We've used a pop up and a solid wall camper and it's just a waste of space with them trying to make it look like a living room and all fancy. All I want is a big box on wheels that I can put a couple queen beds in and some totes, ideally with a side door so after we get the kids to sleep we're not coming and going thru a garage door. Cut a hole for a portable AC to plug into the hookup (we "camp" at the family's place) and call it a night.
Does this make sense at all? What am I missing here?
Next question: besides getting the wheels on straight and balancing the load that is on the tongue, is it that hard to build a trailer that's not hauling more than a few hundred lbs and then make a box to put on it?
one more: Whatever we get we want to look nice and clean inside. Like our bedroom. Is thin drywall a good idea on home built or pro- or is there so much flex it's going to crack everywhere?
As long as you don't care about not having windows I think it's a great idea. I sold my open trailer to get an enclosed mainly so I can sleep in it.
I'm working on making the trailer that I use to haul the f500 go both ways, including a loft bed so it can sleep my family of 4, or me above the racecar for a race weekend.
Cutting in some windows for situational awareness? (And some ventilation)
Mosquito netting curtain for side entrance.
I painted the formerly galvanized steel roof on mine white and drastically reduced temps inside.
Led lighting.
Need to figure out door latches.
Insulation is one difference -- while RV trailers don't have a lot of it, they usually have more than box trailers do. They can get very hot sitting in the sun and very cold at night.
As for drywall, in addition to being fragile it's also heavy.
Paneling instead of drywall. Will it be used for anything besides a rustic camper? My 16" box trailer is a great place for the race car to sit all winter, I haven't done any sleepovers in it yet but that is the plan eventually.
Definitely no one the drywall. It wouldn't last long at all, not just from the constant movement but without ventilation it's gonna be very humid/moist/wet.
You will need to add some sort of fresh air ventilation. The a/c will be a great start but I think you are gonna need actual outside air flow to pull away the massive amount of water vapor people breath out, not to mention the metal trailer will condensate.
I'd do thin luan plywood and paint it myself
My in-laws sleep in theirs when they go to bike meets. I'm not sure they've done much other than stick a sofa in it, but it seems to work for them.
Its been done a lot.
Windows are easy, door handles can be installed. Best way is to add battens to inside wall studs to create a bigger void and have the unit insulated with spray foam insulation. 1/4" luan paneling. Then its like a big ice chest. Really understand how to install the 110v wiring so that someone walking up and touching the rig does not become the ground rod. Add smoke detector and CO detector.
Enjoy
1" foam is about the right thickness. Drop the walls and ceiling and put that between.
Use some plywood, the sheetrock will crack and break I think. trailers do flex some and I dont know that you will have the strength to make that hold. Also, the RV windows are fairly easy to add. Make sure to do this before you do the walls and insulate or plan to do it twice.
Run some wiring in it prior to strapping it all down. You can get a couple of plugs in the wall and also, do some LED lights and such. Keep lights and all that setup as 12v and just run an invertor.
Spare tire wells in the floor are about the perfect size to put a shower pan into. Then, just double wrap shower curtains on it and hang from clips on the ceiling with conduit. Its hidden and when you dont use it, its away. This is the best option I have seen if you dont want to build a shower room.
Put in some batteries, and an inverter and you can live off the grid.
Also, if you e track the walls, you can use these.
You can do a bunk setup or just a bed thats not on the floor. Plus, you can make a rack on the wall at the top or bottom to store these.
mtn
MegaDork
9/7/21 8:46 a.m.
Where do you live? I'd think if you're in the north, or can keep it in the shade 90% of the time, you'd be in good shape, the big issue being it could get dangerously hot.
I think my plan of attack would be this:
- Two small vents, one down low on the back right with a fan blowing in, and one up high on the front left with a fan blowing out. Fan can be a tiny fan, just to get airflow going
- Portable AC going to another vent
- Two or Three windows, for situational awareness. These could even be round boat windows - don't need them to be very large.
- Personal preference with how you're doing it, but for simplicity, I'd go with a couple of Aerobeds. Expensive, but long lasting, comfortable (though they can be cold), and easily removed if you need to use the trailer for something other than sleeping
- Shag carpet and fake wood paneling.
I can share what a coworker/friend did to build his own camping trailer from a 7x12.
Pulled the walls down and insulated with foam, added laminate flooring.
Bunk beds.
Outdoor kitchen in the loading ramp area.
