Harbor Freight Camper Build Part 2

    There is an unnoticed cost for the Harbor Freight trailer. The tires that come with it are not highway rated. If this was only driven around town or on a farm where speeds where kept at under 50 mph, this would be fine. So back to HF I went and picked up two tires at $129 each. I have no idea if the price was affected by the tariffs because I had never paid attention to the tires beforehand.  If you look at the picture, the tires that came with the trailer has brown sawdust mixed in the tread and you can see the tread of the larger new tires installed. So the new tires give a little bit more ground clearance.

    The HF trailer stabilizers were just under $38 each and would have been installed sticking out of the trailer. So I ordered a four piece set from Amazon for around $70. I ran into two problems. The first was the trailer didn’t have predrilled holes for these stabilizers. The second was if I drilled a second hole and bolted it into place, the stabilizer would hit the bottom of the trailer and not lock into place. So I made some wood mounts and bolted them into place. The back worked fine, but the front stabilizers had to have a channel cut into the wood to allow proper operation.

I wanted to go with a covered wagon inspired design so that it would be possible to stand up and move around. The problem with this is that it would be too tall for my garage. So I built the bottom half of the wall and I will build the top half of the wall with hinges so that it can be disassembled for storage and travel. I plan on a 12” x!2 x 2”’ square (maybe larger) cut into two triangles with anchors installed so that they lock up the corner and hold the top half of the wall up.

In the next picture, I have no idea why it appears to be a trapezoid shape.

    The next task is to seal up the wheel wells, caulk up the seams and build a bench seat. I have a few piano hinges that will allow the seat to lift up, giving some storage space for bags or tubs. I will put in one (maybe two) tables. I originally wanted to have a table that folds up out of the way, but I think it needs to be a permanent table to give the back wall additional structural support. If there was a table on each side, there could be a middle removable panel to create one long table. On the front wall, I will have a trifold plywood bed frame that drops down. When folded out it will fit a full size air mattress. Or if it is folded down without expanding it all the way, it could be used as additional counter space to set things out.

I need to paint the outside, but I haven’t chosen a color yet.