Camper Trailers - Hopefully a bit of a different question!!

I am doing this at the moment. I have a 7 x 4 heavy duty off trailer which I am modifying to my specs - with the help of my brother in law who is a sheet metal worker / welder by trade.

By this time next year I hope to buy the tent for the top of it. There are a number of places here in WA - both in the city and country - that make these tents.

This way I can have a camper trailer or a standard trailer if I need it.

Karl.

Quite a number of people do that , and quite a number of companies will sell you just the tent unit.

Problem I have seen with the idea , is , most people do this with the intention of using the trailer for "weekend garden duties".

Do you really want to fill up your $3500 trailer with stinky , smelly , rotting garden crap ?

Stuff that , buy an old cheap crapper trailer for garden duties.

NOT saying , dont buy your trailer and tent seperately , do so , no big deal , BUT , dont expect to you use it like you think.

The Tent sections are normally pretty heavy , and its a pain to lift on and off.

Chrispy has done it.

I believe he alternates the tent between rooftop and trailer depending on needs.

Exactly my set-up. Custom hot dip gal trailer cost $2500, tent on top was about $3500 from memory.
Couldn't justify having a dedicated camper parked out in the weather all year round so the camper is hoisted up in the carport when not in use. Trailer gets used quite a bit as a general purpose job. I don't have a built in kitchen as fitting brackets etc. to the trailer would start to limit it's usefulness.

Make sure you plan the trailer well in the first instance. Don't want to be screwing up the galvanizing by having to weld things on later.

Cheers....

Why DIY when you can buy a purpose built soft top camper trailer for a similar price you are quoting???

You don't really want just a tent on top of your trailer do you. What about an annex to extend over your cooking area so you can still cook and eat and sit and drink, when it's p!ssing down "outside".

IMHO you would be saving little if anything and a purpose manufactured, commercially available unit should have all the little problems ironed out of it and include additional features you may not have even thought about.

My advice, do some serious research on what is available. There is a multitude of brands to choose from and they are competitively priced.

we bought a trailer with tent on top already it had jerry holders and gas bottle holders but the owners had never used trailer with tent on top. when we got home you couldn't fit jerrys in or gas bottles because the tent top was in the way. Anyway husband modified and moved holders to different spot, added shelving etc to tail gate for kitchen, built toolbox on front and added spare wheel holder. Not show room trailer but very functionable for our usage. Cheers michele

We bought a 7x4 box trailer for $300,flipped it over ,put a chassis under it ,a decent drawbar,Alko "outback" leaf springs,6 stud hubs,extended height to 530mm deep,front mounted spare, modified tailgate to swing out,jerry can holders,"H"racks to hook a tarp up to for extra shelter,and tonneau cover.16x6 rims from a mate,etc,etc.Use it for carting camping gear mainly.It's not galvanized but has a reasonable stone sheild so not too many stone chips,{home made as well}.Looking to put an off road coupling on it at some point.It's copped a bit of a flogging on dirt but nothing broken{yet}. Total cost doing it myself $1330. Yeah I'm happy with it 'cause it suits my uses.

hi
WE gave up the idea of buliding our own from a ship shape vehicle top camper to buy a camper trailer as it was cheaper over the long run and we got a profisenal camper trailer