Thats what my friend Tim did with his.
2 Likes
For another take on the concept, another friend of mine (a 4WD off-road enthusiast) made this trailer to haul behind his 4WD. There is a pop up tent on the top of the trailer for sleeping and LOTS of storage. Built in kitchen on the back as well.
He won an Instructables contest with his detailed write up.
6 Likes
Did you use plans for your design?
The overlanding trailers are pretty expensive, buying them anyway. They are neat though.
I’d love to see the interior pictures. At 6’5" an interior of 6’3" seems much better than the teardrop.
The base cargo trailer was 12x6 and 6’6" tall. When the queen bed is fully extended, it adds another 3’. The canvas tarp to cover the bed when extended is still a work in progress as you can see from the pictures. I am going to make some custom tarps to create a top cover with a back canvas wall that is interchangeable with screen mesh to give a large, rear picture window.
Here are the pictures on Google photos. https://photos.app.goo.gl/1UXYrxLYHs9YuLKk8
I special ordered the trailer from Lark trailer company down in McGregor Texas. You can get a 7’ high version also. (-:
That is just plain awesome. I already sent those pictures to my wife as something we can build in the future. Thank you for sharing. She asked if the pretty cat comes with it when we build our own lol.
The cat is my shadow, but I’m sure there are others available. lol.
It was a fun project and my wife enjoyed helping out. She did a lot of the foam insulation work as well as all the custom canvas work so far.
Having made some trips in it are there things you wish you would have done differently?
How long did the buildout take?
Its a bit of an ongoing project, but it is mostly done, certainly enough to go camping. We are looking at doing a cross country two week tour this summer in it. When building small campers, there is always the desire for more room. But you have to hold that in check. My basic constraints were to keep it one axle so it is easier to move and so it would fit easily in my driveway behind a wall (HOA issues otherwise). I think the 12’x6’ is the maximum size for one axle, at least from Lark. The biggest thing I am glad I did was to buy the base cargo trailer customized the way I wanted it. So I got the RV door and front access panel options exactly as I wanted along with electric brakes and the extra interior height. Those options are hard to find on used cargo trailers.
The good news is, because I did this myself, I know how to make changes when I want them.
You have to decide what type of camping you will be doing before planning. Boondocking (totally off grid) or state/national parks and RV parks. We enjoy state and national parks where we usually have water, electricity and a short walk to the bathroom. With this rig we can also pull off into a Walmart parking lot and be asleep in bed in 5 minutes without any setup. So we did give up the bathroom/shower/toilet for just a porta-potty instead. But it was not a problem for us. Bathrooms/holding tanks, etc are a pain in the butt. IMHO.
The labor is tough to estimate. I took delivery in late March and went on the first camping trip in July. Working on it part time, I would say I have 150 to 200 hours in it. Probably another 20-30 hours watching Youtube DIY tiny-camper videos, planning and shopping on craigslist and Amazon. I could cut that in half the second time around.
My wife and I also got a lot of “bonding time” checking out the local scrap (aka recycling) yards in Garland where we got all our Romex, 12v wiring, kitchen sink and other stuff for 1/3 the price at the big box store.
2 Likes