I thought it would weigh a lot more well done for the job you did😍😍😍👍😎

@MariusBotha

2 жыл бұрын

You and me both! I was worried. Did the calculations before hand but thought it must be wrong. I thought in the region of 1350... was so happy with the outcome. Thank you

The van is going to tow like a dream. With this weight the Ranger will not even know that there is a caravan in tow. Well done and looking forward to the next video. 👏👏

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much sir, Really appreciate u taking the time to comment on the videos!!! Thanks

Well done sover.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Baie dankie!!

2426.6 lbs before water, food, tools and gear, but you've bulk product (canvas, weatherstrip, etc) you need just a portion of. In my world, a small trailer like yours won't weigh more than 3000 lbs/1360.7 kg. Nice work, for sure, especially since it's all steel. Looking forward to your results using your positive pressure ventilation system for those dusty trails. Safe travels to you from those of us here on the west coast of the USA.

Beautiful build! I’ve been toying with the idea of doing this same type of project for me and my family as well! I love the shape and design of yours, it reminds me of the UEV-490. I appreciate you being so generous, and sharing your build with the rest of us. Thanks again and keep up the incredible work. Cheers from Texas.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

And Thank you for watching and writing a comment. Makes it all worth it. It mostly based on the younger brother of the 490.. the 440, Here by us they call it the Conqueror companion. I just sorted the niggles I had with them...and saved a lot of money😂 Cheers

I love that you show your mistakes, and how you fix them. Brilliant work, bud.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much sir!!

Awesome!

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Glad you think so!

great work marius nice to see a fellow South African showing his skills.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Just winging it over here... Trying my best.. Lol

Hi everyone, Not much was done this week, I was sick so sorry about that. I did manage to get my hands on the scales so I thought it good to put all the rumors to rest regarding the camper weight. Enjoy and I'll see u soon!!

Great news on the weight. Must have been nerve wrecking waiting for the scales to check it.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Yep for sure.. Turned out great at least. Thank you for watching.

Thanks for the comforting thought, I am using steel and aluminum to reframe/rebuild a 50+ old camper and am concerned about weight.

I’m impressed. I am excited to see what end result will look like.

@andrewdenobrega6476

3 жыл бұрын

I can't wait. I'm curious as to how everything comes together.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Cant wait either.. Soon soon I hope!! Thanks for watching!!

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

That makes two of us!! :-) Thank you

Excellent news and great job on your part!

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!!

Baie goed Marius!!! Jy het my geïnspireer.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Baie dankie!

Jong Marius jy moet maar begin om daaraan te dink om eaens te bou . Hou van wat jy doen dis stunning well done

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Baie dankie vir die kompliment. Ek sal serious tools kort voor n mens kan dink aan n customer se geld vat vir n wa..lol Mense hou nie van wag nie :-) Baie dankie en Cheers

This is so awesome!

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!!!

Hi Marius, you should add the batteries and Fridge and power pack as well to the overall weight. Awesome and superb job thus far. Love seeing this and thank you for sharing your labor of love with us!!!

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Hi, I just wanted to weigh it as all the manufacturers weighs their units dry to compare. When I'm done I'm am gonna weight it as a final tow on a trip also. Some manufacturers even state their "dry" weight without their awnings as they are detachable.. just to get a light weight for the brochure. This was just to get a nice ide of where I'm at. Thank you for watching !

@bryanp771

3 жыл бұрын

@@MariusBotha yes your thinking then makes sense now thank you. Loving the videos.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

@@bryanp771 Thank you for watching!!! Appreciate it!!

