We love tent camping… for the first 2-3 nights. I guess we’re old(ish) now and the lack of good sleep started wearing on us. Excuses, excuses, I know – but the idea of a minimal camper – a hard shell tent with a real bed – started really appealing to us. Last year we went to the Chicago RV and Camping trade show and honestly just didn’t like many of the options. We don’t really want a kitchen, plumbing, complicated electrical system and all of that. We’re not trying to make a “home away from home” really – we just want to sleep better for extended periods of time.
The Plan
The first thought was buying or building our own teardrop camper. I still do like that idea but we had a month from when we decided to take an upcoming trip from when we started looking for options. Finding a trailer base and then building it out was going to take a longer time than that. We did find some teardrops out there that fit our needs well but they all had extended lead times that wouldn’t work for us. One we particularly liked was https://www.hikertrailers.com/ – great product and great prices but a 9 month lead time right now.
Next, we looked into renting a teardrop but the cost was pretty crazy – was going to run somewhere between 2k and 3k for a 3-week trip. Then while poking around in craigslist I saw that someone had taken a 6×10′ cargo trailer and built out the interior a bit. I started looking at trailer prices both new and used and found a great deal at Country Blacksmith Trailers in southern Illinois (https://www.countryblacksmithtrailers.com/) We came home with our econobody 6×10 cargo trailer a few days later.
The biggest challenge we’ve had is that there’s no reasonable place to store the camper in the city. We live in downtown Chicago and street parking is not really a safe option. I called about 40 storage facilities ranging from typical self-storage units to commercial truck storage, to RV specific storage, but it was way too expensive in the city or nearby suburbs. Typically in the $175-$250 per month range. We settled on a place out in the far western suburbs for 33$ per month. It’s about an hour’s drive (sigh). It won’t be an issue once the trailer is built out since we’re not driving there every day, but during the conversion, it posed some challenges.
The entire project cost a little over $4000 including a brand new trailer. We consider this year a prototype build out since we were limited on time. We also didn’t want to spend a ton of energy and money to do a high finish build out without pressure testing the layout. Our goals with the build were pretty simple for this year: Comfortable sleeping for 2 people, as much flexible storage space as possible, and being able to complete the build in under 7 working days.
The Build
In order to make it a bit easier to do the main build and also test the trailer a bit, we drove to Cleveland to visit Kristen’s mom. We set it all up in her driveway and got to work. Was really nice to see some family we haven’t seen for a long time due to COVID-19 as well. Side Note: Kristen found a new purpose in life that she somehow missed growing up – setting off fireworks.
The build plan was really simple. Step by step it went like this:
- Install windows (day 1-2) (DON’T BUY CHEAP WINDOWS)
- Paint the interior (day 3)
- build a small dining table (day 4)
- build/install bunks (day 5)
- install table (day 5)
- mount spare tire (day 6)
- install an awning (day 6)
- decorate/finish everything up (day 7)
We had a few issues with the build but nothing major. The first issue was the cheap RV windows I bought off of ebay. They were half the price of normal RV windows, but if I had to do it again I would spend the extra money. These will work, but they were a pain in the ass to install and required several trips to the hardware store and a lot of frustration. They also just feel kind of cheap compared to the more expensive rv windows.
The next issue was mounting the spare tire. I mounted it on the tongue with a specialized mounting bracket and it mounted just fine but it reduces the already pretty low clearance and also interferes with our Jeep Wrangler’s spare tire, reducing the turn radius in one direction. In the end I tossed it under the bottom bunk, wrapped in plastic so there’s no rubber smell and made a simple little mount to keep it in place. It will work for now, but at some point id like to figure out a exterior mount on the back door.
We decided to splurge a bit and bought a solar generator. So far its working great for our needs which, again, are really simple: charge phones & laptop, run a fan at night, lighting, etc.. We ended up getting a Maxoak AC50 as the generator and a Togopower portable 120w solar panel. https://www.maxoak.net/products/bluetti-ac50-500wh-300w. I’ll spend some time on our upcoming trip putting it to test a bit and report back as well.
That’s it for now. We’re busy packing for our three week trip around Wyoming and Montana. Looking forward to catching some fish and a lot of time outside.
