DIY Squaredrop Camper Build - Here's How

today we are going to talk about do-it-yourself square drop trailer or most people are calling nowadays an overland trailer [Music] so behind me here we have a 4x8 design built from the ground up the only thing that was purchased was the trailer frame reason being was so that it could be registered on the road right away so it just saved a lot of hassle going out purchasing a 4x8 trailer frame and building from there now the first item i actually purchased for this build was independent half torsion axles these are 2 000 pounds each it was actually about six months before i dove in and actually started building the trailer but the reason i bought the torsion axles was because they're on sale buy one it was half price i ended up six months later purchasing the 4x8 trailer frame as a utility trailer and then from there needed to attach the torsion axles to the trailer frame i didn't want to keep the single axle single solid axle on the trailer um i wanted the the independent suspension and it gave uh with the aggressive tires gave me a lot more ground clearance of the square drop trailer once we got the torsion axles installed we then moved on to uh sealing the three-quarter inch plywood on one side and all the edges to stop any uh water from damaging the plywood once that was sealed we attached to the the trailer frame and started to uh lay down insulation once the installation was laid down we then started putting up the walls the walls floor ceiling a roof is all three quarter inch plywood once we got the windows set in and cut uh we used one by one pieces of wood to make the cross members from wall to wall that provided the spacing for the insulation and i actually did that on the floor as well i've got one by one cross members uh holding the the three three quarter inch plywood together on the floor and on the ceiling and then in between is the installation this installation is your inch and a thick styrofoam and it was it's mainly used on exterior walls or your roof of your house so once i got the uh ceiling insulated i then put the final three quarter inch plywood on top i then put wood filler all around the edges and satin sanded them all down covering all the screws the rear hatch is a little different um it's not a full just piece of plywood and then cut out it's actually one by threes to make the frame around the edging then i got the 4x4 uh three quarter inch plywood that i cut down to the size of the hatch that we have here which then hinges down and closes up against the door jamb on all four four edges at this point i kind of jumped around i then went inside and started working on the design for the interior storage so i did we have an upper shelf in the inside the cab um a few inches uh high i think it's four inches in the top my head uh so four inches at the very top then you have two main compartments uh for your clothes um so you have one on the left one on the right you have a centerpiece for your command center is what i'm gonna call it uh that's where i have my power switches and uh usb ports to charge the devices and i needed to figure out what i was gonna do for wheel wells as the four bay design it sits inside the wheels so i was going i went with a bigger tire um it the full measurement comes out to 28 and a half inches in height the i had to figure out the wheel well and how i was going to mount it i didn't want the fender ripping on the wall so the fender's welded to the rock sliders then the rock sliders are bolted at four points um two of the front two in the rear of the fender to the trailer frame then to help the fender from from vibrating or separating from the wall i used 30 pound 3m double-sided tape on the fender itself to stick to the wall once i got the fenders all welded up and actually primed i put them aside and that's when i realized what i wanted to do for the edging of the trailer and how i was going to build the doors so the doors are the same three-quarter inch plywood cut to the size that uh so like the actually the entry door is cut out of the the wall and use the same plywood the rear hatch is its own piece of plywood 4x4 cut down to the size required then what i did is i took 1 8 steel and created a frame welded that up to fit the plywood that i cut out and then that is screwed into the plywood with the uh entry door i did go with the actual rv uh latch um system that has the lock the deadbolt it's a real nice sleek design it's the same uh door latch that you find on any rv trailer travel trailer motorhome the rear hatch is a a latch system that you find on your enclosed cargo trailers or your truck body cargo uh cargo boxes so both are really nice latches they both lock i then moved on to the rear hatch i have a main kitchen bench i also have storage um a shelf at the very top it's about eight to ten inches of space to allow individual containers of uh whether it be cutlery snacks um any foods that can be tightly sealed in a tight sealed container nicely on the upper shelf and then you've got big open space underneath the counter so before i sealed up the the trailer i had cut out the holes for the vents i've got a vent on each side they do have filters on the inside and has the horseshoe cap horse horse shoe cap which stops any water from running into the the vent each side um air vent actually goes into the rear hatch and then there's a singular uh air vent that goes for between the rear hatch and the cab all three have uh filters to stop any dust and debris bugs coming in the all the edging of the trailer was uh sealed with epoxy so after it was sanded down and the screws were all hiding i put epoxy two inches on each side of the edging all around the trailer and then i applied