Hi Marius I am very impressed with your project. I can see you replicate a Conqueror Companion. I own a Companion for 11 years and are still very happy with it. It has a place for everything. If I may propose or give a few tips for you for this caravan it will be the following: 1. Where you have your 4 crates on the right side, put in 2 sliders for them. One for the top pair and one for the bottom pair. It makes live very easy. 2. Throw away the Gabriel Safari shocks. Put in proper OME, Iron Man or TJM. Don't go for Tough dog shocks either, they are only good for dog kennel gates. Your suspension is the most important part of the whole caravan. Make it super strong. Pity you did not go independent suspension. The stiffer your suspension are the more it transfer the vibration through to your caravan. I never had anything breaking due to bad roads when I went through Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Mozambique. If your towing vehicle can handle the road you know your caravan can also. 3. The Companion has 2 x 80l Water tanks which I found ideal. 4. The space in the Companion for the 2 x Deep cycle batteries are very limited and can only fit a 100 or 110 A battery in. I would have liked bigger space for bigger batteries. 5. I like your design with the roof. It gives you better ventilation. Afrispoor Cheetah got rid of the horisontal beam/support over your front bed which gives you a lot of space when using the front bed. This is why I only use the side bed (even if it is smaller than the front bed) and kids the front bed. I don't like crawling into bed. I am very impressed with your quality of your craftmanship. I cant wait for your next video. Paul

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much for the feedback. It's mostly the companion design yes. just changed the niggles I had with it. 1.The crates have a slide for the bottom ones.. thought that if i want to access the top ones I'll slide the bottom ones out and just pull the top crate onto the bottom one that would then form a table.. ill still show that in an upcoming video. 2.The shocks I installed are the same as used on the rangers so upgrading them will be a very easy swop in the future. I agree with u 100%.. for now its all budget lol. I really wanted a solid axle with leaf springs on this trailer. ill still explain in some video why i wanted this route in detail. 3. I have 2 x 55l installed with space for a flat 50l on top of them if I need to on long trips. I started the design with 160l in mind but thought ill give the 110l a try and if I need to install the extra 50l it will be a quick job. 4. Battery should be good for now as that is a 2.4KWh lithion battery. ill see how it hold up. It holds more or less the same as 2 x 110A deep cycles and u can discharge these deeper without damage when in need. 5. I just didn't want a slanted roof so this one it was .. :-). I've seen those caravans without the centre brace.. although if I take that section out, my trailer would fall apart.. lol its a critical part.. if one wants to build without a cross bar u'll need a very different design to keep the sides strong. Thank you so much for all the input and for watching!! Cheers Marius

This thing looks awesome tuff build top quality workmanship 🤙🤙🤙

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!!!

Loving this build so far - great job!

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much..

I can't wait to see the awning!- Ill be peering over your shoulder as Ive been doing canvas work since the mid 1980s lol. _ Oh and because Ive not yet made my custom 270 degree for my offgrid trailer!

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

I'm really not looking forward to the canvas work. I have zero experience, I have stitched some carports together with shade netting and that's the only experience I have.. gonna be a struggle.. lol I'm just planning on making the frame work sturdy as all hell.. don't want wind to screw me around while opening it. Thanks for watching. Really appreciate it!!

@t.h.o.r.

3 жыл бұрын

@@MariusBotha well for 200gsm canvas a good walking foot Juki or Mitsubishi like a upholsterer uses is what you need. on corners you will be punching thru 6 layers. more if you are putting eyelet reinforcing in there. Use a good M24 poly cotton thread.poly gives uv strength, cotton puffs up when wet to make it waterproof. your machine will have a table but that table needs to be in a large table or your large pieces will pull and drag twist your stitch lines. A table that extends behind you and another in front is best. The material is expensive so have a practice run on some old sheets or a pvc tarp. A domestic machine wont take a needle or thread big enough to do it properly. - I hope that sets you in the right direction.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

@@t.h.o.r. Thanks so much for the info. I do have a double needle industrial machine atm. It goes through many many layers no problems. This issue will be with the operator.. Lol. I did get the right thread and so on... Now the skill to do it.. Hehe. Thank you

Nice! I think I am as surprised as you were. That's awesome. One question I do have. What is the height of the trailer (approximately)? O really like how this is coming together. Just an overall amazing job! Will you be selling plans for this once you've got it complete?

