CarMate 18 x 8 intro... warning, lots of pics!
Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 9:21 pmHello all! I did intro myself in the newbie forum, so I'll condense it somewhat here. I bought this CarMate back in '05 as I needed an enclosed trailer to haul a newly renovated kit car (which is my first passion) to our big east coast show. The trailer was to serve double duty: haul the car and haul materials for my work. The box interior is actually 16', I guess CarMate uses the tongue as a total length measurement. As time passed, the car was sold to be replaced with another still in the resto phase and my work shifted to less haul intensive jobs. The trailer sometimes was loaned to friends to move furniture or whatever, but for the most part it simply sat.
I had debated early in the summer to sell it, as with the economy the money would have been nice, but in talking with my wife one night we were reminiscing about how we used to like camping so much, but couldn't stand the tent life anymore. So a brainstorm was formed (even before I knew about this site). The trailer would be repurposed into a lite camper, with everything relatively easily stored or removable to fit a car into when need be.
Fast forward a couple months and a trip planned for the mountains this month using the trailer. We knew we wanted to take a car with us to use as a dingy, so much was planned with that. My wife drives a Mini; I have a vintage VW Cabriolet, so either would have fit well for the trip.
The trailer was bare bones basic - raw plywood insides, cardboard "roof", twin overhead lights and plywood man door (at 4' wide, no less). First order of business was to paint the inside to brighten it up. A couple of primer coats and a couple of topcoats of a neutral semi-gloss did the trick. Of course, as an afterthought, I should have sanded the sides, but I really didn't want all that work... and dust. It's not too bad, and it can always be smoothed out later. The door received an eBay window and RV latch:
Which had some interesting issues of it's own. The latch was straightforward: measure where the inside of the door is on the outside and make sure you have enough room for the lock/latch. Fortunately the assembly fell right to the inside of the aluminum trim, so it was just a matter of drilling, cutting the inside wood frame carefully with a router, and fitting the latch. The only concession was I had to build out the lock catch on the door frame from 1/2" material (I used mill aluminum), and with that secured to the frame, the door shuts with a satisfying click.
The window, on the other hand, had some interesting issued. I marked the door out and started to carefully cut with a router bit through the inside plywood first, just to see what the door was made of. Turns out that the door is more than halfway hollow, with 3/4" plywood basically creating a frame for the hinges and lock mechanism. When I got through cutting the window opening, there were massive gaps between the interior ply and the outer aluminum that needed to be filled, so with some scrap 3/4 ply, I placed as many pieces as I could fit into the door skins and secured them with very long thin screws into the OE door ply. That helped secure some of the window opening, but the top part of the opening was still void, as I had no way to secure another piece of wood.
On top of that, my measurements were slightly off, so the window was a very loose fit in the opening... rats! Off to my stack of material, and a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate. Some better measurements this time (and a template created beforehand to make sure it worked...), I milled a ring out of the aluminum that sat between the inner plywood and the outer anchoring ring of the window (which it needed anyway, as the window required a 1/4" spacer). With the window snugged to the aluminum ring inside, the aluminum outside and the interior aluminum ring screwed securely to the new 3/4" ply inside the door, the window is now very secure...!
Moving inside, I knew I wanted LED's to save a house battery I had planned on using. I found a couple neat units on eBay (again) using SMT diodes:
and lit:
(no cover over the light in this photo).
I also bought a series of small puck lights, about 2" long:
These are used as fill lights around the edge of the trailer. I have the large interior lights on their own switch (OEM), and the puck lights on two seperate circuits, one towards the front, one towards the rear:
Puck lights only:
Puck and main top lights:
The orangish glow are the toggle switches for the lights. What you can't see are the two small LED arrays to illuminate the step down and outside of the trailer, the door latch. You can just make those out here:
They, too, are on their own circuit and will remain on through the night for my wife's visual safety for those midnight runs to the facilities.
