Adventure Trailer Covered Wagon

[Reubal]

This is my new twist on the New Twist On A Tent Trailer. I loved this post/thread, and it obviously inspired my build and I'd like to try to fill in the middle a little, even if we took different routes. For those unfamiliar, he built a wood box on a trailer, essentially simulating a truck bed, mounted a pickup truck tent, and built a bed platform with storage underneath.


Photos by BackWoodsGuy from thread linked above.

I started my build with a year of designing a foamie squaredrop. By the time I got around to ordering material and finding a trailer, early this summer, I learned that XPS foam is outlawed in CA. The delay to receive it from back east was about 3 months, and the cost was almost 50% more for the shipping. Another option was to drive to Vegas to pick some up from Home Depot and bring it back, but the cost to do that would be several hundred dollars, making it no better - plus I learned that my new trailer - a Northern Tool 5x8 Aluminum was also about 2-3 months away from being back in stock. That is when I cam across the Tent Trailer thread and shifted gears and used the time to redesign my trailer.

I will be a majority hot weather camper. Most trips will be in 100-110F+ heat. This is why I initially went for the foamie. 2" of extremely efficient insulation to nicely keep the heat out and the A/C air inside. Where I struggled with the design was that for simplicity I wanted JUST foam with minimal support structure, but then I also wanted to be able to have roof racks for solar, shower water, SUP paddleboard. While the foam could easily hold the minimal weight, without the structure holding the rack firm to the frame, everything just becomes a giant sail and it all flies away taking ripped PMF with it. So switching to the tent trailer solves the roof rack problem. But what it also gives me is a shelter with absolutely no insulating qualities whatsoever. So I have two solutions. One, I have a giant canopy that can be mounted over the entire tent trailer, shielding the trailer from direct sun and giving an airflow cushion between the two. The second option is I will have a window A/C unit mounted to the front of the trailer entering into the front window on the tent. This will be powered by a 2048WH Bluetti AC200MAX. On the roof racks I will have 400W of solar panels - 4 panels that will be mounted about 9" over the tent, providing what will hopefully be consistent power to the Solar Battery and A/C as well as providing shade and the airflow cushion over the tent. The big mystery is how well the shading will work - either the canopy or the solar panels - and how well will the tent retain the cool air. Only time will tell. And the Bluettis are backordered and it looks like my total wait time on that will be about 3 months.... meaning I won't get my power until 2 months after I need it, and about 5 months before I will need it again. I hate having a big chunk of money like that tied up in tech the I wont use, as there may well be a newer better model by the time I need it again.

The tend on top will be a Kodiak 8ft Truck Tent.

I'm already about 75% done with my build, but didn't want to start journaling until I felt I had something to show. Up until this past weekend, it didn't seem like much, but then suddenly things started moving fast.

I hope you don't mind that I start at the very beginning, as I want to include information that I couldn't find here, or anywhere online, and I would have liked to at least see it to know what I was in for. I will also provide exact measurements for this trailer - as it comes stock - to make it easier for people to design their homebuilt teardrops and adventure trailers by knowing exact dimensions. I had to guess and approximate in all my planning and design phases, until I actually had the trailer in-hand and built.

I will be posting reduced size photos in order for them to format and fit into the posts correctly. If at any point you want to see full resolution images in order to see small details, please let me know and I will post them.
To cut directly to the chase and just see the full res photos, here are links to the Imgur galleries (galleries are limited to 50 photos) - I imagine I will end up with 3 galleries by the time I'm done.
Gallery 1
Gallery 2

That's the story...
Starting from the beginning...next.

[Reubal]

The beginning.

Weight is an issue for my tow vehicle. I want to keep weight as low as possible, both for extended wear and tear on the car, but also for gas mileage. So I chose an aluminum Trailer to start with.

Northern Tool has been backordered on trailers all summer and it took me almost 3 months to get my 5x8 Aluminum Ultra-Tow. I debated going with the steel trailer as it is only about 50lb heavier, and it would allow me to weld to it, but the Aluminum was free shipping, and the steel trailer was not. So even through the steel as about $300 less than the aluminum, after shipping the price actually came out more than the aluminum, so I just decided to go with the aluminum. Before I started I priced out 1/8" steel to build/weld my own trailer, and the local cost of raw material was over $800, and that would just get me the frame, no axle, wheels, tires, lighting or anything else to actually make it a trailer. That's when I decided to just order one.

