New Camp Trailer Idea

Theresa has graciously allowed me to post my random musings here, and this is the first one. We love camping. We like anything that allows us to get out there more, quicker, and easier. We are building a teardrop... S L O W L Y. Having one unfinished project doesn't stop me from daydreaming about a million other ideas involving camping trailers. I saw an article in 4 Wheel Drive Magazine recently about building an off-road trailer on a budget...here's the article.

I love the idea but at first I scoffed at his idea of "budget". Seriously a brand new ARE truck cap for $1800? Professional paint job for $400? Professionally applied Rhino Lining for $375? Why not get a DIY bedliner kit and apply it yourself for around $100? While your at it, why not rattle-can the thing yourself for under $100? Search Craigslist and similar sites and I know you could find a used truck cap a LOT cheaper. That's how I originally thought I would do it if I were in his shoes. Upon further consideration I came up with a new plan of how I would do it:

First, my truck bed trailer would use a utility bed, like this one:


All those cabinets on the outside would be great for storage, and generally the utility beds are tougher than normal pick up truck beds.

Next up...the cap. And for that I'd use a Flip-pac truck topper like this:


With the Flip-pac you can now stand in your truck bed trailer, you could cook in there, and you'd have a lot more storage space inside while getting there. With the "budget" trailer you'd have to stack all your gear on top of you mattress. Ever had a grease trap on a Coleman stove leak out, I have and I definitely wouldn't want it on my sleeping area (think dirt and attracting animals).


After that, you could do any number of other neat little touches like matching the axle under the trailer to your rear axle on your tow vehicle so that you always have a spare axle and parts in case you break way out in the middle of nowhere. Also you'd have two spare tires if needed, just swap out the flat on your tow vehicle with one of the trailer wheels, leave the trailer, drive back to civilization to get the flat tire fixed, and go back for the trailer... beats walking miles back to a repair shop! Also there has to be a way to use the spinning yoke on the trailer axle to do something. Maybe it could be used to generate electricity? I'd also drop the original gas tank and replace it with a water tank, and utilize the gas filler door to fill the water tank. You could have x# of gallons of water for drinking, showering, washing dishes, etc. You could have one of the cabinets on the utility bed flip down into a table for cooking. You could mount electric RV jacks at each of the four corners to level the trailer, you could mount a retractable awning to the flip-pac to provide shade, you could make (or buy) sliding drawers in the bed of the truck to hold even more stuff like this:


...the possibilities are endless.

So there's my latest idea for a camping trailer, feel free to use any or all of it, but if you do please send me some pics and info!