By now you've seen the interior to a point. After years of tenting, I was done with the sleeping bag thing and being on the ground. I really didn't want to be on the floor of the trailer, either. The wheelwells gave me an idea: build a "foldable" bed. I did not want a traditional folding bed that became a couch - I still needed the room for a vehicle when necessary. So, armed with an idea of using a futon mattress (relatively light, stowable and washable.. sort of..), we ordered a queen from Wolf futons (the ViscoPlush version... I want a soft bed!) and I set off to mill a support out of a couple of pieces of 3/4" ply. I cnc'd the ply to provide some air circulation without sacrificing the strength of the wood, radiused all the edges to avoid catching the mattress, and coated it with a couple layers of spar urethane. I then milled the middle supports - matching the height of the wheel wells so the flats would be evenly supported:
The rug is actually hiding a detail and an error. The central supports are six pieces of 3/4" ply milled with slots so they all interlock like lincoln logs and no need for mechanical fasteners. With the mattress supports down
everything is well supported across the two panels. The rug down the middle helps dampen any clunks as I hadn't taken into account the thickness of the rug and padding that I ultimately installed. With that down, the supports sit a little proud from the wheel wells and the horizontal panels are just a hair bowed upwards. Once the weight of the mattress is on them, everything should sit nice and flush.
The panels themselves are attached by loose pin hinges, so the pins can be quickly removed and the panels removed if necessary. They are held to the walls with safety clasp hooks and for travelling, bungeed to eyebolts through the ceiling joists.
On the back end of the trailer, I had seen Dometic's Xtend-A-Room for toy haulers. That intrigued me, so I ordered one!
It assembles much like a traditional tent, with the associated issues. There are definately some improvements that could be made to the unit, like a full floor. As it stands, it simply has a bungee drawstring affair to hold it to the trailer's cargo door edge - which promptly led to a rip as I drew it tight. And it didn't quite fit the door height; it was meant for an opening about 2" taller than what I had, but I didn't think it would make that much difference. It did - the roof material sags, but not too badly. We'll see on the first rainy day! I'll be sure to bring a tarp, just in case. The unit does have zippered windows for ventilation, and a velcro edge to seal it tight to the trailer's door entrance. The orange slash in the one photo is a pool noodle covering the ramp guy wire. That was never addressed in the sales literature, and I can't imagine that a toy hauler wouldn't have a spring loaded guy wire to help lift the ramp back up. Little things like that add up in my mind, and I already have plans for a hard sided enclosure that folds much like a Coleman camp oven to replace this tent-like affair. That is far down the road, though!
The interior is sparse: a single cabinet holds the house battery and some tie-downs and related tools. The roll to the left of the photo is a roll of carpet that will be used to put under the vehicle's wheels when it's housed for the trip. With the car in place, it just makes it past the cabinet with the bumper.
I don't know what will happen with the other cars - I'll cross that bridge when I get there! The photo on the wall (and on the man door) are photo collages of old maps and utensils just for some flavor.
So there's the story so far. Everything set for our leaf peeping trip to VA shortly; I'll post some photos once everything is set up in the campsite.
Thanks for stopping by!
Rick
I had debated early in the summer to sell it, as with the economy the money would have been nice, but in talking with my wife one night we were reminiscing about how we used to like camping so much, but couldn't stand the tent life anymore. So a brainstorm was formed (even before I knew about this site). The trailer would be repurposed into a lite camper, with everything relatively easily stored or removable to fit a car into when need be.
Fast forward a couple months and a trip planned for the mountains this month using the trailer. We knew we wanted to take a car with us to use as a dingy, so much was planned with that. My wife drives a Mini; I have a vintage VW Cabriolet, so either would have fit well for the trip.
The trailer was bare bones basic - raw plywood insides, cardboard "roof", twin overhead lights and plywood man door (at 4' wide, no less). First order of business was to paint the inside to brighten it up. A couple of primer coats and a couple of topcoats of a neutral semi-gloss did the trick. Of course, as an afterthought, I should have sanded the sides, but I really didn't want all that work... and dust. It's not too bad, and it can always be smoothed out later. The door received an eBay window and RV latch:
Which had some interesting issues of it's own. The latch was straightforward: measure where the inside of the door is on the outside and make sure you have enough room for the lock/latch. Fortunately the assembly fell right to the inside of the aluminum trim, so it was just a matter of drilling, cutting the inside wood frame carefully with a router, and fitting the latch. The only concession was I had to build out the lock catch on the door frame from 1/2" material (I used mill aluminum), and with that secured to the frame, the door shuts with a satisfying click.
The window, on the other hand, had some interesting issued. I marked the door out and started to carefully cut with a router bit through the inside plywood first, just to see what the door was made of. Turns out that the door is more than halfway hollow, with 3/4" plywood basically creating a frame for the hinges and lock mechanism. When I got through cutting the window opening, there were massive gaps between the interior ply and the outer aluminum that needed to be filled, so with some scrap 3/4 ply, I placed as many pieces as I could fit into the door skins and secured them with very long thin screws into the OE door ply. That helped secure some of the window opening, but the top part of the opening was still void, as I had no way to secure another piece of wood.