the raptor liner on the outside of the trailer so i taped up all the windows uh the doors the rear hatch area and um raptor lined all the exterior wood the rear hatch is sealed with a waterproof sealant and that's the whole rear hatch we're talking the inside of the door the shelving the walls the undercarriage so all wood in the rear hatch is uh sealed with a waterproof sealant so that when the rear hatch is open and it's raining i'm not saying the rain is coming and splashing in but the the moisture in the air uh you know you're wet you're working it it's stopping the wood from getting destroyed over time and soaking in that water over time now with raptor lining all the plywood i also did uh another rock guard on all the framing so the the horse uh the horse shoe caps were white those are rock guarded the angle iron around the edging of the trailer was rock guarded the trailer frame uh was rock guarded the custom-built fenders were rock guarded the steel wheels were rock guarded um so it everything on the exterior other than the windows has been [Music] covered in a type of rock guard i picked up the tongue cargo box off of buy and sell saved 100 bucks it was actually brand new and then once i had that installed with a white raptor liner i wasn't really sure of the look i went out and got a sheet of aluminum checker plate cut that to size and put that in behind the cargo box up on the front wall and then the edging is all sealed with silicone as well to stop any water going in between the aluminum and the raptor liner and just sitting there and and slowly wearing that down or rotting or whatever it might do once all that was put together we it was time to do the little the accents um the rear uh rear cargo area we put in some backsplash um so peel and stick uh wood design to give it a nice look we did uh peel and stick flooring now the reason the peel and stick flooring was it didn't matter what size the interior was the rear hatch was you're able to easily cut it lay it down and that 3m tape just sticks very well and it looks really good with the rear hatch we are using two struts i believe they're 30 inch in length i did make the mounts out of 1 8 aluminum angle and was able to mount using that actually to mount both one on on the door and on the side of the trailer or on the inside so once the rear hatch is closed you don't see any of that and the black angled framing seals the whole the whole hatch the tongue also has a jack with a four inch wheel solid wheel um easy to move around in the garage again with this trailer being a four by design uh one person can easily move around the trailer with having the the wheel on the front uh to roll around or you can even just lift it um but it is a lot nicer just to roll it instead of lifting the tongue and moving it around but the weight of the trailer is very easy to move around by yourself also on the rear we have two 300 pound stabilizer jacks that flip down in the storage mode they sit the length like with the trailer frame and then when they're ready to be used you pop it out and it will sit at a 45 degree angle and they'll extend up to 19 inches to the to stabilize the rear of the trailer if you're moving around a lot in the cab or you need to uh get something at the cargo rack and you're not hooked up to the trail the truck uh the trailer is not going to tip back on you the ground clearance of the trailer with the torsion axles and the 28 inch and a half tires the we're sitting at 15 inches of ground clearance at the bottom of the torsion axle at the bottom of the torsion axle and then we're 17 and a half inches uh from the ground to the trailer frame so lots of ground clearance to go down down any trail and also independent suspension uh and there's nothing down the middle for any rocks or whatever might be get caught on what normally would be a solid straight axle well guys i hope you like this trailer do-it-yourself square drop trailer build um if you have any questions drop it down in the comments if i miss something or if you want more information very happy with the the outcome of this trailer and so is my family i think they're uh very happy with what it came out uh how it turned out you tell people you're building something sometimes if you haven't especially if you haven't built something like this before people are very skeptical of what it's going to turn out to be and are you actually going to complete it um so it's definitely complete we're going camping in two days and uh can't wait to to hit the trail so thank you again for tuning in to this episode um if you want to check out our adventures you can go to instagram at shank outdoors there's a lot more to go into this this trailer so more videos will follow with what we update in the trailer what we don't like what we would change you never know um but there's definitely more items such as solar and some area some things to do with the kitchen uh organization um maybe some more stuff in the interior it's really hard to say what we're gonna do but stay tuned for the next upcoming video thank you for tuning in and we'll see in the next one

Channel: Shank Outdoors

Views: 93,638

Keywords: DIY Squaredrop Camper Build, squaredrop trailer, homemade camper trailer, offroad camper trailer, build on a budget, overland trailer build, DIY Teardrop trailer, DIY Teardrop camper build, cheap camper trailer, cheap overland trailer, diy camper trailer, diy overland trailer, diy overland trailer build, how to build a travel trailer, teardrop trailer, teardrop trailer build, diy teardrop camper, overland camper, teardrop trailer camping, how to build a teardrop camper

Id: KMf8fmmgJ-0

Length: 14min 41sec (881 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 10 2022