Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby friz » Fri Aug 04, 2017 8:47 am

If you use them. Campers are more a lifestyle then object. Always a flow of resources into them to make the next experience a little better. They also become very personal. My camper is a study in minimalism and efficiency, but I can definately appreciate X-Cubed and his "Pimp my Camper" approach. It's all very cool and each one makes a statement about the owner.

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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby larryl » Fri Aug 04, 2017 6:05 pm

Spent $3500.00 12 yrs ago. It is still going strong. Traveled from Central Fla. to Vancouver BC and back twice. If you amortize the cost over the last 12 yrs. and figure in the smiles per miles, its a bargain. Plus it has resale value. :D
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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby Wolfgang92025 » Sat Aug 05, 2017 8:01 am

absolutsnwbrdr wrote:Someone once told me to figure out my budget, and double it. :lol:


Sounds about right for mine ......
I tracked the cost for a while and quit.
Better to not know the real price/value.
Just built it and just enjoy the life style. 8) :D
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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby Nobes » Tue Aug 08, 2017 2:33 pm

Wolfgang92025 wrote:
absolutsnwbrdr wrote:Someone once told me to figure out my budget, and double it. :lol:


Sounds about right for mine ......
I tracked the cost for a while and quit.
Better to not know the real price/value.
Just built it and just enjoy the life style. 8) :D


exactly and exactly!!
I don't want to know.

I do know this: I started with a 3k estimate...lol!
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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby bbrider » Fri Aug 25, 2017 12:11 pm

GPW wrote:Bill , we found the long term investment , a little bit at a time , is much easier to accept than spending one large chunk of cash … Although the former may easily exceed the latter in time . Fun !! :D

All true, but I am a headlong fixated A type OCD person. I start a project, I have to see it through to the end or near end. I can't help myself. Nothing is ever done as I always find ways to improve things over time, but the initial build of whatever project I am currently building has to be completed or what my idea of completed is. Then comes the stage where I go back and improve things....LOL. I am somewhat, as my dear ole mom used to say, at my wits end now. I keep going out there and trying to find something I want to do to my Wee-Go, but all I can think of is taking it camping! Guess it is pretty much done....LOL.

I am so much looking forward to next spring! My better half is retiring the end of this year and we are planning on going to Alaska in the Jeep with the Wee-Go on a 2.5 month long trip by way of California going and Montana coming home. We have traveled a lot over the past 30 years, mostly by motorcycle. Those trips were at most 2 weeks long so this will be an all together new thing.

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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby Aguyfromohio » Fri Aug 25, 2017 1:12 pm

You can add $1,200 just by installing a propane range with oven and an Aims 2,000 watt inverted charger.
It's surprisingly hard to come up with a truly complete bill of material before building.
We didn't do it very well on our build, looks like we'll end up doubling original budget.
Things I notice not on yours:

- door hinges
- door latch
- galley latches
- running lights
- wire
- seals for door and galley
- extruded aluminum trim parts
- galley drawer slides, latches, and hardware
- galley counter top surface
- galley lid gas struts
- lights and switches for interior and galley
- shore power plug and cord

Our teardrop is less square than your Benroy, so we had pretty high percentage waste on sheet goods.
Seems like we cut a quarter or third off every sheet and we could not find a use for them later.
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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby Socal Tom » Fri Aug 25, 2017 5:37 pm

Postpone the $750 doors and just use wood for now. That should save $650. Lose the fantastic fan and use Psc case fans.


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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby mcubberley » Fri Aug 25, 2017 6:43 pm

You can get doors for closer to 550 at challenger doors mine were custom squares and came in at 265 ea. But they have a slightly cheaper stock door they sell to teardrop folks.
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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Tue Aug 29, 2017 7:12 am

Well, now my strategy has been purchasing odds and sods for my final build over a long period of time. I've got most of my technology lined up (piled in a corner lol) bought the trailer off of kijiji for $250 (8X6) I over-engineered my design and added up the costs and just for the wood and glue I was looking at $800. Just had my roots canaled, so I can't drop that right now. I was going to next week, buy the remaining materials and build the whole thing in one shot.

