Custom lightweight camping trailer

[coppertop_01]

I'll make this one short, it started with the need for a small light trailer to pull with a 4cyl jeep a few years back, I built a fully aluminum trailer to go tent camping with, unloaded I'd approximate it at 250lbs with a 1500lbs axle. This year I wanted to get off the ground and maybe a little less setup time.

Started looking at commercial tent trailers, all of them are crazy huge with all the bells / whistles and way overweight, I did find a couple companies in the USA that made light alum basic tent trailers but once brought to Canada with duties and various other costs it would be as much or more than the bigger tent trailers. Never mind I live in a city with limited space, since I already have a trailer that I wouldn't get rid of I didn't have the space for another one. Left with little options I started dreaming up a tent add on to my existing trailer that with some quick work I could remove the tent add on and put it back to trailer mode.

I figured out the max space that I could build up by using a platform with wings, then located a tent that would fit the design.

Had a few problems, nothing that I couldn't fix, a couple headaches but overall I'm happy on how it came out, first test run will be next weekend.....not doing anything insane, but it should be a good test of it.

Jer

Future plans, I'd like to look out for a better tent, maybe canvas but this should be good for at least a year. I'd like to setup some led strip lighting and connect it to the battery/power inverter box that's mounted to the tongue. Lastly grabbing a solar panel to keep everything charged up would be nice.

 

[Box Rocket]

I'd love to hear some details about how you made the tent, and/or attached the tent to your trailer. Looks great!

 

[coppertop_01]

Thanks for the comment, there's only one thing that bothers me a bit and I might have to look at it some more is the connection between the tent and the door/zipper/seals.

The tent platform w made from 3/4" plywood with 2" wide 3/4" strips glued and screwed to add some rigidity to the ply, simple piano hinges connect the two wings to the main base. There are two angled brackets that the hinges screw through that also mount the tent base to the top of the trailer via a bunch of 1/4-20 bolts. As for the tent, the bottom was cut out and it was stretched over the sides of the plywood and with some 0.08" alum strips on the outside plus some PL premium adhesive and screws through the alum plates hold the tent to the base. To support the wings, I've got three adjustable length poles on the outside edge, plus halfway I've added 4 struts that go to the bottom edge of the trailer, all connections use pipe yoke pins for quick install. Lastly I added scissor lift jacks on the back of the trailer to support the main trailer from movement.

I hope I made it somewhat clear on how I built it, I'll see if I can take some better and more detailed pics during the camping trip, for some reason I didn't take many construction pics.......probably because I find myself wasting more time posting updates and answering questions on other boards with other projects that it ends up taking too much time away from getting the job done.

Jer

 

[flyfisheraa573]

Nice! Great job!

 

[Mark Harley]

Nice design, does it just fold into the trailer for travel?

 

[highlandercj-7]

Good thinking. I often thought about going that route in my old CJ trailer. I could never find the rite size tent to make it happen.

 

[coppertop_01]

Yup both wings fold in and it sits about 6-8" high when in travel mod.

Finding the right size was difficult, I wanted to keep it simple with a rectangular shape (many tents have cropped/angular corners) and since the base trailer was 4x6 I was restricted to a size similar to that when folded, plus my air mattress was queen sized so I had to make sure it could fit as well. Basically the platform is 4x7' unfolded with 1' overhang on the front, both wings are roughly 4' wide (technically the left side is a couple inches shorter than 4' and the right side has a double hinge to raise it over the left side so its greater than 4' unfolded) and since a queen mattress is wider than 4' (roughly 5') the opening into the trailer section in the center has a 1' overhang which will double as storage so we aren't tripping over things on the floor. Also the tent was 6' in the center, added with the depth of the trailer at 18" the wife and I have tons of overhead room while moving around.

I'm thinking that when the tent is worn out I might look at making something, I've seen a couple threads on here where people have been using DIY canvas tent kits and building their own RTT......might look into that, bonus is that my mother is a seamstress I'm sure I could convince her for some help in that.

Jer

 

[Waygoner]

Very interesting. I was working on nearly the same design until I changed my plans and sold my trailer. Pretty sure I even bought the same tent. I sent it back when I saw the top was mesh. It seems they're all made that way now, but it's no good for 3 season camping in Colorado. So for set up you pull out the sides, attach the stabilizer bars and then insert the tent bows? I would think set up would take just a few minutes.

 

[coppertop_01]

Exactly put up that way, I can do it myself in about 30 min, and thats even holding up the wings as I attempt to install the braces.

Agreed on the tent, I wanted to start with something and improve as it goes along....that and I got the tent at a steal, a local department store recently went out of business and I think I ended up getting the tent at $70 or something, even if it lasts a season its still a pretty good deal.

Jer

 

[smote]

Subscribed. I really like your trailer setup. I'd be interested to see more pictures of the mechanics and how they work.
I'm planning something similar, but with a flat surface for the tent to mount to and storage underneath for water, fuel, cooler, kitchen, etc.

 

[coppertop_01]

I'll be doing the first test run this weekend so I'll take a ton of pictures, close ups, different angles to try to give you guys some more details of the build.

I was thinking the same as you for the storage underneath, but when I figured out how high to get into the tent, which would have not been bad for the wife and I, but we've got two dogs, one is 120+lbs Neapolitan mastiff, I'm not going to lift that monster over 24" in the air......thus why I'm using the trailer to get into.

Jer

 

[coppertop_01]

As promised some pictures of the mechanics of the tent, everything went well, weather was great so I didn't get any rain or heavy wind testing this weekend.

I will be doing some upgrades over the next few weeks, gotta add a swing out step, wife was complaining that the height of the step while fine during the daytime was a little too high trying to navigate in the middle of night whilst half asleep sucked. Also I'd like to add a jack lift on the front tongue (it's been on the to do list but I've been waiting on a sale), but for my week long camping trip I noticed that the lower amount of storage (since the tent wings limit the stacking goods above the trailer walls) is going to limit the ability to survive a week without having to head out for more supplies (thus negating the week long disappearing act) so in an attempt to add storage I'm going to add "saddle bags" to the sides of the trailer, basically removing the fenders and adding exterior storage w/3 doors and built in fenders to the sides of the box. Lastly I noticed that the support brackets are a little too high and are rubbing the tent, going to need to do some small repairs before the next trip out with it.

Here's the pics from this weekend.

Jer

 

[coppertop_01]

Couple more pics, after looking at them it looks like I might not have taken enough detail into how the mechanics work in the setup, hopefully you guys can figure it out with what I've taken.

 

[chevyz71]

pretty nice work on it. even the bike rack !!!

 

[coppertop_01]

Thanks, I'm fairly happy how it came out.

Bike rack is extremely simple, gotta add another two channels for my other friends who are taking up mountain biking with the rest of us. Also need to change how the bikes are strapped down, mine kept tilting over to the point that I thought it might bend the rim, fix is simple though.

Jer