LOW COST - Cargo Trailer Camper DIY Conversion TOUR

[Music] we call this our cramper because of the size [Music] hello this is patrick with new jersey's outdoor adventures youtube channel here in brick township new jersey met up with rick and sharon and they have a really cool diy cargo trailer conversion they convert it into a camper they're going to give us a tour today so join us hello and welcome to new jersey outdoor adventures hi i'm rick and i'm sharon and we're here to tell you about this cargo conversion that we've done this is a 6 by twelve by six high trailer it was my work trailer for seven years and last year at sharon's suggestion we decided to convert it and make it into a camper it was a milestone in my life to admit that you were retiring from business after so many years and there was a little bit of grief involved at first at least during the portion where i was taking the shelving out of the and all the work components out of it once i started the construction then i started to look forward to what it was going to be in the future and leaving the past behind so we took the stock trailer emptied the shelves out added windows we've got one in the door this is an insulated door from the factory and because of it being insulated it was fairly rigid so you merely needed to cut the hole in there's no additional framing required it is an operable window that has a screen and slides up and down sharon's granddaughter made our all our curtains for the trailer we've added two windows in the side again they're both opera these are operable they're rv windows cutting out a stud in order to install them we had to put a header in and uh sill to keep the wall rigid and then all the walls in the trailer we insulated in the ceiling as well i did not insulate the floor we didn't think we were going to do that much cold weather camping we've got a porch light which is an led light we've got a regular residential screen that's magnetic which works to keep the bugs out in the the floor is a click lock vinyl floor and it's waterproof it has a underlayment pad but beneath it only because i had originally put vinyl diamond plate which was glued down in here and i left it i didn't want it telegraphing moving inside the walls are the original plywood we removed all the plywood sides put in styrofoam which is cut very tightly to fit in between the studs there's no taping there's no other vapor barrier or anything no foam sealants in here except at the floor where where there were gaps we reinstalled the original plywood which was a 3 8 plywood and then put the fiberglass reinforced plastic panels over it the ceiling was actually 12 sheet at the time which now it's probably 36 but at the time it was 12 underlayment for flooring but the grain was so pretty we decided not to paint it and just to keep it natural so we did a waterproof polyurethane varnish on it as well as the cabinets these were unfinished uh big box store cabinetry and we've utilized it here for to create the kitchen and uh also over the bed area the refrigerator is a stock for the department store refrigerator i and sharon both wanted to have two separate doors rather than to have that little tiny freezer compartment that you see in some of the single door models that was our preference this refrigerator is strictly 120 volt so it runs off shore power or runs off of our generator if we're going someplace where we don't have utilities and we're not going to be planning on using the generators and we will use dry ice and regular bagged ice together in an ice chest and and we can get ice to last for a week that way even in hot climates like the florida keys we've got two fire extinguishers in the trailer one here and one back in the kitchen area in the rear these clamps and plywood are here just to hold the microwave in place while it's in transit it seemed like the easiest way to address the situation is i was worried that a microwave would end up on the floor so this will store away and the clamps just go in into a drawer we've got our silverware drawer and underneath we have both gas electric heater we've got battery-operated fan electric fan there's first aid kit battery operated lantern and there's a tote in there with some propane bottles and little miscellaneous items in here is a bucket that we use for the toilet and we've got some storage on the inside of the door and there are also some gas bottles and other things in there small propane one pounders the sink is a stainless sink i think this thing cost me 59 for both the sink and the faucet off the internet it has a trap under it and it plums through the floor and out to the side i have a threaded fitting on there so that no bugs or mice can come in when the trap dries out and the trailer has been sitting not in use we've got a fermented countertop which i made uh we had to do an offset in it because the door in this trailer was a little too far forward for the cabinet depth this is a false wall it's the only wall construction in here that wasn't original other than the divider wall in the back and that's constructed out of two by threes i wanted to get the curvature of the trailer out of the way and get it straight across there and make it a lot easier to construct a countertop and to install the cabinets we've got a light switch here with led 12 volt under the cabinet we've got two outlets with both with gfis we've got cabinets up above and this is how we manage to keep everything together when we're in transit i've got one cabinet with mostly food items in it and we always keep a little extra supply so that if we do get hungry and we didn't plan food right we've got something else in here that we can fix and over here is mostly dish items plastic and paper plates and plastic wear we've got several of these little baskets in for catch-alls several coat hooks up here for hanging a robe or