Pop-up into lightweight full camper

[andi]

I can't find any conversions other than using a lot of plywood and making the thing super-heavy. What I'm coming up with is aluminum or steel frame, with rigid foam boards covered with fiberglass. This is putting together a lot of information from many places, but I can't find anything to do specifically this. Some people strip down to the trailer and start over, but what about keeping the base box and as much of the roof as possible?

 

[Gypsy Freedom]

have you checked out foamies

might find something there that might be helpfull

 

[bullfrog]

There are several out there but most that are done this way have gotten extensive water damage to the floors as the canvas is usually the first thing to go bad and leak. You end up with a bigger job if you have to replace the floor than just throwing everything away and building a whole new camper body. Apache hard side campers are still around and most are older and can be found used cheaper than you can build one but the small tires wore out quickly especially if overloaded.

 

[andi]

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I've checked out foamies, and yes that is very helpful.

The couple conversions I did find were stripped down to the trailer undercarriage, so probably the wood had gone bad. Maybe it would be best to do that. That would also give a chance to make the base lighter and maybe stronger.

 

[andi]

We're actually looking to see if we can cut the top off a junked van and put it onto the camper base ... (That probably wouldn't be very light though.)

 

[[email protected]]

Andi, check out my mini trailer build under miscellaneous vehicles "my unorthodox camper trailer build" . I used a pickup shell for the upper section , built a 42" set of side walls to make the trailer tall enough to stand up in. Check it out you might get some ideas. My total cost was very reasonable. I recently sold it for a nice profit. I enjoy the building process. Best of luck on your project.

 

[maki2]

You can do this using 6061 T6 aluminum for the frame. That is what they use for aircraft structure which has to be super strong and also light weight. You can get already constructed aluminum trailer frames to build on top of. Some of them have aluminum plank flooring which makes a very nice decking. You can skin the outside with RV "fiberglass/Filon" siding. Just realize this is not going to be a super cheap to do build due to the cost of the aluminum. But it will be very strong as well as light weight.

Of course the easy way to approach this is to buy an aluminum cargo trailer and then put an interior in it.

 

[ckelly78z]

The only camper I ever converted into a utility trailer wasn't any good as a camper any more. It was a two axle 14' long Scamper from the early 70s, and the roof had become so heavy from water suturation, that it couldn't be lifted any longer.

If you have a camper box that is still good, it might be a good starting point, but most are fairly small (6x8, or 6x10), and wouldn't have the slideout beds.

 

[HungryCoyote]

First build I've seen with bunk beds. Very cool.