Building a Camper I can Tow with my Bike... Detailed Build

if you're like me you love camping but if you're like me you also hate tents and can't afford a good twenty or thirty thousand dollar camper so this spring i decided to change that and in this video you're gonna see exactly how i made this super comfortable tiny camper that i can pull with my bike [Music] so i'm going to be starting off by welding a custom trailer that's going to be the base for this camper i'm using 1 inch by 1 inch steel with a 0.083 thickness now the dimensions of this trailer are going to exactly match the base of the camper which is two foot six by six foot eight in my case so i'm going to cut some steel on 45 degree angles and make up a perfectly square box [Music] after i've tacked everything together and i can make sure it's perfectly square i'm going to go ahead and finish up the welds around the entire scene [Music] by the way i know i'm a terrible welder but hey as long as they're solid that's what a good angle grinder's for i mean look at me my helmet's held on by duct tape [Music] now with the main rectangle completed i'm going to put a little bumper on the back so first i'm just making a closed in tube by welding the ends shut [Music] [Music] so this bumper is really just for looks but i'm going to strap some tail lights on to it later and it'd also be useful for strapping anything onto the back of the camper [Music] [Music] next i'm just cutting up a piece of three inch by quarter inch flat bar that i'm going to use to mount the wheels onto and after cleaning up the edges with the grinder i'm marking a spot to drill a hole for the bike wheel axle [Music] now i don't really have much for metal working tools so my feet will work just fine for this so [Music] and after tacking those into place i'm going to put a cross member in here for a little extra support on the wheels and then go ahead and finish up welding the whole thing [Music] to hitch this onto the bike i'm using this generic bike hitch that i got on amazon so this little piece on the end will mount onto the bike and the rest will be mounted onto the trailer and the spring acts as a pivot point that will allow the trailer to turn [Music] now for the hitch itself i'm going to try to bend a piece of steel that comes over from the side of the trailer and then meets that hitch assembly at the side of the wheel so i heat up the steel for five minutes and tried to hammer it into place but this was a lot more difficult than i thought but after about pounding away at it for 10 minutes and using my whole body weight to weigh it down i finally got it pretty close to the angle i was looking for by the way this is probably one of those don't try it at home moments but i didn't really have much other option [Music] i also left some extra steel on the ends that i could just cut it to length once i had the bend [Music] [Music] the hitch assembly did take a little bit of work to get it to slide into the steel but the one-inch steel worked perfectly for it [Music] and with that finished up i can weld the hitch onto the trailer along with a couple support pieces [Music] for the last part of the trailer i'm going to make a four corner jack system for when the trailer is parked so first i'm just cutting some one-inch little pieces of tubing and then drilling a hole straight through and mounting one onto each corner of the trailer [Music] then i used some three quarter inch tubing and cut out four 20 inch bars then i marked out holes every inch for the top eight inches of the bar as well as one two inches from the far end then used a punch to mark them and drilled them through [Music] then i just welded a little flat bar foot on each one and my jack system is done so basically how it works is they go in those little one-inch pieces i cut earlier and then when the bike's moving they can be pinned up near the top out of the way and when i park the bike i can move it down to any of the six pre-drilled holes and pin it there to help level and stabilize the camper [Music] now the frame's done so i'm just gonna do any final grinding and sanding it with 80 grit to get it ready for paint [Music] this is my childhood bike that hasn't been ridden in probably over 10 years so i'm gonna use the wheels for this as the wheels for the camper you know recycle like bite cycle get it never mind [Music] after a quick test ride everything's working great and i'm ready to paint [Music] to paint i'm just using regular old rust paint along with a primer [Music] and after the primer dried for about a half hour i used some semi-gloss black [Music] [Applause] now the trailer is complete and we're ready to move on to the body for the floor of the camper i'm using some half inch finish grade pine plywood and here i'm just cutting it down to the same size of the trailer i'm then sealing one side of it with some flex seal rubberized coating to waterproof it but this was kind of a mistake and you'll see why later so i just leave it raw for now and you can finish it up after using either the flex seal or the fiberglassing method i use later [Music] the main structure of the walls are going to be made out of the