3 months later when it arrived, this is what showed up.



I show this to let you know that if you order this, you don't need pay extra to get the lift gate delivery. Each of the 3 boxes is fairly easily manageable - even if to just set it down on a cart or dolly.
I had this delivered to my work so I could build it on my lunch break over the week.

I've heard complaints about the instructions, but this trailer is so easy to put together I don't know what more you would need from the instructions.

At the end of my first lunch hour I had everything unboxed, laid out, and the main frame assembled.




I've heard people complain about how "flimsy" this trailer is. One of the plumbers here with a 2ton pickup scoffed that he only gets "real" trailers. Cool bro. You have a 2-ton truck. I work with and around these heavy-duty trailers daily. They NEED to be heavy duty to carry heavy machinery. I was VERY pleased to see that this Aluminum Ultra-Tow is GOOD quality. It's light. It's not heavy duty. It's not a monster of a trailer. It's PERFECT for what I need and I would say what most tiny trailer builders need. It's a sturdy lightweight base that will only get more rigid and sturdy as you build. I am THRILLED with this trailer, even if the "real men" want something heavier.



At the end of the week the trailer was ready to come home. The trailer comes with 12" 45MPH rated wheels and tires and I bought 13" Radial 85MPH tires locally, and wheels off Amazon. These needed 1" spacers.

The 13" wheels and tires fit great and look fantastic, and a quick and easy fender modification made the trailer road-worthy.



Up next... buying material...

[Reubal]

Material and starting the build. This is what I consider DAY ONE of the build. September 25. Registering the trailer at CA DMV was painless, but time consuming, only because of DMV laziness. Total cost for 5 year registration, plate, and title was $50.

So. Where I differ from the BackWoodsGuy's build is that mine will be an aluminum framed box, not all wood. I've also widened the 5x8 trailer to a 5'9"x8' bed. Outside measurements of the box are 6'x8'3". I have an extra 1-1/2" on the overall length mostly because I have no idea what I am doing. Someone with a brain could have done it better, but I am working with meager mental resources and I'm doing the best I can, mom! As a plumber, and now estimator and project manager, I have been screaming for years that architects think that just because they can draw something on paper means that it can be built in real life; that's not always the case. Well, here with my trailer, I drew pretty pretty plans... and when it came time to build, I realized that I had drawn nice things that aren't possible to build.

My well laid out plans:


So, off I ran to Industrial Metal Supply to get aluminum. And wouldn't you know, all the long stock of the size and shapes I needed were out of stock and THREE MONTHS OUT. I'm starting to see a theme here. But they had 8' stock, so I quickly recalculated my cut list to 8' lengths instead of 16', and found a lot of usable pieces in the remnants section.

$600 of aluminum later, this is what I left with:


And here is all my material - metal and wood. 3/4 ply for the floor and 1/2 ply for the box. Altogether, this little bit of aluminum and wood cost almost exactly the same as the trailer itself.


Since I don't know how to weld aluminum, and I didn't want to learn by melting all the aluminum I just bought, I decided to braze it instead after watching endless YT videos of people brazing aluminum and how strong it can be. None of this aluminum frame will be very structural, so it doesn't need to support great weight, it just needs to hold together. As I plumber I have been brazing copper for 20+ years, so I have plenty of experience brazing. I started by reinforcing the bolted trailer frame with some brazing, and that is when I learned just how aluminum loves to suck up and disperse heat. It takes SO MUCH HEAT to get 1/8" aluminum joints hot enough to take the braze.



And switched to riveting. Which is kinda time consuming, but no more than brazing; isn't as smooth and refined as the brazed joints, but will hold up indefinitely. It's important to me that the end result looks "professional" and not "slopped together at home". So I got the wheels/axle off, flipped the trailer, and got to work.



Looking back at the photo above, it looks like I started the wood process by cutting down and staining the box sides. I have extreme ADHD and I have a tendency to jump around as I work. (I will finally be getting back around to those sides this coming weekend, what will be Day Nine of the build.)



While it was upside down, I put in all the support structure for the the box framing, as well as frame secured unistrut which will be the support for the solar rack. All the weight on the the racks will be FRAME supported and not supported by my shelter structure. It will also allow me to completely take off the racks and solar if going on a trip that doesn't require it, or it will allow me to take off all the camping gear and have a nice box trailer for hauling. It will also give me a fantastic platform to build a removable foamie box in the future. You know that the second I finish this build I will start designing that build.