On top of that, my measurements were slightly off, so the window was a very loose fit in the opening... rats! Off to my stack of material, and a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate. Some better measurements this time (and a template created beforehand to make sure it worked...), I milled a ring out of the aluminum that sat between the inner plywood and the outer anchoring ring of the window (which it needed anyway, as the window required a 1/4" spacer). With the window snugged to the aluminum ring inside, the aluminum outside and the interior aluminum ring screwed securely to the new 3/4" ply inside the door, the window is now very secure...!
Moving inside, I knew I wanted LED's to save a house battery I had planned on using. I found a couple neat units on eBay (again) using SMT diodes:
and lit:
(no cover over the light in this photo).
I also bought a series of small puck lights, about 2" long:
These are used as fill lights around the edge of the trailer. I have the large interior lights on their own switch (OEM), and the puck lights on two seperate circuits, one towards the front, one towards the rear:
Puck lights only:
Puck and main top lights:
The orangish glow are the toggle switches for the lights. What you can't see are the two small LED arrays to illuminate the step down and outside of the trailer, the door latch. You can just make those out here:
They, too, are on their own circuit and will remain on through the night for my wife's visual safety for those midnight runs to the facilities.
By now you've seen the interior to a point. After years of tenting, I was done with the sleeping bag thing and being on the ground. I really didn't want to be on the floor of the trailer, either. The wheelwells gave me an idea: build a "foldable" bed. I did not want a traditional folding bed that became a couch - I still needed the room for a vehicle when necessary. So, armed with an idea of using a futon mattress (relatively light, stowable and washable.. sort of..), we ordered a queen from Wolf futons (the ViscoPlush version... I want a soft bed!) and I set off to mill a support out of a couple of pieces of 3/4" ply. I cnc'd the ply to provide some air circulation without sacrificing the strength of the wood, radiused all the edges to avoid catching the mattress, and coated it with a couple layers of spar urethane. I then milled the middle supports - matching the height of the wheel wells so the flats would be evenly supported:
The rug is actually hiding a detail and an error. The central supports are six pieces of 3/4" ply milled with slots so they all interlock like lincoln logs and no need for mechanical fasteners. With the mattress supports down
everything is well supported across the two panels. The rug down the middle helps dampen any clunks as I hadn't taken into account the thickness of the rug and padding that I ultimately installed. With that down, the supports sit a little proud from the wheel wells and the horizontal panels are just a hair bowed upwards. Once the weight of the mattress is on them, everything should sit nice and flush.
The panels themselves are attached by loose pin hinges, so the pins can be quickly removed and the panels removed if necessary. They are held to the walls with safety clasp hooks and for travelling, bungeed to eyebolts through the ceiling joists.
On the back end of the trailer, I had seen Dometic's Xtend-A-Room for toy haulers. That intrigued me, so I ordered one!
It assembles much like a traditional tent, with the associated issues. There are definately some improvements that could be made to the unit, like a full floor. As it stands, it simply has a bungee drawstring affair to hold it to the trailer's cargo door edge - which promptly led to a rip as I drew it tight. And it didn't quite fit the door height; it was meant for an opening about 2" taller than what I had, but I didn't think it would make that much difference. It did - the roof material sags, but not too badly. We'll see on the first rainy day! I'll be sure to bring a tarp, just in case. The unit does have zippered windows for ventilation, and a velcro edge to seal it tight to the trailer's door entrance. The orange slash in the one photo is a pool noodle covering the ramp guy wire. That was never addressed in the sales literature, and I can't imagine that a toy hauler wouldn't have a spring loaded guy wire to help lift the ramp back up. Little things like that add up in my mind, and I already have plans for a hard sided enclosure that folds much like a Coleman camp oven to replace this tent-like affair. That is far down the road, though!
The interior is sparse: a single cabinet holds the house battery and some tie-downs and related tools. The roll to the left of the photo is a roll of carpet that will be used to put under the vehicle's wheels when it's housed for the trip. With the car in place, it just makes it past the cabinet with the bumper.
I don't know what will happen with the other cars - I'll cross that bridge when I get there! The photo on the wall (and on the man door) are photo collages of old maps and utensils just for some flavor.
So there's the story so far. Everything set for our leaf peeping trip to VA shortly; I'll post some photos once everything is set up in the campsite.
Thanks for stopping by!
Rick