same half inch plywood though if i built it again in the future i'd probably make it out of quarter inch because with the foam on the outside it'll still be plenty rigid and you'll save about 20 or 30 pounds of weight so i measured out all the dimensions and traced in all the cut lines and also marked out the cut lines for the door while it was all one piece and nice and square [Music] by the way i'm going to release some plans for this with the exact specifications i used and put them in the description below to cut this out i'm just using a jigsaw with a metal blade and a good tip that can save you a sheet of plywood is take the time to make sure your blade's perfectly square and that'll make sure you have really nice 90 degree cuts [Music] and once i had one side cut i just laid it down on a fresh sheet of plywood traced it out and cut the second side [Music] [Applause] now to cut out the door first i'm using a multi-tool to make a blade starter for the jigsaw [Music] and then jigging out the same way as the rest [Music] now i want to make the door double thick so it's an inch thick but i don't have any more full sheets of plywood so i'm just going to take a couple scraps and glue them onto the front side of the door [Music] i'm also going to rip off a few strips of half inch plywood to support around the door by the way if you don't have a track saw but you have a circular saw you should definitely consider getting one of these craig track saw jigs they're like 150 and they change my life [Music] i glued a two and a half inch wide strip along the bottom of both sides to give me something to screw into when i screw it onto the base right that's the end of day one and making the frame for the cabin and here's what we got and the next day i'm using a flush trim bit in my router to trim off any overhang [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so now with everything cut and sanded i'm going to start cutting the holes for the windows these are some used rv windows i got off of a local buy and sell for 150 each so if you have that option available definitely go for it because they're about four or five hundred dollars new and my whole budget for this build is like twelve hundred dollars so i couldn't trace the interior rim of the window so instead i traced the exterior and then used a combination square to set that back a little bit and then i found this plastic cap that was almost the exact same width to trace in the corners [Music] [Music] [Music] so before i stand everything up i ripped some two and a half inch wide strips of half inch plywood and then cut those down to 28 inches and sanded them down [Music] i also set my combination square to about an inch and a quarter and then ran a line along the edges of both side walls an inch and a quarter will be about the thickness of the finished ceiling so this will give me a bit of a guide when i'm lining that up when i'm installing it as well as the slots i'm about to do next then i applied a little bit of glue to the base and stood up one wall and screwed it in with some 2 inch deck screws [Music] and then did the same with the other side [Music] then i took one of those 28 inch slots i just cut and then lined it up with the interior side of the line we just drew then pre-drilled some holes and screwed it in with some 2 inch deck screws again [Music] i put these around the entire top side of the cabin every foot or two and at the base of any curve this will give the ceiling a little bit more support since it's only going to be foam and some quarter inch plywood it also gave me a base to glue and nail the plywood ceiling onto [Music] now for the ceiling i first ripped a 28 inch wide sheet of quarter inch plywood and then i played around with my circular saw on a scrap piece of lumber to get it so that it was cut in about two thirds of the way through the plywood then i measured out where the bends would be in the sheet of plywood and scored lines about every inch [Music] i was hoping just the scores alone would be enough to be able to bend the plywood but it wasn't so the solution i came up with was using this clothing steamer and then steaming the scored area for about 10 minutes before i tried to bend it and then as i was installing it on the camper i would just slowly work it down while steaming it and that seemed to work pretty good [Music] i also made sure to cut the piece of plywood so it would end about halfway through one of the slots so that i could join up with the next piece of plywood without seeing any scene [Music] next i'm making a stop flange for the door so with some quarter inch plywood i traced a line about an inch offset from the current cutout [Music] then i drew another line about two inches outside [Music] [Music] now to start on the door itself i got this rv door latch on amazon so i'm gonna have to cut away some material to fit this i really have no idea what i'm doing here so i'm just kind of taking it as i go [Music] so [Applause] [Music] i then used a little piece of quarter inch plywood to build it out a little bit because the door latch is meant for an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half and my door