So after seeing the walk through, I've decided long travel is my next purchase. Should take a couple of weeks to get all the parts in. I blame lawndart! Or, at least that's what I tell my wife.
LawnDart's Build Thread
- Thread starter LawnDart
- Start date
So after seeing the walk through, I've decided long travel is my next purchase. Should take a couple of weeks to get all the parts in. I blame lawndart! Or, at least that's what I tell my wife.
Saker
Senior Member
[MENTION=138432]Liquidmantis[/MENTION],
Thanks for posting this.
[MENTION=124732]LawnDart[/MENTION] ........ Very nice video!
LawnDart
Senior Member
I just sat in front of the camera and talked. It was all Overlans Bounds work.
When I run Trail of Missions I'll actually have to try not to sound stupid.
jstim
New member
Hey man, I have a ton of questions about your setup. I'm starting to look at the components of my build for my 5th gen. Very on the fence if I am going to go the same direction as the 3rd, or go in a similar direction as you. I really admire the functionality of what you have. You mind if I shoot you a PM and ask about 10,000 questions lol.
LawnDart
Senior Member
I'll try to answer as many as I can.
fogcitysurfer
New member
Been thinking about going the sleeping platform route. I'm 6' tall and just barely fit in there. Would you mind measuring the length of the full platform for me? Thanks!
LawnDart
Senior Member
I think 40-42K.
RAM Ball mounts from RAM mounts
LawnDart
Senior Member
I was using the square base ones with gorilla tape, but the cab gets extremely hot when out in the desert and the tape just becomes too soft and falls apart. So I ended up drilling out the head unit (which I was hoping to avoid since replacing that plastic component can cost 3000-4000 dollars).
But the results are worth it, and I can now mount a GoPro or my phone on the left 1" ball.
I used RAP-B-366U as the part number.
LawnDart
Senior Member
Figured I'd do a short little write up on the XV3 trailer. As I towed and lived out of it for 10 days, and about 4000 miles.
This thing is the perfect size for the 4Runner, and maybe hits my MPG by 0.5-1mpg when towing through the mountain passes (Oregon and Nevada). And the bed of the trailer is ideal for hauling enough camping gear for two people, or one person and a dog. The internal water tank being 18gallons is way more than enough. I was also concerned that 5-6lbs of propane wouldn't be adequate and when I got back from my Expo trip...I had barely used 1.5lbs of propane despite showers and cooking.
A few downsides and things we're tweaking. Because this is a beta design, which is why while dealers can order XV3s, but they're not shipping yet, it means we're trying to get the design tweaked. As such...you break things in testing. And I broke the rear tire carrier coming back from Expo. It's a combination of Schutt putting the lightening cuts too close to the top of the tire carrier, and making the cuts too big. They also secure the tire carrier to the tail gate using phillips head (noooooo...why!?!!?!?!), and you can't torque down phillips head if your life depended on it. So I think the screws walked out a bit, allowing the mount to have play, and the play plus the 35" tire caused enough bounce and play that it fatigued the material. The tire carrier didn't break enough to fall off but it induced enough wobble that I had to ratchet strap the tire down to keep it from getting worse.
The tongue box is getting a re-design, and it arrives this week in time for NW Overland Rally. The biggest problem is that Schutt used a standard small tongue box, which works for holding the battery and switches, but not much else. As a result normally on the bigger XV2 you have in the front box, the switches, batteries, and space for an ARB 47qt fridge. So I (and 99 West Trailers) worked with Schutt to redesign the tongue box so it's a scaled down version of the XV2 front box. The result is that we can move the water heater from the bed of the trailer, to the tongue box, and move the propane tank to the front of the tongue, giving back more space in the cargo bed of the trailer.
One of the biggest downsides of the XV3 vs the XV2 is the lack of a fullsize galley table. While the tailgate has a swing up table ledge (my idea!), it's pretty small. So we opted to under mount a Frontrunner table with the wash basin to the bottom of the roof rack. This gives us a fullsize table for food prep, and tucks back under the rack when transporting.
