road at speed than using a standard ball hitch?

Instead, we changed the Range Rover about. We have the Sankey trailers but we also tow regular ball hitch trailers. So we have made a removable Nato-style hitch so we can quickly swap between the two types of hitches - and also means that there wont be a hitch in the way dangling down for when it is not needed (green laning, regular road use, etc)

The hitch mount itself is made from 12mm plate using 16mm pins. Have not just bolted this to the bumper and hoped for the best...using a very strong home made bumper, which has spreader plates around the hitch mount and stronger mounts and extra plates connecting it to the chassis...it is likely that the chassis will pull off before the mount does!

Click to expand...

Very nice job......ideal solution. Might pinch this idea when I get my hands on a welder

Go steady off-road though...............your hook doesn't swivel

Thanks

It will swivel...will come back to that

To answer the question about the tow hitch...the hitch which is bolted on at the moment isn't the one which will stay, we are using this one:



Finished off the tailgate (needs painting of course):





Then to work on the storage side of things again....where the jerry cans are in this pic is where they are staying...if you could image the trailer will have a lid covering the whole top, but where the jerry cans are there will be hinged lids. So started work on a "bulkhead" to split between the cans and the rest of the trailer...overkill on the 2" angle but thats because other bits will end up coming off that...



Giving an idea of the spaces that will be created...eventually! The wheel will stay pretty much where it is, strapped down somehow.



That's about it really! Not a lot of progress, but pogress nontheless

good job :clap2: i like

Thanks

rustyrhinos said:

Giving an idea of the spaces that will be created...eventually! The wheel will stay pretty much where it is, strapped down somehow.

Click to expand...

Looking good Rusty.
If your gonna use the trailer for camping though, I'd mount the wheel on the outside using a rear door wheel carrier at the front above the a bar

Thanks

The trailer will be used for camping...with the roof tent on the top. We did consider mounting the spare on the a bar...but we did not want too much weight on the nose of the trailer for a start. It also gets in the way of our ideas for access to the jerry cans...if you can imagine where the carry cans are now, there will be hinged lids that fold forwards (they cant go backwards as the trailer tent wont allow it). If the spare was on the a bar, that would be pretty much where you might want to stand to lift the cans out. If any of that makes sense! We also want to make use of the sapce in-between the jerry cans, so that will be another hinged lid compartment. Have not completely ruled out the idea of mounting it there though!