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Hi, From the floor to the top of the trailer is 2180mm that's with the current big tires on the 17" rims. The awning would still be higher than that with around 60mm or so I would guess. Thanks for the compliment. I'm so glad about the weight.. Now I know why I've been able to man handle it like that around the garage.. I've had a few requests now for plans and so on... what ill maybe do is after the build go through all the drawings I have and see if there's a way to string them together for people so they can just have all the pieces cut with out having them loose money. The main problem is that I was building this as a once off and a lot of the drawings was changed on the fly and didn't care about storing them in any order for re use later.

Hi Marius hope you are doing well? Just wondering how this awesome build is/has progressed? Regards Anthony

Hi I came over for a visit to check out the weight of the trailer, I honestly would have thought 1500kg but your water tanks were empty I don’t know the capacity but I would think 90kg extra, Good job mate !!!

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

They hold 55L each so that would add 110kg full. also didn't add solar to the scales. Thx

Well done mate, those weight numbers look fantastic. I would budget another 200-300kg for food, clothing, electrical, kitchen stuff, and spares/tools when setting up suspension. Even then, a loaded camper trailer at 1500-1600KG is just great and will tow very well off-road.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

I also worked roughly on 1500kg give or take. The axle company recommended 2000kg suspension. To change the spring rate is a quick job tho and not expensive so when all done I'll fine tune it not to have the suspension too hard. Thank you!!

@Sethjxl

3 жыл бұрын

@@MariusBothayou really put in the work at the start, and it shows. Have you thought about air bags? Only need a very small compressor and it makes leveling super easy with the bonus of load compensation. What's more is you can lower ride height for long onroad trips to improve fuel economy (not sure if range is an issue where you are?).

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

@@Sethjxl I will Def have to look into them. To be honest I have no experience with them but will Def have a look and see how they work and how they installed. Sounds like a cool idea. Thank you

Marius, I’m thoroughly enjoying watching your build. Would you be marketing your design ?

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Hi there, Thank you so much. I've had a few requests now for plans and so on... what ill maybe do is after the build go through all te drawings I have and see if there's a way to string them together for people so they can just have all the pieces cut with out having them loose money. The main problem is that I was building this as a once off and a lot of the drawings was changed on the fly and didn't care about storing them in any order for re use later. Thanks again!!

@jacquesD4D

3 жыл бұрын

@@MariusBotha conqueror sells them. Its called a companion

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

@@jacquesD4D Uhm.. no thanks. They are way to heavy for what ure getting. Ill pass thx

@jacquesD4D

3 жыл бұрын

@@MariusBotha FYI my companion with a bit more in than the skeleton you weighed is 990KG. LOL.

Are you going to insulate the trailer? Here in Nevada, we have two temperatures . . . Too hot (mostly) and too cold (the rest of the time).

Good going. Just a question. I have now watched all your video's and was wondering.. What are you going to use for heat / cold isolation?

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Hi. Most of the campers for sale don't use anything. Ill see how it goes. If its a problem in winter ill maybe stick some sort of carpet to the inside walls. Summer should be fine as u mostly park in the shade and if need I can run the Evap cooler. Winter times ill see how it goes. If its really cold and dew runoff is a problem then ill do some insulating. Thanks

I would be very interested in plan. I'm been looking at building pod style camper and this would make a amazing base for that.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Ill address the issue with my plans in a future video as a lot op people have been asking. Thank you for watching!!!

This is so slick can’t wait to see the finished product👍🏼 will you sell the plans when your finished?

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much. Don't think ill sell plans cause don't want trouble with making money on certain designs. Might at the end just make my SketchUp files available so people can make their own changes or just build it from there. My drawings is a total mess tho.. lol

Good engineering ..you drilled or laser cut holes wherever you could without compromising overall strength. Every little bit adds ups.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Agreed. Thank you!!

HEY BUD WHEN YOU POSTING ANOTHER VIDEO, SUFFERING FROM FOMO

@MariusBotha

2 жыл бұрын

Hi there. I feel so bad for not posting the last week's.... I only work on this is spare time and with 4 weeks away from work with covid.. Trying to catch everything up is crazy. I am almost done with the next video and then the others should follow timely again. Thank you so much!!

