I realize I'm reviving an old thread here, but I am a Dinoot builder/owner of 4 years now and can provide long-term feedback on the Compact Dinoot. When I originally started looking for a trailer I had a 2006 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon that was my daily driver and camping/adventure vehicle. We were also starting a family and had a dog...in other words we needed more cargo capacity! Due to aesthetics, price, and size I settled on the Dinoot. I started with a new modified Harbor Freight frame, wheel adapters to take matching Jeep wheels and tires, and the basic fiberglass panels with steel CJ tailgate. On top of that I added real leaf springs that are matched to my loads, Thule fake rain gutters, load bars and bike racks. I finished the inside and outside with Monstaliner roll-on bedliner.
In order for my feedback to be useful you really need to know how I use this trailer, all figures are approximate:
- 15 days per year camping support. Carrying about 21 gallons of water, a full large cooler, misc durable items, two mountain bikes, and then filled to the brim with firewood. Would guess around 800 lbs of stuff headed out, and around 150 lbs of stuff returning. Usually headed from Boulder to Moab or Fruita, so 4-6 hours on the highway with around 45 minutes of rough desert trail to reach camp.
- 5 days per year hauling brush, leaves, fallen apples, etc. from around the yard. The waste company weighed me at 780 lbs of apples one load, and did 4 of those that day.
- 1 day per year hauling firewood. I can fit just over a quarter cord of split hardwood in this thing.
- 365 days per year this trailer lives outside.
Ok, now here's my feedback:
- Overall, this is a great little trailer for camping. It doubles my capacity with my tow vehicle being a 2014 Land Cruiser. I can keep all the clean and soft stuff inside the vehicle and all the heavy and dirty stuff goes in the trailer. It's handled this abuse well, with zero failures so far. The fiberglass seems to be holding up very well, as is the Harbor Freight frame.
- Strengths: Weight, size, price, customization. This thing gets looks anywhere I go with it.
- Weaknesses: Wood floor. If I had to do it again I'd probably figure out a way to make the floor out of some weather-resistant material. That said, there are probably better ways of doing the plywood floor that what I did. More on that in a sec.
After 4 years of what I would call hard abuse, I'm about to embark on a rejuvenation process for this thing to be ready for Spring. Some of this is enhancement, some is repair:
- Repair - Monstaliner on plywood floor is peeling. This is my fault, primarily. I applied roll-on bedliner to the inside of the tub after it was fully assembled, which meant that I have bedliner covering seams between fiberglass and wood that are not sealed from the outside. Over the years water has penetrated those seams and gotten up under the bedliner on the plywood. I also sealed the plywood with a product from Monstaliner called Chassis Saver on all sides. I did not scuff it prior to applying the Monstaliner bed liner and it did not adhere well to the plywood. Adhesion to the fiberglass is fantastic, but it's peeling off of the wood. I'm going to disassemble each panel from the floor, apply new bedliner to the whole floor (all sides) before reassembly. I'll also apply a new coat of monstaliner to the inside of the fiberglass tub as I'll have the product mixed and ready to go anyway. Then I'll reassemble the whole thing using black silicone at each joint. Pics at bottom.
- Enhancement - Apply 3M undercoating to the wheel wells and underside of trailer.
- Enhancement - Install tie-downs outside the 4 corners. Primarily need these for utility trailer duty for ratchet straps.
- Enhancement - New wiring throughout with rigid conduit for sections inside the trailer tub and a longer lead at the tongue . Split loom isn't heavy duty enough for how I use this trailer.
