I Transformed a 5x8 Cargo Trailer into the ULTIMATE Camper | Full Build Start to Finish

hi everyone my name is Joel Trombley and this is the chuckbox so the truck box is a 5x8 cargo trailer that I converted to be the ultimate camper and ice shack so in this video I'm going to show a full time lapse of the build from start to finish as well I'm going to do a very detailed walk around tour of the trailer after two years of use make sure to stick around for this one it's gonna be a good one [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is I'm going to start the heater and what's the temperature today minus 10. now the other thing is I'm going to crack open the roof vent just to allow some ventilation while that's warming up to 100 controllers from the truck and level it we'll pull the truck forward and I can lower the tongue down to the desired height so that's pretty much all there is to it to set up the trailer I have my 270 degree awning by OBS let's crack that bad boy open because it takes about 60 seconds to set up and I love it [Music] what I've done for the awning is I tried a adjustable knot that essentially allows me to move this knot along the main guy line and I just have a carabiner with an eye Loop attached to the roof rail here that lets me pull it tight and makes the whole thing adjustable let's get the other end on here and then we have our full Onyx setup [Music] so that's the 270 degree awning all deployed and then there's legs that come down weather is bad or snow you usually set those up they're telescoping so they adjust to the different ground level Heights what I've done differently since last time you've seen this awning actually made my own custom brackets using old bed rails I don't know if you can see it there the little black rail there uh what I was able to do is lower the awning and shift it forward so now I don't have a gap through the roof here [Music] so this trailer started its life off as a 5x8 cargo trailer it's a 2019 model by United trailers and I picked this thing up second hand and it was just a Bare Bones trailer nothing special to it single axle and so you can see from the outside here I've done a lot of upgrades a lot of mods let's start from the front and work our way back here I have a ton of storage box where I keep all my tools and stuff to set up a trailer as well as just some safety fire extinguisher it's also where I routed my filter and my pump for my diesel heater attached to this tongue box is the fuel tank for the diesel heater itself and you can see the pump and lines kind of go down below and this whole unit is really easy to take off the trailer there's just two leg bolts on either side that you can unhook and then this whole thing pops off I really like the setup because the pump is outside and any kind of work I have to do around here for the diesel heater it's super accessible and really easy to maintain this is actually an upgraded fuel tank and I'll leave a link in the description below it is a lot more heavy duty than the ones that come with the Amazon units the original fuel tank cracked along the whole top here only after five months of use so this is a priority to get upgraded so another upgrade I had to do was the exhaust as you can see there it is an actual stainless steel exhaust for diesel heater I had to replace the one that I originally installed because it rotted out and actually just fell off the diesel heater itself has been really good after 10 months of use I had to take it all apart to clean it but that was more user error so since then everything has been running flawlessly and I'm really happy with the setup so on the starts here I've installed some upgraded wheels and these are 31 inch BF Goodrich all-terrains and they are mounted to aluminum Alcoa rims those rims are a matching identical set to the truck my spare tire here can actually work on the trailer or on my vehicle so I like the versatility and that's why I want this route to have some redundancies especially when I'm going out back country camping so because I installed larger more aggressive tires I had to build custom fenders and these are very heavy duty they're made out of one-inch steel stocks tube and 16 gauge steel plate one thing I've done since I built the trailer is I did some Rhino line gives it a nice textured grip it's really functional for utility I installed one of my spare tires on the fender itself and that simply just attached with big lag bolts with eyelets through each side and then I have wheel chocks basically to keep the wheel in place and then I have the wheel deflated a bit and then I have this really heavy duty ratchet strap 33 000 pound ratchet strap holding the spare in place and this thing is not going anywhere I'm not worried about this falling off the trailer like I I'm pulling I'm pulling this with all my strength and it's not going anywhere these fenders have been through bolted to the frame of the trailer on this side I've also installed an RV window it's a 31 by 15 RV window in vertical format and this is actually How It's Made to be put in because there's a weep hole here at the bottom trailer hasn't had any leaks no problem with water infiltration all the sealant is in good shape still and that goes to say for the roof vent as well with this trailer I was always thinking about multi-functional purposes the goal with the