I don't really have any detail photos of the underbody support crossbars because they are hard to photograph in-context. But they are 1x1-1/2 square tubing bolted to the underside of the trailer. The camping box frame with them sit on top of, and be attached to, these supports. you'll see later.

Here is the trailer flipped back right-side-up after finishing the underbody work. I am doing this 100% by myself, only on Saturdays and Sundays, and my back is entirely WRECKED.


I flipped the trailer on October 2; DAY THREE of the build.

Up next, on DAY FOUR, we start widening the trailer floor.

[Reubal]

October 3; DAY FOUR. Widening the floor.

I have 1-1/2" angle Aluminum to widen the floor 4-1/2" on each side, for a floor of 5'9". I had originally intended to make the box 6' wide, enabling me to sleep crossways, giving me more "living space" inside the tent. My inexperience in designing such things led me to needing to keep the frame at 6' and the box on the inside of it, making it 5'9". Unfortunately this is just a little (3 inches) too short for me to comfortably sleep. So I will sleep longways. I will be putting a FULL size 6" foam "mattress" in longways, and that will give me about 18" of space on the side of the bed. I have all sorts of ideas on how I want to design the inside, but there is no pressing need for that right now. I will be able to easily lay the mattress on the floor for now, and figure out a structure later. It will be 1x1 aluminum tubing for the structure. I think I will want a sofa/bed structure that easily and quickly converts. I want space INSIDE to sit, if so desiring, or if weather requires. That will come probably a couple months down the road. Right now, I need to stop typing and get back to work to I can get on the road.

The widening goes out around the wheels. The new wheel wells will be 3/4 ply with sealing and Henry's. The tires will end up sticking out maybe another 2 inches - I have no idea until I get the wheels back on - and I will probably use some 3" flat aluminum riveted to the wood wheal wells, sticking out far enough to "cover" the tires. That will be started on Day Ten. (This coming Sunday.)

The 1-1/2" angle is both bolted to the frame, where possible, and riveted elsewhere. I think I was planning on JBWelding it also, but now looking back, I guess I skipped that part. Oops. It would just be overkill anyway. The overhangs are fairly rigid, yet somewhat flimsy, but once the floor gets on it will get really solid, and the angle extensions will also get riveted to the box frame uprights when they go in, which will completely anchor it all in place.




In that last photo, that piece of vertical aluminum in between the lower frame and the angle extension is just a spacer piece. Later, on Day Eight, I will learn that I wish I had one of these for each one as I have to drill out a rivet for having the spacer on a piece I wasn't current working on. But stop getting ahead of me.

DAY SIX: Rewired the trailer, preparing for new side markers, tail lights, license plate light, and rearview camera power.

Z

And with the floor extension installed I could now measure my two floor halves. Starting with the front, I marked and cut the floor and test fit it. Took it back off and and started my waterproofing with The Mix. I did 75/25 on each side, then 50/50 on each side, and then a 25/75 on the bottom only. The underside will eventually get Henry's on it (that will be today), so I'm good with the 3 coats of The Mix.



Let me just tell you that lifting and setting 3/4" ply onto saw horse when you have a back back - by yourself - DOES NOT HELP your back. I have been on Vicodin the past week. Because you can't hurt your back if you don't feel it.

UP NEXT: Laying the floor.

[Reubal]

October 16; DAY SEVEN. Laying the floor.

I guess I don't have photos, but I have already cut but not stained/waterproofed the back half of the floor. In the process of cutting the rear edge - at an angle for comfort - I botched the cut and cut it 1/4" too short. It doesn't sound like much. but I have 1" of support to secure that edge to, and losing 1/4" means I only have 1/4" and that is NO GOOD! So I had to recut the front half of the floor before installing it to take off 1/4" at the front, to move that back floor back to where it belongs. This doesn't make me happy as I prefer the floor to be as flush as possible around the perimeter, but the 1/4" gap will be covered by the the 1/2" plywood front box wall. In the end, only you and I will know, and I promise not to say anything.

