Bike trailer restoration / modify to camper trailer

[Shooter114]

A friend and I bought a 3 bike trailer approx 5/6 years ago, its all steel bar the ply flooring painted black, has slipper springs, 31" A/T's and a normal tow hitch. We built a frame to hold the front wheels of the bikes that bolts onto the draw bar through u bolts and added a jockey wheel. Nothing fancy by any means but its held up well with little maintenance and with a fair bit of bashing around offroad etc and is still light enough for one person to move around by hand on small hills etc. 

But recently its in need of some work where the ply is falling part, surface rust is starting to show on the steel and the slipper springs feel rusted together.
The cheapest and easiest option would be to replace the ply with some form ply, wire wheel the surface rust and use some bed liner to recoat the whole thing, repack the leave springs and do a few little add ons like jerry can holders, toolbox, spare wheel holder and redesign our draw bar frame ( its solid but a bit weighty and obstructive ).   

He's more of the mind set of doing just the above which I get, and am half tempted to do myself but the other half of me says we could use steel checker flooring instead, add some mounts and build a frame for a roof top tent, convert the slipper springs to eye to eye springs and semi enclose the front etc. He's not to keen on the RTT but the only hindrance it'd have to him is some mounts on the trailer, I'd just remove the frame and tent when not in use. 

So to start off - my questions are:

 Are slippers springs that much worse than eye to eye that it would justify swapping them out ?
What bedliner products like rhino liner have you guys used, how much did you need, cost etc ?
Would 2mm steel checkerplate be thick enough to use as flooring provided enough support, if so could you go thinner to reduce weight?

Pictures attached for reference

 

[vern]

Heres some pics of mine i built, could fit 4 full size bikes on it.

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[vern]

I used off road trailer springs, and 2mm sheet for the floor etc..

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[IanS]

Slipper springs are just as good as eye to eye, if yours are just rusted you can cut the centre bolt dismantle and clean the rust off the leaves and reassemble  (do not lubricate between the leaves) but given the cost of new springs I wouldn't worry about it.
Never use bedliner so can help there.
The thickness of the floor sheet will depend on how much support there is under the floor, have a look under the next box trailer you see and compare it to yours, they use flat sheet that is less than 2mm

[Hoyks]

Personally, I'd go with a form-ply floor. Steel is good, but also heavy when thick has a tendency to get dented if it is thin and lacks support underneath. It will also rust out if you get mud, leaf litter and moisture trapped in the corners.

The form-ply is self-supporting, can accommodate tie downs wherever you want them and can take a flogging with only minor surface damage. The only down side is that it can be slippery, but some strategically placed patches of non slip tape can help with that.

If someone wants to roll out a swag on the trailer under the tent, then it will be warmer to sleep on too.

Any surface finish is only as good as the surface you are applying it to, so any rust or loose paint will have to go.

Bed liner is good, flexible and will hide a multitude of sins, but for that reason I wouldn't use it. If anything starts to crack, then you won't be able to see the cracks until it breaks completely.
A few coats of enamel will make it look new again and if you put an ally toolbox on the front it will protect most of the trailer from stone chips from the tow vehicle anyway.

Slipper springs, they do the job. Eye to eye might be a tad better, but I don't think it will make much difference for your application. If the ones you have are doing the job and the tricked up trailer isn't going to see them overloaded, then I'd pull the old ones off, wire wheel and pressure wash them and then hit them with a few coats of chassis black. They will come up like new.

The jerrycan holders, I put them on the existing deck, either side of where the bike wheels go. The holder can help keep the wheel in place and having them off the side of the trailer is asking for them to be ripped off by a tree. Depending on what state you are in, there is something rule about carrying fuel within the confines of the vehicle. This hopefully stops it being the 1st thing hit in an accident.

[Shooter114]

Thanks for the replies guys,

We've worked out that we'll use 2mm steel checkerplate and brace where necessary, this way it'll be less likely that we have to replace the floor again and the trailer will be full steel vs steel/ply and will be able to weld directly to it. Weight wise the checkerplate would be less than 20kg extra overall, so not too bad.

We're looking to replace the axle as it has had new stub axles welded to it but they are not perfectly aligned so it crab walks a touch and goes through bearings quicker than we'd like, at this time we'll see what axle and springs we can get in a package ( more likely eye to eye ) and then replace it all.

Anyone had any experience with huntsman products? They seem to do a lot of cheap trailer components, dunno about quality though ?

Vern, dig the set up mate - did you have any more pics of mounting and hinges of your hinged RTT? Was thininking of something similar to make loading and unloading bikes easier ! 

 

[vern]

I will see if i can dig some up. I made the frame so it all bolted togethor for ease of removal. The lift up bit i did the same as a trailer tailgate using hinge pins.

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