My offroad 5x8 Cargo Trailer Camper Conversion

[snare]

We have settled on a 5 x 8 cargo that we will have built with a 4' interior height. Still deciding on straight axle or saving up for the Timbren axle less. May have the company put a 24" door with RV lock on each side. and then install windows in those.

This has been inspiring for us. thanks !

 

[Jmanscotch]

I don't have much to update lately. Life has been super busy between picking up some weekend work at the job, to getting engaged to planning a vacation to Costa Rica this week.

As some may know, I sold my last trailer to help save for funds to purchase a ring. While it still took me a while to get around to it, we went camping this weekend and I popped the question. Don't worry, after nearly 5 years of dating, she said yes.



We went to a nice spot above Turquoise lake in Leadville, CO. Didn't get the spot I wanted with lake views, long story there, but it was still a decent spot. For some reason I don't have pictures on my phone of the actual main view to the north, just the one to the south...but it overlooked a valley and was quite the sight.





I've been working on the fenders some, scratching the purchased set and working on building my own.

I started with fabbing up the main fender supports and adding a little kick out on the front side.




I probably won't be back to working on them for a few weeks though.

Something I did notice while prepping for this weekend's trip is my Lock N Roll hitch is twisted.




I talked to a nice gentleman at Lock-N-Roll and he said these rotation limiting units are discontinued due to the fact that they had been known to twist like this. He said the cause is jackknifing the trailer (usually while backing) then the tongue on the trailer drops and when you pull forward again, the T shank side of things just binds and twists. While I haven't backed the trailer in this scenario, I have made U-turns that have put the trailer nearly 90 degrees to the truck and that must have been when it happened.

That said, they offered to send me whichever Lock-N-Roll setup I wanted as a replacement, free of charge. So I was pretty satisfied with their willingness to stand behind their product without question. Great company in my opinion.

Being the curious fella I am, I hooked up the trailer and jackknifed it to try to see how this occurred. It was also a chance to show the 90 degree clearance between the truck and trailer, as I had intended by design when extending the trailer tongue.

You can see in the pictures how the tongue drops and if I were to pull away with the tongue dropped that low, it’ll try to raise while being at an angle and it just must be too much force for the design, so it twists.





That'll be it for a few weeks, I'll see what gets done after we get back from our first vacation of our adult lives (thus much needed!).

Jake


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[snare]

Congrats and thanks for the pics !

 

[Jmanscotch]

Also, is anyone here part of the dozen or so off-road group I saw pulling out of Buena Vista headed east Saturday around 3 PM? Lots of Toyota’s and off road tear drops....


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[bigskypylot]

We have settled on a 5 x 8 cargo that we will have built with a 4' interior height. Still deciding on straight axle or saving up for the Timbren axle less. May have the company put a 24" door with RV lock on each side. and then install windows in those.

This has been inspiring for us. thanks !

Snare,

Who are you having build yours, if you dont mind? I was looking at Cargo Craft of Texas.

Thanks!

Jman, yours looks great!

 

[Jmanscotch]

Well, I finally got around to finishing my fenders.

I started with some 1.5" square tube. A little big for a mere fender, but it's metal I had left over and I decided to use it simply to save another run to the shop and some money.

I framed out the basic shape, trying to get the complex angle to fit right after cutting everything with the inaccurate angle grinder.



A lot of work later, they were fully framed and ready to be covered. I found some scrap 14 gauge sheet metal I had from my last trailer and went about building an inside skirt to the fender. Since my fenders don't mount right up against the trailer, I needed a skirt to keep mud from flinging onto the trailer as well as be a barrier for a blown tire, which won't allow the rubber to rip into the soft aluminum trailer side. The sheet metal I had wasn't tall enough to cover the entire fender in one piece, so I stitched together two smaller strips.



Once that was complete for both sides, I placed the fenders back in place on their supports and welded them down.



Finished with a nice coat of bed liner



For some reason, the fenders came out a little more narrow than I had originally planned, so this week I'll trim back the fender supports to match the fender stick out and reweld some new end caps on and repaint.



They came out pretty nice if you ask me.

Next is the front landing jack support and shovel/axe mount I'm finishing up, then back to the interior.

Jake


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[Jmanscotch]

Trimmed up the fender mounts so they don't stick out any more



Then onto finishing the jack, axe and shovel mount on the front landing.

I had to start by cutting away the expanded metal on the landing to get access to weld in a cross support to base everything off of.



Then built up the mount. It's crazy beefy for what it actually does, but I had extra 2x3 tube and so that's what it was built with. Welded on the two jack mounts and predrilled the holes for the 4 quickfist mounts on the back. Then I went ahead and mocked everything up before painting.






Up next, rebuilding the stupid back door.

Jake

 

[theblindchicken]

Man, those fenders look clean! 1.5" sq tube may be a little much, but wont ever have to worry about them flexing if you gotta stand on them, set something heavy on it or end up rubbing it along a tree or rock on a tight trail. Or remake them after a blown tire.

 

[ottsville]

More really nice work! Love the jack storage.

 

[Jmanscotch]

Man, those fenders look clean! 1.5" sq tube may be a little much, but wont ever have to worry about them flexing if you gotta stand on them, set something heavy on it or end up rubbing it along a tree or rock on a tight trail. Or remake them after a blown tire.

Haha thanks man, unfortunately the fenders turned out so well because I scrapped the DIY ones...this is me cutting them off after getting too frustrated with them...



