Enclosed gooseneck trailer and possible redneckery

[desert_steve]

Just rambling with an idea floating around in my head. A family friend has an older 41' enclosed 3 axle gooseneck trailer that theyre talking about getting rid of for cheap. I dont need anymore projects by any means, but the possibilities could be endless! The roofs leaking and the inside needs to be gutted and redone just to make it usable, and my google homework says the damn thing weighs roughly 10k lbs empty, but my inner jew-ban (half jewish, half cuban) keeps coming back to the thought of owning it.

Option 1 - Address the above mentioned roof/interior issues and "run it". Its ugly as hell and the outside needs to be painted (in the high desert we'd just hit it with a roller and some house paint and call it a day), new tires, etc etc. These things would need to be addressed no matter what someone did with it.

Option 2 - This would be assuming the internet engineers would approve of such an idea, but what about cutting off about 20-22ft of the enclosed portion from the back of the trailer and making it a flat/open deck? Then adding half-ass living quarters to the front, like one of those badass sundowner/logan trailers, but done by a moron in his back yard on a budget. Sounds like a nice project for retirement. The roof/wall delete should shave quite a bit of weight off of it, which my tow pig would appreciate. Not sure if the frame would be too noodle-y w/o the walls and roof for rigidity/support though.

Option 3 - Getting rid of ALL of the enclosed part and turning it into a flatbed trailer. It'd have a deck big enough to haul 2 trucks but my dually still wouldnt legally be able to pull such a setup. "Crawler-hauler" also becomes a possibility with this option.

So theres my inner thoughts and ramblings, anybody have any ideas/thoughts/comments here?

 

[Turboyota]

Make an excel spreadsheet with some real-world numbers and time estimates for each scenario, Jewban.

I think it’ll still be fairly ‘spensive.

Are your other trucks/projects complete and running?

 

[Tree trunk]

Does it have living quarters already?

 

[84Prerunner]

Pictures of said trailer

 

[desert_steve]

I must be retarded because I cant figure out how to "multi quote" on this forum.

Rouse- Excel spreadsheets? Just how legit do you think I am with my 'wonderings'? I think scenario #1 would be the cheapest and easiest and that would give me a very large enclosed trailer, but as far as rankings (of my 3 loose proposals) I think that idea would be in 3rd place. #2 would be the pipe dream as I thin that would be the most labor-intensive and expensive, with option/proposal #3 coming in at a close 2nd place. As for my many projects, nothings ever "done", but most of them could be considered done-ish, minus some small BS here and there. That said, my ex cab truck is in the very beginning stages of a multi-year motor swap haha.

Mr Trunk- No living quarters of any kind at this time, itd be a "blank slate".

Andrew- No pics at the moment. Just imagine a 25 yr/o trailer thats been baking in the desert sun and has a bunch of beat-to-shit panels. Oh, and it has an OG GT bicycles wrap/paint job on it that my neighbors would really enjoy looking at.

 

[Tree trunk]

41 footers a big bitch. Plenty of room to frame in some living quarters up front.
I donno about cutting the back end though. that sounds like way to much work.

If time wasn’t an issue and we are just talking hypotheticals. It would be cool to make your own living quarters up front with a full size bathroom. design everything how you want it. Throw a mini split on there, Big ass water tank and all that. Bidet on the shitter

Not sure I’d want to haul that beast up to Utah. But it would be cool for localish trips

 

[desert_steve]

41 footers a big bitch. Plenty of room to frame in some living quarters up front.
I donno about cutting the back end though. that sounds like way to much work.

If time wasn’t an issue and we are just talking hypotheticals. It would be cool to make your own living quarters up front with a full size bathroom. design everything how you want it. Throw a mini split on there, Big ass water tank and all that. Bidet on the shitter

Not sure I’d want to haul that beast up to Utah. But it would be cool for localish trips

Agreed, its a big'n. Ive drooled/dreamed over the sundowner and logan open deck trailers ever since I 1st heard of them ( https://www.milehightrailers.com/Pr...s-Trailer-Krawler-Hauler-2286-KM--id-11552378 ), but I cant justify the cost of them (even if theyre used). In the past 6-ish yrs the amount of trips/rides/camp outs/etc that Ive done has gone down significantly, so dropping $100k to take it out a couple of times a yr just doesnt seem wise.

Cutting off the back seems like the easiest part to me lol. Adding a new deck and closing off the existing "box", as well as finishing out the interior is what sounds overwhelming to me. I know its do-able, but at what time and monetary cost, I dont know.

 

[Tree trunk]

Did you see the cost of with a generator and without??
What the hell kind of generator are they putting in those things lol

My goal is to do the crawler hauler program when I’m done paying the equivalent of a second mortgage in day care lol.

My new (to me) truck is the 6.5 bed so my cab-over will be sittin on a gooseneck.

 

[cbrewer22]

O boy this sounds like the pop up tint trailer I was going to give to Trevor. The old lady will for sure go camping now. I say do. Worst case you take it to josb’s and leave it there on the pad.

 

[desert_steve]

O boy this sounds like the pop up tint trailer I was going to give to Trevor. The old lady will for sure go camping now. I say do. Worst case you take it to josb’s and leave it there on the pad.

Im trying to "spin it" as a project that we can work on together lol. Shes seen youtube videos of couples working on schoolies/rvs together and for some strange reason she thinks its as easy as an edited video.

As for the parking situation, I planned on parking it at his place either way (its too ugly to park at my place).

 

[cbrewer22]

Im trying to "spin it" as a project that we can work on together lol. Shes seen youtube videos of couples working on schoolies/rvs together and for some strange reason she thinks its as easy as an edited video.

As for the parking situation, I planned on parking it at his place either way (its too ugly to park at my place).

 

[84Prerunner]

41’ isn’t THATTT big. Mine is 40’

Have you considered an older 5th wheel toy hauler? Prices have come way down

 

[Tree trunk]

I bet the ol 4R100 would disagree with that statement

 

[84Prerunner]

I bet the ol 4R100 would disagree with that statement

Good thing I have a ZF6

 

[Tree trunk]

 

[Tree trunk]

If we are gonna post pictures of our set ups that violated the rated towing capacities on our trucks I’ve got one to add….



When I sold it, the new owner weighed the trailer empty, I was surprised to hear it was #9500
Cool ass trailer, I would have liked to keep that one.

 

[84Prerunner]

I had the cabover previously, heavy bitch with a slide out but only towed my 22’ flat bed behind it. Never weighed that setup. I’m around 26k gross with the loaded 5th wheel though.

 

[desert_steve]

41’ isn’t THATTT big. Mine is 40'

Have you considered an older 5th wheel toy hauler? Prices have come way down

40' is big lol. I havent really looked at trailers at all. Your setup is rad, but 26k is insane! I think the GCWR of my dually is 23k. Im only thinking about this gooseneck because the price is right. Other than that, I think a truck camper and flatbed trailer is the way to go (for my needs). Im hopefully picking up a skamper pop-up camper this weekend which for as little as Im going to use it, will be a great addition to "the fleet". I had a lance camper years ago and it was awesome, but I sold it during covid thinking I would get a new(er) camper some day. Fast forward to present day and my GF wants something bigger than a camper. FML.