Budget Build: Campinator 2000 Offroad Camper

[Nobodyhome1313]

Hey everyone, Chris here with a thread on my budget friendly offroad camper build.
When I decided to do this build, I was inspired by one I saw on this site, who was building off the same military trailer I had in mind. Through my journeys on the internet, I couldn’t find a full set of dimensional specs for the M116A3 trailer. This frustrated me to the point where I sat down and took as many measurements as I could think of, now I’m here to share those and the build with all of you.

It all started with an impulse buy off the gov liquidators website… whoops! Heheheh

$400 later and the trailer was purchased, moved from the local USMC base, tagged, inspected, pink-slipped and licensed all in the same day. The rough deck dimensions are 6’ wide, 8’ long and sits about 3 feet off the ground. Tag data says it weighs 980 pounds in this configuration. It came with these MONSTER 37x1250x16.5 Goodyear MT/R run flat tires, which by the way, weigh about 140 pounds… each!

In looking it over, I realized that the steel deck you see here is a bolt up configuration and can be removed and sold for scrap if you want to lose almost 200 pounds. The tongue is also bolted onto the main structure in a way that removing the rear 2 bolts will allow you to tilt it up 90 degrees for easy storage… sweet! It does have surge brakes that I hear you can remove and save some additional weight. HOWEVER, I promised to keep this build simple and low budget, so we’re just moving forward with the stock trailer.

BUILD GOALS:
- Must be offroad capable
- Must resist minor impacts, scratches and general abuse
- Build cost less than $1000 (all in)
- Must be awesome and easy.


SPECS:
Cost: $400
Weight: 980
Total $: 400

[Nobodyhome1313]

PHASE 1: PLANNING
Here is the basic top view. A few things, like the utility hook-ups and a drawer have been omitted from this plan so you can see the other details.


First feature I 'borrowed' from the internet, is the pull out kitchen. Using the bed slides and entry door I reclaimed from a scrap popup, there will be a door on the side which will open up revealing this pull-out kitchen. Once extended, this kitchen will give us a stove (reclaimed), cooler (DC or ice box, to be purchased budget willing) and a sink. The plan is to have it drain into the reclaimed grey water collection tank connected with a very flexible drain hose, but that part is still in design as it were.
There is also a 18 gal water tank (also reclaimed) sitting over the axle to minimize an increase to tongue weight.

The entire outer skin will be painted with a polymer bed liner, which will add serious weather and abuse handling capability.
Some of these are based on parts I reclaimed from a scrap popup, so your build will likely change.

[Nobodyhome1313]

PHASE 2: Wood Framing

2x3 construction with Simpson ties and a BUNCH of screws. Used about 11 sticks @~ 5lbs each, so we added shy of 60lbs.
WARNING: I AM NO CARPENTER!



This was framed to fit a door I got from the salvaged pop-up and the awesome stove/ oven we got from Fun4wheelerguy... thanks buddy!



The frame footer is 2x2 beams, bolted to the trailer deck. Remember a little WWD-40 when drilling the holes helps a lot and will help your drill bit too.



These are the stock Humvee type wheels with 37x1250x16.5 Goodyear run-flat MT/Rs... did I mention they weigh around 140lbs EACH? Time to can these and get some tires/ wheels off a 1 ton Chevy, which would weigh around 70 each. Found a pair from a nice Gentleman for $45 with 33” BFG AT tires… SCORE!

SPECS:
Cost: +70
Weight: -80 (+60 wood frame/ HDWR, -140 tires/ rims)
Total $: 470

[Nobodyhome1313]

This weekend was another major build weekend. When I was looking at the design, weight and build cost, I decided to spend a little extra and build a proper teardrop style trailer. Soooo, back to PLAN A!

Building on what was there, I added another 2 feet above with a 22.5 deg rake on the front nose. Might add another section at the top because its a little short inside, but lets see.

Here is the frame with new mod...



Roof and front nose covers on


SPECS:
Cost: +$50
Weight: +20
Total: $520

[ksmack01]

Cool build. I will be keeping up with your progress. Looks great so far

[Nobodyhome1313]

Cool build. I will be keeping up with your progress. Looks great so far

Thank you... thankyouverymuch!
Fingers crossed, it's tough when you know ZERO about carpentry, trailers, building stuff, patience...all the things one needs to build a TD. I just bang it together until it looks like one of those.

[Nobodyhome1313]

Here is an updated concept sketch. Sorry I don't have fancy ACAD programs, although quite impressive... they take away from my build budget and every penny counts!
The idea is once the kitchen is extended, that area would open up to stretch out a bit. In case of bad weather, the kitchen can be retracted and still leave room for 2 to sleep. Since its just my little pumpkin and I, it works great. Split level quarters could be easily engineered with this same basic frame.



Here's where we are at now....

[Nobodyhome1313]

SCORE! Got these tires and wheels off a nice guy on Craigslist for $45 out the door. This also dropped the overall height to 78" and made it about level with my Jeep. The only drawback is that now the track width is about 4" wider due to the new wheel backspacing. Ohh well, I lost 130 pounds n the process... SCORE! Going to get it weighed soon, stand by...





Sides are on, single sheet cut to fit... whadda pain in the lower extremity.



SPECS:
Cost: +$45
Weight: -130
Total: $565

[Toyotamike]

Pretty sweet so far

[Nobodyhome1313]

Pretty sweet so far

Thanks ToyotaMike, it's getting there but I haven't worked on it for a while. Fun4wheelerguy and I have been working on his to get ready for the local offroad show. http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=58731&hilit=fun4wheelerguy
I got the small side door (battery access port) and the kitchen door installed, along with the slides for the pull-out kitchen. Just waiting for a friend to weld up the main support structure for the kitchen and I'll continue with that. My neighbors will be happy when I'm done!

[Nobodyhome1313]

Got a little more done a few weeks ago, here is an update:




Side port installed. This will give access to a small storage area where the gel-cell battery, power cable/ charger and other goodies will be stored. This is another rescue from the scrap pop-up.




Access door for the kitchen. Don't worry it will all be painted to match.




Here is the kitchen hatch popped open (resued the door latch to hold it open). We will be mounting a few LED lights on the inside of this hatch to light the kitchen. You can see the rescued slides where the kitchen will pull out, just need to get the base welded up and installed and we can start populating our kitchen. Already have stove/ oven, 12v cooler and sink ready to install.

[Nobodyhome1313]

OK... no progress for about a month, been busy helping my buddy with his trailer build. However, should get back to working on the beast soon. I also found that my weight calculations were likely off by +180 due to a difference in MIL SPEC data, but i'll find out for sure when I weigh in.
I also scored a smaller water holding tank that will fit behind the wheel well and hopefully take a little weight off the tongue, which I believe is about 170 pounds.

Project So Far:
Total Weight (calculated): 750 lbs
Total Cost: $565

Stay tuned.....

[Sapperman]

Any updates?

[Nobodyhome1313]

Any updates?

Hey, thanks for checking in. The project went back on hold while I sort a few things out, that and my daughter has been out of school for summer, so party party! The door I salvaged from the popup decided to fall apart and I have been putting off figuring it out, shouldn't be much longer. As soon as I can get that fixed, and my friend can weld up the base for the slide out kitchen, we will be back in business.

Really appreciate you checking in!


CHEERS!

[Sapperman]

So I am thinking about pulling the trigger on one these trailers, but two questions:

Have driven any distance yet and how is the frame holding up?

Also what's the deal with your bed? Is it going to be width or length wise and what are dimensions for it going to be?