fenders is to have surfaces that be used for different purposes for example so when I'm setting up this awning excellent company to deal with I actually had to get my awning cover replaced and they sent me a new one at no extra charge on this side of the trailer I guess the driver's side of the trailer is where I have the awning opening and it gives me 140 square foot cover essentially and which triples one triples the square footage of the trailer and on this side of the trailer is where I keep kind of my cooler my water I'll have my string light set up here and it just makes it a nice cozy space to be in with the trailer and it's really easy to set up like I said within 60 seconds I can get this awning set up no problem all the time I'm stepping on these fenders to get roof access the solar panel and I have some cabling my roof vent up there and there's a pass-through at the front and so having easy access to the roof of the trailer is essential and you can see here I'm standing full weight on this Fender and it holds me up no problem the textured finish gives a little bit of grip which helps with you know trying not to slip and fall [Music] oh [Music] the door latch is performing great still works just like the day I installed it I'm really happy with it as you can see here I've been sticker blasting the door eventually I hope to have this entire back door covered with stickers um and I actually made myself some nice troll Trumbull YouTube stickers not sure yet if I'm gonna be selling them but let me know in the comments if you want one of these things and uh I'll try to get them to you so inside the trailer opening the door here let's try to Spring and get some nicer finishes in here so this is kind of how I usually set the kitchen on the door table here folds down again and the way I keep the door open is I put this piece of wood between the door it's the perfect width to keep the door open flat but then I use the spring here and I set it just a little tight so that wind can actually pull the door out I have the spring chain and that piece of wood working together to keep the door nice and secure and open obviously in the winter time it's not ideal to keep your door open light underneath the Shelf here and there's my front runner kitchen cook set stove coffee maker and yeah that's uh it's a nice little setup to be under especially when it's nice out so this door is built out with two inch Framing and then I have insulation in there so this door is fully insulated okay let's get inside because it is cold out here what I've done on the door as well put in a 120 volt Outlet hooked up to the inverter and you can see I have a little cable so when I shut the door the cable simply just coils up doesn't get tangled and just stays like that so another thing I've added is a RAM mount for an iPod and we can lay watch movies at night I had a lot of questions about this thing so I'll leave the link in the description for that unit interior height is five foot six uh with the insulation and the ceiling um I think it's now down to like five foot four so I can't quite stand in it being six foot but it is comfortable to sit in and I like to think of it as like kind of a hybrid between a teardrop trailer and you know a full-size trailer so in the ceiling here I have LED Puck lights that I put in and this is quarter inch Aroma cedar planks I installed an RV fan with push and pull air functions this vent paired with the window opening and vent it really pulls and pushes air into space ventilation is one of the most important things especially in small spaces like this so I wanted to make sure to have plenty of airflow to avoid moisture and humidity issues on this front half here I have two cupboards for storage and this middle one is also storage but folds down to be a work surface table this little gate latch opens up that leg comes down and you can see actually that's where I put my pillows but once it's down that is kind of your work surface table while you're sitting at the bench here I upgraded the hinges for the legs themselves of the beds and these latch into place there's no second guessing now when you're trying to set up the bed you know the legs are always going to fall where they need to go bring little latches that lock and then you just press the PIN to unlock them so for ice fishing as you can see I have catch covers I got two of them I have a Home Depot bucket that I use as a sleeve I can auger down through and make my hole and I have my fish measuring GoPro mount for my phone my old phone and I use that for my fish finder that simply just flicks into place like so so that connects Bluetooth wirelessly to my fish liner so I have visuals while I'm fishing so I have a little cubby here two USB slots there and then I have a 12 volt cigarette lighter plug there so I finally after two years have installed trim around the window and basically I just used some leftover cedar plank and some plywood to make just a very simple trim floors waterproof lvt plank flooring and they've been holding up really well when they're wet they get a little slippery so I have a little mat here that I just use in the winter time but throughout the other Seasons I don't have an issue added some clear flexible caulking around the bottom just to stop water from going up underneath and swelling this panel board as you can see I have