hanging jackets when it's cold carbon monoxide and smoke detector we've got a tote here that we keep most of our bedding in and there's even a tv set that we protect putting it in there and this tote can be slid over and used in front of the couch as a little coffee table or because of the way we sleep in here it's a little tight for me trying to sleep crosswise when this bed is open and i actually prefer to sleep lengthwise but my feet would hang over so we use the tote with a furniture pad on top of it and then that becomes my way of preferred way [Music] now we're up and up into the bed this gives us plenty of depth above the bed we have his and her cabinets and they have battery lights this is strictly for storing our wardrobe items and we've got a lighting under the cabinet we have the air conditioner which operates with a remote control the windows give us cross ventilation one of the things that almost everybody puts in to their trailer build is one of these powered roof fans we didn't we didn't put one in and the reason was we hauled boats on the roof i didn't want to take the chance or risk having the fan broken or damaged or just bumping it so hard that it caused the roof to start leaking then you know once the hole's there it's a constant maintenance item so we opted for the combination of having the air conditioner here if uh we do need any kind of ventilation and we're not using the air conditioner i have a battery fan even that as a last resort that we can hang on a string or a bungee cord off the curtain rod and that gives us the ventilation we need the bed cushions we made these uh it's a sheet of plywood some high density foam which is pretty firm for as thin as these mattresses are and we cut the foam because the two cushions are different sizes and then taped take the piece on that we needed to make the bigger cushion and this is just fabric we bought in the fabric store and then stapled it around the plywood in order to form the finished cushion we have an overhead light that is actually the original incandescent light that was in this trailer when i bought it from the factory it never got destroyed thank god so we were able to reuse it in here we've got another little basket we have our two-way radios in here a pair of binoculars a couple of flashlights up over the windows again a little bit of storage for personal items cell phone rechargers got hooks here for keys and our broom and our most important thing fly swatter now we're gonna go outside and i'll show you the garage area and rear kitchen in the back we call this our cramper because of the size and because we brought a boat along with us i needed to have a ladder with us the strip so we could get up and down on the roof to reach the straps we've got an outdoor shower which is run on propane use a 18 pound tank and i have quick connect fittings to go run the hose out the side long 12 foot long hose the shower head is here you can hand hold it over on this side we've got a long pole that will drop down on the top of the doors and we can put a shower curtain on it back here and it holds the doors at 90 degrees and i've got two poles to use for awning we have a tarp that fits to go off the back or one off the side whichever we choose and we have pulls to hold that up i've got my little tool rack here i also have tools in one of the totes underneath this is a christmas tree for propane tanks so you can hook your lantern and a stove and if you wanted a gas heater all at the same time on there the back of the air conditioner which people have asked me this air conditioner does not drip a lot of condensate in in the everglades as hot and humid as it was it put maybe two tablespoons of water down so i just put a a little plastic tote underneath to catch it whichever side it happens to be dripping from we've got the shoe rack a portion of which we put underneath the cabinets inside so i cut the bottom off of it use that in there and then mounted the rest of it on the outside not my idea but i've seen it done and it seems to be just the thing we've got a predator 3 500 watt inverter generator the 3 500 watts have the electric starter which i liked in behind the inverter there's a large tote which has tools and the tarps and camping items i've got water stored in here i have gasoline for my outboard and generator if i needed stored in here kitchen utensils chairs a little fold up table we've got a a marine 110 amp battery or 105 ampere hour battery uh deep cycle a 750 watt inverter i've got a 12 volt battery maintainer here that plugs into ac so if i'm running the battery down over a long period i can always use a generator or short power and charge it back up we've got a hook up here that i'll run a hose for when we have hookups in a campground but when we don't i can run five gallon jugs of water and plug into that and then use 12-volt pump to operate we've got two outlets double atlas here this cord plugs into my light since i'm short i just plug it to turn it on here rather than try to hit the switch these are shut off for the shower cold water shut off to the water heater so that in the event that it's cold and i don't want to have water going through the water here i can strip this off but still use the sink if i needed it then we've got a this incidentally is the sensing unit for the indoor outdoor thermometer inside the trailer i've got a rack with kitchen spices coffee cocoa all your your kitchen items here i got a cabinet up here that came off of a job site a last kitchen job that i did and it was in nice shape so i use that we're just storing i've got electric hot plate battery lantern tablecloths shower curtain in there cutting board electric griddle electric toaster extra oil tp don't want to go without that and it hooks here for a few utensils and these carabiners we actually use with the tarps to snap them onto these black