New member East Texas

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New member East Texas

Postby Dan Gary » Thu Sep 09, 2021 5:36 pm

Howdy y’all this is my very first post as I’m Dan, from Troup, Tx. I’ve decided to build our camper after owning a popup camper, which I recently sold. I did a restoration on an older 2003 Starcraft and it ended up looking like a brand new camper. It was a fun restoration and we learned what we wanted in our next camper. Deb and I talked about buying a small UL 20 ft travel trailer but they are super expensive now, including new tear drops. My brother recently bought one and the price of his camper has increased nearly 10k in less than a year. So, a good used small camper was just way out of our budget, so I thought, why not build your own. So, last weekend I bought an older boat trailer that’s very heavy duty (Dilly Trailer 1974) that’s in great shape for our square drop build of 6x12. It’s a bit bigger than your average 5x8/10 ft. build. Weight is not an issue for us as our Honda Ridgeline has a #5000 pound towing capacity. I’d like to keep our build no more than #2000 pounds.

We’ve got some specific ideas in mind which include the rear kitchen galley, standing height and a wet bath. We had a shoilet (shower & toilet combo) in our popup which we want in our new camper. The toilet will be a Thedford cassette toilet like we had in our popup. As for a shower, it’s a want but not necessarily a need. At our age a toilet is a need which we will have.

We come from a family of tent campers and continue to canoe camp and backpack. After a lifetime (I’m 71) as a wilderness camper, I couldn’t go the route of the luxury campers and duplicate my home experience outdoors. We travel allot with 13 grandchildren on East and West coasts and family in Maine. The popup camper didn’t work out for us for long distance traveling as setting up and taking down every day was exhausting. Having a camper that we can climb into after a full days drive without a 2 hour setup looked very attractive. Deb also didn’t like climbing over me to get up during the night to use the bathroom. Perhaps that’s one of our fundamental designs, orienting the bed from front to rear and not side to side.

So, that brings me here as a new camper builder looking for tips, advice and members experiences in their own build. I’m a self employed master carpenter (50) years and continue to work my business. With my skillset as a wood worker, I have great expectations for this camper build.
Dan Gary
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Re: New member East Texas

Postby QueticoBill » Fri Sep 10, 2021 6:02 am

Welcome! You have a clear idea of your needs which is a great start. A job well planned is a job half done.
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Re: New member East Texas

Postby Dan Gary » Fri Sep 10, 2021 6:25 am

Thanks Bill for the welcome and kind words. Looks like a steep learning curve taking on such a project. It’ll be fun though and keep me out of the recliner.
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Re: New member East Texas

Postby Bezoar » Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:25 am

Looking forward to watching your progress!
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Re: New member East Texas

Postby Dan Gary » Fri Sep 10, 2021 12:28 pm

Bezoar wrote:Looking forward to watching your progress!


Thanks buddy. Checked out your build journal and super impressed with your build. It looks like you have standing height? Your design, size and framing construction is similar to what I’m planning as well. How long have you been working on yours?
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Re: New member East Texas

Postby Bezoar » Fri Sep 10, 2021 2:30 pm

Got the trailer in December, so coming up on a year! Work and kids' activities keep getting in the way!! It is stand-able in the front, but I wanted a sloped roof, so you need to stoop a little for the back. I was doing a u-shaped dinette/queen bed back there, but have settled on length-wise beds with a little room for a table in between. Nobody wants to be woke up for someone else's bathroom trip, as your planning already identified! There will be a small cabinet against the back wall between the beds - just big enough to hold a CPAP.

Here's a backward view with one bed started:

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