chuckburt28
New member
Hello all, I am new here and just wanted to share my story as this seems to be the best place to share it.
My wife and I have 2 kids, and I am the only one in my family who likes camping. We have a 2019 Chevy Colorado V6 capable of towing 7,000 lbs, but with a small payload of 1488 lbs. I don't have a desire to get a bigger truck, and this is what I base all of my camping off of.
For better or worse I have been absolutely obsessed with camping trailers now for 4 to 5 years. At first I spent all of my spare time looking at the usual stick and tin stuff, finding the best floorplans that would work for our family. At this point it was a pipe dream, but I loved it and it really became a hobby. A year or 2 into it I got more into the overlanding stuff and got to know them quite a bit. I follow all the popular small manufacturers on social media to see the newest stuff coming out. I've wanted to go to an overland expo but haven't made it yet. It was all kind of a dream until somewhat recently. We rented and went camping once or twice. As the money became a little more fluid, I started talking to a few overland trailer brands to discuss options, and possible custom builds, because I could never seem to find anything that seemed like it would work for a family of 4, who were reluctantly willing to try the camping thing more realistically. Not many were willing, but a few discussed it. It was still more of a dream at this point, as my family still wasn't into the idea. I went from looking at retail models all the time to trying to create my own designs based on everything I had seen others do. It was an absolute blast, and it became my new favorite hobby. I realized I loved a certain vibe that didn't include wood and felt more functional than homey.
My wife knew I wasn't letting this go, and she finally agreed this might be fun. We finally came up with the money and I got a little more serious with talking to some brands about custom builds. Jamin at Kingdom Camping was awesome to work with, and I was literally seconds away from sending the go ahead email when the discussion went another direction, and we ended up getting a stick and tin Jayco 154BH. We have been out a few times and it has honestly been fun, but my dreams of building my own trailer and seeing it in real life just won't go away. I have so many ideas and would love to make them all a reality. I am certainly not an engineer, and will openly admit these may not work, but I do feel my experience and obsession with these has improved the designs over the years.
I certainly have dreams of being able to build my designs, and being able to see them in real life. If tons of money came in suddenly, that would probably be where a good portion would go. I have never been this in to anything in my life. I have recently been thinking more about business ideas of maybe finding work with one of these companies, but fully realize I have no other experience with this than my extreme interest and time spent on the computer designing. I could get a loan and start my own business, but in all of my time watching these overland brands, I have seen some disappear and/or struggle. I can see the difficulties I would face. I could attempt to build my own. My degree is in automotive technology, but I will openly admit there are a lot of things I don't think I can do in my garage. I also don't weld very well, at least yet. So, at least for now, I would love to share one of my designs with all of you to get your thoughts. If it doesn't seem realistic, I would want to know. If anyone has any ideas on how I can make this and the many other ideas I have a reality, I would love to hear it. This isn't a dream that's going away any time soon. I would love to keep learning and growing until I can somehow take trailers that I came up with out camping. Walking through a trailer I designed would be a dream come true, and that's putting it mildly.
Here is a trailer I made using google sketchup. One side is open on purpose so you can see in. I am limited a bit by the available items you can download and put in there. For example, I intend to have a drawer-style fridge that you can access from either side so that you can also be standing out back and get into it, or from inside as well. The only mini fridge option for download is a normal swinging door style. I am thinking the portable toilet seen there will be on a 500 lb slide which will allow you to have a wet bath shower that is small and the toilet isn't in the way. I am hoping with maybe an aluminum frame this thing could be well under 3,000 lbs dry, preferably under 2500 lbs. Please let me know what you think, honest opinions.
app.sketchup.com
My wife and I have 2 kids, and I am the only one in my family who likes camping. We have a 2019 Chevy Colorado V6 capable of towing 7,000 lbs, but with a small payload of 1488 lbs. I don't have a desire to get a bigger truck, and this is what I base all of my camping off of.
For better or worse I have been absolutely obsessed with camping trailers now for 4 to 5 years. At first I spent all of my spare time looking at the usual stick and tin stuff, finding the best floorplans that would work for our family. At this point it was a pipe dream, but I loved it and it really became a hobby. A year or 2 into it I got more into the overlanding stuff and got to know them quite a bit. I follow all the popular small manufacturers on social media to see the newest stuff coming out. I've wanted to go to an overland expo but haven't made it yet. It was all kind of a dream until somewhat recently. We rented and went camping once or twice. As the money became a little more fluid, I started talking to a few overland trailer brands to discuss options, and possible custom builds, because I could never seem to find anything that seemed like it would work for a family of 4, who were reluctantly willing to try the camping thing more realistically. Not many were willing, but a few discussed it. It was still more of a dream at this point, as my family still wasn't into the idea. I went from looking at retail models all the time to trying to create my own designs based on everything I had seen others do. It was an absolute blast, and it became my new favorite hobby. I realized I loved a certain vibe that didn't include wood and felt more functional than homey.
My wife knew I wasn't letting this go, and she finally agreed this might be fun. We finally came up with the money and I got a little more serious with talking to some brands about custom builds. Jamin at Kingdom Camping was awesome to work with, and I was literally seconds away from sending the go ahead email when the discussion went another direction, and we ended up getting a stick and tin Jayco 154BH. We have been out a few times and it has honestly been fun, but my dreams of building my own trailer and seeing it in real life just won't go away. I have so many ideas and would love to make them all a reality. I am certainly not an engineer, and will openly admit these may not work, but I do feel my experience and obsession with these has improved the designs over the years.
I certainly have dreams of being able to build my designs, and being able to see them in real life. If tons of money came in suddenly, that would probably be where a good portion would go. I have never been this in to anything in my life. I have recently been thinking more about business ideas of maybe finding work with one of these companies, but fully realize I have no other experience with this than my extreme interest and time spent on the computer designing. I could get a loan and start my own business, but in all of my time watching these overland brands, I have seen some disappear and/or struggle. I can see the difficulties I would face. I could attempt to build my own. My degree is in automotive technology, but I will openly admit there are a lot of things I don't think I can do in my garage. I also don't weld very well, at least yet. So, at least for now, I would love to share one of my designs with all of you to get your thoughts. If it doesn't seem realistic, I would want to know. If anyone has any ideas on how I can make this and the many other ideas I have a reality, I would love to hear it. This isn't a dream that's going away any time soon. I would love to keep learning and growing until I can somehow take trailers that I came up with out camping. Walking through a trailer I designed would be a dream come true, and that's putting it mildly.
Here is a trailer I made using google sketchup. One side is open on purpose so you can see in. I am limited a bit by the available items you can download and put in there. For example, I intend to have a drawer-style fridge that you can access from either side so that you can also be standing out back and get into it, or from inside as well. The only mini fridge option for download is a normal swinging door style. I am thinking the portable toilet seen there will be on a 500 lb slide which will allow you to have a wet bath shower that is small and the toilet isn't in the way. I am hoping with maybe an aluminum frame this thing could be well under 3,000 lbs dry, preferably under 2500 lbs. Please let me know what you think, honest opinions.
SketchUp
Draw, orbit, push-pull: make anything you can imagine in SketchUp, anytime you imagine it.
