Off Road Worthy 6x10 Cargo Trailer Camper Build

[Jmanscotch]

Took some time today to wrap up the insulation. Still need to tape it in after finishing up the wiring and a few other things.

Quick tip: before you put the ceiling insulation in (and the wall insulation if you just have screwed in skins on the side walls) go through and caulk the roof/wall skins to the studs/cross supports. This helps prevent the wind from slapping the thin aluminum skin against the stud during the night while you sleep…a quick and cheap step to help keep the camper more quiet and enjoyable.




Finished the second coat of penetrating epoxy as well. Applied it very liberally and ensured I really soaked the recessed areas and imperfections in the OSB to get full coverage.




That’s it for now, headed off to New York for a little family trip and will finished electrical, install the flooring and begin some interior buildout when we return.

Cheers

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Coming along nicely.

You may want to add some actual sound deadening material to the roof (under the insulation), otherwise it may sound like being inside of a tin can during rain. Lots of folks complain about this effect in their own cargo conversions.

 

[Jmanscotch]

Coming along nicely.

You may want to add some actual sound deadening material to the roof (under the insulation), otherwise it may sound like being inside of a tin can during rain. Lots of folks complain about this effect in their own cargo conversions.

Not a bad idea, thank you for sharing it. Our last one was done without sound deadening and the only time it bothered us (that I’m aware of) was when it hailed on us..that was loud. The last one was a curved roof though and this one is flat, so it might just be a bit louder…

I personally really enjoy the “rain on a tin roof”, I grew up in the south where we had regular thunderstorms and many a tin roofs that I sat under on a stormy evening… I miss that vibe here in dry Colorado and it lulls me to sleep when it happens.

That said, I’ll ask the wife as I bet she would support the idea of a little less racket, so I’ll see what she thinks. I could install some thinner cheap stuff and probably split the difference pretty good.

Cheers

 

[ITTOG]

I like the sound of rain on a tin roof as well. The best solution to eliminating the sound I have experienced is to put a rubber coating on the roof. It worked better than sound deadening material.

 

[Jmanscotch]

Just asked the wife and she said go for it. While she hasn’t thought it was that bad, beside the hail storm, she wouldn’t mind it being a bit less of a “tinny” sound.

I’ll grab some sound deadening and throw it on inside before I seal it up, it’d be easy enough to add some rubber coating on the exterior if we find the need.

Appreciate the ideas!

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Just asked the wife and she said go for it. While she hasn’t thought it was that bad, beside the hail storm, she wouldn’t mind it being a bit less of a “tinny” sound.

I’ll grab some sound deadening and throw it on inside before I seal it up, it’d be easy enough to add some rubber coating on the exterior if we find the need.

Appreciate the ideas!

I did my entire roof in the Noico 2mm sound deadener, and covered the exterior of the roof in Herculiner truck bed liner. The combo has worked very well so far.

 

[Jmanscotch]

Got a few more little items checked off the list.

Purchased some whatever-looked-decent-for-cheap sound deadening material from Amazon, enough to do the inside of the roof. About $100 for 72 square feet and that’s was enough for the ceiling and a few square feet to spare.

Thanks again for the recommendation on that step, @eatSleepWoof I think that it’ll be a worthwhile step. We’ll see how it performs and go for an exterior roof coating in addition to it if we find it seems necessary.

Install was straight forward, cut sheet to size, peel backing off, stick on and roll it out with a roller. Did it in sections so not to get too confused on which insulation panels went where.




I forgot to take a few more photos, but I also installed the new main trailer floor.

I’m going to try to avoid screwing the floor down…I don’t want to penetrate the epoxy sealed OSB with screws, so I opted to buy several more tubes of SikaFlex 221 (4 total to do the floor) and am trying out the ideal of just sealing the boards down with it. There’ll also be interior structure that’ll eventually hold the floor in place.

I lined the edges of the interior frame and all cross supports with the sealant. I also put a healthy bead between where each section of floor (three sections total, two joints) meet up with eachother and I sealed up some joints/crevices underneath, between the frame and the floor.

I plan to go back and cover the underside of the floor joints and connections to the framing with some “Sascho Big Stretch” acrylic latex caulking to help weathertight and airtight the areas.




Put some weights on the floor to help hold it down as the sealant dries.

I also went through and Sika insulation taped all the potential air breaks in the insulation. Two rolls ran out with a few dozen feet of the ceiling left yet…so will finished that up next.



I also installed a Noco standard 15A 120V plug in the front corner of the trailer. While we don’t plan to utilize 120V AC power in the trailer, I wanted the option the pass power into the trailer just in case we camped at a powered camp site and it’ll be a good option to plug in and power a battery tender.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Nice work!