Overall the trailer tows very well. However being that it has a shorter tongue length than the XV2...this thing when reversing takes some patience and skill, as it's super easy to jack knife it. But combined with electronic brakes, it's hardly noticeable when coming down off steep hills.
We did swap out the rack lights for Baja Designs, and this thing is absolutely absurd when fired up in the darkness. We do plan to do a few more mods after Rally, and have a cool new application for Baja Designs RTL-S light.
But overall this trailer is great, and we're just working out some of the quirks.
This thing is the perfect size for the 4Runner, and maybe hits my MPG by 0.5-1mpg when towing through the mountain passes (Oregon and Nevada). And the bed of the trailer is ideal for hauling enough camping gear for two people, or one person and a dog. The internal water tank being 18gallons is way more than enough. I was also concerned that 5-6lbs of propane wouldn't be adequate and when I got back from my Expo trip...I had barely used 1.5lbs of propane despite showers and cooking.
A few downsides and things we're tweaking. Because this is a beta design, which is why while dealers can order XV3s, but they're not shipping yet, it means we're trying to get the design tweaked. As such...you break things in testing. And I broke the rear tire carrier coming back from Expo. It's a combination of Schutt putting the lightening cuts too close to the top of the tire carrier, and making the cuts too big. They also secure the tire carrier to the tail gate using phillips head (noooooo...why!?!!?!?!), and you can't torque down phillips head if your life depended on it. So I think the screws walked out a bit, allowing the mount to have play, and the play plus the 35" tire caused enough bounce and play that it fatigued the material. The tire carrier didn't break enough to fall off but it induced enough wobble that I had to ratchet strap the tire down to keep it from getting worse.
The tongue box is getting a re-design, and it arrives this week in time for NW Overland Rally. The biggest problem is that Schutt used a standard small tongue box, which works for holding the battery and switches, but not much else. As a result normally on the bigger XV2 you have in the front box, the switches, batteries, and space for an ARB 47qt fridge. So I (and 99 West Trailers) worked with Schutt to redesign the tongue box so it's a scaled down version of the XV2 front box. The result is that we can move the water heater from the bed of the trailer, to the tongue box, and move the propane tank to the front of the tongue, giving back more space in the cargo bed of the trailer.
One of the biggest downsides of the XV3 vs the XV2 is the lack of a fullsize galley table. While the tailgate has a swing up table ledge (my idea!), it's pretty small. So we opted to under mount a Frontrunner table with the wash basin to the bottom of the roof rack. This gives us a fullsize table for food prep, and tucks back under the rack when transporting.
Overall the trailer tows very well. However being that it has a shorter tongue length than the XV2...this thing when reversing takes some patience and skill, as it's super easy to jack knife it. But combined with electronic brakes, it's hardly noticeable when coming down off steep hills.
We did swap out the rack lights for Baja Designs, and this thing is absolutely absurd when fired up in the darkness. We do plan to do a few more mods after Rally, and have a cool new application for Baja Designs RTL-S light.
But overall this trailer is great, and we're just working out some of the quirks.
happy4runner
New member
Are you going to use the Rock Monster's as spares? Do you think with a redesign that the XV3 tire carrier will handle the weight of a Rock Monster with a 35?
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
LawnDart
Senior Member
I plan to eventually run 2x Rock Monsters on the trailer, but the spare will always be a non-bead lock. I just think the weight is too much for the tailgate design in it's current configuration. I'm talking PURELY about the tailgate, it just sags enough that adding additional weight would be asking for trouble, and then to add a beadlock to the tire carrier would be asking for either the tailgate and/or the tire carrier to fail.
We'll see how this new tire carrier does, this time we're using hex heads and loctite!
greatape
Senior Member
Nice write-up! You answered a few questions I had been curious about. With that, I do believe I see an XV3 in my future
LawnDart
Senior Member
It'll be 3-4 months before we get all the kinks out. But it's a learning process for all involved.
greatape
Senior Member
Cool...Gives me enough time to plan to make it my own..the rig is about complete so looking forward to expanding my living space
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