5x10 Hybrid Foamie Build on Harbor Freight Trailer

[tylxrb]

Hello I’m Tyler this is my first post! I live in Michigan and I love camping in my hammock. Problem is I have a wife and 2 girls so I decided I needed to build a bed on wheels that I can shove a small AC unit in.

I’ve been building a Squaredrop on the new harbor freight trailer, I should have posted as the build progressed but It is my first build and I felt idk a bit shy.. but as I have been coming close to finishing I think it’s time to start explaining what I did and posting the results! I haven’t seen any builds on the new HF trailer yet.

I’ve been lurking on here and rewatching the NFTI YouTube video over and over again since last fall, I wanted to do a 5x8 but with the price of the 5x10 (850$) and I ended up needing a couple extra feet for a toddlers bunk anyway. I felt it was the way to go. Even though the cost in extra materials ate any savings from the cheap trailer lol.
It was important to keep it simple and “cheap”, I can’t afford to upgrade our vehicles to pull anything big and I also couldn’t afford any campers other than very old pop ups..

I assembled the trailer in my tiny garage at the end of the winter late at night and on the weekends it’s been a pain waiting for nice days to build this thing plus when it’s nice out my 2 year old wants to play with me which I can’t say no I’m glad she enjoys the outdoors too . Assembly went good only ran into one issue and it was that assembled it wrong… and when it was time to mount to axle I thought it was 3 inches to short.. so I cut it in half and made it wider at work (I’m a machinist) then I mounted it easily and it was time to add the cross members and they were 3 inches short!! So I fixed the trailer and moved the axle mounts in. I’m happy with the wider axle now. I bolted 1/2 painted ply for the trailer flooring.
Then came the envisioning what this camper might actually look like I’ve never even noticed a Squaredrop camper in the real world before..

I really like the hiker trailers the DIY life YouTube series has been an excellent source of inspiration.

Mazda cx5 is the tow vehicle, I towed it to Menards with my focus to get some plywood that was fun.

Drew the vision on my workout matts with side walk chalk.. I spent so much time thinking about building my own doors I bit the bullet And bought them on Amazon instead.

Got these RV access doors for the rear shelves, it’s no galley. They were a score 10$ each on marketplace brand new!

I pizza perforated annd sanded everything I read somewhere (probably here) that it’s a good I guess we’ll see.

I was shocked at how big it was when I put it together lol. I tried to use DAP foam board adhesive and it was working out could have been the temperature outside hadn’t really gotten over 60 degrees much yet so I used gorilla glue. After I cut the angle for the roof I started the PMF process… it wasn’t exciting and it took twice as much titebond glue as the NFTI build list said there’s took.. paint too.. and I did remember that the glue is to stick the canvas to the foam the canvas it the strength and The paint is the weather proofing.

I built the bunk and rear galley shelves I am using them as the “internal skeleton”. Then I glued it all together it’s finally getting nice outside in may.

While I’ve been building this we were gifted a 24 foot camper I need to borrow my dad’s truck to move. From my wife’s uncle because she helped her grandma while she was getting close to passing. Very nice gesture kind of stole the shine from my little build though lol.

Ive gotten much father this weekend I had Friday off I’ll post a reply with more pictures if possible I haven’t posted here before

 

[tylxrb]

Got the camper done enough for a test with the family, my 2 year old loved it my wife worried about the toddler all night but I slept great! The Jackery ran the fan and fridge the solar panel kept the Jackery charged all weekend.
Now for the bad news.. I left it out in the rain for a test. I need to seal everything much better and the PMF has a ton of pin holes in it yet I really thought 4 gallons diluted would be enough I’m sick of painting this thing I still need to make a door for the AC hole and then try a thousand ways to waterproof that. I sure am glad I bought the doors instead of building my own!

 

[Falco-4]

@tylxrb thanks for sharing your build so far! I actually just ordered the same HF frame last week and have been planning a very similar build.

I'm curious of a couple things:
1. I see you did 1/2" plywood for the floor, did you do any addition foam or structure? Or did you just build straight of the ply?
2. How's the firmness of the floor with 1/2" ply?
3. Did you do any ribs or embedded wood in the roof or walls or around door/window openings?
4. What's your internal wall covering?
5. Could you provide any details on your window AC opening?

 

[NeilYoung]

your build is looking good! will the foam wall support the weight of the window unit while bouncing down the road? did you brace under it with wood?

 

[tylxrb]

your build is looking good! will the foam wall support the weight of the window unit while bouncing down the road? did you brace under it with wood?

The foam wall will support it while in use surprisingly. I plan on just stuffing it in the hole when we need it, and pulling it out when we are done with it. I bought a marine door today after giving up building one to fill the hole when not in use. I’ve considered wooden braces, it’s honestly just a hole in the wall that is a work in progress at the moment

 

[tylxrb]

@tylxrb thanks for sharing your build so far! I actually just ordered the same HF frame last week and have been planning a very similar build.

I'm curious of a couple things:
1. I see you did 1/2" plywood for the floor, did you do any addition foam or structure? Or did you just build straight of the ply?
2. How's the firmness of the floor with 1/2" ply?
3. Did you do any ribs or embedded wood in the roof or walls or around door/window openings?
4. What's your internal wall covering?
5. Could you provide any details on your window AC opening?

I built it to be removable from the trailer so I can use the trailer if I need to, it’s completely wrapped in PMF, all of the interior and exterior walls are PMF. The floor has 1/4 stained birch ply attached to the rest of the wood “internal skeleton”. It’s very firm I do want to crawl underneath and put some support where 2 boards meet in between the crossmembers for when I use just the trailer. There’s no embedded anything, I just Stuck the windows and doors in the holes in the wall I’m not worried about the windows. The doors we will see over time.
About the AC opening I’ll have to get back to you. right now it’s just a hole with the foam I cut out of it shoved back into it. The ac sits in it fine I ordered a door to cover it today because I’m sick of trying to build one I want to spend time with my kid which is why I built the camper and now it’s summer so I need it done lol. I’m still brainstorming how I’m going to dial the ac hole in!

 

[Falco-4]

Thanks! Spend time with the family, nothing is more important than that! But as you keep working on it, if you find time for updates, I'm following along and will be trying to document my build in here as well!