Building a dedicated shore diving trailer

[JohnRom]

You might want to have a pipe/bar mounted near the top inside of the trailer along one wall that you can slide part way out the back door when open/parked. When you slide it out it can act as a cloths line/bar for hanging your gear to let it drip dry.

 

[chillyinCanada]

It saw me... just didn't care

Sweet.

So not as hungry as some are saying.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

I'd like to see some pics inside when it's all done if you don't mind sharing.

I envy guys with a trailer for sure. Right now I have everything in bins loaded into a van with sto and go...but it's a pain as it's my wife's work van so I'm either loading or unloading.

 

[CanadaDan]

I'd like to see some pics inside when it's all done if you don't mind sharing.

I envy guys with a trailer for sure. Right now I have everything in bins loaded into a van with sto and go...but it's a pain as it's my wife's work van so I'm either loading or unloading.

Will do on the pictures... probably not until April 2021.

The loading/unloading routine is exactly why I’m doing this.... plus by the time I load just two tanks each and dive gear the cargo space in the van is pretty full with no room for weekend clothes bags and food.

 

[kelemvor]

I also tried to do a trailer after feeling like I was outgrowing my minivan for diving. I made the mistake of using a small trailer. Ended up being a big pain in the butt and I went back to using the van directly. The problems for me were that the amount of stuff I bring leads to the small 4x6 trailer being completely stuffed floor to ceiling. Also, if the weight is not balanced left to right, it will sway dangerously until you pull off the interstate and pull everything out to rearrange. Then you've got a mess because as I mentioned it's all full of stuff and has been moved around one or more times to get the weight load right.

Maybe if I had all aluminum tanks rather than big steel tanks it would be a little better. Maybe it would be better if I didn't combine camping and diving so had less stuff to haul around.

Also, you've got another set of tires to maintain, and security concerns. Trailers are targets for thieves as they're easy to break into and they're easy to steal outright.

Oh and fuel economy, I lose about 10-15mpg when towing the trailer. Any trailer in fact, even open top ones with mesh sides. I don't really understand why that is, but it definitely is.

I did buy a sway bar, which should have helped manage the sway from unbalanced loads some. I have no idea how much because I never got around to installing it.

In the end, I abandoned the trailer and went back to using the minivan. The van also gets packed floor to ceiling, but it's just easier to manage everything and less of a security risk.

That's my opinion, worth what you paid for it. Maybe a bigger trailer would have solved the problem? I went small because the towing capacity on my Honda Odyssey is very small. Someday I'd like to get a fullsize van or even a sprinter type van for diving.

I hope you have a better trailer experience than I did.

 

[tbone1004]

I had a 6x12 v-nose before it wa stolen that was being converted to a dive trailer. It was not big enough... Granted it was being set up for 3 technical cave divers to go down, but even still, it was snug.
The 4ft wide makes me nervous to think about. You lose about 18" from the tanks depending on how you mount them to the wall, and that leaves you not a lot of width to walk down the middle.
I'm 6'4" so height is a big thing for me, but even if you're short, the trailer is going to be really unstable when it is that narrow so extra height which would allow you to change inside is not going to really be an option, but it's even more reason to not do things like put weight racks on the wall. You want as much weight on the floor as possible.

This was the design for the 6x12 V-nose. If I do it again, it will be 7x16 tandem axle.

Whatever you do, MAKE SURE that you buy a trailer with brakes. Very few single axles come stock with trailer brakes, and most vehicles don't have a brake controller, but when you have small bombs in the back, the last thing you want is for it to pop off the ball and go careening across a median and hit someone.

 

[lowwall]

I don't know anything about trailers, but I assume there's some fore and aft weight balance requirements. Putting all the heavy stuff right by the door is obviously more convenient, but will it balance correctly?

 

[kelemvor]

I don't know anything about trailers, but I assume there's some fore and aft weight balance requirements. Putting all the heavy stuff right by the door is obviously more convenient, but will it balance correctly?

Balancing a small trailer is a real pain as it turns out. I mistakenly thought the small size would make it a non-issue. It seems that properly loading trailers is an actual skill that one has to develop like any other, and I didn't have the patience for it.

Oddly, I've hauled around much larger trailers with far heavier loads (resulting in that suspension replacement I mentioned before). Those were much easier to manage than the small trailer for whatever reason.

 

[Lostdiver71]

Make sure that whatever you use to seal the floor also extends partially up the walls and seals the cracks between panels otherwise yo could get water intrusion causing rot. I hear bedliner works well to create a permanent coating for the floor.

 

[azstinger11]

If this is just to transport gear from your primary residence to a cabin/cottage/beach house then ignore this but I would add some roll up shades if possible. Don/Doff gear in the shade versus heat of the sun. Any chance for an offroad shower ( ) or similar?