Jeep Camp Trailer

[Cook5]

Spent a couple of hours today back on the trailer.  I'm way behind where I thought I would be.  I've got to give up my day job. 

Anyway, I do have the sides all ready to install (I have them sitting on the trailer now and I got the top broke & welded last week.  Today I cut out the mitered corners on the sides, sat them on the trailer & drilled/cut holes for the wiring where it comes through the walls for receptacles.  I also installed the tail lights.  Here are a few pics of the progress. 


Here's a picture from the front with all of the sides on.



Another picture from the rear corner with all of the skin on.



Tail lights installed (not wired yet)



Top sitting on the trailer.  It fits just right which is good since I couldn't fix it if it didn't.


The next steps are to drill all the holes for the bolts through the outer skins, fabricate the fenders & drill mounting holes for them & any other holes I need to drill.  Then it's off to get the skins powder-coated.  The top & fenders are getting under-coated.

I'll try to get some more finished & posted this week if I can get some time...

[Mo Printer]

I've been wondering how your project was going!  You need to pick up the pace - camping season is right around the corner (in spite of the fact that it was 3* last Monday morning)!
Looking forward to watching your progress!

[Cook5]

I'm determined not to spend another camping season in a tent on the ground.  I'm too old for that.

[Cook5]

This week I got the fenders built & cut out both doors.  (AC door & entry door)  I also got the entry door built & temporarily installed it to check fit.  I purchased some cool hinges for it that I wanted to test.  I'm also building a sliding tray for the A/C unit to slide out when in use and slide in for travel.  I got a pretty cool latch for the door also that looks like a chrome jeep handle.  

Fenders fabbed up.  We'll cut off the flat portion once they're on and I see how long I can leave it.  The fenders are 1/4" aluminum tread-plate so they're plenty solid enough to sit on or use as a table.  They'll be mounted with bolts all the way through the frame.  I think they ended up a little wider than I like so we'll see how it looks once they're installed. 


I think I will flip the fenders around and have the flat portion at the back.  It might get in the way of the doors on the front.




Door installed and it fits pretty well.  I've still got to install stops for it to seal against.


The door latch will lock so I can store stuff in the trailer and have it be reasonably secure.  I've also got locks for the top.

[Mo Printer]

Looking good!  Fabbin' is fun, but it sure does take a lot of time!

[Cook5]

Got a little more work done on the trailer this week.  We worked on putting a trim piece around the top of the trailer.  Basically we broke some sheetmetal into channel and fit it around the top just to trim out everything.  We also finished the door and have the latch installed.  We got the framing inside the lid, attached the piano hinge and actually attached the lid to the trailer.  It's starting to get pretty close.  We also cut out the opening for the A/C and installed a shelf on drawer slides so it can be pulled out.

Here's the finished door.  We just have to add a door stop for it to seal against.



Here's a pic of the lid hinge and you can see the A/C unit in the opening.  We're working on a door for it next.



Here's what the lid looks like open.  This will become a queen-sized bed.



Next up we'll install the door for the A/C, finish the fenders and attach them, then disassemble everything so the sides can be powder-coated.

[Cook5]

I've been working on the trailer, just haven't taken time to post.  I'll summarize what I've gotten done, then post pics with some comments.
We built mounts for the rack system that will fit on the top.  I want to be able to quickly remove them so we made brackets we can mount a standard rack to.

We had to fab supports for the lid.  The factory trailers use a square tube-in-tube with holes but that doesn't give a finite adjustment so we took a standard trailer stabilizer and lengthened it to work for the lid.  I ended up with about 10" of adjustment (up & down) in case the ground isn't level.

We had to come up with mounts inside the lid for the bimini poles that will support the tent.

We had to install snaps on the trailer for the tent to attach to.  I even have to install snaps on the tent itself, it came with some on it but not all the way around.

We cut through the back of trailer for the furnace intake/exhaust.

We got the A/C door built.

We installed a water fill port in the side of the trailer.  I purchased an RV fill spout to install. 

