Boat Camper Idea - long term development

[jscusmcvet]

My wife and I have been camping for a long time. A few years ago we bought a Rockwood pop up to get our "aging" bodies up off the ground... a bit of comfort, a bit of ease for taking off for shorter 2 - 4 day trips. Here she is (the pop up, not the wife...)


Joe wanted me to include a picture of him, so...


OK... so over the last couple years we have been jawing about what suits us best. We have explored the concept of a small RV, a large, quality ground tent, an offroad trailer with an RTT, or just keeping our pop up. I have been working hard to help her see the benefit of a small trailer with a large RTT... literally trying for a couple years...

This morning in the midst of my early morning interweb rambling... I came across this:

http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=134&t=82248

Now we have a small boat and trailer. The boat is a small, home made boat that my older son and I built about 10 years ago. 13 feet, still fully functional, 9.9 hp pushes it with me on board up to almost 18mph (gps tested). It has served well over the years for lots and lots of fishing and exploring. I will add pics tomorrow if I get the chance. Ann and I have consistently lamented that we cannot have the boat and camper together on our trips. So I show her the boat/RTT camper in the above link and she says...
"100% if that's what you want to do... build it"

Holy boat camper batman!

I have the shop. I have the welder (old Lincoln stick). I have the boat. I have the trailer. I will need the steel to build the tent mount, jacks for the tent platform when the boat and trailer is deployed. I need an RTT that can sleep three and has the ability for an additional room on the ground.

I am searching for your input on this project. I am overly excited at the moment because of Ann's agreement. Granted, this is at the immediate exploration phase... may never actually happen, but I want to fully flesh out the idea and estimate some costs to see if it is feasible. Also want your technical input to see what I may not be thinking of... what would work best, etc...

Thanks for indulging me. I think it can work.

John

 

[Ozarker]

I need an RTT that.... (LOL), you meant to say you want an RTT.

Ever thought about a longer trailer and putting your camper box up front? The boat can sit at an angle too like a car carrier.

That's not a bad set up, so long as you keep that boat.

 

[Backroad Explorer]

Why not use the tent & bed slides along with the roof with lift system, put a floor between the bed slides, that would makes three beds for the top removable section.
Make legs that the lift sys would fit inside. Just put the legs down and pull the boat out from under tent section.

Raise the tent pull out the beds and relax!

I'm just think'n?

 

[jscusmcvet]

Why not use the tent & bed slides along with the roof with lift system, put a floor between the bed slides, that would makes three beds for the top removable section.
Make legs that the lift sys would fit inside. Just put the legs down and pull the boat out from under tent section.

Raise the tent pull out the beds and relax!

I'm just think'n?

Yes, I think we are kind of on the same page. The idea is that the tent is on a platform that connects to the trailer frame. Pull into your camp site, extend the jacks for the tent platform, unhook the connection that holds the platform to the boat trailer, pull boat and trailer out from under the platform. that way boat and camper can travel to water without toting living space with us.

Your suggestion of using the pop up beds/slides and pop up system is interesting because it would allow the wife to keep that level of comfort/space. Will have to ponder a bit. Might also wind up too heavy for my jeep. Time for some figurin...

John

 

[Backroad Explorer]

John I can't wait to see some sketch's, maybe some Aluminum for the framework. Lighten things up a little.
You could always make the bed sections slide in one on top of the other to make things a little smaller when folded.

Still just think'n