Building our own camping trailer

Howdy,

@ALI3N_123 and I want to build our own camper trailer, on a ground tent budget.

This is what we want to do: Get a trailer, weld some bed bars on it, put a RTT on it. As we develop it we would be adding some walls to it to keep our crap from getting stolen. Maybe leaving it as a dedicated camping gear storage.

In the end Im envisioning something like this:

Im thinking we start with something like this:

Then weld on some 3-4 ft tall square tubes, 3 on each side. Then on those sq tubes we weld on my heavy metal off-road bed bars.

Later on we can add some walls and what not.

Im thinking we end up with something like this:


Red lines = tubing
Blue lines = bed bars


Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions? Things to do, things not to do?

 

Looks like an easy fab project if you have the tools and welding experience. Not sure what "heavy metal off-road bed bars" are... regular mild steel is fine. It's not like you'll have substantial weight in the RTT while underway, so no need to make those legs any thicker gauge than they need to be to hold the static weight of the RTT and occupants at rest. Depending on the original construction of the new trailer, you may have to add some stiffeners to the frame.. Obviously, have to mod the wheel wells to accept a larger tire.

 

I would go with a longer trailer unless you have been backing trailers for years .if you can back 4 wheel wagons you should be fine.

Those short trailers come around real fast.

Your going to have lots of trial and error getting that trailer to pull good. They tend to start to whip at different speeds and bounce around quite much.

Best of luck

 

Not a fan of bolt together trailers unless it also gets welded up. A single tube tongue is also weak sauce.

 

I am also curious to learn the weakness of bolted trailers.

I have seen some welders I would trust a bolted trailer more.

 

Here's what I did with a 4x6 atv trailer. Aprox. 500lbs without the tent. Pulls along fine without issues. The key is proper weight distribution. Another point to consider not to go too high if you don't need to. A high center of gravity does not work well if you plan on taking your trailer on anything besides pavement or fire roads. One good bump, can send a trailer over on it's side.

 

Those RTT`s scare me I know I would forget where I was get up to go pee like at home half asleep and hit the ground.

 

Someone wanting empirical data on bolted trailers can go do their own research and figure it out for themselves.

Having fixed a few and also witnessed some catastrophic failures I will never own a single tube tongue that bolts together. They twist and flex putting strain on steel members creating cracks and weakening the steel. It’s amplified with overloading the trailer.

Not all welds are easy to look at I agree. More to welding than owning a budget machine and hood.

 

Here’s my camping trailer I built from scratch. It basically started out as a box with a tent ontop and has evolved over the years. Two things I highly suggest: telescoping/removable tongue helps with maneuvering, security/storage. Trailer jacks on the back two corners to level out the trailer during camp.

 

I've gone stumbling out of my camper more times than I care to admit. It's dark, I'm groggy as hell but at least coherent enough to know that I can't lean on the walls of a pop-up, I'm trying to step into my shoes... And I gotta piss like an exploding horse. And all of this while I hop out of my bunk that's 3.5 feet above the floor, step over a dog, find my shoes, then I have to open a 18" wide screen door and navigate three more stair steps to get to ground. It's a good night if I can do that without falling, stubbing a toe, or cussing out the damn dog.




At least on a ladder you have hand holds that help stabilize yourself against the drinkin' drowsies, but Im with you, I personally would fear slipping a rung and breaking a leg. And then pissing myself while dangling there upside down.

 

The tongue is not the trailer .

It is only a small part . I agree about the tongue .

 

Here is my homebuilt that serves multiple duties as an RTT platform and a kayak carrier/utility trailer.





The rack mounts are the platform mounts for a bed rack that I had. For RTT mounting bars, I just used a couple of bars of 1x2 rectangular steel tubing.

When the tent is off, I mount the regular sides and now it is tall enough to put 2 kayaks in the middle and 2 on the top for easy transport of everybody's boat.

If I really wanted/needed to experience the high life again, I could still mount the RTT on top of the bed rack as well

I bought a 4x6 trailer off CL for $100 and modded it to do what I needed.

It's still a work in progress. Right now the top of the trailer is open but I'm thinking about closing it off and adding access doors in front of the wheels.

For the RTT, keep it low if possible. The only real downside I can think of from a low mount are awning options, which aren't an issue for us since we use one of the portable canopies.

Aside from the obvious stability benefits, low will make ingress/egress much easier and your wife will greatly appreciate it.

I've had my tent mounted on top of a fullsize SUV where it was 7 feet off the ground and I didn't dig it. My wife flat out hated it.

Doubly agree on avoiding a bolt together trailer.

The bolts will loosen and start tearing the bolt holes due to flexing.

Good Luck and post up what you do!

 

Might be longer than you’d want but harbor freight coming out with a 2K payload utility trailer next year for under $1k

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzEinOmpF1F/

 

I did something similar, starting with a Summit 5x8 utility trailer made here in the PNW. It was just over $2k for the trailer alone, but worth the extra money for the build quality. I then installed a rack from Amazon, threw on the tent, awning, tongue box, spring over lift, wheels and tires, and it's been great. I can fill the box with gear, an ATV or dirtbikes/mtn. bikes.

 

That's practically what I want to build. Can you post more pics of the trailer?

 

Amazing

 

Last time we went camping I got some serious leg cramps while trying to get down to take a wiz...I ended up pointing it out the side and shooting a 6 ft stream. Other campers probably thought I had a RTT with a fountain

 

I don't have any build pics. Here is the trailer I started with. I chose this one because it is a heavier gauge metal and rails compared to a HF or Lowes trailer. The lower/bed comes fully welded. I did replace a few things to improve it's off road worthiness. 1. removed the ramp (unwanted weight) 2. replaced tongue with 2x3" square tubing which runs the whole length of the trailer, and attached at each cross member. 3. Replaced axle with Dexter 3500lb axle with hubs. 4. Obviously tires and wheels. 5. Replaced the oem slip springs with a smooth ride leaf spring kit from Compact Concepts, which drastically keep the bounces down. 6. Lock & Roll hitch. 7. The rack I already had. 8.Welded pinned drop legs to the back. 9. I cut the rack down so the climb isn't much at all. 10. I have a 12v system installed with an RV battery as power. This thing has many offroad miles on it, and goes everywhere my jeep and truck have taken it, (washboard roads, rocky terrain, up and down). I inspect it after every trip, and it is holding up great, with no issues. I built this as light as I could because it was designed to be towed with my 66' CJ5. Which has no problems pulling it (V6). The hubs are the same as the jeep, so I don't need to bring a trailer spare. When I'm using the truck, I have the spare mounted inside the trailer. The table you see in the photos folds up and is stowed along the side of the tent rack. It attaches to the trailer with an RV table bracket (either side). I set up the tent to open torwards the back so I can set up my kitchen area on either side, depending on the location and the wind. It's worked out far better than I thought. Most of my plans came from looking at all the others that have built them and adpated those ideas to what I wanted. Good luck on your build.