lacofdfireman
Adventurer
Well the build has begun. My 17 year old Son and I have begun to build an Off Road Expedition style hard sided trailer. We will also include my 12 year old son when possible to make this a family build. This should be a fun project for my boys and I do together. Hoping to have It done before a trip to Moab we have planned towards the end of May. I commute to work from Utah to Los Angeles so I'm limited on time so on my days off I'll have to put in some long days. The plan is to build a trailer that we can pull behind our 03 Jeep Cherokee that we are also building at the same time as this that will sleep at least 3. Our plan is for 2 to sleep inside and we also have plans for an RTT on top. It will be a little bigger than most hard side trailers you see but I'm doing this for my comforts. Me being 6'5 and my 17 year old son 6'3 I didn't want to be crawling in a tiny cramped up trailer that feels like I am in a sleeping bag. The side profile will be 5' tall x 10' long and about 78" wide at the outer side of the wheels. We plan on a very basic rear kitchen with a sink and a 15 gallon Harbor Freight water tank. We will also have a portable cooktop. Propane shower is also in the plans. On the inside I plan on using carpet on floor, walls and ceiling. This will help with sound proofing and extra insulation.
Construction wise we are building the trailer from 2x2 .120 wall for the frame and 2.5 1/4"square for the front tongue and rear tongue. Sides will be 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood and the floor will be out of the same. I plan on doing the top out of 1/4" Baltic Birch and the interior out of 1/8." Also i am planning to frame this out of 2x3's with insulation between the 3/4" outer and 1/8" inner walls. The 2x3's are total overkill but I want it to be strong for supporting the RTT. One thing I can guarantee is this will be way overbuilt. Hoping to come in at under 1500lbs all said and done.
Got off to a slow start today. Must have made 3 different trips to lowes for misc stuff which slows us down alot. My son is a Senior this year and is in his second year of welding at school. So I'm leaving the frame welding to him. I'll cut the pieces and he can weld away. Today we basically got a majority of the frame built and the floor cut out. I go back to work tomorrow night for 5 days so it's gonna be slow going for these first 2 weeks. One of my hold ups is gonna be Windows. I looked around town today and couldn't find anything for a camper like this. So most likely I will have to order off the internet. Problem is I don't know where or what sizes. I'm planning on a window across the front and 2 side windows. I'd also like a window in the door. If anyone has any ideas for that I'm all ears.
Here's a couple of pics of the start of the frame.
Also the rear receiver hitch tube was taken off and cut and re welded even with back of trailer so it doesn't ruin approach angle.
Construction wise we are building the trailer from 2x2 .120 wall for the frame and 2.5 1/4"square for the front tongue and rear tongue. Sides will be 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood and the floor will be out of the same. I plan on doing the top out of 1/4" Baltic Birch and the interior out of 1/8." Also i am planning to frame this out of 2x3's with insulation between the 3/4" outer and 1/8" inner walls. The 2x3's are total overkill but I want it to be strong for supporting the RTT. One thing I can guarantee is this will be way overbuilt. Hoping to come in at under 1500lbs all said and done.
Got off to a slow start today. Must have made 3 different trips to lowes for misc stuff which slows us down alot. My son is a Senior this year and is in his second year of welding at school. So I'm leaving the frame welding to him. I'll cut the pieces and he can weld away. Today we basically got a majority of the frame built and the floor cut out. I go back to work tomorrow night for 5 days so it's gonna be slow going for these first 2 weeks. One of my hold ups is gonna be Windows. I looked around town today and couldn't find anything for a camper like this. So most likely I will have to order off the internet. Problem is I don't know where or what sizes. I'm planning on a window across the front and 2 side windows. I'd also like a window in the door. If anyone has any ideas for that I'm all ears.
Here's a couple of pics of the start of the frame.
Also the rear receiver hitch tube was taken off and cut and re welded even with back of trailer so it doesn't ruin approach angle.
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