I happened to have installed that exact NOCO pass-through a few weeks ago into my own trailer. I'm using it to keep a heater inside the trailer over the winter. The pass-through is handy to have.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Another note: I found that the barn doors in my own trailer had large, hollow cavities inside. You may want to check yours and either put insulation inside, or at least OSB/plywood (so you can drill into it and mount things securely. The components making up the door were also largely unsealed and letting in water, so when you have the doors opened up, that's a great time to seal the heck out of any gaps.

 

[Jmanscotch]

Another note: I found that the barn doors in my own trailer had large, hollow cavities inside. You may want to check yours and either put insulation inside, or at least OSB/plywood (so you can drill into it and mount things securely. The components making up the door were also largely unsealed and letting in water, so when you have the doors opened up, that's a great time to seal the heck out of any gaps.

Your trailers coming along very nicely BTW. I browsed it the other day.

 

[Jmanscotch]

Did snap a quick photo of the electric plug. The NOCO unit isn’t the cheapest, but it seems to be top quality.



As you can also see, I’m debating fenders. I was going to wait until spring when I do the rock rail…but I think I’ll screw some to the side for now and fix them come spring. Winter trips in the mountains will be a little too slushy and icy to not run fenders and sling wet snow/ice everywhere.

 

[Jmanscotch]

Happy Veterans Day and thank you to anyone here that’s served for our freedoms.

Had some time off today, thanks to you bad mama jamas, and decided to take the trailer for a little shakedown cruise, wash and weight it.

Before I even left, I notice an issue…the awning makes for very tight clearance between the trailer and the house as I exit the side yard.



Would be ok, except I don’t have a straight shot getting the trailer into the back yard, so there’s lots of turning the truck and trailer to sneak it back there and this just isn’t enough clearance.

Trimmed up the awning mounts and mounted them below the cross bars so I could tuck them in another ~3”.




Anyhow, back to the weight…took a trip to the job and used our scale to get a weight in…1860 lbs.



I was bummed, as that’s well over where I expected to be at this point and figured we’d be flirting with a final packed and wet weight of ~2,200. Tongue weight comes in at 240 lbs currently, which will be ok going forward.

Drove off the scales and realized they weren’t zeroed, so the weight was reading 300 lbs heavy! So we’re sitting at 1,560 lbs currently, which I can live with.

Ran some errands to get some miles in and grabbed an updated rig and trailer photo.




Got back home and started back in on wrapping up the wiring. I ran out of wire, again. I’m really bad at estimating the amount of wire I need, dare I say one more 100’ roll will finish it up. Here’s what 200’ of wiring looks like (not pictured is the undercarriage lights)….actually, as I’m typing this I’m realizing the 100’ rolls I’m buying might by 100’ of total wire, aka 50’ of black 14 gauge paired to 50’ of red 14 gauge…man that’d make me feel less crazy.



I moved on to installing the ceiling vent fan. The 14” square fan we ran last time was way too much air movement for this small of a trailer, so this time we’re trying the 6” MaxxAir fan meant for a shower in an RV.




Install went smooth, again used SikaFlex 221 to mount the fan in the hole, then a few of the supplied stainless screws to secure it tight.

Ordered a set of dirt cheap fenders ($35 each) from Recstuff.com and was pleasantly surprised at what showed up. The same basic oversized Jeep style fenders I got last time, they’re steel and 16 gauge. Got to painting them.





That’s all for now, waiting for more wiring then install the fenders and start building out the inside.

 

[Jmanscotch]

Ran out of picture attachment space for the last post.

 

[ottsville]

Another bit of really nice work!

 

[Jmanscotch]

I’m debating heaters and wouldn’t mind some opinions or experiences.

Main debate I’m having is propane or diesel, specifically a Propex HS2000 or Webasto Air Top 2000. My main concern is reliability with use in cold conditions (sub 32 degrees) at altitudes of 9,000-11,000 feet.

I was leaning towards the Propex, as I already plan to carry propane and having some extra (two 20 lb bottles) between use for the stove, fire pit as well as the heater makes it seem better. My concerns are the cold temps the bottles (stored outside) would be subject to and how reliable the system would be in the high altitude cold.

Diesel seems to handle the cold better, but gives me long term concerns of the system sooting up and having running issues. I’ve read some can run off kerosene for a cleaner burn and to help avoid sooting up, but that eliminates one of the key pros in my mind for diesel, which is cheap (relative) and readily available energy dense diesel fuel.

Are my 0-32 degree cold weather concerns about propane valid or exaggerated?

Is diesel the better alternative because of that or is it just a different set of problems in terms of reliable operation?