I have a Silverado with 297k miles, ugly rust, missing tailgate, and has been sitting unused for almost a year. Not worth much, maybe $1-1,200 I dunno. It has a topper on it though and the bed is in okay-ish shape. I'm kicking around the idea of removing the cab, gutting equipment underneath the bed and turning the bed and topper into a trailer which we could sleep in while camping or on our upland hunts. It would also go on one or two big game hunts per year on rough forest service roads but nothing "off road", Just base camp style.
I have a '10 Nissan Pathfinder, the older R51 not the newer crossovers version, to pull it with. Has anyone done one of these and what do you pull it with? I know it will be heavier than a purpose built "overland" camper trailer but I am not in the market for a multi thousand dollar trailer. My needs are much more basic. I would think that it would automatically be better on rough roads than a Lowes or Home Depot utility trailer just by nature of being pick up truck height, pick up tires, springs, etc. I would love to hear how they pull, weight, etc. I wonder how it compares in weight to the surplus military trailers that everyone seems to love, although those are not very cheap anymore either. Where do you think the truck bed trailer conversion stands on the scale of "budget" options?
My wife and I currently sleep in the SUV with the seats down but we haven't been using kennels for the dogs and it was already too tight of a fit and now with a kid, it's not practical at all. I want to start keeping the dogs in crash rated dog kennels or metal dog box, haul a large chuck box/galley for cooking, and a couple of coolers. Then I will need a roomy, unencumbered sleeping area for the three of us. With the truck bed trailer the dog kennels would go in the back of the SUV so we could take them to the field and not have to drag the trailer around. The truck bed w/ topper would just be for sleeping and I would just leave it at the camp site while hunting.
The other option is sell the junky truck to pay for the above mentioned Lowes or Home Depot trailer and mount the dog boxes, chuck box, and coolers to it and leave the SUV open for sleeping in. This is less convenient because I would have to pull the trailer with dogs to every spot I want to hunt and would require removing and replacing the kids car seat daily to put the seats down for sleeping (kid's seat mostly applicable to camping trips, not as much to hunting trips.) I think the utility trailer would be fine for the camping and upland hunting trips but I feel like it would fall apart on some of the forest service roads. I imagine I would have to upgrade the tires, axle, and springs at least, yeah?
A final option which fills the same roll as the truck bed conversion, is building a teardrop style camper on the home depot utility trailer but the diy plywood teardrops seem so flimsy to me and I would still have to replace the axle and springs anyway.
I don't know that I'm interested in a Coleman pop up style camper because I possibly still need to upgrade for use on forest service roads, and often times we stop at truck stops over night and laying the SUV seats down or a climbing into a small hard side "camper" of some sort is much more practical and discreet than popping a popup tent trailer in their parking lot lol.
I really am intrigued by the idea of turning the spare truck into a camper but want to hear some other opinions and hear from people who have done it since that route is a one way road. Attached is my inspiration for the truck bed trailer. What do you guys think? Maybe I am totally missing some serious pros or cons to these options or an option I haven't though of.
Edit- the potential donor truck is a standard cab, 8' bed if that makes a difference.
I have a '10 Nissan Pathfinder, the older R51 not the newer crossovers version, to pull it with. Has anyone done one of these and what do you pull it with? I know it will be heavier than a purpose built "overland" camper trailer but I am not in the market for a multi thousand dollar trailer. My needs are much more basic. I would think that it would automatically be better on rough roads than a Lowes or Home Depot utility trailer just by nature of being pick up truck height, pick up tires, springs, etc. I would love to hear how they pull, weight, etc. I wonder how it compares in weight to the surplus military trailers that everyone seems to love, although those are not very cheap anymore either. Where do you think the truck bed trailer conversion stands on the scale of "budget" options?
My wife and I currently sleep in the SUV with the seats down but we haven't been using kennels for the dogs and it was already too tight of a fit and now with a kid, it's not practical at all. I want to start keeping the dogs in crash rated dog kennels or metal dog box, haul a large chuck box/galley for cooking, and a couple of coolers. Then I will need a roomy, unencumbered sleeping area for the three of us. With the truck bed trailer the dog kennels would go in the back of the SUV so we could take them to the field and not have to drag the trailer around. The truck bed w/ topper would just be for sleeping and I would just leave it at the camp site while hunting.
The other option is sell the junky truck to pay for the above mentioned Lowes or Home Depot trailer and mount the dog boxes, chuck box, and coolers to it and leave the SUV open for sleeping in. This is less convenient because I would have to pull the trailer with dogs to every spot I want to hunt and would require removing and replacing the kids car seat daily to put the seats down for sleeping (kid's seat mostly applicable to camping trips, not as much to hunting trips.) I think the utility trailer would be fine for the camping and upland hunting trips but I feel like it would fall apart on some of the forest service roads. I imagine I would have to upgrade the tires, axle, and springs at least, yeah?
A final option which fills the same roll as the truck bed conversion, is building a teardrop style camper on the home depot utility trailer but the diy plywood teardrops seem so flimsy to me and I would still have to replace the axle and springs anyway.
I don't know that I'm interested in a Coleman pop up style camper because I possibly still need to upgrade for use on forest service roads, and often times we stop at truck stops over night and laying the SUV seats down or a climbing into a small hard side "camper" of some sort is much more practical and discreet than popping a popup tent trailer in their parking lot lol.
I really am intrigued by the idea of turning the spare truck into a camper but want to hear some other opinions and hear from people who have done it since that route is a one way road. Attached is my inspiration for the truck bed trailer. What do you guys think? Maybe I am totally missing some serious pros or cons to these options or an option I haven't though of.
Edit- the potential donor truck is a standard cab, 8' bed if that makes a difference.
Attachments
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