Member Since: 06 Mar 2014
Location: Surrey
Posts: 1131
Yet another Sankey Wide Track
I can see that there's a lot of love for the Sankey trailer here, so thought I'd share mine, too Some of this might be familiar to those that also frequent Defender2.net...
I've always wanted a Sankey. Not only do they look cool but, having owned a Desert Wolf trailer in the past, I appreciate that they 'match' in terms of track and off-road ability. Anyway, after a false start with a much scruffier (albeit cheaper) example, I've now got a MkIII wide track that's in excellent condition, as it was refurbished by a previous owner. This is what it looked like soon after I bought it:
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The first job when I got it home was to change the NATO towing electrics plug for a 13 pin euro one. I did this by building a junction box that allows for the conversion between the NATO and civilian cabling, which is mounted on the side of the A frame using the bolts that originally held the keep for the NATO plug:
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Click image to enlarge
Eventually, I plan to re-wire it completely and fit, amongst other things, different lights, so this is a relatively short term solution.
Next was fitting a civilian number plate. For this, I made an adapter plate from aluminium that bolts onto the existing military plate bracket and supports a regular plate in the correct place to line up with the number plate light:
Beyond those necessary adaptations, it doesn't need anything doing to it, but there are various things I want to do. Eventually, I plan to use it for extended camping trips, but it also has to serve as an ordinary general purpose trailer, so it won't be converted to a dedicated unit. My plan is to have a lid made that will enclose it and provide security, and incorporate roof bars on the top, which can be easily removed when not needed.
I've fitted Defender alloy wheels, as I was originally kitting it out to match my 110. I guess I'll be changing those to D3 alloys at some point now. Anyway, in order for the alloy wheel to fit over the hub, it's necessary to use wheel spacers and cut off the lifting rings from the hub caps. The latter are for use when slinging it under a helicopter, which I figured was a facility that I could live without The lifting ring can be seen on the hub below:
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After attacking it with a cutting disk, grinding disk and finally a flap wheel on my angle grinder, it looked like this:
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Wheel spacers and the the newly painted hub caps re-fitted :
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As the wheels would now be outside the trailer body, and inspired by the new Penman trailers, I fitted some plastic wheel arches within the recess in the tub. I found some that seemed suitable on eBay which, after a bit of modelling in CAD, looked like they'd fit nicely. After much measuring, I began by cutting the arches to shape. This involved reducing their width by 60mm or so and then notching the back corners as, strangely, the chassis is slightly wider than the body between the wheel boxes.
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All of the cutting was done using tin snips, which left a nice clean edge.
The arches were to be fixed to the trailer with stainless nuts and bolts through the body wheel boxes. The top was easy as the arches could be bolted straight to the body but the ends were more difficult. I decided to use some 6mm thick rubber sheet, which could be bolted to the body and then flex to meet up with the shape of the lower edges of the arches.
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There are four of these rubber sheets - one for each end of each arch - and I clamped them together and drilled them in one go so that they looked neat and tidy. With a combination of measuring and offering up the pre-drilled sheets, the holes in the tub were marked and drilled to match.
Inside the tub, the fixings are quite discreet.
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With a little bit of trial and error, the arches were offered up, marked, drilled and fixed in position. I included a spacer made of 12mm thick nylon at the top, just for aesthetics really.
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One thing that became immediately obvious is that the wheels aren't central to the wheel boxes in the tub. The suspension design means that they move backwards slightly when it compresses, so I guess that's to allow for this. I chose to fit the extended arches centrally though, as it just didn't make sense any other way. It's not apparent from any angle other than square on to the side.
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More importantly, the new arches work perfectly in covering the protruding tyres.
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I'm hoping that the full width plastic arches will protect the underside of the wheel boxes from road spray and grit, and therefore help to stop it rusting so easily.
At the front, I've fitted an aluminium chequer plate cover for the A frame:
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It's secured with stainless bolts into rivnuts let into the top of the A frame. I've also sandwiched some thin foam between the ali and chassis to keep the metals apart. Eventually, this cover plate will be anodised black.
I've then mounted a lockable box on the A frame. The box is ex-mil in origin and is both lockable and has a rubber seal to the lid, so should be ideal for the location.
