Steve & I have been looking for a pull behind camper for about 3 years now. Problem is, we have certain things that are a must:
We could find all of these features, just not in the same camper so we started looking at Cargo Trailers. Man, you add anything to the basic 18’ trailer and the price grows & grows. The cargo trailer was much heavier than we wanted too.

Well, I was talking to a friend of mine about this (he’s the metal fabricator my work uses) and he suggested building our own out of all aluminum. This is perfect. We started this project over a year ago with not much progress…….we get busy, our friends helping gets busy, etc.

Now that progress is happening, I figured I’d do a “build” thread because I thought it would be fun and I’m sure we’re going to have some questions to ask as we go along with this project.

 

The frame made with 6" Aluminum I Beams.



We found a donor toy hauler that had been rolled on one side. This thing was brand new when rolled so there was a lot of stuff for us to use.





Unfortunately, it was rolled on the side that had the awning so we won't be able to use that.




First thing we pulled from the donor was the tanks so we could see what would work in the new frame. Only one tank (dirty water) works. It was my job to clean them out and surprisingly, they were barely used. Steve knows a guy that makes tanks here and he made us a fresh water tank that straddles one of the cross beams and a gray water tank to fit in the front corner for the shower. They turned out great.



You can tell which is the donor tank, its the non-shiny one in the middle.

That's it for tonight.

 

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I'm getting the itch to do something like this myself, mostly due to the poor quality of RV's these days....

 

Regarding the weight, watch it as you build. Things you don't expect can really add up quickly. Also hitting that height requirement can be tough and what goes where will affect tongue weight. Projects like this can be fun, but man I have seen a lot of them fall by the wayside when folks run out of energy.

One tank can work, but I think having a gray water tank you can use with a blue tank makes it easier to dry camp.

For mechanicals, I would not try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to electrics, propane, and water. Most of the DIY projects I have seen for those end up overly complex.

A lot of electrical grounding depends on the frame. Since you are using aluminum rather than steel for your frame, you may need to consider that.

If the AC on the roof of that donor is not a low profile model (I doubt it is), you can lose a few inches of height, if you can find a used one.

In case you have a tank break, is there a way to get them out without destroying your frame? I know breaks are rare, but they do happen.

When I innovate, I always try to make sure it is safe and whatever I do is inline with code and convention so if someone has to follow in my footsteps for whatever reason, what I did is transparent.

Just my thoughts and what looks like an interesting project.

Steve

 

Sounds (and looks) like this will be a neat build to follow, I like that aluminum frame so far! With all of the tanks so far forward the TW will be pretty high if you are carrying any water (new or used ). Obviously the black and grey tanks need to be under the (or very close to) the points of generation of those streams but fresh tanks can be anywhere if needed for better weight distribution.
Having that rolled TH on hand should really help move things along without too much "engineering" on the fly. looking forward to more progress pics!

 

I really like the looks of this project. Looks like more work than I'd be willing to put into something, but then again, I don't have all your requirements. Plus, I'm lazy.

Good luck and please keep us updated.

 

Here's a rough drawing of what our plans are. The rear 2 feet are for storage, accessible from the outside only. This will house the furnace, massive power cord (IMO, but it came with the toy hauler) and I forget what else will go back there permanently. It will still give us plenty of room for our coolers, chairs, tables, etc.



The TW is our biggest concern and if you look at that last picture in my previous post we don't have any other option as to where to put the fresh water tank. The next set of cross beams behind where we have it now is getting us into the double axles and Steve doesn't want it at the very back.

 

With this setup we have 60 gal fresh tank, a tank for kitchen sink & toilet and a tank for the shower only. This should work fine since there's just 2 of us and we only go primitive camping 1 or 2 weekends a year. That will probably change once we have facilities.

We're following what is in the toy hauler for the most part.

We have an electrician friend for all the wiring especially since we will be using the 50 amp service that came with the hauler.

Its not a low profile AC but it will work as long as we put it more to the passenger side. The drivers side is where the height requirement hits us.

Most definitely. All three tanks have removable plates holding them up. Remove a few bolts and wha-la.

You sound a lot like my Steve.

Thank you for the tips.

 

All sounds good. Carry on!

Steve

 

Are you going to floor with a composite?

Steve

 

The floor will be 3/4" exterior grade plywood, dado'd and silicone with standard grade plastic laminate on the bottom side. Standard grade is what we use on countertops so its mm's thicker than what is used on cabinet bases. I work in a cabinet shop so anything I can get through work is much cheaper.

For the interior flooring we are going to use the rolled vinyl flooring like you get at Lowes or HD.

 

Here's a picture of the donor interior when we got it home. The ladder is ours. Needed it to secure everything on the dropped side before towing it. The front axle was toast so we had to remove it in order to tow.



Here's the axle still attached.



I wanted to use the cabinets only to discover they are attached from the outside. I took all of the doors off figuring to use them but have since changed my mind. Imagine that.... We've had this donor since 08/2014 so I've had plenty of time to pick out colors and change my mind many times. Steve just listens to my new ideas, yea's them and awaits the next one.

 

Right now I'm using this thread to catch y'all up to where we're at. We have just about everything out of the donor that we're going to use now. In all of the pictures to follow, everything is before I cleaned the stuff up. I don't know if the people that owned the TH ever used any of the appliances.

These are the stove top & convection microwave along with the electrical panel.






I have the stove top grate but I guess I already took it out before snapping the picture. There's not a scratch on it.

Inside the microwave


I don't think we're going to put the electric panel back under this cabinet setup. We're thinking more of putting it in one of the cabinets above the bed since the (massive) power cord will be housed in the storage area. It will still be easily accessible and I think it will look better than in what little kitchen area we will have.

 

If by chance you still want to use the cabinets, quite often I can use a pry bar and hacksaw blade to pry the cabinet part way out and then cut off the screw. It is a good deal of work, but normally with care, the cabinet does not get damaged.

Are you carrying your generator in your jeep?

Steve

 

Next we have the fridge. Its going to go right in front of the kitchen sink cabinet. It will block about 2 feet of my 4 foot countertop but that's not a big problem. Its not like I will have a useable cabinet there anyway. That 2 ft of cabinet will house the water heater and water pump with access panels on the inside of the cabinet under the sink along with the outside panels/vents.

It appears that this the best picture of the fridge exterior that I took. All you can see is the doors through the pull-out cabinet. I like the pull-out but space is limited so I can't have that.



Inside the fridge.


As with the other kitchen stuff, it doesn't look like the fridge was ever used and it works great. We didn't test if it works on gas too but it definitely works with electric. If its like the fridge we have in the truck camper and pop-up, I'll use it to store bread & chips anyway.

Almost forgot, the fridge vents. The donor has one vent at the bottom of the fridge and the other goes through the roof. Reading through the manual, it shows that the ventilation can be done this way or with a low and upper side vent. This is the option we want to go with rather than putting something else through the roof. Any tips are welcome.