After getting everything attached and all the holes cut we thought needed to be cut, I took the exterior panels to be powder-coated.  I tried to match my Jeep color and it came in pretty close but a couple shades lighter.  I also had the top rhino-lined, it turned out very nice.  (Thanks to Shane at Safari)

We now have the powder-coated sides all installed with the sex-bolts (also powder-coated to match) and they look very nice. 

I coated the top trim piece with black bed-liner.

Lastly, we're modifying the fenders, I didn't like how they looked so we're trimming them up.

Kayak rack mount


Finished rack


Stabilizer jack out of the box, before we modified it

Cut it in half

Make it longer

Paint it to match the top of the camper


Furnace exhaust/intake plate


Water fill port


Making the A/C door

A/C Slide system so it can be pulled out to work properly

Finished A/C door



Off to the Powder coater


While waiting, we sprayed some trim pieces


Got it all back from powder coating, it turned out lighter than I wanted but still looks good.


Driver's side finished with fill-port & coated sex-bolts.  I like how it turned out.



We coated the lid hinge as well and used machine screws and tapped the holes so it can be removed need be.


Fenders after we modified them.



Taillights installed & wired

[Cook5]

Today I worked some more and we got the top on and got the kayak rack and bed supports installed.

Here are a couple of pictures with everything on and ready to set up the tent.  I still have to make the poles for the tent and finish the bench seat but it's getting close finally.





So...any feedback on any of the pics?  I'm questioning the fenders the most.  They should be simple but have not proven to be so.

[Mo Printer]

Wow!  That is a lot of work.  I sure hope you get as many hours of camping with it as you have put into building it!  What don't you like about the fenders?

[Cook5]

It has been a lot of work.  I will probably take years to get as much camping in it as I have building it but the building has been fun too.  As to the fenders, I think I made them too wide.  I also initially had a flat spot at the front to use as a step or storage but it interfered with the doors so I cut it off.  Then we rounded the outside corners and I like that a little better but we'll see...These crazy things have been cut & welded so much.  Plus I made them out of 1/4" aluminum treadplate so they would hold up if I bumped them into something so they're hard to work with.

[Cook5]

I have the fenders mounted on the trailer and would like some feedback.  Here are several shots from different angles.  I still think they're too wide but...
Other than that, I like the shape and they should be stout enough to take a hit or two without just folding up.  I took all the pictures of the driver's side since I don't have a lot of room on the other side but they're the same. 






Next I'll get the gaskets installed around the doors & lid & finish with the snaps for the tent.  Last thing is to build the bench seat inside, then it's ready to camp in.  This fall, I'll get the kitchen portion built that goes on the front.  I've been doing some research on that and have some sketches done but if anyone has any cool ideas, I'm open.

[YoungJK]

I think the fenders look great.

[Cook5]

I got the gaskets for the top installed this weekend. I'll follow up with a picture later. I spent quite a bit of time looking for the right gasket. I finally settled on a 2 inch wide double hump gasket that gives me 2 sealing points. Going to try to finish up the tent fasteners this week.

[Cook5]

Here are 3 shots of the gasket.  I'm hoping to get a pretty good seal to keep out moisture, dust, etc.  I'm pretty happy with the gasket but we'll see how it holds up.  Also, it is self-adhesive so I'm concerned when it gets hot that it might come loose.  Just have to try it & see.  

[Cook5]

I spent some time over the 3-day weekend working on the trailer.  Basically I got all of the snaps installed in the tent and the other side of the snap installed on the trailer.  I wish the tent had come with all of the snaps installed but such is life.  I bought stainless steel snaps from Fastenal with a tool to rivet them in.  Then we had to punch a hole in the tent fabric & assemble the snap, and drive it together with the tool.  On the trailer side, we measured & marked out where the snaps were now located on the tent, center-punched the spots & drilled pilot holes before using an impact to drive in the male snap piece.  These pieces came with screws in them.  We also put a dab of clear silicone on each one to seal them up. 





And now the tent is completely snapped onto the trailer.  Next to fabricate the poles that will support it.  I'm going to work on that some this weekend also.