Putting drop down wheels on a camper

[MNBIGBEAR]

I see this has been touched on in some other posts but have any of you guys done this? I am looking at a 20 foot camper that I can pick up pretty cheap and was thinking about retro-fitting it with some drop down wheels. It is dual axled but was just thinking if I move the wheels to the outside of the house that it might just work. Any advice?

[Ryan_V]

if you move the wheels to the outside of a camper, you'll be over the width limit to legally pull it down the road. If you want to do the camper thing, you'll have to keep the wheels there and fab yourself up some "sleeves" to go down from inside the camper to the ice to keep wind/etc out. You see lots of old campers out there, so it's been done!!

[motley man]

Also insulate the floor as they don't have any insulation. Skirting is the way to go as a double axle trailer would be to heavy for winch type drop down. Made skirting for one that slid up & down on sides. Or just put skirting inside and put out when set-up.

[skinnylee]

if you can weld just look over a boughten trailer it well give you a good idea you will have to remodel the wheel well and make them taller I did a 18ft camper with tandam axles but I cut it down to a single axle without any problem we do a lot of weekend road trips it weighed in at 3300lbs you will have to figure the weight to see if the axle will handle it

[svonasek]

I've seen plenty of dual axles crank down houses. It didn't look that hard to replicate.

Any idea on how much it weighs?

[herefish101]

a camper is made to sit on top of the axles. the way the pivot wheels attach the camper frame would have to be beefed up quite a bit as all the tortion goes strait to the pivot point instead of across the springs via the solid axle. scince the axle in the dropdown is basicly the frame.

[MNBIGBEAR]

It looks pretty beefy. Its a 1974 Fan Camper. Not sure on the weight but don't think its a "lite" model. I know people with welding skills and deepening the wheel wells would possibly be an option. I have seen some good pictures of tortion systems on some of these posts but is there anywhere that you guys know of where I can get a diagram for something like this to show my welding buddies?

[svonasek]

You get me drawing off what you have and I can probably figure out drawings of what you need

[Shadow]

I'm also considering adding a single drop-down axle to a tandem axle,17 foot camper I have. My first step would be to weigh the camper. My camper is 7 feet wide, so adding drop axles to the outside would make it around 9 feet wide, which is 1/2 foot too wide. That doesn't bother me because I'd get a permit to haul it to LOW, and would probably leave it there at a resort. If I went through the effort I would probably increase the height of the wheel wells and place the axles so the fish house tires would track the same as my pickup tires. Here's something else you should consider. On my camper, the middle beams that run the length of the camper are the lowest part of the frame. I'm concerned that if these beams froze to the ice, I would not be able to free the house. I'm considering welding a 2" x 4" tube around the outside of the frame for the house to sit on. It would strenghten the frame, and allow me to free a froze-down house by chipping from the outside. Good luck, keep us updated on the project

[skinnylee]

I have not had a problem with it freezing down knock on woood Ionly leave it in one spot for a week at a time

[MNBIGBEAR]

I was also considering just making a frame with the wheels that would fit under the camper body. Figure any strength issues would be taken care of then. Thoughts on this?