I'm not building a typical cozy camper. In fact, it is going to be more like as tool shed and mini-workshop that I pull behind my minivan. I am also converting my minivan into a mini-RV, with a bed and a desk and cabinets and lots of storage where the seats used to fold down into the floor. I plan to live in my minivan and this camper full time, ala CheapRvLiving. I'm gonna put almost 600 watts of solar on top of my minivan, and everything. However, I needed more storage, and I wanted a place to stand up and take a shower, or stand up while working on various projects. So, I decided to build a small trailer.
I wanted something that would fold down so it would be entirely behind my minivan while on the road, for better wind resistance. I also wanted to be able to see traffic behind me. I discovered A-Frame trailers, but those suckers are too expensive and weigh way too much. So, I decided to build my own. Because my camper will not be as wide as a normal A-Frame, I couldn't have those giant triangular sides that stick up so high in the air. I hit on the idea of just cutting the tops of the triangles off, and came up with what I call an A-Frame-ish design.
Because the trailer will not be used for sleeping or siting around, I am not going to build all kinds of cabinets and counter-tops and shelves and stuff like that. It will mostly just be an empty box, with a fold-up roof so I can take showers and work on projects that would make too much mess for inside my minivan. My tools and extra supplies will just be stored in RubberMaid Roughneck tubs strapped in place on the floor. (I love those things. They are tough, light, and air-tight when the lid is sitting on flat.)
Here is a very rough outline of the shape of my camper:
I used FreeCAD to make the drawings. I didn't want to go to the extra trouble of adding dimensions in this view. (If you know FreeCAD, you know all the dimensions are in the "sketch" that is used to create the shape.) The camper body is 8' front to back and 5' 6" wide. The trailer frame itself is 4' 6" wide. The trapezoid walls fold down, as do the angled front, back, and top. The trapezoid sides are vertical, even though they kinda look slanted in the image. The back wall is only 2' tall and the front wall is 2' 9" tall. I wanted it to be sloped front to back so the rain would run off better, and to make it easier to see behind me.
Almost all the faces are designed to not require a sheet of plywood wider than 4'. The trapezoid sides are 4' wide. The front angled face is 4' tall, and the top is 4' front-to-back. So, the only parts that will require lap-joints in the plywood are the floor and the rear, angled face.
I know, it is really ugly. But, as I said, it is really only intended to be a rolling work and tool shed.
P.S. Yes, I know, the body overlaps the area under the fender. This is just a rough outline of the main shape of the camper.