V70 camping trailer

[Simmy]

Originally Posted by Benjammo

hello
I've started building a camping trailer out of an old V70 I've had lying around.

if any of you guys are intersted you can follow the progress on my youtube page....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcN-_x768t4

look on google images lots of trailers made from cars and vans . good luck with the project

[canis]

Regarding weight; With all the interior out, fuel tank and spare wheel gone, window and lock mechanism removed, a lot of weight can be saved. But the hull is still heavy, as mentioned, so some weight saving might be necesary.

I ended up coming to the conclusion that all I really needed was the "skin" of the hull, most of it could be chopped out. For example, when the door skin is welded to the rear wing, there's no longer any need for the door shuts. Most of the door could be cut away, and much of the rear inner wing. What remains could be reinforced with angle iron or box section as necessary (as trailers tend to be) welded to remaining inner reinforcement panels. Obviously you'll need to plan this out very thoroughly. But since you'll be fabricating an entire front face for it from scratch, you're already in deep.

The wheel arches are suprisingly big, from a trailer flat-bed perspective. And there's not really a lot you can do about that since they'll be hanging from the coil springs. Unless you fit a different suspension. Which means more welding and more box section although some weight saving could be gained, perhaps, with the removal ofthe arches. You have to be careful though - the arches (and in particular, where they join the sills) are structural. There are (on the V40) at least three layers of metal, each meticulously shaped for purposes of strength and manufacturing possibilities (it's all folded sheet, remember), it's like origami in metal. Choosing how much strength to sacrifice will be difficult. I chose to leave the arches (and their supporting panel work) alone.

And if you're going that far, you might as well chop out the boot floor and level it. It'll give you more space, and there's no need for the rear silencer void. Now we're in deep. Might as well build a trailer from scratch.

In the end, I wondered if it might be easier just to weld the door skins to an existing trailer! And just fake it! It was after all this over-thinking I decided to abandon the entire thing, at least for now.

As for phtographs, I didn't take any. There's not much to see anymore. The weather for the last 18 months hasn't been kind and the hull is rotten, especially at the sills. You can poke fingers through it. The doors (kept for their skins in case plan 'D' came alive) were weighed in as "light iron" along with a lot of other parts. And the roof.

On the face of it, it seems such a simple idea. And it's certainly been done, I saw a '70s Ford Granada going around in Morcambe a few years ago, dragging the back end of an identical Granada behind it.

I will do it one day. I'm just trying to warn you about letting it turn into a monster. If I was to do it again, I'd weight the car first, and then weigh what I take out of it, and subtract the latter from the former. It'd give you at least some indication of the weight you'll be pulling around, and therefore the kind of payload you can carry within.

But I don't want to put you off. I'm sure it'd be a lot of fun, and it's certainly possible.

[classicswede]

Having built a number of car based trailers with my dad balance is an issue. The rear wheels on the V70 are too far back to make a long trailer from. Keeping it short or moving the wheels forward would resolve.

[DaveNP]

Originally Posted by classicswede

Keeping it short or moving the wheels forward would resolve.

If one were to cut it off between the front and rear doors (keep the door pillars for the corner posts) it would be much better balanced about the wheels, a bit lighter overall and still have 6ft for a sleeping space.

[Benjammo]

If anybody is interested in this, part 2 is up on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/Qz2gxl7as6M