Off-road Camper “Quarter Wide” Trailer Build Using Harbor Freight Frame

[alksion]

They don’t all fit in the trailer. The plan is for me, my wife and the dog to sleep in the trailer. The kids will be in a rooftop tent on top. I’m hoping to have the roof rack and tent mounted this weekend and I’ll post some pics.

Thanks you just answered one of the questions.

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[alksion]

Here’s a better shot of the inside. I’m 5’ 10”.
I guess I should he noted that this is a 4x8 trailer. Interior ceiling height is 34”. If my wife and I feel tight in there we might swap the kids for the rooftop tent. We haven’t gotten that far yet. Once we have a chance to take it camping we will check it all out. Neither one of us have been in this rooftop tent before either so we are looking forward to getting that mounting and testing it out.

Awesome man! Job well done I was looking at the meaner bean tear drop. It was over 30K with the options I wanted. Craziness!!

What RTT did you go with?

 

[Will]

Just curious, I know you’re lugging around items in this trailer. Will you all be sleeping in there as well? Mattress to sleep on? Kitchen / cooking area? Thanks in advanced.

We currently have all our gear in storage bins in the garage that we would move to the Jeep when we are ready to camp so all our bags/sleeping pads/hammocks/cooking gear are already in those bins. The plan is to pull those out if we want to sleep inside and store them on the roof Overnight which will still have 16 sq ft of storage after the tent takes up half.

I don’t plan to do any onboard kitchen with this trailer. We like the space and we like cooking over an open fire. But now that we have the space we might invest in a portable propane cook system. I’m planning on a tailgate table for the rear door. We like the front runner table that we have in the Jeep.

 

[thrasher]

Awesome man! Job well done I was looking at the meaner bean tear drop. It was over 30K with the options I wanted. Craziness!!

What RTT did you go with?

It’s the Yakima skyrise. The feet made it difficult to say the least to mount to the rhino pioneer platform

 

[nU7OuxIx]

They don’t all fit in the trailer. The plan is for me, my wife and the dog to sleep in the trailer. The kids will be in a rooftop tent on top. I’m hoping to have the roof rack and tent mounted this weekend and I’ll post some pics.

We're trying to figure something out too and that's what I came up with as well. I bought a RTT this year and the plan is to have the wife and dog sleep in the car and me and the kids up in the RTT. Long-term goal is to buy a teardrop or build something like you are, and have us sleep in there and the kids in the RTT.

I have seen a few home-built trailers that had a double decker on it... :D They popped it up and had a few beds for the kids on the second story. I thought it was an interesting idea.

 

[rcadden]

I have seen a few home-built trailers that had a double decker on it... :D They popped it up and had a few beds for the kids on the second story. I thought it was an interesting idea.

That would be pretty cool to do, and possibly somewhat simple, too. Two sheets of plywood (or maybe plywood for the floor and something lighter on top, fiberglass maybe) with sheets of tent material or canvas on the sides, and a scissorlift on either end, so you'd crank to raise it and the sides would pop out/fall down.

 

[Will]

Terrific craftsmanship and problem solving! I, for one, really appreciate the little Jeep nods you managed to work in where you could. Have you kept a running tally of how much money you have in the project? I sure hope this inspires others to try the DIY route; I bet you have more pride in ownership of this trailer than the folks with the $30k+ models. I certainly would, at least.

Thanks for the kind words, and yes, it feels good to build something yourself! It’s even better when it’s something that I really enjoy doing and gets the kids outside too.

I have been keeping track of my costs and will upload a spreadsheet soon. Likely after this holiday weekend.

 

[Will]

We got the roof rack and tent installed last night. The rack consists of Superstrut type B steel channel (typical Home Depot stuff) and S-5 Versabrackets that I stumbled on. These brackets are marketed as fixed roof mounting brackets for solar and snow-retention systems. The pre-installed butyl tape and waterproof design is what got my attention and, after checking the specs, figured they would work well for this setup. The kids love the tent, but I think my wife and I will claim dibs on the tent for the first night.

 

[nU7OuxIx]

We got the roof rack and tent installed last night. The rack consists of Superstrut type B steel channel (typical Home Depot stuff) and S-5 Versabrackets that I stumbled on. These brackets are marketed as fixed roof mounting brackets for solar and snow-retention systems. The pre-installed butyl tape and waterproof design is what got my attention and, after checking the specs, figured they would work well for this setup. The kids love the tent, but I think my wife and I will claim dibs on the tent for the first night.

That's awesome. I was thinking double decker or the RTT on the Jeep but I'm liking this setup better now. Great job.

 

[Will]

Today we named the trailer: “Quarter Wide”

And my super awesome wife got fancy with her Cricut and cut us out some vinyl accents.


Next up: the window came in and we will be mounting that on the passenger side wall.

 

[WhereRU_A-A-Ron]

This turned out really well! VERY NICE JOB! Awesome that you took the time to do a write up of it as well.

 

[FunWagon]

Wow... you are darn handy. Looks amazing. Can tell lots of love went into it. Maybe let the kids camp in it in the driveway... ha ha.

 

[four low]

What a great Project ! Thank you for sharing this.
The only suggestion I would make is to add ventilation at the ends, and roof, with screens. Moisture builds up fast when using as a sleeping " container ".
I'm looking at my 6x10 Landscape trailer with new plans now...

 

[Myron]

Super cool project. Congratulations!

 

[Will]

Terrific craftsmanship and problem solving! I, for one, really appreciate the little Jeep nods you managed to work in where you could. Have you kept a running tally of how much money you have in the project? I sure hope this inspires others to try the DIY route; I bet you have more pride in ownership of this trailer than the folks with the $30k+ models. I certainly would, at least.

Update: July 10, 2022. Retail on parts used for this project is around $6,000.

I've got $2,800 in the material/parts on this project. That obviously does not include any labor. When I sell something like this/ask for permission, I don't figure my time as money but my wife and kids would say otherwise. My 6-year-old just recently said, "You're done [with the trailer] !? Now you can go fishing with me!" ... man, that one hurt. Time to throw all our junk in here and go fishing!

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