@paulredelinghuys7301

Жыл бұрын

@@MariusBotha Hi Marius Ons is baie nuuskierig om te sien hoe jou wa nou lyk jong. Share asb.

very nice. how can I get the pland from you so I can build my own? I will have to buy a nice welder. what are you using? let me know how I can get in touch. Just can not afford the stuff at caravan parks.

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Hi. Any mig welder will work fine for 90 percent of the work. I use a small tig welder for the alu and stainless sections. My sketchup files are so messy and un-organized. I can send u them if u willing to work through them. mariusbothachannel@gmail.com

@stefanusrheeder4162

3 жыл бұрын

@@MariusBotha anything will help thx rheederstefanus@gmail.com thanks for the reply

marius hoe dik is daai staal en is dit mild steel? briljante bou , geluk mater

@MariusBotha

2 жыл бұрын

Hi. jammer vir die laat reply. Die kante is 2mm mild steel en die binne rakke is 1.6mm. Die staal is net n hoe "A grade" dis hoekom dit nie die swart carbon op het nie. Lyk soos stainless maar roes soos mildsteel..lol Baie dankie Marius

Hey Marius, great to see your work and the result success. I have experience building a camper and I too chose steel... such a great idea as it doesn't fatigue like aluminium and is stronger for thickness, so when suitable thickness aluminium is used, the weight saving is minimal. May I ask how are you planning on insulating it, if you are at all? Also, are you going seam weld up all the joints along the main body, or will you be tacking it (as you mentioned earlier in other video that cars are spot welding)? I'm about to build an extreme off road caravan for a family of 4... I will keep on watching your build with anticipation. Thanks!

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

Hi there. For now almost all of our vans here are not insulated.. extra blanket or 2 or 3 maybe and the evap cooler for the hot days.. lol The body seams are currently stitched welded which is almost like a 75 to 80 percent full weld. The doors panels ill do the spot weld every 12mm or so. Then seal all the seams up with automotive seam sealer on the insides and body filler for the outside so I can sand them prior to painting. Thank you for watching!!

@lifeofintention4711

3 жыл бұрын

@@MariusBotha cool, the stitch weld sounds great! May I encourage you to do something re insulation, even if it is just too put carpet on the inside. The camper I built has a section I hadn't intended to insulate, so left it painted steel and what I noticed was in the evenings that the dew would condense and drip off the cold metal. This happened even in the Australian summers. Unless there is pretty much no relative humidity in Africa, might be a good idea. I'm sure whatever you do it'll be great! I look forward to future dialogue... keep up the great work! Got any info on the suspension system you've used?

@MariusBotha

3 жыл бұрын

@@lifeofintention4711 Hi. That's a awesome idea of sticking carpet down inside. What ill do is finish painting the van as u gonna need that in anyway behind whatever u insulating with. Then at the first sign of dew ill carpet the whole inside. Thanks for the idea! The suspension I chose a normal old school leaf spring and solid axle setup for a few reasons. There's is now way that that system leaves u stranded somewhere.. with some loose wire u'll get it home...parts like spare leaf springs can be found in any remote location as all ure bakkies use them. Another point that I like about them is able to visually inspect them for maintenance before a trip. they simple as can be. Then finally the ease of building.... now u get these people that like to talk about whos got the bigger !@#!$!@ around a braai and they like to get points for their very fancy suspension setups on their trailers.. My biggest point is that most if not almost all the tow vehicles that we use for overlanding and camping have solid rear axes with a diff in die middle.. so what's the point of having this extreme suspension setup on your camper but then u go tow it with a 2021 Ford ranger Wildtrak with a sold axle and leaf springs.. or a amarok or a hilux for that matter. No one complains about the suspension on their tow vehicles but has tons to say about solid axle trailers.. It blows my mind.. my trailer has more ground clearance that my bakkie can ever have as there's no diff..so if my bakkie can go to a location the trailer can follow. simple as that. I used a 2,5 ton braked axle just to over engineer it.. even though my trailer will be around 1500kg loaded with our stuff and water. Cheers!!