I setup our karting 6x12 cargo trailer for camping in. Used most of the suggestions above. I put foam board insulation between the thin plywood walls and the exterior metal. The pink stuff for the walls, the foil backed for the ceiling. Cheap indoor/outdoor carpet on the floor. Various configs of beds that fold up against the wall or raised beds with etrack and 2x4's across the width of the trailer. For power, I just had a hole in the floor with a cover that I'd run an extension cord through and then to a power strip. Most of the tracks had power poles and the ones that didn't I used a small generator. For bathroom facilities, we had a camping toilet for late night needs, but most of the time used the restrooms at the track. Trailer was black (In south Texas). Painting the roof with box store white roof paint helped as lot, as did the insulation. I cut a hole in the front of the trailer and fabbed a door out of the cutout to stick a window unit in. 5k btu's would keep it around 79 degress in the heat, but I upgraded to an 8k unit when they went on sale and could get it down to 65 when it was 110 outside. A little turbo fan at the back helped circulate the air. I bought windows for it, but never installed them.
This site had a wealth of ideas and have a specific section for cargo trailers. http://www.tnttt.com/
-Rob
How tall are you? As an "over 6 footer", the tiny trailers are just too....tiny for me. By the time I would have gotten one that was 7 feet tall inside to allow for decent close-out, it either got real top heavy and stupid looking or was a bigger trailer than I would want. I looked at a few, drew up plans, put together a budget, and then shelved it because there was no trailer I liked to start from.
If you have deep pockets, you can have a company like Featherlite build you exactly what you want. If I really wanted a cargo trailer camper, thats what I would do.
The thing I found very attractive was the Bed Door. https://challengerdoor.com/bed-doors/ You can find some neat stuff on Challengers' website, Dometic also makes a lot of decent stuff.
I fully support this idea. It won't likely save you money over buying a used travel trailer, but at least you can use quality materials and make it just how you like it. It will also fly under the radar as many municipalities don't allow using an RV in anything but an RV park/campground.
Go bigger than you think. Empty trailers look spacious but until you put two twin beds in there and other things, it will be tiny.
Bonding a rigid foam like iso-board to the skins will also add a bit of rigidity. Interior walls should be luan. Some paneling is made from an MDF or masonite type material and will wallow out the screw holes very quickly.
When you select an A/C unit, you can pretty much count on doubling the BTUs compared to something you would put in the window of your house. 1" insulation, aluminum skin, and luan is no comparison to 6" insulation, drywall, plywood, tyvek, and siding.
A used toy box with a kitchen is way cheaper then building one and it has windows and it has resale value. Remember you lose money on the sale not on the buy, if you get a good one that is depreciated it will be cheaper then building in the long run.
No drywall. Bad idea all around.
I used FRP panels. Fiberglass reinforced panels. It's basically a plastic panel. Has a bubbly texture appearance. Often used in commercial bathrooms, utility spaces, etc. Strong as crap, can take a beating, impervious to water, washable.
Its sold in the same aisle as paneling and Luan. It's pricier than paneling, but far, far better.
My trailer came with nasty plywood. I just glued the stuff directly over it.
I do like the idea of elevated E Track to provide the option of a temporary cot. Obviously nothing like what P3PPY has in mind, but I can see it working for an occasional snooze such as if you're running an enduro with multiple drivers. Also gives the opportunity for an elevated load space - I've stacked kayaks above a race car using a similar setup.
Keith Tanner said:
I do like the idea of elevated E Track to provide the option of a temporary cot. Obviously nothing like what P3PPY has in mind, but I can see it working for an occasional snooze such as if you're running an enduro with multiple drivers. Also gives the opportunity for an elevated load space - I've stacked kayaks above a race car using a similar setup.
That was one of the configs I had in ours. Etrack down each side with 2x4's. The 2x4's would carry one kart and the other would store on the floor underneath it. When we slept it in (karts stayed covered outside), I had a cot on one side and the 2x4's near the ramp door and had sewed up some canvas with tunnels that I would slide the 2x4's in to and mount them on the etrack for my son to sleep on. He was still young, so the 6 foot width was never an issue and with a 2" memory foam pad, was really comfortable.
I'll admit my window unit sticking out the front as opposed to a roof unit didn't look as esthetically pleasing, but it seemed like the roof units needed repair/replacement every year while mine worked great for 5 years.
-Rob
This guy did something similar so he could cheaply stay on ski hill parking lots:
Ski junkie enclosed camping trailer
Good stuff, guys. Any more pics of the e-paneling in use? I'm having trouble visualizing
What's this toy box thing? Toy hauler?
And I have very shallow pockets, FWIW :)
In reply to Rons :
Okay, that makes sense. I'll have to look around for those, too.