This is where I tells you how hard it is to glue, place, and secure a bowed 3/4" ply floor without any help. I planned to use round head carriage bolts to secure it to the frame, and then large flange rivets around the perimeter. I laid a bead of Gorilla Clear Construction Adhesive around the perimeter and started rushing and panicking. Well, two things. #1, without someone on top applying pressure to the bolt, while I tighten the lock nut underneath, it is IMPOSSIBLE. #2, when you order large flange rivets that are 1/8" too short to grip, they don't grip. So I ran a couple rivets to hold the bow down, and the second I took my weight off the floor, the rivets popped out. So with glue drying, I had to drill out the failed rivets, and panic to get the floor secured down.



What you see in these photos are some 1x1/8 neoprene strips on the crossbars. This is there to take up some of the gap between the metal and the floor. The crossbars are 1/8" below the sides of the trailer frame, and the angle aluminum extension is 1/8" above it, so the depth difference ranges from 0 -1/8 - 1/4. There WILL be bowing, but this is to try to make up a little of that space underneath. I didn't want to use the hex head bolts, but I needed to get the floor down post-haste. And the remaining rivets are holding for now - I will get some long self-tapping desk screws to reinforce the rivets.

I then broke out my new drill press and made some 1/4" plates for the rear stabilizers. (The front stabilizers bolted directly to the trailer frame, but I guess I don't have photos.) The unistrut that it is attached to is the base support for the eventual solar racks.



In between the work above, I stained and weatherproofed the back half of the floor.

October 17; DAY EIGHT. Back half of the floor.



For the back half, I again glued, bolted, and riveted. This time I got some regular nuts, not lock nuts, and some Loctite, so I was able to finesse the round head bolts on without a helper. My beautiful helper lounging under the trailer wasn't much help.

Up until this point I hadn't started on the side box framing, and I was really intimidated by it. I had started fabricating my rivet plates, and half blew up my brand new Harbor Freight miter saw, and nearly lost a hand and face to exploding aluminum. Needless to say that slowed down my fabrication of the plates - something that will need to be address first thing on the morning of Day Nine. I'm not looking forward to it. I need a bandsaw, but there is only so much money I want to spend on one-time-use tools. Better to lose a face and hand than spend another $150.

So, intimidated by the framing, I was going to call an early day on Sunday, but then remember that this isn't going to build itself, so I gave it a go - and it went much faster and easier than anticipated.




I only had two problem areas. One is that one of my side supports is 1/8" too short. Oops. Also, cut finger. Oops


I will probably cut a 1-1/2x1-1/2x1/8 square and trap it in with the rivet plates, and then braze it. I could just let it float and the rivet plates would be structural enough. We'll see.

And this one... the 8' side top rail had to be attached to the front rail with an L bracket... I guess I attached it 1/16" low. Oops.


I'll hit that with brazing and it won't really be noticeable.

Coming up...

I have decided to work for 2 hours each day this week after work in order to do minor but very time consuming things so I don't lose time on the weekend. This will help, but I'm building this at my parent's house, not mine, and I just want to get home after work. Not this week, I guess.

October 18, DAY 8.17: Underbody caulking. Loctite wheel spaces on hubs. Remount axle.
October 19, Day 8.33: Underbody Henry's water sealing.
October 20, Day 8.5: Cut rivet plates. Cut and stain wheelwell plywood.
October 21, Day 8.67: Waterproof wheelwells.
October 22, Day 8.84: Another coat of The Mix to wheelwells.

And let's see how much I can get done by the end of next weekend. I need a vacation.

[featherliteCT1]

Looking great ... keep going!!!

[Reubal]

Looking great ... keep going!!!

Thanks! I won't stop until I'm out in the wilderness enjoying a cigar and a beer with my best pup by my side! That is the goal that keeps me marching!

[Reubal]

Last night I did the underbody waterproofing. I add this post only to let newbies know that this will take VERY LITTLE material. I bought a gallon of Henry's, and it was only $10, but if they had a PINT, it would have been more than enough. After two coats you couldn't even tell that anything was gone from the can. So for those about to waterproof their undercarriage, and only have a 4x8, 5x8, or 6x8 to do - you don't need much at all.

Also, as a plumber I have had to mastic around roof penetrations, and the Henry's that I used was always super thick and just this side of solid. It had to be spread around like an overthickened cake frosting. This stuff that I used now (I had no idea it was any different) was almost like a thick and goopy paint. It brushed on very well, but was runny enough that it would occasionally drip off and on top my face and beard. which was fun 2 hours later once it was dry and hard.

