Yes and yes on those last two. Even if it was 1200# that was my plan
Building an enclosed utility into a camper vs teardrop
- Thread starter Nesquik
- Start date
I had an awesome tent trailer that was hard aided (minus the bed areas that slid out, they were still canvas) it was older but worked pretty good. I know they do make some fully hard sided pop ups that aren't the dinky little A-Frames.. that would be my first choice if I could and had to tow with a minivan.. It'd keep weight low and controllable and winds wouldn't be as big a factor.. aside from finding a popup like that I don't think there is anything else pre-made within your weight budget. If your doing a cargo build out, i would get some tape and tape out the outer walls on the ground, maybe put up something to act as walls so you can visualize the space before you drop money on a trailer and realize it's too big/small for what you need/want.
I think I would be looking at wider than 5’ if I was in your shoes. Staying on pavement and going to 7’ allows beds to go sideways. Skip all of the “building” and just apply 2” foam to the inside walls with 1/8” Luan plywood glued on for interior hard surfacing. Get some cots for sleeping on. Make some tie-down points, and get a roof-mount air conditioner unit.
Something to watch for... many cargo trailers have plank floors, not solid. I don’t know about enclosed much, assume they are solid but still verify.
Also, don’t do anything (or very much) that makes the trailer lose its “cargo” abilities. It will be worth about $0 as an RV, but as long as you can resell as “cargo” trailer, it will hold some value.
Something to watch for... many cargo trailers have plank floors, not solid. I don’t know about enclosed much, assume they are solid but still verify.
Also, don’t do anything (or very much) that makes the trailer lose its “cargo” abilities. It will be worth about $0 as an RV, but as long as you can resell as “cargo” trailer, it will hold some value.
An additional thought... if this is really just for 1 trip... $4000 becomes 14 nights in hotels at $285 a night. I know I can generally beat that with a bit of planning, and you will pick up a lot of gas mileage without a trailer. Maybe your answer is hitch-mount cargo basket with some gear and a big cabin tent, with every 2nd or 3rd night in a hotel?
dreadlocks
Well-known member
I rented a few trailers before deciding to buy, was about $800 a week for a $30k trailer.. made me wonder why anyone would buy an airstream or something, for $60k I could rent one several times a year for 10 years and never even come close to price of actually buying one.
https://www.outdoorsy.com/
Helped me really prioritize what features we wanted, and what features we thought we wanted but turned out to be not that important.. Looking at used market I find alot of pristine examples that say they were used a few times and owners realized its not what they needed so they selling it for a huge loss.. seems like this is an important step that gets overlooked for first time buyers.. try before you buy.. One camper we rented across the country near our destination, we nearly saved nearly the price of the rental not dragging a camper 3k miles in fuel.
https://www.outdoorsy.com/
Helped me really prioritize what features we wanted, and what features we thought we wanted but turned out to be not that important.. Looking at used market I find alot of pristine examples that say they were used a few times and owners realized its not what they needed so they selling it for a huge loss.. seems like this is an important step that gets overlooked for first time buyers.. try before you buy.. One camper we rented across the country near our destination, we nearly saved nearly the price of the rental not dragging a camper 3k miles in fuel.