Camper Trailers Tech Tips

teflon draw slides

 

 

 

teflon
draw slides

 

After having owned our Track Trailer Eagle since 1993 you'd think we would have finished any modifications by now. When I made the two full length draws for the box trailer section in 1995, I glued short pile carpet to the bottom of them so the dragging would not remove the hot dip galvanising coating. Wheels had not been invented back then.

The draws have been getting harder to push in & out, no doubt the 30kg of firewood we occasionally take with us from home, the bbq plate, block splitter, chainsaw & camp cooking gear etc doesn't help either or perhaps we are just getting a bit older.

When I had the camper top off recently so we could use the trailer (easily removed with six over centre clamps & a frame to rest the camper on) it gave me a chance to add four 1500 x 50 x 15mm teflon low friction skids as used on boat trailers for around $14 each.

The draws move a lot easier now as if they were on wheels, it makes that much difference. I cut the carpet off the bottom of the draws only where the sliders are, as the draws come out to sit on the tailgate.

Wood spacers on the trailer sides keep the draws out far enough to miss the chain on the drop down tailgate leaving a little unused space. We have always kept the tent poles on top of the camper in a bag under the travel cover. With a little thinking I came up with pole storage each side within the trailer. Every space however small all counts as overall storage in the camper trailer.

I used some 5mm galvanised rod & drilled holes into the wood & made brackets at the top. A backstop each side stops the poles from going right up the back out of reach. There is enough room for the few longer poles to be stacked on the drivers side & a double row of shorter poles on the passengers side.

Rob

 

february 2013