Camper/Toyhauler Conversion

[JerryHawk250]

I've been in construction for more than 45 years. I picked up a few skills along the way.

[Boatguy]

That thing is a beast! It’s huge! Looking good. I can see quality work.

[JerryHawk250]

More progress over the weekend. Install door on bath, installed kitchen cabinets and sink, finished and painted bath, floors will come later. I hooked up propane so got hot water. I plan on building beds this week.

[Boatguy]

Careful with the weight! Sorry. I’m a really big proponent of lightweight construction.

Building a palace! Go Jerry go! Huge energy and motivation for this project I see

[JerryHawk250]

Yes I'm definitely watching the weight. Cabinets are the heaviest items. All other materials are light weight. 5mm plywood on bath room walls and ceiling, 3/8" plywood on counter top, 1x2 and 2x3 stud framing. That hollow core door weighs next to nothing. The trailer itself only weighed 3600 lbs to start with. It has 5200 lbs axles with E rated tires. I don't think I'll come close to reaching the limits. lol

[JerryHawk250]

More progress last night. Built one of the fold up beds (queen size). A fence gate latch works perfect for locking and holding bed in the up position. Still need to install fold down legs. Wife put final details on bath. still need floors. FYI, those pieces of plywood on the storage are not the actual covers. I just placed some scrap pieces on top so i could work on the bed. I should get to making permanent cover tonight or tomorrow night.

[JerryHawk250]

Well we took the trailer out for her maiden voyage over the Memorial Day weekend on a camping trip. Although it's no where near complete, we did have all the necessities working. Everything else is all cosmetic. The 3" memory foam mattress was so comfortable. AC was nice and cold. The Hot water heater works great. Never ran out of hot water after taking a long shower. UTV fit perfect. Only issue I had is I don't have enough tongue weigh and I did get a slight sway anything over 68 mph if a truck passed me, but nothing drastic that I couldn't handle. I filled the water tank and put our ice chest and few other heavy items towards the front for our trip back and was a much better ride home. I still have some cabinet and ceramic counter top to install in the kitchen so that will resolve that issue. We had so much fun we forgot all about taking pictures. lol Oh well, we'll have to remember on our next trip.

[JerryHawk250]

No updates on progress other than it has been in use for over two weeks. The fishing Rodeo's have started and my wife and daughter work at the Harbor Light Marina and Restaurant. The Marina is about an hour drive from home and they have been working long hours and late into the night. So instead of the driving back and forth everyday we brought the camper/toy hauler down to the marina for the to sleep in. On Friday nights my daughter plays and sings in the band and on Saturday nights I Dj and do Karaoke. We will probably leave the camper there for the rest of the month if not longer depending on how many more bookings for fishing rodeos the marina gets. We'll be making plenty of extra money to finish up the rest of the conversion in no time.

[Boatguy]

Wow! You guys have a lot of talent. And a lot of interests. Still watching this thread to eagerly see the finished product. At least the interior. It’s interesting how you’re putting it together in a simple way with standard off-the-shelf items. I built a boat. And I did as much of that as I possibly could. Except, the boat is round.. Ha ha. Makes it hard to use anything off the shelf for cabinetry. But with a lot of the other components, my philosophy was to design it so when the item breaks, I can simply replace it at non-marine prices. Can’t wait to see what you do with the rest.

[JerryHawk250]

I've built my share of boats too. Whole different process animal cause there ain't nothing straight.

[wheelbender6]

That's a great rig, Jerry.

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by wheelbender6

That's a great rig, Jerry.

Thanks, we sure have been getting our use out of it. We spent the 4th of July weekend down at the marina. It was so nice being able to just load all my DJ equipment in the back and not having to take two trailers. I'm one tired puppy. I think I may have gotten in 6 hours of sleep the from Friday till yesterday afternoon. Great band on Friday night and I DJ'ed all day and night Saturday and Sunday. Lots of generous people showed up for the boat parade and fireworks on Sunday night. Lets just say that my tip can was running over. I also think i got some bused ribs from the old lady. Lots of bikinis.

[Landsvw]

I tried to get my wife to let us buy a toy hauler, but we ended up with the cabover… not as toy hauling convenient. Oh well, I may have to put some kind or rear rack on it to haul at least one motorcycle…

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by Landsvw

I tried to get my wife to let us buy a toy hauler, but we ended up with the cabover… not as toy hauling convenient. Oh well, I may have to put some kind or rear rack on it to haul at least one motorcycle…

I wished I would of done this before I bought our last camper. I can see it's going to be used a lot. We have 5 different people down at the marina wanted to see the inside. All 5 are planning on doing the same conversion. There was another couple out there with a 16 footer they converted. I was surprised how roomy if was for a smaller trailer. It was laid out with very little wasted space.

[JerryHawk250]

After months of not being able to work on the trailer because either we were using it or most recently being unable to work on it due to having Covid i finally got to finish the counter tops. I used ceramic as i needed to add some weight to the tongue of the trailer. The trailer is so much lighter than the camper i had and with the light tongue weight i am constantly getting stuck in the yard due to all the rain we've been having and ground is super soaked. I did this all on Saturday.