rings up above these lights are hooked to a separate four prong that i have on the nose of the trailer and they'll only work they're only wired to that four prong so that when i have my van i have a switch on the dashboard that turns them on and off i can use those as backup lights or even as a work like they're very bright one last thing i wanted to mention is that yes i do have to leave at least one door open when the air conditioner is running to let the heat out back here now we're going to go around and i'll show you another way that i get to the roof to deal with the boats besides using the ladder on the way we got this is my shore power connection and i use the toolbox as a step up in order to get access to the roof make sure that none of the caulking is going bad or i have any issues here and also when i'm putting the boats on and off i can start these boats back over the tail end or if we don't have a vehicle parked in front i can bring the boats off the nose this trailer is eight years old now all the roof is still in good shape there was no water leakage or whatnot before we started to do the conversion on it but i did check it again afterwards now i've added these roof racks on here for hauling the boats again i don't like anything dragging on the roof more than necessary so they elevate the boats up off the roof i carpeted the cross members and i didn't intentionally did not use pressure treated for the sideboards and that's why they're wrapped with waterproof material that's just for two by fours and even those side members there's no penetration of the roof they're on brackets that screw into the side of the trailer than anything on top we added a spare tire mount onto the side of the toolbox and that was predominantly because of the fact that i'm using a bumper pull and i don't have the distance to turn as sharp as if i had a hitch receiver that stuck out we got the extra plug that i mentioned before that controls the lights on the back i've got the nose tool box this is uh jack stabilizers in here my wheel chocks i have a 6x6 that i put under the the foot of the nose uh under the crank that way you don't have to crank it up and down as far and in some cases your crank isn't sufficient so i need that extra couple inches there i've also got extension cords in here i keep uh extra oil for the generator fuel filter fuel treatment lubricant there's extra cable locks in here extra rope extra extension cords all the little stuff that you don't use all the time but you're using it outside so it stays outside rick and sharon thank you very much for taking the time to give us a tour today of your awesome cargo camper trailer can you tell our viewers a little bit about the time frame it would take for someone to convert one and do all the items that you did on this well when you say someone it depends on your experience level and how much time you have to put into it in the course of a week i wasn't working when i decided to do this and i actually did this conversion in about two weeks i started it in middle of august and we took it camping in the beginning of september and it's always a work in progress there's still little things that i never got around to uh you know putting in a few nail holes and that sort of thing but the average person with experience and and if you've got most of the tools you could probably put one of these together in a couple weeks as well um there's no rocket science here if you're totally unskilled it's going to take you a little longer so either you know my first suggestion is if you're uncertain get some help or take the time to really you know study it on youtube videos or get help for information from someone else now there's a lot of talk on the channel and the comments about budget right because that's important because that played into the fact of you building this instead of going and spending 40 50 000 on a travel trailer can you share with us the budget set aside the generator because not everybody is going to go out and buy a generator what kind of costs go into something like this well everything that is actually installed on the trailer cost about three thousand dollars to put together now bear in mind you know material prices have gone up just since i did this job but it was about three thousand for everything that was the air conditioner refrigerator the whole nine yards um and the trailer itself when i bought this show originally it was a thirty two hundred dollar trailer now you can spend as much as four or five thousand for one depending on what tier or quality level you buy on this size so someone wanted to go out and buy a brand new trailer and then do a conversion just like this they could still be under ten thousand dollars yeah because you can still buy a trailer like this for about thirty seven hundred to four thousand so you'd be looking at about seven grand or maybe a little bit more to do the whole thing that's very affordable now a project's never done right you build it and then there's things that you want to change after you completed it and new additions if you had to do this all over again from scratch what would you do different well i'm debating but i definitely would have added more lighting i think i probably would have moved the refrigerator and put it up at countertop height and then put a drawer base unit underneath of it i wanted that counter space in there which ends up being occupied by the microwave anyway so he could put the refrigerator there i could have put the microwave up overhead it lost very little in terms of storage above the countertop and added all that drawer space in the space that the refrigerator was occupying now so that's one thing i'd like to have had some dimming capability on the lighting but i do have a little it's an interesting night light it's a little piece of plexiglass that like glows in the dark this