My Latest Project

[MountainDon]

My newest project is not really a cabin project. Rather it is a small travel trailer. Not a tear drop type but more boxy. But small. It will be based on a 5 ft wide x 8 ft long utility trailer chassis.

When not being dragged along on a vacation trip someplace it will do double duty as a guest bunkhouse at the mountain cabin property!  (The plan for an actual more or less conventional bunkhouse has been shelved.   

More to come as right now it's just an idea and a pile of some parts on the garage floor.   

[Native_NM]

I've got a nice welder....

and have spent lots of time on the TTT site..

[Huge29]

I am interested to see the project; I contemplated a similar project this summer as we needed a new one, but opted to spend only $600 for a little tent trailer.  Do you have an old trailer or what is your base?  if you don't have the axles, strive for the EZ lube, they are very nice to have, virtually no reason to ever pack bearings again.  http://ecustomhitch.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/anihub.gif
Aren't you in ID?  if so, you have a Henderson's in Boise, I think, they sell these pretty cheap.

[MountainDon]

N_NM, I have a MIG welder that is more capable than I. I just have to take a few prectice passes on odds 'n' ends of metal before doing anything serious.


Huge29, I have a Northern Tool 5x8 ft frame and axle that will be the chassis. The plan is to extend the tongue, remove a leaf from the springs and add some shocks as a start. It will NOT be as fancy as some of the very nice trailers found on TNTTT. We're looking to make a hard sided tent that we won't mind terribly to get dirty.

[Huge29]

Well, I await the progress anxiously!  I am interested to see the final product.  I saw a similar idea locally in the classifieds where a guy just made on a utility trailer leaving the front half for his ATV.  Beats a tent by a long shot!

[tommytebco]

Mtn Don,
This may interest you.
http://turned-about.blogspot.com/
A trailer project just like you are describing

[Sassy]

Mtn Don,
This may interest you.
http://turned-about.blogspot.com/
A trailer project just like you are describing

Thanks for posting tommy, I really enjoyed all the sightseeing 

[tommytebco]

did you see the trailer build in the early posts.

From concept through step by step build??

Starts here http://turned-about.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html

[rick91351]

MD with the price of fuel and all, I think such a project would be very worth while.  Have you priced used tear drop types against what it would cost to craft / build a small hard side or is this one of those I want'a - got'a build it things? 

[UK4X4]

This is one I built a while back, got a bit carried away with independant air bag suspension ...and remote controled locks, and not quite sleepable inside, but the frame etc shoul give you some ideas




http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/12092-Trailer-build-thread-consolidated?highlight=consolidated


You can search here, find a design and then look at the build thread, some nice boxy tear drops to get some ideas from
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/52549-Collection-of-Trailer-Builds

[cbc58]

been researching doing this also...  one thing i learned was that if it's going to be registered here in NC that it has to have DOT approved windows with tempered glass..  just an fyi if yours is going to get inspected.   

[John Raabe]

Interesting thread. A metal work project is probably the way to go.

There are folks around here who have done some artsy wooden "Tiny House" projects on small travel trailer frames but they probably see very little time on the road. When you are on the Interstate you don't want things flying off at 70 mph.

[MountainDon]

Nice UK; I've seen a off road cargo box with a tent on top once in UT. It was cool' used a VW independent suspension.


With the purchase of the tacoma 4x4 we are thinking that this trailer project is going to be on hold. Sad and glad. Sad; I was looking forward to the planning and building. Glad, I'd rather not drag a trailer around. The Tacoma gives us room to sleep in the back, under the cap. It also has enough space in the extended cab, what Toyota calls an Access Cab. Our large cooler fits behind the front seats with room to spare (I like the cooler in the air conditioned space, it makes the ice last longer.)


So the trailer chassis that was going to be re-purposed to building the teardrop will be re-purposed into a humble, simple trailer for the ATV. That will be a lighter tow than using the venerable steel box utility trailer that has seen many jobs in the past 30+ years. It will still be used for hauling materials to the cabin, etc.


So plans change; sometimes rapidly.

[MountainDon]

Well, here it is some 14+ months down the road. We have a resurrection of sorts. Karen and I pulled the trigger and ordered a cargo trailer made to our specs. That will be the basis for our roaming home away from home. I came very close to going the route of building from the frame up, but this will shorten the time frame considerably.

This will be more practical than a showcase of beauty, more redneck or maybe Red Green than Better Homes & Gardens.    6x12 with a deep Vee nose; RV door w/screen in the nose, standing headroom, some solar, queen size bed, 12 VDC refrigerator...  We decided standing room was necessary as neither of us looked forwards to stooping and squatting, crawling on our knees. The basic trailer should be done by early to mid January. Then we'll start with insulating, a big window and so on.

[MountainDon]

The predecessor to Sketchup. Paper, pencil, architects scale, scissors and tape



The nose will be somewhere between the blue and the black lines.  Square box in upper right corner is a 12 vdc refrigerator (truckfridge TF130)

[Windpower]

Neat project

looking forward to the 'build'

[NM_Shooter]

Don, I'm curious... what made you decide to do this rather than to purchase a ready made travel trailer?

[MountainDon]

One main reason was the width of commercially available travel trailers. The narrowest are about 80", almost 7 feet while the majority are wider, up to 8 ft and beyond. Yes, width = more interior space and a greater number of ways to make use of that space. But I don't want a bigger truck and wide = more air drag.

The few smaller ones we like (Casita for example) are still 80" wide and anyone selling a used one wants more than we're willing to pay. Ditto on new ones.

FWIW, we almost decided to build from scratch. Came pretty close. That one would have been 5'6" wide and 13 to 14 ft long (main part of body)   (In case anyone does not know when a ready made travel trailer is advertised as a 17 ft, that is from hitch/ball to rear bumper. Suntract approx 3 feet for the approx body length. When I say thia is 6 x 12, that is the length from rear wall to where the side wall turns in to make the V-nose. The V-nose will add 3 1/2 to 4 feet of body... the tongue is about 60" on this one.)

Then we'll get to make the interior as simple and "un-duded" as we want.

[MountainDon]

closed this topic and opened a new one

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=13486.msg176273#msg176273