The first coat was dry by the time I finished it, so I started immediately on the second. With 3 coats of The Mix and 2 coats of Henry's, I'm sure I'm fine, but if I find myself with 30min extra time I may put a 3rd and 4th coat on - I have plenty left in the can... which will now sit in my garage for the next 60 years.

Enjoying a beer with my good buddy Henry.


All the seams between the wood and aluminum frame were sealed with heavy duty exterior silicone. Then Henry's over all that.

[featherliteCT1]

I have no experience with pop rivets and am intrigued with your use. What diameter rivets did you use?
Thanks!

[Reubal]

I have no experience with pop rivets and am intrigued with your use. What diameter rivets did you use?
Thanks!

I planned to use 1/4" to be extra strong, bought and opened a box, and then realized that the two rivet guns I found in my dad's tools didn't have a ferrule for them, and then when I went to Harbor Freight (where I bought the rivets), Home Depot, and Lowes, none of them carried a riveter that could take 1/4" rivets. Weird. So I went to 3/16", and honestly they are more than enough. 1/4" would have been way overkill. And drilling this many holes in aluminum, I found that doing initial 1/8" pilot holes then 3/16" hole worked best for drill bit lifespan, but also found that Harbor Freight's 3/16" rivets are actually just slightly bigger than 3/16", so I do a final pass of 13/64". CAN you JUST drill a 13/64" hole? Yes, but the bit will burn out every 20+ holes, and I don't want to have to keeps cleaning/wiping cleaning oil off, so I drill bare, especially on these "production" holes. For one-off holes that are larger or I want clean results, I'll oil.

Overall, 3/16" rivets are plenty strong - I'd even use them for even more "structural" and weight supporting framing without any worry. The big trick is getting the "grip range" correct. I've found that 1/4" grip range just BARELY grips two pieces of 1/8" material together, so I've gone a little longer.

[featherliteCT1]

Thanks for thorough rivet explanation. By the way, your aluminum fabrications are beautiful!

[Reubal]

Thanks for thorough rivet explanation. By the way, your aluminum fabrications are beautiful!

Thank you. I have no idea what I'm doing. I learned last night that I am never going to be a finish carpenter. I put the ROUGH in rough carpenter. The wheelwells aren't pretty, but they'll be stained and mostly disappear inside. I'm not great with hand driving finish nails.

We are expecting rain this weekend and next week, which is not great. I still have stain and poly to do, and our 90F days the past few weeks were GREAT for getting that done quickly. So the plan for tomorrow morning is to hit all the "outside" work hard - wood cutting/staining/poly, and also aluminum cutting. I don't have a ton more to cut, but I prefer to do it outside.

Here are the wheelwells so far. I'll be gluing/nailing/inserting 45deg pieces in the corners before poly and Henrys. Maybe some GreatStuff to fill the voids and make it a little more solid. The sidewall plywood will be cut to go along with the 45s of the wheelwells. I don't have a belt sander so I rounded the edges with a sanding flap wheel for my grinder. Not pretty, but no sharp edges.



Here I am worried about a few 60F days with mild rain when I've read all your threads where you have actual winter.

[Reubal]

I haven't posted much, even though I've been working on it daily, because there hasn't been much to take pictures of the past week. A lot of staining and coats of poly, that took longer than usual because of the turn in weather. Tonight was the first night that it felt like it's all coming together - now I'm just putting all the prepared pieces into place.





So far I just have the driver's side wood glued, set, and riveted/screwed. It all went very smoothly and I wish I had gotten out the pneumatic nail gun for the entire construction of the wheelwells. I didn't want to be hassled with digging it all out, and the quality suffered for it, but I did use it to nail the sidewall and wheelwell together once they were placed. I will be taking tomorrow evening off for BEER, but I can't wait to hit it Saturday morning and see how far I get.

I'm not sure if I mentioned my telescoping roof rack plans before, but I went to the metal supply at lunch Wed to get all the metal for that, and they only had half the sizes I need in stock and don't know when more is coming in. So that's no good. I have plnty to do before that, and I'm not in a rush, but I won't have solar power if I don't have a roof rack.

I'm so happy it's starting to come together.

[featherliteCT1]

Really looking good!

[Reubal]

Really looking good!

Thanks! I decided to put beer off until tomorrow evening and put a few hours in tonight. I'm kinda addicted to the progress, even after a long, punishing 10hr day at work. I made campground reservations in Joshua Tree for Thanksgiving week, so that will be the maiden voyage!