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The box is positioned so that the lid can open vertically and so is slightly forward of the trailer body. Unfortunately, it's just a little bit too big so it has to fit over the left hand grab handle in order to miss the brake reservoir, and therefore needs to be spaced upwards slightly. I made some spacers from offcuts of an old nylon chopping board, which is easy to cut and drill whilst being inert. They're also bright yellow!
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The box is fixed with four bolts into rivnuts set into the chequer plate A frame cover:
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Next job was to fabricate a cover for the brake reservoir, which sticks up through the A frame cover. I made this from an offcut of chequer plate, bent to a suitable shape:
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Again fixed with bolts into rivnuts, the cover was slotted and keyed so that it can be removed without having to completely remove the bolts:
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The finished combination. Note that I've had to re-position the jockey wheel slightly so that the handle misses the top of the box:
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I've made a frame to sit under the canvas and lift it up to stop rain collecting in it:
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The frame is built from 20mm plastic conduit, chosen because it's light and flexible so able to bend into a curve. It's supported on two flat plywood brackets that sit inside the tub on the wheel boxes.
I've added a bit of security with this hitch lock:
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This is what its' comprised of:
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The part under the lock comes with the foam shown already in place to keep the two parts separate. I added the foam to the other part though, so it doesn't get scratched on the hitch ring.
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This is how it stands at the moment:
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Click image to enlarge
Click image to enlarge
Next jobs include painting various small parts, painting both the chassis and tub, re-wiring and fitting NAS lights and designing an aluminium lid.
I've also got to sort out the means to tow the thing with my D3 Darren
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia
Member Since: 14 Oct 2013
Location: 'Sunny' Zomerset
Posts: 9402
Fantastic, really love what you've done
Contact Uncle Ray on here to help with the D3 towing option, he'all be able to help, here's a pic from his gallery:
Click image to enlarge
Iggy/Ieuan
Current LR =
2015 RR Sport Autobiography
&
1992 Land Rover Defender Camper
- Gone but not forgotten:
MY10 D4 GS
MY05 Disco 3 'S'
MY14 FL2 HSE manual in Blue
MY15 Disco 4 HSE Lux in Santorini Black
MY08 Disco 3 SE manual in Buck Blue
1960 Series 2 88" (No idea why I sold it!)
31st Mar 2014 10:27 pm
Dave
Member Since: 08 Mar 2006
Location: North Yorkshire
Posts: 2462
Fantastic trailer
Fantastic mods
Especially the penman look Captain Nick Medhurst would ask:
"What is the first rule when overlanding?"
I would Reply:
"Duratrac"
31st Mar 2014 10:47 pm
Arlo
Member Since: 03 Dec 2013
Location: Bremen
Posts: 89
Very well done!
I like the original harness.
So I keep it to the first distributing point.
Another great Sankey thread, excellent pictures too.
Really great seeing what you've done.
Looks great with the defender.
31st Mar 2014 11:19 pm
DiscoJake
Member Since: 23 Aug 2013
Location: Hereford
Posts: 1429
Looks quality
These sankey threads need their very own forum section
Last edited by DiscoJake on 1st Apr 2014 8:27 am. Edited 1 time in total
31st Mar 2014 11:29 pm
Moo D3 Decade
Member Since: 13 Aug 2010
Location: Wiltshire
Posts: 13912
Agreed
1st Apr 2014 12:44 am
LandRoverAnorak
Member Since: 06 Mar 2014
Location: Surrey
Posts: 1131
Thanks chaps. I'm pretty pleased with it so far, and it does look good behind the 110, but I'm sure it'll be fine behind the Discovery, too.
ieuan wrote:
Contact Uncle Ray on here to help with the D3 towing option,
Yeah, I've seen them and had a bit of contact with Ray over on Def2.net. I'm not sure yet, though. I like the idea of a Dixon Bate set-up, which is what I've got on the 110, as I've already got a selection of sliders with different tow balls for different applications. I need to do some measuring.
Arlo wrote:
I like the original harness.
So I keep it to the first distributing point.
The original harness is ok, but by the time I've adapted it for my purposes it's going be easier to just re-wire it. It'll also, hopefully, make it easier to fault find.Darren
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia
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Some of this might be familiar to those that also frequent Defender2.net...
The lifting ring can be seen on the hub below:
