This is Boyd’s cheap DIY Micro Camper.
He built the whole thing himself and you can watch his video tour below.
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He Built Affordable, DIY Micro Camper with Fold Down Picnic Table!
Images © Boyd Earl
After the ideas and planning, it all truly begins with the trailer!
Then, the framing begins.
Before you know it, you’ve got shelter (almost)
Time to put up the roof!
A look inside…
The finished product (exterior)…
Lightweight and easy to tow.
With the bench seats down, solar panel up on the roof, too!
Images © Boyd Earl
Video: DIY Micro Camper with Fold-Down Picnic Table
Highlights:
- Fold-down picnic table
- Solar-powered
- Metal roof
- Made from utility trailer
- Ramp deck and awning
- Full size mattress
Our big thanks to Boyd for sharing!
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Natalie C. McKee
Natalie C. McKee is a contributor for Tiny House Talk and the Tiny House Newsletter. She's a wife and mama of two little kids. She and her family just purchased a small fixer-upper and are starting a self-sufficient homestead on their happy little acre.
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I really like the dual use of the bed as a desk/sofa and then using the desk to extend it at night. Will keep it in mind for my van conversion; really frees up valuable space.
Ya it was very clever! — Tiny House Talk Team
I agree! About freeing up valuable spaces. Two thumbs up!
Yay! 🙂 — Tiny House Talk Team
I like the front porch. It would make it easy to go in and out–better than a set of tiny steps.
I totally agree!
DO U HAVE PLANS AVAILABLE??
How did you finish the inside of the roof?
Thank you for sharing your wonderful camper build. The table idea is fabulous. Have fun camping in your mini castle.
Looks Amazing. Do you have an overall weight on it? How well does it tow going down the highway? I would love to do some thing like this, but as it would be my first time, I have a lot of questions. Best of luck with yours and hope you find lots of great adventures. Thank you for sharing!
I love this! Handsome inside and out. Several people have already asked questions that I am curious about. I will monitor your responses to them. Thank you for the ideas and sharing!
Would you consider building another one for me to purchase?
I am surprised that there aren’t any mobile tiny cabins/houses constructed using the Stitch & Glue method which is so popular in boatbuilding!
Whilst there is a Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC) teardrop style trailer designed for this construction method, I am not aware of anything built to a larger scale.
This construction method is capable of creating large, immensely strong and very lightweight structures whose strength lies in their monocoque structure, the materials (plywood) and the means of connecting everything together.
Considering the demands placed on even small watercraft, it is easy to appreciate the benefits of the Stitch & Glue method in this application.
The Internet is an invaluable, free source of information on this construction method.
Even a small cabin like the one featured can be built to be lighter and stronger using the S&G method, which then enables a lighter trailer to be used, reducing the weight even more.
The cabin can be made completely self contained, allowing it to slide off the trailer on built in skids, this allows the trailer to be used for more than one purpose and allows the cabin to be sited without the trailer, even mounted on pontoons for that shanty boat character!
Well, strength is relative and what works in water doesn’t always translate to land, and even in the boating industry there’s reasons it’s use has never gone beyond the amateur boat builders and isn’t a standard across the board.
Stitch and Glue is impractical for hulls designed for cold-mold or diagonal plywood strips, for example. The primary point is to keep designs simple, which is its real strength, but that can be an issue when the design needs to be more complex. You can scale bigger but the design still has to be kept simple and not all boat designs work with it.
While the use of epoxies can be toxic to some, even though epoxies are used on conventional plywood boat construction, it’s not as extensive as the glue, fillets, and fiberglass reinforcements of S&G boats. So exposure can be at levels that can effect some people during construction. So a commercial builder would have to account for that and would have added costs for running production to protect their workers and producing a lot more than a single product at a time…
It’s also a fairly labor intensive process and the time involved can be an issue for commercial application where time is money. There’s also the issue that such construction doesn’t lend itself to be easily repairable if damaged. Not a issue for small and simple structures you can easily replace but larger and more complex structures means that can become cost prohibitive… Much like why molded fiberglass isn’t more widely used in the RV industry either and stick and tin construction dominates despite all its flaws.
Actual RV’s may also require more complex walls that contain insulation, plumbing, and electrical wiring, which usually means it needs some kind of framing to form the wall cavity for all of those things, and often that will also need to be serviceable and not locked away behind a glued and stitched wall and everything that would be on it…
But sure, simple shell DIY camper design it should be a great option…
Would love to see y9ur plans. How much?