is only one inch [Music] for a backside cover i just had this dollar store plastic tray lying around so i'm just going to cut a little cover out of it and it'll cover up all the guts on the back side of the door and that's the hardware of the door done so now back to the body i got these little usb powered puck lights that i'm going to put in the ceiling two of them and i just mounted them on using the mounting tape and magnets that came with i also wanted them to both directly be powered by the usb power bank i'm going to use to power the whole trailer so i drilled a hole to run the charging cable through [Music] then i drilled another hole at the back of the camper where i knew the power supply would be and ran both wires directly down the center on the outside of the camper [Music] then i scored some one inch insulation the same way i did the plywood [Music] so to stick the foam onto the plywood i started using wood glue though i found out later some other adhesives work better and then i applied the insulation right over top of the plywood [Music] i had to make sure i was lining up pretty closely with the edges of the walls that didn't have too much sanding to do and there was sometimes a little bit of a gap between the ceiling plywood and the ceiling foam so i used this expanding foam insulation to solidify that a little bit and then i also realized that if you ever get this stuff on anything it's impossible to get off so i started using this as my main adhesive instead of the wood glue plus i also use some caulking adhesive [Music] so instead of using a million clamps and weights i just use these three inch deck screws to temporarily screw the foam into place while the adhesives dried [Music] and once that all dried i could take out those temporary screws and begin work on the sides for the sides i'm just using half inch insulation and applying it pretty much the same way [Music] [Music] i could also use screw clamps on this i just had to make sure i didn't go too far into the plywood and come out the other side and after everything's dried and all the screws and overfilled foam removed i can go along with my flush trim router and trim everything up [Music] then i used some 180 grit to sand down all the foam [Music] and the foam was maybe a couple millimeters thicker than the wood trim so i had to really feather that out on the edges to get it perfectly flush [Music] then to fill in all the little gaps and cracks left i just use this regular drywall spackling just like drywall you're gonna have to take your time and probably do a couple coats and the more time you spend and more perfect you get it looking the better the final product will look [Music] [Applause] [Music] the next day i sanded it down and did one more touch-up coat and then sanded it down once more once that dried [Music] and now it's ready for some fiberglass like i said before my budget for this build is like 1200 so real fiberglass is not going to be in the picture but i am going to try a technique i've never done before but it's all over youtube called poor man's fiberglass and to do that i start off with some canvas drop cloth that's usually used for painting so these are brand new but i pre-washed them to shrink them and get out some of the creases and then i'm just going to go along and iron out the whole sheet again the more time you spend at this the easier the application is going to be and the better the final result is going to look so then with a paint roller i'm going to spread out some tight bond 2 wood glue over the entire surface of what i'm covering [Music] you want to get everything covered but you don't want to be drenched because you don't want the glue to soak through the canvas when you lay it on [Music] once you've laid it out nice and flat you can use an iron to go along and make everything perfect the iron also slightly sears the glue and makes it grab pretty much instantly which is handy i then use a good pair of scissors and then cut the canvas with about a half inch of overlap i also made sure to do the sides first and then put the top overlapping over the sides so that it would minimize the risk of any leaks [Music] if you just take your time at this and work with the iron you can get the canvas to shape to pretty much any shape without any wrinkles [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] now i'm using some bare exterior paint the kind really doesn't matter as long as it's exterior and i mixed it with about 50 water and now i'm going to roll that onto the canvas so the paint is where all the protection comes from and this first coat is mixed with water so that this canvas really just soaks it up like a sponge in total you're gonna have to do about three or four coats gradually going to full strength paint and after the first one or two you're gonna be like oh i this up because that's definitely what i was thinking but if you just sand quickly with 180 grit between each coat and build up those layers by the third or fourth coat i couldn't believe how good it looked [Music] and by the end you'll have a couple millimeters built up of paint layer and tons of protection [Music] [Music] and now