The Smittybilt Scout trailer kit is just that. It is an overland trailer that gets shipped to you or your offroad shop of choice to be put together. I purchased mine in January 2018 and it has served me very well over the years. Below are some notes for those that are interested in buying one.
Assembly
Depending on which website you buy the trailer kit from, they will deliver it to your house. The driver will just use his hydraulic tailgate to lower it and take it off. It is a heavy beast so make sure you place it where you’ll be assembling it.
Wheels and tires will come dismounted, but a quick run to Discount Tire took care of that.
The framework on the kit is bolted together but a sawzall comes in handy to get it all unpacked.
All the hardware is labeled really well and the directions for assembly are pretty detailed too. If you have common sense, you will not have any issues putting this together.
I assembled the trailer by myself with the tools you see below and it took me a few hours. It is very straightforward.
Issues
Keeping in mind that the trailer is a kit, there were some issues with structural integrity in the first gens where the frame would break when abused. Smittybilt sent out reinforcement brackets to remedy that situation but they were dinky and seemed like a bad bandaid. Knowing that I will not be disassembling the trailer ever again, I decided to have a fabrication shop weld any bolted-together areas on the frame and reinforce the frame and bottom of my trailer to make sure I have nothing to worry about in the future – towing at 90mph on the highway or catching air on the beach. Below are the photos of the failures and the reinforcements I did to prevent them.
My Mods
The ARB Elements Fridge works awesome and is the perfect size for the fridge drawer in the back.
Lights and Electrical: I purchased some cheap work LED lights on Alibaba and mounted them on each side. I hooked them up to a wireless-controlled switch box I found on Amazon. The switch comes with a wireless control that is attached to the trailer using a magnet and the lights can also be controlled using an app on the phone. So in the middle of the night, when I need to pee, I turn on the lights on the side with the ladder using my phone. I have the original Goal Zero 1250 with a secondary battery connected to the switch box and the fridge. The GZ is in the generator compartment with a hole drilled in between the components. I permanently mounted a Renogy 100W solar panel to the top of the box and added aluminum angle brackets to hold the remaining solar panels stacked on top when traveling. The top panel has a hole on the side to run a wire and charge the GZ while traveling.
Spare tire: The spare tire holder has been moved to the rear and is made up of a Yakima swing arm and an angled spare tire receiver. It has worked well, but I just recently purchased a DirtWorks rear bumper tire carrier – looking forward to mounting it in the next few weeks.
Fenders: I added a sidebox from Harbor Freight on the passenger side fender and a table/board on the driver side fender. The driver-side fender board is the perfect space for food prep. The board is currently being stored inside the frame of the top solar panel while traveling – keeping it securely out of the way.
Containers: I added a Road Shower 4 to the top and was able to bolt it to the trailer tent arms, placing a pad in between it and the trailer to not have metal on metal rub. I am still experimenting with the water and sink feature so that’s a work in progress. The other containers you see in the protected space behind the tongue box are full-size propane with a mount from ebay, water, fuel and air. The propane s perfectly situated for where the cooking is – grill, stove, or oven.
In Action
Last but not least I made a walk around video a while back while I was camping. It was in the morning while the wife and kiddo were still sleeping so I had to keep it down to not wake them, thus the low volume. I’ll probably re-make it this year when back at El Beacho in November. But here it is: