Make a small camper trailer yourself to get a camper at a very reasonable price while being creative with the layout and design. The small-camper strategy is a basic setup with no toilet or sink, but it's excellent as a beginner project. It's also ideal for off-road camping trips because the trailer is designed to be rugged and high enough in profile to work well with four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Cargo Trailer
Make a camper trailer inexpensively by starting with an enclosed cargo trailer. Sometimes called a utility trailer, an enclosed cargo trailer has walls and a roof much like the small box trailers from professional moving companies seen being towed around. Cargo trailers come in a variety of sizes, but the four-by-six and five-by-eight are ideal for creating a small, inexpensive camper that can be towed with either small pickup trucks or medium-size cars. This small size may not be ideal for everyone, because it's essentially like having a hard tent on wheels. But the basic trailer can be purchased for a couple thousand dollars, so the price and portability make it a popular starting choice.
Camper Bed
Turn a small cargo trailer into a camper easily by putting in a raised bed platform. Then use the floor of the trailer for storage and cargo space, while having a full-size bed to sleep on.
Creating a raised bed is as simple as putting some type of support frame on the floor, then fastening a piece of plywood on it. For comfort, add a memory foam mattress and thick sleeping bags on top.
Consider storage cabinets, containers or buckets on the floor to make excellent bed supports, and get double duty from them with storage space. Re-purpose an old kitchen-pantry cabinet by laying it on its side on the floor of your trailer and you'll have both storage cabinets and a platform to place your bed. If you don't have a matching cabinet to place as support and storage on the other side, use buckets, plastic milk crates, or even a board secured to the wall at the appropriate height on the other side.
The Couch Double
Easily transform your camper bed into a couch with a few small adjustments. Cut the bed frame board into two or three pieces. Cut the boards based on several factors: How big your trailer and bed platforms are, and how wide your couch seat can be for comfort. A bed board six feet long can be cut into three pieces at intervals of two feet, for example; the resulting couch will have a sitting area two feet deep.
After cutting your bed board, then just stack the individual pieces together at one side or end of the trailer, fold up the mattress or sleeping bags and place them onto the boards as cushions, and you have a couch or lounge to use during the day for sitting. Folding the bed up also gives easier access to your storage cabinets below.
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