is a blue led i guess it illuminates it and it's just the right amount of light for a nightlight in there so i'm good with that we talked about the idea of having the bed open all the time across there and i could have had drawer space under the bed and then a shorter space in the back and we could have moved the the back wall back farther and put a drop down shelf there and still been able to utilize that as a kitchen and gained another foot or so in inside that is excellent information you know that's going to help a viewer that might want to build their own is this 6 by 12 like size and footprint of this is this like the go-to size for people building out cargo campers well for us for us and then people that are utilizing the trailer primarily as a short-term vacation weekender type of thing and maybe a week or two weeks during the year it's probably the most common size i see more of these and smaller even on youtube videos right now people that are looking at spending more time on the road or or doing a live-in type of situation are predominantly going wider they're going to a seven wide or even wider and a lot of them are going to the 14 or the 16 and one of the reasons they uh they tout those is because they're dual axle and they don't feel comfortable telling something that if you have a blowout could potentially be a safety issue that's a good tip i guess the widest they go is eight foot eight and a half actually but the eight and a half i've never seen one in anything less than like at least a 16 16 up to 24 and beyond but the uh eight foot you can buy i was surprised you can actually get an eight wide 12 long and if someone wanted to buy a trailer and they couldn't find when used you could go to a dealership and just buy one of these trailers and probably get still get financing for it since it's new yeah particularly if you had some sort of business to correlate it to i think it would probably be easier sell to obtain financing uh people are also going on the internet and just like elkhart indiana is like the capital of the rv industry georgia and south carolina and north carolina are kind of the capital of the cargo trailer industry and there are a lot of manufacturers down there that will take custom orders or stock orders and sell direct and you have the option of going down there and getting them and save about a thousand dollars or having them shipped up here and delivered to you i think one of the things that we do is um this conversion is very practical very budget-friendly we could have went solar we we chose not to because we don't need it we we only really camp once a month now if we were to go on the road more often then that may be an investment that we want to you know look into so i think the most important information i would have for people is build what you want what's practical for you there are all kind of bells and whistles this is kind of basic we don't have a lot of bells and whistles but for now this is all we need when we do more camping maybe we may need to upgrade excellent information now i see the shirts here yes and they're both matching shirts can you tell us a little bit about uh the logo there okay so he's he did all the construction for the camper obviously um and then we decided to come up with a youtube channel which was kind of an afterthought so we have a small youtube channel called cargo on and we call it our slogans uh cargo conversion building camp we were just gonna put on like some of our build and some campsites that we go to camp ground reviews bathroom reviews i always have to check out the bathrooms but when we were in the everglades a couple came up to us with a cargo trailer and we mentioned that we had just started a youtube channel and i asked if we could interview them and they loved it so we kind of got into that and it's so much fun i think we did four interviews all up in the keys and one of the guys we met chris i think is going to eventually go off with his own channel but he's going to be helping us out for a while too because he's going out west for a couple months that sounds like a lot of fun and the the reason for the channel is i guess to help people right that's why i do this is to help connect the dots for people that are interested in doing something this lifestyle that may have never even known this was a possibility exactly and i to help the dots i have to mention this i'm sorry but um this morning we had the generator on and it was off to the side here and this door was open like this i was inside you know getting ready putting my makeup on and all of a sudden that carbon monoxide the detector went off really scared me i came running out so i would really recommend having it maybe it was no big deal but you know i'm glad it i you don't smell anything when you're in there so you don't smell anything and and the exhaust is going straight out into the trailer it kind of gives you get trapped in there so it's really important and i see you have all the safety thing i've been seeing a first aid kit in there uh thanks thank you for being mindful of those safety items and for sharing that because that could help save someone exactly that's why i wanted to say that well this is patrick with new jersey's outdoor adventures youtube channel hope you enjoyed this video please like this video comment share and subscribe i'd love it and we'll see you soon thank you thanks

Channel: New Jersey Outdoor Adventures

Views: 72,349

Rating: 4.9466057 out of 5

Keywords: vanlife, van life, camper build, camper van, van build, sprinter conversion, skoolie conversion, transit camper, spinter camper, Cargo trailer camper, Utility trailer camper, Trailer conversion, Convert cargo trailer, Trailer life, Trailer build, Repurpose trailer, Budget camper

Id: 1fa5De6tydU

Length: 26min 47sec (1607 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2021