Trailer Dimensions and other questions
 

I have posted this idea her in the past but can't find my old posts so I will start over.

I am thinking about using a Hi-Lo as an expedition camper. The idea it to mount it to the bed of a 10 wheel drive truck that is set up to haul a 20' shipping container.

The trailer would have its axles removed, tongue shortened or removed, batteries will be relocated to the truck frame, as will the propane tanks. The hydraulic pump will be moved to a location that is still accessible when the camper is lowered.

A crossmember will be added at the front and rear to connect to to the container locks.

Fork pockets will be added to facilitate installation and removal.

That is the idea.

First question is how durable are these campers and are they all steel or aluminum framed from 2000 on?

So I am interested in a comper with a cabin length of about 20 feet. I do not want a pop out for obvious reasons.

I am currently looking at the 2000 or newer trailers.

Second question is what is the cabin length of the 22 and 24 foot trailers?

Third question is multi part and involves the height in the travel position is listed as 69" to 71". Is this to the roof or top of the air conditioner? What is the distance from the ground to the frame? What is the distance from the ground to the bottom of the dump valve? Or how far does it hang below the frame?

Fourth question is there anything that hangs down below the dump valve?

quickfarms, do you understand how the hydraulics work for lifting the top half of the Hi-Lo? My reason for asking is that a certain amount of general maintenance (cleaning, lubricating, etc.) needs to be done at least once a year on the rods underneath the Hi-Lo. How do you intend to accomplish that with the axles no longer on the camper and very little room to move around?

Dee
Summerville, SC

A tape measure and flashlight will answer all of your questions.

But Dee has the most informative question.

Thank you Dee, I did not know about the maintenance aspect, I was thinking about the possibility of repairing the hydraulics.

Sitting on the truck bed there is very little in the way of cleaning because the bottom of the camper is not subjected to road debris.

Now to answer your question the camper will be secured to the truck with the same fittings you see on the corners of connex shipping containers. There will be two fork pockets under the trailer located approximately where the outer limits of the tires currently are, the bottom of the pockets will also support the trailer. This will enable us to lift or remove the camper in a few minutes.

If anyone owns one in Southern California I would really like to look at it personally.

There is a 21 in Lancaster listed on CL that I am considering looking at but I really don't want to waste a sellers time.

quickfarms, the frame of my 2009 25-foot Hi-Lo is made of aluminum "tubing," not solid aluminum; therefore, overall, high tensile strength of the frame is lacking for the movement of the entire camper up and down on the "forks" and stress on the joints of the tubing. In addition, appliances in the Hi-Lo may take a beating, especially the 5-cubic foot refrigerator which does not take well to being off-balance and will not work properly when such abuse happens often (by the way, those 3-way refrigerators are expensive to replace from Dometic). Your overall concept is not new in the pulp and paper industry, except (ha!) the industry never applied it to flat bedding campers. Before I retired from a company in this industry in 2002, I would walk out the front door of the research laboratory on my way home for the day and look over into the papermill plant site and see these large vehicles automatically lift these huge steel containers of wood chips for dumping in the wood yard. The framing on the Hi-Lo would have to be at least as durable as those steel containers to take that type of abuse.

Dee

quickfarms, one more thing, when bringing down the upper half of the Hi-Lo (done via gravity), it rests on what I call four outriggers. The only thing keeping the upper half secured in the down position (while sitting on the outriggers) is the weight of the upper half. We know for a fact that the upper half will move if we hit a bad pothole or a severe dip on a major highway. Therefore, regarding your concept of lifting the entire camper on forks, it would seem that the upper half of the Hi-Lo could possibly slide horizontally on the outriggers since in the down position there is slack in the hydraulic cables.

Dee

There is a picture floating around here from one of the rallies where one was mounted on the back of a deuce and a half military truck.

I have seen a photo of that one. It was an older corrugated sided one that was mounted backwards

Dee

You seem to be concerned about lifting the hi-Lo with a fork lift. On the stock trailer the axles carry 90% of the trailers weight. The fork pockets will be box tubing attached to a sub frame the probably will attach to the current axle mounts. When we are driving down the road the hi-Lo will be supported the same as if it were being towed. We are concerned about the truck riding hard and have a option of jointing the hi-Lo on air bags. As far as the off camber is concerned, we do not rock crawl so it is not bad with either the truck or fork lift.

Keep the comments coming

We have a 94 tow lite that I think is called a 21'. The lower box is only 7 wide by 15 long not counting any part of the upper part, bumper, or tounge.
I personally want to do something similar but put it on a flatbed trailer and make a toyhauler. I also want to completely redesign the upper 1/2 as I personally would prefer how a tent popup is made with a slide out queen on each end. If I do keep it the same style, I would make the upper 1/2 with a steel exoskeleton strong enough to park a couple 4 wheelers on when lowered.
I personally wouldn't worry too much about maintenance under, especially if you can take it off with a forklift. I doubt my 94 has ever had any maintenance done under there before I bought it 3 years ago.