the base color of paint is complete and i'm just going to finish up this interior before i start installing the doors and windows so here i'm just building a little shelf that'll be over top of my feet [Music] and then sealing in all the sides with some white silicone [Music] now for the door i'm using some regular black three inch gate hinges that i got at home depot then after measuring a few times i'll just pre-drill the holes and put a dab of some white silicone before i screw in some 7 8 inch screws the silicone will help seal in the screws that you don't get any leakage of water inside the screw holes and eventually lead into any rot [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so to install the windows i first cut out a flange the exact same way i did for that interior flange on the door by marking a line about an inch on both sides of the trace line of the window opening [Music] so then i prepared the window by putting a fresh strip of butyl tape around the interior edge [Music] [Music] then i glued and nailed the interior flange into place this basically acts as a big washer and overlaps about an inch onto the interior rim of the window [Music] then i can pre-drill a hole and use a three-quarter inch pan head screw to hold the window in place [Music] then i'll remove any excess butyl tape using a putty knife [Music] and put a silicone bead around the exterior edge [Music] now just a little more waterproofing and this body is pretty much done so i think another mistake i made is that i probably should have put another overlapping piece of quarter inch plywood attached to the exterior of the door like another big flange so that i could weather strip behind it and then i wouldn't have to worry about any water getting inside the cracks of the door and that way i wouldn't have to seal all the interior components of both the door and the frame [Music] and one last thing i did specifically for looks was use a little bit of black outdoor paint and painted on some one-inch trim lines around all the seams i think this made it look way more professional and really made it pop and look like a real trailer [Music] then i used some more flex seal and just waterproofed in that bottom edge like i said before though if i did it again i'd probably use the poor man's fiberglass on the bottom too [Music] and then to mount it onto the frame i just drilled some quarter inch holes about every two feet around the frame [Music] and then use some standard quarter inch by three inch lag bolts to bolt it into place i also siliconed both sides so that i could waterproof it as much as possible [Music] and the last thing i did was add this cheap door shroud that i got on amazon and painted black so i put a silicone bead along the back edge and then screwed it into place with some 7 8 inch screws [Music] uh now my new bike camper is ready for its first journey in the morning it was a hazy day downtown l.a where i'm here to run an elevator on this way so after a quick test ride i noticed right away that the one wheel wasn't going to be able to take the weight of the camper and that's because it was a front wheel that had a much smaller quick release axle so i'm just going to temporarily switch that out with another rear wheel of a bike until i can get that axle in place what might work even better in the future is if i framed another bar around the outside of the wheel and then put down another piece of flat bar so i could support the wheel on both sides but overall it's pretty sturdy as is [Music] oh [Music] so my first trip is going to be from my shop to my parents house which is about 15 kilometers over some paved and some dirt roads and some back country trails so it's fairly windy this day as you can hear but it actually performed a lot better than i thought and it wasn't terrible going against the wind even you basically just had to use your gears right and use that gear reduction to your advantage as much as possible and just know that you're going to be going about a third slower than if you were just biking normally in total the trip took me about two hours but i'd say at least a half hour that was dedicated to filming and returning back to get a camera [Music] so [Music] overall this was a super rewarding build and it's rewarding every time you use it the sleep in it really isn't too bad i'm six foot four tall and i can spread out perfectly the total weight of it is about 120 pounds and it pulls quite a bit easier than i thought [Music] but most importantly it's always great to get out of the house and spend time with nature and reconnect with what's important not to mention everybody that sees it loves it especially the all wood interior [Music] if you like this video on this build please consider subscribing i do a whole bunch of random builds then i'm trying to go into more and more cool ideas like this bike camber [Music] um [Music] oh [Music]

Channel: Drew Builds Stuff

Views: 4,810,642

Keywords:

Id: iOQyLYYTE8w

Length: 37min 48sec (2268 seconds)

Published: Tue May 17 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/TatyGGTV]

/r/artisanbuilds too although not sure if they allow vids with voiceover