Minkawilson's Camper

[minkawilson]

After a couple of requests I will try a post on the trailer that I bought, stripped and rebuilt into a camper. It is about 90% complete now and I think I got it for a bargain.

I wanted a full size Dbl bed, kitchen, water storage, fridge, power, lighting and storage for food and bits and pieces, so this had the basis of what I wanted as I didn't want a canvas one. This, I just open the door and go to bed....

It was made by Pacific aluminium trailers in Brisbane for the original owner for approx. $11500. It was made as a landscaping trailer with full aluminium body on a galvanized chassis. They do make a full on camper similar to this setup for about $26K.

It had 3 near new A/T tyres, all doors open on every side and front and have gas struts to fold them up/open. It has welded alloy roof racks, electric brakes, a good battery and wiring and LED tail lights fitted. It is fully lockable with 1 key and is also well sealed as water and dust doesn't get in at all.

Below are the first lot of pics and are the original pics when I bought it..

After I got it home I stripped the guts (keeping all the metal to reuse) and replaced the springs underneath with better ones.....

 

[minkawilson]

Stripped out the wall and cut the opening for the interior door to access the bed. Positioning the wall for welding for the kitchen/bedroom separation and making a door frame out of gal angle and sikaflex and screwed in.

 

[minkawilson]

The next stage was to design and make the kitchen. I wanted to have food storage, a microwave, jug, toaster, a sink and bench.

I lined up the shelving and walls and got a tradie to come and weld up all the alloy that I needed, including the ceiling brackets as I was putting wiring and insulation in.

Next came the bed frame with the gas struts to hold it up for the under bed storage. This holds fishing gear, tarps, poles chairs and general camping gear.

 

[Macca50]

Looking good keep the pictures and progress reports coming.

Cheers

 

[Jaros]

If you get a low profile inner spring mattress it will be like being at home-comfort wise. Looking good.
Jaros

 

[davent]

Like it mate, looks like the kind of trailer I would like.
Being able to lock stuff away while you have left camp is a huge bonus.

 

[Martin]

Great work, looking forward to more updates!

 

[minkawilson]

Thanks for the comments, it has been an exercise and is still going, but nearly done.

I bought some alloy channel from Bunnings and some ply and a made a door for the bed section. I made it square but had to modify the top with angles so the door could fully open, due to the slope of the roof.

I decided to put a window in so I could breath when sleeping and all locked up. I found a caravan front window on gumtree for $80 which had the opening mechanism and a pristine insect mesh, so bought it.
I measured 10 times and drew it on the wall of the trailer and remeasured and thought I was about to create an expensive exercise.....but my measuring was spot on ..... for a change.

I resealed it and siliconed it to the wall and fastened it with pop rivets.
Seeing the window was the forward facing front one I built a wind deflector on the front edge so it wouldn't fly off at 100ks/hr.

 

[Macca50]

Mink,

Great job with the cut out and window fitment.

Looking good.

 

[minkawilson]

I am missing a heap of pics of certain pieces but you can see them here.

Next on the list was to fit the roof insulation and panel, wall covering, carpeting, fridge and an electrical box. I had a piece of shelving angle welded to the top and used a ply cut off to make the mount for switches etc. The fridge is a dummy to try sizes and now has a dometic 12v only. I bought some good quality marine carpet and put it down with a good glue.

The same glue was used to hang the vinyl I bought of eBay to get rid off the "industrial" look inside the bed area. It certainly looks better than the alloy.

I already bought the foam mattress so I used the measurements to design the bed area.

The ceiling has 40mm of foam insulation and has a gloss panel to help spread the lighting at night. This panel also hides in channels, the 12v lighting wiring for the rest of the trailer.

 

[minkawilson]

Mink,

Great job with the cut out and window fitment.

Looking good.

Thanks Macca.... I was worried about this part

 

[rc62burke]

Mate
Very very nice thanks for sharing, it is the sort of thing I would like to build.
cheers
Lee

 

[condor22]

Surprised to see you still have a pic of that "crap" genny mate, didn't think you'd want to be reminded. But nice to see you now have your own Honda. Methinks when I ran my van and your camper from my Honda on your first trip, you were convinced in the benefit of that investment, lol

 

[minkawilson]

Surprised to see you still have a pic of that "crap" genny mate, didn't think you'd want to be reminded. But nice to see you now have your own Honda. Methinks when I ran my van and your camper from my Honda on your first trip, you were convinced in the benefit of that investment, lol

LOL...... sometimes you just have to take advice from others.

 

[condor22]

Lol, onya mate