Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

This all started as a search for a trailer that was tall enough to load my UTV. I came across a trailer which was an auction company's trailer. They had installed a window AC unit in the front and a house style sliding window on the drivers side for customers to pay at. The window was obviously the wrong type and leaked due to poor and improper installation.

The second owner, attempted to turn it into a toy hauler by adding a restroom and sink. Carpentry skills were okay, but myself being a woodworking teacher had to do better. Also all the wiring was on the surface of the trailer wall and an eyesore to look at. Finally the electric was a poorly installed house style sub panel and made me a little nervous.

A toy hauler camper conversion was not in the original plan, but I thought what do I do with an AC in the front. Answer: make it a camper toy hauler! A couple of times a year I find myself going to buddies property to ride ATV and end up sleeping in the back seat of the pickup. Now I have a solution.

After loading the UTV into the trailer, I quickly realized that a 7 wide trailer and a 5 1/2' wide UTV is a tight squeeze. So instead of just restudding and covering the window opening, I checked with my local trailer shop and we ordered and installed an escape door for the drivers side to replace the window. $800 later it works, but that put a dent in the project budget.

Here's what I started with:

Here's what I ended up with:

This turned into our camper for the summer and will be the fall overnight trailer at our lake lot. We had a hand-me-down 18ft camper with "some" water damage given to us by the family. "some" water damage, meant it's ready to be a donor trailer and become a flatbed. So now we are in the process of trying to locate a suitable "body" to accept the "organs".

The e-track was planned on being setup for one additional bed, however when we needed a camper for a planned trip with 3 beds, I quickly added the extra row of e-track and now we have bunk beds.

Considering a gooseneck style horse trailer as the next donor recipient. Any thoughts, or as anyone done this before?

Considering the horse trailer option since I have a short bed gas truck, it is a 3/4 ton though. I have noticed the 7 wide trailers pull much easier than an 8 1/2" wide also, with the short bed, a gooseneck turning radius is limited. I used to have a 7 wide gooseneck 10 years ago with a 9" setup hitch and I could turn 90 degrees if needed this way. Finally 80" wide trailers fit bed mattresses perfectly across the trailer!

Finally after seeing several "minor" water damaged campers, I am done with wood framing trailers. Therefore, since this is round 2 and going to be the family camper / toy hauler, we do not want to hold back.

There are limited windows as this trailer was intended to be an 80/20 trailer. 80% cargo trailer, 20% camper. This was my one trailer to do all. This was until all 4 of us in the family crammed into it for a weekend campout. We survived, but realize there were some improvements needed.

What all did we do to the trailer you might be asking?

Obviously, we stripped it all down to the metal frame. Added 3/4" foam board insulation in all the walls. I rebuilt the side door (wood framed and rotted), added an RV latch and a window. Haven't had time to add the other window to the escape door.

I welded etrack to the studs so it would be flush with the plywood walls, replaced the big wall panels with BC plywood for smoothness, and used the old plywood for the lower sections which were covered with tread plate.

The floor was garage floor epoxy without the sand grit added. Add wet or muddy tires, and that floor was like walking on ice. One of my students tried a heat gun and that helped to strip the epoxy. We then painted it gray and added a garage floor mat from Walmart.com. This makes it easier to clean mud and debry out after a weekend of riding ATVs.

The switches are just standard house style switches. I liked the low profile and it made it easy to stick with the color scheme with the black and white switches and cover plates. I used low voltage remodel boxes to install them into the walls. I used extension cord with as wiring so I had individual conductors with a sheathing around them for vibration.

Luan sheeting on the ceiling, LED puck lights from amazon. and I borrowed an idea from this site for the lights that run full length by bending some metal, adding LED strip and then putting diffusers in them.

The cabinet up front is 3/4" BC birch plywood painted with rustoleum gloss black, oak face frame, popular door frames painted gloss black with tread plate inserts.

It is just a standard house microwave and dorm fridge which I strategically placed self tapping screws into safe locations in each to mount them to the shelving.

Finally a 45 amp converter from another camper trailer to safely power the trailer and have 12v lighting if we are off the grid.

Hey, I look forward to watching your gooseneck build out. Good luck!!

Them boys look pretty excited about the whole thing. Helping ol Dad work on the trailer. That's good stuff right there, Makes the entire project worthwhile.
Congratulations and Good Luck, you're off to a great start.

McDave

tooldad wrote:This turned into our camper for the summer and will be the fall overnight trailer at our lake lot. We had a hand-me-down 18ft camper with "some" water damage given to us by the family. "some" water damage, meant it's ready to be a donor trailer and become a flatbed. So now we are in the process of trying to locate a suitable "body" to accept the "organs".

The e-track was planned on being setup for one additional bed, however when we needed a camper for a planned trip with 3 beds, I quickly added the extra row of e-track and now we have bunk beds.

Considering a gooseneck style horse trailer as the next donor recipient. Any thoughts, or as anyone done this before?

Considering the horse trailer option since I have a short bed gas truck, it is a 3/4 ton though. I have noticed the 7 wide trailers pull much easier than an 8 1/2" wide also, with the short bed, a gooseneck turning radius is limited. I used to have a 7 wide gooseneck 10 years ago with a 9" setup hitch and I could turn 90 degrees if needed this way. Finally 80" wide trailers fit bed mattresses perfectly across the trailer!

Finally after seeing several "minor" water damaged campers, I am done with wood framing trailers. Therefore, since this is round 2 and going to be the family camper / toy hauler, we do not want to hold back.

I'm not done with my 7x26 and I'm already planning the next one. Like you I'm planning on a gooseneck and will probably keep it 7 or 7.5 wide.

UPDATE. We ended up finding a 8x28 V nose Continental Cargo with a kitchen & bath package. So I sold most of the water damaged camper components. Fast forward 3 years. We have outgrown the Continental. It will only haul 3 ATVs. I have since upgraded to a Diesel truck and a gooseneck hitch. After months of searching (literally since labor day week), I have found a 8x32 gooseneck V nose that is 7.5 tall.

Murphy's law. We are in the finishing phases of cabinet rebuild in the contiental. so it will be for sale in the spring. I will make a new post for the 32' gooseneck conversion.

My son and his friend are in shop class and they are going to do the project work and enter it in the state Ind Arts competition in the Open division. This red trailer was mostly done by a senior in my shop class and the 7x18 red won the open divison in 2016. Hoping for a good showing in 2020 with the next trailer!