Unamed Foamie

[Arothian]

It looks like my build is finally getting under way, so here is the build thread. My motivation for building a small camper is to be able to more easily camp now that I have a kid with some niceties and hopefully less setup time compared to tents.

Goals:

• Sleeping space for 2 adults and 1 child
• Sink with running hot and cold water. Hot water may be a optional external thing I hookup occasionally.
• Refrigerator! Looking at a nice 12v refer in the back. I'm tired of dealing with ice and water logged food
• Towable by my CX-5, looking at weight around 1,000 lbs

Design:
I have some plans sketched up and hopefully I can get those drawn in the computer and posted here shortly. Basically this is a 80" wide by 104" long with "barn doors" at the rear rather than a traditional galley hatch and a curved front . The size is quite a bit wider than most, which is due to the free frame I'm starting with from a 1970's popup camper. The main bed will be sleep across the width of the trailer (53"x75") rather than the traditional layout. Should be interesting! A bunk will be built between the primary bed and the galley area for my son who is currently 7 months.

Progress:
A couple weekends ago I torn apart the popup with help from my dad. This popup has been sitting in a unused barn for the past several years and needless to say the raccoons and mice had their way with living inside it. It smelled something awful. I should have taken some pictures before the teardown but I forgot.

The frame at this point is mostly removed of misc popup parts. It is mostly surface rusted.

This is the axle, 1 3/4". A tag on it says 1,200 pounds excluding the axle, tires, hubs etc. I'm going to have a welder put new spring brackets on so I can mount it under the springs and increase my clearance and eliminate the need for wheel wells. I'll likely be getting new tires (perhaps bigger?, these are 8inch) and replacing all the bearings and races.

The existing leafs seem to be in okay shape, no obvious cracks or breakage other than the rust. Should I try taking these apart and sandblast them clean and reassemble?

I managed to salvage the sink but not much else was worth keeping.

Oh, I also picked up a HF trailer so that I could haul parts to make the real trailer...haha!



Next steps:
Finish drawing out the plans
Sandblast the frame and axle and repaint.
Rebuild the hubs with new races, bearings and seals.
Start work on the floor.

[ChasCABQ]

Looks like you've made a good start. Before starting my build, I explored this forum and found a local who built three teardrops.

I used free Sketchup Make to layout out my design although I've made some small variations as things went along. I went the simple but quality route: no sink or built in electrical so far, shelves not cabinets, and solid walls.

Materials used included 5x8 Northern Tool trailer, marine plywood for walls and floor, birch plywood for roof and interior partitions and shelves, poplar for roof spars installed with pocket screws. Considering the amount of time one spends building I decided to buy quality materials from a good lumber yard, not a big box store.

Hope to see some more posts soon.

[daveesl77]

Welcome to the group! Hardest part is the "startin'". Then all that's left is the "finishin'"

On the hot water part - I have a Triton 5L on-demand hot water heater, actually it is the second one I've owned and I love it. Small, inexpensive, portable and works like a charm. Cost is like $120, can run off of 20# or even 1# tanks with the adapter.

A 12v fridge (compressor style) is going to be expensive, really expensive. However, you can take a decent battery, 2000 watt inverter and run a reasonable sized dorm fridge with no problem. I just did a test using my 3 ft3 Haier fridge, 2000 watt Centech inverter and an old Mopar truck battery a neighbor gave me to play with. I also had my 50 watt Renogy solar panel in the circuit. Did a full overnight charge on the battery with my converter. 8am turned on the inverter and set the fridge to max. Outside temp was in the 90s. 9am activated the solar panel. 10 am finally got sun on the panel. Ran the system until 6pm when I got bored and the battery level finally dropped to 11.9 volts. The fridge was less than $100. Inverter about $60, solar panel with controller about $90, old battery free. So, for about $250 I have a fridge that runs 120 or 12v, inverter/solar system that can run lots of stuff if not using the fridge. Also, remember I kept the fridge on max cool and kept opening the door. At normal temp I would not doubt it could go on and on and on, especially with a decent battery.

dave

[Arothian]

Thanks for the feedback! I've been making some slow progress over the past few months. Not as quickly as I had imagined but it's something.

I completed sandblasting the frame, primed and painted it. The frame looks great and should be good for many more years to come. I decided to replace the original axle. It was just too difficult to find replacement parts for the hubs. Here are some pictures of the frame after priming and painting.




Next I planned out my floor framing in sketchup and got to work. I'm using 1x2's mostly with 1x4s on the exterior so that I have enough material to attach it to the frame (the floor is slightly wider than the frame). I'll be putting 1/4 plywood on both sides of the framing with 3/4 insulation in between.

This is about half the framing together.

Here I've finished up gluing the bottom plywood pieces to the framing. I used some small staples to help hold and clamp the plywood while the glue dried along with some blocks.

Next I'm going to undercoat the plywood using the fence post paint from TSC. I headed over there but the shelf was empty. They should have more in the next few days. Then I will flip the floor over and install the insulation and top plywood panels. In the meantime, I've formalized my notebook sketches into a more 'official' sketchup. This is the side view with the layout shown pretty well. I originally had planned to have the bunk between the short queen and the galley, but I've decided to relocate it to the front. The hope is to help balance the weight in the trailer more. I've made the floor a foot longer the original popup frame but I left the axle location as is. I believe with the bunk and storage in front it will help offset some of the heavy weight of the galley(fridge, storage, full height bulkhead). It also has the bonus of giving me a few more inches of space because of the front curve.



I've started to collect all the items I'll need. The power center is ordered, refer is here and I hope to decide on water tanks here shortly. Once the floor is finished I'll be working on building the bunk and galley areas.