My plan has changed to getting it treated and sealed for another winter, and maybe clearing up my design some to bring the price down. As long as I can get a roof over my head, and wheels under it, it will get me by. So I'm going to rip the plan apart and make the design more modular.

I get the feeling from reading these forums, most trailers evolve as they age, it is hard to figure out everything you need without actually using them a bit.

So my travel trailer remains a utility trailer for at least another season.
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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby daveesl77 » Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:02 am

We spent a bit over $3,200 (USD) and a little over 7 months in the complete construction and recent upgrades to Conch Fritter. We've now taken it about 10,000 miles and love it. Absolutely solid and water tight. We did have a lot of stuff already from older campers. Better than any store-bought camper I've ever owned and allows for the best gas mileage.

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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby JaggedEdges » Wed Aug 30, 2017 12:21 pm

NorthEGPhoto wrote:Well, now my strategy has been purchasing odds and sods for my final build over a long period of time. I've got most of my technology lined up (piled in a corner lol) bought the trailer off of kijiji for $250 (8X6) I over-engineered my design and added up the costs and just for the wood and glue I was looking at $800. Just had my roots canaled, so I can't drop that right now. I was going to next week, buy the remaining materials and build the whole thing in one shot.


Ditto, I have a pile to work from, collected here and there, off the curb, at yard sales. I'd guesstimate somewhere close to $800 retail value of stuff that I doubt I've got $40 in altogether.

I'm not seeing a point in using fresh new ply for the floor, it'll get glooped with underseal one side and get yardsale bargain linoleum offcut on the other, so may as well grab used exterior ply for it.

I was planning building doors and windows unless something came up, well something came up, there's an RV place with scratch and dent stock about an hours drive away, that I think will only run me $200 for a door, so possibly going that route now, (And funds aren't quite so tight right now.)

I've got down 3 locations to pick up used skids free, which can provide a lot of framing sticks. Very useful for "shop" wood also, temporary bracing and jigs etc. Also found a salvage yard that sells bits of angle and pipe etc.

Then ripping 2x4s or 2x6s is definitely the way to go for smaller section lumber needed, it's real hit and miss though, if you want 1x2s, you can get 3 out of a 2x4 for under half the price, but 1/2x1.25 isn't worth it because I can find it for 50c a stick. Best idea though is to look out for sales, then go to the competitor who price matches and take your time picking through their stock for nice quality pieces. (Because the sale stuff was often marginal special purchase anyway and you'll either be trying to buy it in a scrum, or be left with the leftovers, which from 2nd rate stock in the first place are barely fit to burn typically.)

Birch ply..... well I found a supplier with decent prices, I was previously gung ho about using it, however, after another few rounds of the boatbuilding communities, I cottoned to the fact that because birch has sugars in it's sap, like maple, that means it becomes a superfood for fungus, mold and rot... yah, bit of moisture getting into it anywhere and you could quickly have a crumbling pile, formerly known as pride and joy. So in view of the fact that it's probably not even a superior material, even though it looks great, I plan to "cheap out" back to plain old exterior plies.
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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby QueticoBill » Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:55 pm

I love it north egphoto and jaged edges. I applaud you.
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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby BobMarieLitt » Thu Sep 28, 2017 5:05 pm

bbrider wrote:I started with $3000 as my cost to build. Then the little better this and the little better that took over. My wife wanted better windows and doors. I added ac. She wanted tv/dvd on an arm. I upgraded to led lights. Bought a PWM an added to the roof vent fan to slow it down as I liked. Then a better mattress, sheets, pillows, curtains, and bedspread....you know....someone might want to look in it at the campground.

Throw away those cheap taillights and get those good led ones too. Running conduit under the trailer to put all the wire in to protect them from brush and sticks and stuff when we go off road camping. Upgrade the battery to an Optima gel cell too. Buy a trickle charger/maintainer for the battery. Buy that aluminum tool box for the tongue to put it all in. Make up a heavy cord to power the AC stuff and add a through the wall plug. Drink holders, dehumidifiers, mirrors and hooks.