I ended up buying another set that were more appropriately sized that the original purchase ones. I tried to make my own, I really did. I probably spend 4 hours making the one side, cutting, measuring, fitting, massaging, starting over, trying a different approach, etc etc but in the end they were just not working out. Too many delicate angles / cuts for me to pull off with angle grinder cuts and no work bench. They were crooked, ugly and would've been ********.

Sorry I mislead everyone with the post above, I thought it was funny to start with the picture of the DIY ones and seamlessly transition into the store bought ones without mentioning it. I made myself laugh and after that whole fiasco, I needed a chuckle.

Jake

 

[theblindchicken]

Man, those fenders look clean! 1.5" sq tube may be a little much, but wont ever have to worry about them flexing if you gotta stand on them, set something heavy on it or end up rubbing it along a tree or rock on a tight trail. Or remake them after a blown tire.

Haha thanks man, unfortunately the fenders turned out so well because I scrapped the DIY ones...this is me cutting them off after getting too frustrated with them...



I ended up buying another set that were more appropriately sized that the original purchase ones. I tried to make my own, I really did. I probably spend 4 hours making the one side, cutting, measuring, fitting, massaging, starting over, trying a different approach, etc etc but in the end they were just not working out. Too many delicate angles / cuts for me to pull off with angle grinder cuts and no work bench. They were crooked, ugly and would've been ********.

Sorry I mislead everyone with the post above, I thought it was funny to start with the picture of the DIY ones and seamlessly transition into the store bought ones without mentioning it. I made myself laugh and after that whole fiasco, I needed a chuckle.

Jake

I would've never even second guessed it.

I hear ya on the difficulty of getting clean cuts with an angle grinder. Been meaning to get one of the chop saw or build a frame to mount a grinder for better cuts.

 

[Jmanscotch]

Indeed man. My buddy just picked up a nice metal scroll saw, appropriately sized for small/medium sized project, for dirt cheap, so I offered him double his purchase price and he just laughed. One day, when I have an actual garage, I'll get some more appropriate tools to help on just such projects..one day.

 

[techspy]

Dang nice build man! Just when I thought I was close to making a decision on what way to go, I see this :/ I am selling my 6x12 cargo trailer (has a/c and is huge) as I want something smaller that I can pull easier and go offroad with. Was thinking about building an overland type trailer and putting the awning tent on the side of my suburban (can't go with a roof top as I have a really large pup that will be with me most of the time). But now I see this! I like the idea of having the awning/tent with me all the time but really like your setup. Maybe something like this with the awning and awning-tent. Hmmm, decisions decisions. What was the final internal dimensions?

 

[Jmanscotch]

Dang nice build man! Just when I thought I was close to making a decision on what way to go, I see this :/ I am selling my 6x12 cargo trailer (has a/c and is huge) as I want something smaller that I can pull easier and go offroad with. Was thinking about building an overland type trailer and putting the awning tent on the side of my suburban (can't go with a roof top as I have a really large pup that will be with me most of the time). But now I see this! I like the idea of having the awning/tent with me all the time but really like your setup. Maybe something like this with the awning and awning-tent. Hmmm, decisions decisions. What was the final internal dimensions?

Thanks brother.

I think the key with the decision before you is to be honest with what you need now and in the foreseeable future. Would an awning with an annex all based off the Suburban be best? Would you also like a basic gear trailer to haul behind you that also stores the gear in downtime? Do you need insulated walls and AC and thus want to go more this route? Do you really want to deal with the sometime cumbersome hauling of a trailer through the woods?

The first trailer I built was a 4x6 cargo trailer with a RTT on top. While it solved a lot of our desire for a camping setup, it fell short and if we had been honest upfront, we would’ve gone this route first.

I’m not finished on the inside, so I can’t give you an official interior length measurement, but I’m 6’1” and plan for it to be perfectly adequate for me to lay in.

The interior measurements I do know are:

Floor to ceiling at the shortest point (side walls) is 41”, highest point (center or roof) will be 46 1/2”, minus 4” of mattress.

Interior width is right about 59”.

From my research, most teardrops use a standard of about 46” of interior height. The idea is this will give you enough room to put a shirt on comfortably while sitting up. Overall height of the trailer (after cutting 8” out of the height) dictated my end dimensions more than anything though, so I might be a little on the short side inside but it was compromise in overall height and interior room. That said, I don’t have a problem with it at my height with what we use it for.

Let me know if there’s anything else.

Jake



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[techspy]

Thanks for the info. I have been googling for hours since I found your build and think I have a game plan. I think I am going to go with a 5x8 utility trailer and enclose it myself, put a bit of a lift on it with some matching wheels and tires and possibly extend the tongue. I think a flat top with a rack is the way to go. I am going to try to make the awning easily swappable between the trailer and the Burb. Probably going to be using aluminum sheeting for the sides with the 2" thick foam insulation and paneling inside and some aluminum diamond plate for the front and top. I want to keep it light! I initially was leaning towards a teardrop/rounded front but this will sit way below the airstream on my suburban so I am going to keep it square and simple. I found the doors and windows online at a reasonable price. With the initial trailer cost around $700 I am shooting for a total material cost of around $2000. I have a lot of the add-ons etc already (inverter, solar panels, tool box etc) but will probably end up going over :/ Thanks again. I will start a new thread for mine soon as not to hijack yours!