East Olympia Cruisers Forum

Picked up the tent. I set it up quickly or some pictures and get a first impression. Of course it was raining so I had to set it up in the shop. I was not able to open the annex and install the walls but the main tent fit (just barely) and I like what I see so far. Well made with heavy sippers and double seams. I have some questions on the travel cover but everything else looks pretty good. Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to mount it to the trailer. I think a bit of extra bracketry is required and will have to pack the tent back up and flip it over to get a better idea. I will get more pictures one I get it permanently mounted and can set it up outside.












A few more pictures at Off-road tent trailer build, part 3 | OlympiaFJ60

Hopefully I will have these available by summer. Still waiting on ocean shipping rates. Also looking into the need for fire retardant fabric before I announce a price.

The size of the tent closed is 90" (~7.5') long, 66" (5.5') wide and between 6"-12" tall. The width was selected because that is the width of my trailer outside fender to outside fender. I believe the M416 is roughly the same. The base is designed to sit 54" off the ground. Open, the tent is 17' wide and 15' long (7.5' each for main room and awning). The peak is 8'. The tent fabric is 10oz rip stop poly cotton canvas and the floor is 13oz PVC. Polls and ladder are steel. The base is 3/4" marine grade plywood with a metal frame under for added support. There are two hatch doors in the base for easy access to trailer storage once setup. There is a 3" foam mattress. The entire tent weighs roughly 350 lbs.

I am still working on the mounting. I am thinking of offering a mounting frame at additional expense or having the customer provide their own mounting method. The frame would fit customers trailer and have hinges, latches and struts.

I am also looking at a slightly smaller tent. About 78" long by 60" wide on the trailer and 10' by 14' on the ground (6.5' for tent and 7.5' for Awning). Otherwise, the same features.

It will be similar to this. I am waiting to hear an estimate on cost and weight.

I am putting together an initial order for the large trailer tent. I will make the tent available to the first 8 for just over cost. I will announce the price on Monday.

Been working on the tent a little bit at a time in the evenings this week. I added a channel to hold the welt of the cover. I think this cover is made for the slightly larger standard tent made by the company. I will request a more snug fit on the edges on the production tents. I also added a little bit of extra tubing the the frame that was supplied as part of the base. This was to add a little strength as well as a better sealing surface against the trailer box.



This also covers a little better the area under the hatch doors. I started welding with the frame on the tent base using a welding blanket with whole in it to protect the tent and cover. I had one spot where the hatch was not all the way closed and burned the foam sleeping pad a little. At least it didn’t all go up in smoke.:doh:




Before heading out to set up the tent I remembered to weld on the stabilizer legs. I used a pair of weld-on tongue jacks with drop legs that have a large “sand foot” for the base. This will give plenty of lift to accommodate uneven terrain. They are a 3000# bulldog side crank jack. This is way overkill but I thought it would be easier at the time. I think next time I will go simple and use a steel pole through a color and a T bolt to clamp it down. Theses work nicely as gaurds for the tail lights though



This was my first time setting it up and it took about 20 minutes with the help of my 8 year old son. The tent is unfolded from the trailer and the bottom is staked down (it comes with two sets of stakes, standard and extra heavy duty 12" spikes). Once staked down, the poles are lengthened on the inside to bring all slack out of the tent walls.

Next is the awning. The awning uses it’s own set of poles. Setting this up was the hardest part of the setup. It helps to have a second person to hold one of the poles as you attached the rest of the structure. Four poles attache through the tent wall to the inside pole structure.





Here are a few of it set up

Here are a few pictures of the Awning (annex) walls installed as well as a few of the other bits of the trailer.

The tent wasn’t difficult for me to set up by my self the first time, but two people will be helpful. I started by removing the cover, removing and setting aside all the poles, guide lines, stakes and awning (annex) walls. Next I pulled the tent off the trailer spreading the PVC floor out as tight as I could. This also pulled the two ground length internal poles off the





The walls for the annex are as simple as Velcroing the three panels together and to the tent. They also Velcro along the top. Fully deployed, the tent has two windows with rain covers and six windows that can role up. All windows as well as the two doors have mosquito netting to keep bugs out.





The Kitchen slides out through the opening in the tent panel at the back of the trailer.



The roof vents, there is one in each outer end of the tent.



And the tent stakes. There is a set of the standard size metal stakes as well as an extra heavy duty style that is about 3/8″ thick.