I compete with my dogs in agility and flyball. So I need the ability to travel with them without the expense of hotels. I looked into buying a comercial RV and quickly realized that there was nothing availible that would suit all of my needs. Some how I stumble on this forum and saw Steve's Puffin. I think his camper is much cooler than anything you could buy so I decided to build my own.
Here are some sketches of the floor plan
I started out with a 1979 Starcraft pop-up camper that I only paid $50 for. When I was done stripping it down, I took the aluminum to a scrap metal place and got $53 for it.
Here's what it looked like once the demo was done. The frame is 6'3 by 10'7".
I added some extra supports in the frame because I didn't want any type of subfloor in order to keep the over all height down.
The floor is 1/2 ply screwed directly into the frame just like the original floor. There are 3 sections butt jointed together over the cross memebers of the frame. I put 3M Marine sealant in between the joints.
I attached a 2X2 cleat along the floor. This is what will attach the walls to the floor. The walls will overhang the floor 4 inches to cover the frame.
In order to get the maximum height and still fit in my garage, I made a cardboard wall and cut out the profile while the trailer was in the garage entrance.
Then I laid the cardboard over 3 pieces of 5/8 ply and traced it on.
The framing pieces on the sides are 1X2s. The pieces in the middle over the joints are 1X3s. The curved pieces are cut from the 5/8 ply.
After boths walls were done, I stood them up and sanded them until they matched each other.
That's it for now, next step is attaching the walls.
Michele did you leave room for the vent cover to go in the garage