All that being said and $5000 later I am still thinking of things I would like to do to the Wee-Go at some point in time to make it better....LOL. It's an addiction that just keeps on costing, but I enjoy the work on it and we enjoy the using of it and that in the end is what really dictates what is the right amount to spend on your trailer. IMHO

Bill
Hi Bill
Did you say you have a Wee-Go trailer? Out of Bracebridge? Possibly looking at one. Curious about quality of build? Bob & Marie, Ontario


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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby bbrider » Thu Sep 28, 2017 7:42 pm

BobMarieLitt wrote:
bbrider wrote:I started with $3000 as my cost to build. Then the little better this and the little better that took over. My wife wanted better windows and doors. I added ac. She wanted tv/dvd on an arm. I upgraded to led lights. Bought a PWM an added to the roof vent fan to slow it down as I liked. Then a better mattress, sheets, pillows, curtains, and bedspread....you know....someone might want to look in it at the campground.

Throw away those cheap taillights and get those good led ones too. Running conduit under the trailer to put all the wire in to protect them from brush and sticks and stuff when we go off road camping. Upgrade the battery to an Optima gel cell too. Buy a trickle charger/maintainer for the battery. Buy that aluminum tool box for the tongue to put it all in. Make up a heavy cord to power the AC stuff and add a through the wall plug. Drink holders, dehumidifiers, mirrors and hooks.

All that being said and $5000 later I am still thinking of things I would like to do to the Wee-Go at some point in time to make it better....LOL. It's an addiction that just keeps on costing, but I enjoy the work on it and we enjoy the using of it and that in the end is what really dictates what is the right amount to spend on your trailer. IMHO

Bill
Hi Bill
Did you say you have a Wee-Go trailer? Out of Bracebridge? Possibly looking at one. Curious about quality of build? Bob & Marie, Ontario


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Never heard of them. I built my trailer and named it Wee-Go. As far as I knew there are no others with that name.


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Wee-Go build journal:
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=66964
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Re: Construction Costs?!?! $3,500 O_o

Postby BobMarieLitt » Thu Sep 28, 2017 8:04 pm

bbrider wrote:
BobMarieLitt wrote:
bbrider wrote:I started with $3000 as my cost to build. Then the little better this and the little better that took over. My wife wanted better windows and doors. I added ac. She wanted tv/dvd on an arm. I upgraded to led lights. Bought a PWM an added to the roof vent fan to slow it down as I liked. Then a better mattress, sheets, pillows, curtains, and bedspread....you know....someone might want to look in it at the campground.

Throw away those cheap taillights and get those good led ones too. Running conduit under the trailer to put all the wire in to protect them from brush and sticks and stuff when we go off road camping. Upgrade the battery to an Optima gel cell too. Buy a trickle charger/maintainer for the battery. Buy that aluminum tool box for the tongue to put it all in. Make up a heavy cord to power the AC stuff and add a through the wall plug. Drink holders, dehumidifiers, mirrors and hooks.

All that being said and $5000 later I am still thinking of things I would like to do to the Wee-Go at some point in time to make it better....LOL. It's an addiction that just keeps on costing, but I enjoy the work on it and we enjoy the using of it and that in the end is what really dictates what is the right amount to spend on your trailer. IMHO

Bill
Hi Bill
Did you say you have a Wee-Go trailer? Out of Bracebridge? Possibly looking at one. Curious about quality of build? Bob & Marie, Ontario


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Never heard of them. I built my trailer and named it Wee-Go. As far as I knew there are no others with that name.


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Hi again,
Sorry , there is a company in Ontario Canada that builds a style of teardrop trailer, somewhat like the the Micro Lite Twist TR7, but larger, called the WeeGo camper trailer, which I am possibly interested in. Sorry, I saw the name and was hoping it was the same brand, not name. Sorry for the error.
Thanks anyway. Good luck on your build! Bob



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