Cargo Trailer Conversion

[DarrellS]

I have been wanting to build a trailer like Ron's for a while now. Randy posted his cargo trailer that he converted for camping and I thought Hey I have one of those that I don't use for work anymore,so here it goes. It is a 2007 Pace American 12x6 with double back doors. It had kinda become a portable storage building so it took me awhile to clean it out and remove the shelves that I built for material while I used it for work. First I built a cabinet in the front corner for storage and such.





Then I built a bench/ battery and A/C power compartment. Which will house 2 deep cycle marine batteries, a inverter, fuse block for D/C power, small panel for A/C power and a power cord.





My wife is going to sew a cushion for the bench and I am going to fabricate some sort of removable table for when the weather is bad. The bed will be across the back of the trailer with storage underneath. A/C will be in the nose beside the cabinet. I really don't have a set idea for this, so we will see what all gets added as it goes along. Now I gotta build a rack for my truck to haul my boats.

[4x4kayak2112]

i was going to build one too. looks very nice, and keep us updated!!

[gerald]

Oh man...there's another guy named Darrell on the freshwater board that is building one of these too!

[bowgarguide]

Darrel
Your trailer is looking good.

We got Glens mounted on the trailer inside finished outside finished,all I like is the lights and a lock on the door.
Gerald thats another one your behind.
Ron

[Randy]

Your are gonna love it, I could not live with out mine,,,, being able to keep all my,, MY ,,MY, stuff in there, I nevrer forget to load anything,,, I even keep extra clothes in there,,, never know ...

Keep us posted,,,

I'll send ya some pics on how I did my canopy....

[DarrellS]

Randy, I was thinking about putting some type of hooks on the screws in the rain channel along the top to fasten the tarp to.

[DarrellS]

I decided to finally get serious about this because Ron,waterbuggy and myself have a couple of hunting trips planned this year. One to Laguna Atascosa for a week and then on to Amistad for probably another week. Then of couse there is Greyloons Memorial in there also.

[Randy]

I hope I can describe this

I put eye bolts on the back side over my door above the drip rail. one one each side.

I use a 8 foot wide camo tarp,,, and zip tied it to an eight foot section of 1/2" conduit.

When I set it up,, I lay the end of the tarp that has the conduit attached on the drip rail.

Using those, little bungi cords with the little black balls, I attached the conduit to the eyebolts.

Then standard adjustable tent poles and ropes are used for the other end. I keep 2 small pieces of 1x4 to use as pole pads if I set up in the dirt or soft ground, to keep the poles from sinking. Ya can go as wide as ya want, this is very light weight,,, I went with 8 foot wide cuz the yak shack is 5 foot wide.

When I store it, I just role the trarp up around the piece of conduit. and store it by strapping it to the ceiling braces.

Hope this slpains it....


Oh, I used two of the same holes that were used to hold the trim in place to keep from drilling more holes. The eye bolts are double nutted and stainless.......with it being a white trailer,, I didn't want rust drip stains .....

[DarrellS]

Thanks Randy, that sounds easy enough.
Darrell

[preacher]

WOW, all these trailers are SWEET!

[DarrellS]

Got alittle more done this evening. I glued 3/4 foam to the ceiling for insulation.



Then I screwed 1/8 masonite to the ceiling braces. I am going to cut the hole in the nose tomorrow night for the A/c unit. I stopped today and bought some 2" thick foam to use as a mattress once the bed frame is built.



All of my wiring will run down each side between the walls and the ceiling. Once everything is wired I will put a piece of trim down each side to tie the ceiling and walls together.

[gerald]

Very nice. Soon as I get a little money I'll get started on mine.

[DarrellS]

Got alittle more done today. Built the bed frame with a cabinet over the top and painted the inside. I ran across a good deal on some vinyl tile today so tomorrow I am going to lay a floor in it. I built the bed frame on hinges so it can be folded out of the way.

[DarrellS]

I had some 120 volt undercounter lites laying around from a job, so I converted them to 12 volts for my trailer. Still use the regular t12 bulbs just change the ballast.





The lite is 2 feet long and pulls 2 amps@ 12 volts. This same ballst with ignite any flourescent buld from 18"-4'.



The lite in the upper right is 120 volts and the lower lite is my new 12 volt lite.



Here is a pic of a 4' green lite made in the same way.



The ballasts are available from:
Ballast
#OIB-153
http://www.solarseller.com/thinlite_bal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 143_to_162

[TexasZeke]

looks great. only thing I see wrong is there is going to come times when you wish you had more beds

kevin