no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no....

I have to post pictures before Queef looses it. The old suspension on the trailer was way to stiff. The 1200lb trailer springs just didn't cut it.

I wanted to use airbags so I could adjust the height with the varying trailer load and so I could drop the trailer down when I was in camp to make it easier to get into for Amber (all 5 feet of her ). Since I was towing it behind the beast I decided to do something a little different than the standard trailer suspension and go with a double triangulated 4-link.

I started with 2" and 1-7/8" .120 wall ERW tube, poly bushings for the front and ballistic joints for the rear.





I'll be adding some angle iron to the bottom of the lower links to protect them from rocks later. I just wanted to get this together for the camping trip and I won't be taking it on any trails.

With the axle located properly I added the airbags. They're supposed to have about 10" of range (3-13") but my shocks are too short so that's limiting the up travel right now. I think I have some longer shocks in my yard that I'll throw on there.


I plumbed the lines up to the tongue of the trailer with a valve to separate the two sides so that it wouldn't push air from one side to the other on side hills.


This also allows me to play around with the trailer and tilt it side to side which will be nice for draining the water tank but pretty pointless for anything else .



The most important mod was installed right by the tailgate where we keep the ice chest.


Right now the air lines leak pretty bad. I'll be replacing the copper line with nylon and hopefully that fixes the issue. I didn't get a chance to make the 3-axis hitch for this trip. I'll have to work on that one later.

You got one blingin trailer... now, you can drag your trailer like a cholo drags an impala.

Oooohhh.. its got the front, back, and side to side...

Very nice. That should be a lot nicer ride than the trailer springs you had before.

Dood that thing is going to be butter. Where did you get the bags? I love how you left the axle located on the springs and built the links in!! AWESOME IDEA. I just had a wicked idea in ma head... I love trailers!

Bags came from E-bay, about $75 each.

I was trying to figure out how to locate the axle properly to set up the 4-link when I finally realized that I should just leave it bolted to the leaf springs and weld up the links...

I'm hoping it rides a lot smoother now. I can't wait to get the 3-axis hitch done so I don't have to listen to that stupid pintle clanging around though.

That looks really neat.

I have that same bottle opener on my X and boy, did that remind me that I could use a tasty beverage today when I get home.

Quick FYI on the hitch, if it helps with ideas. I was at Off Road Expo this past weekend and a guy w/Chaser had a new design for the hitch mount they were testing and hoping to have available soon. Guy said it would be stronger and more readily available. I didn't have a camera, but it looked beefier than the swivel type out now. Had new way of mounting to the class 3 ball mount (bolted through) as well as new rotating mechanism for full rotation on two axes (sp?) but limited travel if you were to angle the truck and trailer in a V (e.g., nose of truck and ass end of trailer pointed to the sky at the same time).

Brent, I have built several 3 axis hitches and they work great. The downside is they use a grade 8 3/4" bolt as the "swivel", but I have never had a problem with the larges loads and if my trailer ever rolls it won't take the truck with it.

I already have everything to make my 3-axis hitch except time . The swivel will be a trailer hub/spindle, the other two pivot points will be poly bushings with 9/16 grade 8 bolts.

It will be along the lines of this hitch:

just curious, but why not use a pintle style hitch? Those will spin all the way around on their mount.

Not all pintle hitches have the pivot, mine doesn't. I didn't ever bind it up wheeling, but I could see where that could happen.

The big problem with the pintle is that it is noisy and it slams the truck around. Imagine a 2000lb trailer slamming front to back and side to side and you'll understand why I want to get rid of it.

True. I remember the ones on the back of the 5 ton military trucks I used to drive. Those would pivot all the way around.

Who builds that setup?

Off-Road Internationl. They want $250 for it though. Mine will cost under $100.