a little patch here and that's basically because I had to cut open the wall to get access to the bolts holding the fender and just made little pouch panels I can pop those off if I ever need to so this trailer is super insulated I have two inches of rigid in the roof an inch and a half on the walls and another two inches on the floor I made sure to add some strapping across the studs so that I can add an additional insulation to stop thermal bridge in between the metal studs of the frame of the trailer I've had this trailer out minus 25 degrees Celsius and I've been super comfortable in here today I think it's like minus 11. and again really comfortable in here I had a lot of people ask me questions about the condition of the insulation on the floor maybe a little sneak peek underneath the trailer after two years of use let's see the installation is still in really good shape and I didn't opt to enclose the bottom of the trailer because I want the insulation to be able to dry out and stuff if I had put paneling underneath it doesn't matter what I'll do water and dirt and stuff will find its way in and I'm just preventing air movement to keep that insulation from drying remember it is XPS rigid insulation so it is moisture resistant it's not the ideal end-all situation but after two years that insulation is still there and I haven't had any issues with it so when I need to everything can fold away and basically I have a full empty space here to use as a cargo trailer all the back of Hose all the wiring the battery inverter solar charge controller this panel simply just pops out of place and gives me access to everything I have a video showing how I installed everything what you see here is a 100 amp hour lithium battery by can bat can bat is supporters of the channel and they do really high quality products they're a little bit more expensive than let's say your Amazon brand but what you're getting is the quality products that are going to be TurnKey and you're not going to worry about it is open accessible protected with circuits and fuses so basically I have my lead two watt cable coming from my battery to a battery kill switch I then ran the two lot to a 50 amp circuit breaker this is a blue C systems circuit breaker a lot better quality than the one I put in originally from that it goes to a positive bus bar which feeds a few things from there it goes to the inverter which is a 2000 watt inverter charger by renergy this thing is a beefy unit and honestly I haven't really had to use it the one reason why I bought this one is because it has an automatic transfer switch that can charge the battery I haven't really used it so I have a plug on the outside of the trailer that I can hook up to shore power my solar panel has been doing such a good job that I have never had to actually connect the store power to charge my battery you can do it I've done it just to test it out but I never actually had to use it as a necessity from the positive bus bar there it goes up to a 30 amp circuit breaker which feeds the solar mppt charger the other lead goes up to 100 amp breaker and that goes to my my 12 volt six blade fuse panel so down here is the diesel heater nice and open accessible so if I have to take this out I just have to take the four screws off the end there and then I have the outlet here nice hot air coming out above that is the 15 amp fuse for my 120 volt Outlets so everything is routed to this control panel here I have the diesel heater control panel super simple little remote and I just installed the monster switch so I can kill power to it above that I have a battery monitor simple screen gives me More Voltage my amperage and my remaining battery percentage here's the remote for the inverter simple just on off switch and then here is the control panel for the solar charge controller so yeah that is the chuckbox I had a lot of fun building this trailer and I just want everyone to know that like you know the project Is Never Done uh I'm always using it and learning from it and editing and doing different things with it and that's the beauty about doing a cargo trailer conversion is that you don't really have to be finished in order to be using it and I think that's the best approach because then you're actually designing and building it for specifically you everyone's a little different has their own little quirks over the years this setup has become something that works for me and my style of doing outdoor activities and I'm really happy with the trailer I'm excited to do some ice fishing this year with it so make sure to stay tuned for that if you have any questions let me know in the comments I'm happy to answer I'll leave a link in the description for all the products that I use for this trailer that I found helpful hope you enjoyed the video stay tuned [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Joel Tremblay

Views: 908,583

Keywords: cargo trailer camper conversion, cargo camper, off grid, diy solar, camping, ice fishing, ice shack, winter camping, overland camper, overland, cargo camper to trailer, cargo trailer to camper conversion, hunt camp, mobile office, camper, 5x8 cargo conversion, tiny camper, tear drop, off road camper, off road, overland build, cargo trailer conversion

Id: O7hNG9m3Eaw

Length: 28min 15sec (1695 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 11 2022