Cargo Trailer Conversion: From Transport to Travel

The Creative Process

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn”.
– T. S. Eliot

Some might think it’s sacriledge to take the words of T.S. Eliot and apply them to something other than poetry. However, any creative process follows the pattern Eliot describes above. Even a cargo trailer conversion.

We imitate, we steal, we refashion, and in the end, we create something entirely different. Everyone creates. It’s part of the human experience.

I wanted to post something a little different today and people have been curious about our trailer conversion. So, here it is.

Our cargo trailer conversion

When we start on a DIY project:

we steal ideas (which is much easier now with Pinterest – wow, people are so creative)
mix and match them
and then tweak them or add in an idea or two of our own.

None of the projects we’ve done turned out perfectly, but they’re our vision and handiwork and we’re pretty happy with them in the end.

Our cargo trailer conversion was last summer’s project. But it all started several years ago . . .

Well maybe even longer than that. Let’s go back a long ways.

When you go out in the woods today . . .

Have you ever been camping only to waken at night to a “whu”. . . whu . . . whu”. You know that sound of air being forced out of your lungs when you jump off something high?

That happened to a friend and I when we were camping in Banff years ago. As advised, we suspended our food between two trees.

Obviously we hadn’t pulled it high enough and the “whu . . . whu” noise was the bear grunting as it landed each time it attempted to snag our food provisions.

With bated breath we listened to the silence that hung in the air. A “whu” a pause, another “whu” followed by a pause, and then . . . the crash of our food cache hitting the ground.

The sound of the bear crunching and slurping right next to our heads reduced us to helpless (read terrified) laughter. Our shoulders shook as we covered our mouths to smother the sound.

Suddenly, Jean pulled on my arm and gestured to the foot of her sleeping bag where we had left the uneaten crackers and cheese. The cheap bottle of wine was empty, but wait . . . would the smell of cheese lure the bear into our tent?

It didn’t.

After polishing off the eggs and lapping up the milk, it left the bacon for us and ambled on its way

That was but the beginning of my bear encounters

My husband and I camped quite a lot with our girls when they were young.

We ordered this gigantic tent from Cabela’s that had a large vestibule. Storing all the gear in the vestible left lots of sleeping space for the 5 of us.

We were camping in style – almost glamping although the term hadn’t been invented yet.

Aside from the bear who stole my food, I’ve been charged by bears, not once, but twice.

So as much as I love camping, I’m always apprehensive when we crawl into the tent at night.

Bring on the Cargo Trailer Conversion

How this trailer conversion came about is still somewhat a mystery to me. My husband, Budd, talked about it a number of times without much interest on my part.

Things have a way of sneaking up on a person without a conscious awareness and that, I think, is what happened.

He started talking about how we could haul our kayaks and bikes with us easily. We could even fit the quad in if we wanted.

Plus, he reasoned, you’ll feel safer at night and will sleep better.

He started showing me pictures of trailer conversions and telling me that it would enhance our camping experience . . . and I’d sleep better (he knows I love my sleep).

There’s a name for this strategy – for now I’ll call it the boiled frog strategy.

As a minimalist wannabe, I was dubious

We, I stated emphatically, don’t need it.

But then, curiosity piqued, I started researching and I started pinning cool ideas.

There’s a lot of people out there who’ve done cargo trailer conversions. I learned about Stealth trailers, tiny houses, fancy conversions, plain conversions, ugly conversions.

It was fascinating and I was hooked.

So I began looking at prices, thinking we could do this really economically. It really did seem that way at first.

My husband had specific requirements. He wanted high clearance so we could take it into remote areas, a vee front for aerodynamics and an 8 foot width. And we both wanted a high ceiling so we could elevate the bed to make room for the quad and still have space underneath so we didn’t crack our heads on the frame.

We had fun planning and executing the conversion. We stole ideas from a multiple of sources, and added our own flair.

The trailer we bought is actually a sled hauler.

A good friend of mine, when she heard what we paid, asked me why we didn’t just buy a good used Trailer. I had no answer other than we thought it’d be fun to convert it. Plus we wanted it to be multipurpose. Did I mention that we store all our yard furniture, kayaks, and bikes in it through the winter?

If I’m perfectly honest though, it’s also because I didn’t do my research properly. Fixated on cargo trailer conversions, I didn’t explore other options.

That’s a Long Preamble to our Project

You’ll find pictures of it below.

We have a few more items we’d like to add – an awning, a sink with a pump action faucet, a built-in port-a-potty.

Oh, our latest purchase is in the second to last picture. Our kids don’t know we’ve bought it and I think I’ll only be brave enough to use it when we are camping in some secluded site with no-one else around.

There I go, letting my life be dictated by what others may think – zipping my freedom in my back pocket. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, follow the link to read my post about Freedom.

Overall, this project provided a lot of creative fun!

And I really do love camping in it. It still seems a little like we’re roughing it so I haven’t completely sold out on my ideals.

A Room with a View

The trailer you can see came bare bones. It was plumbed with a propane heater, and was wired with a couple of interior lights. We started out by painting the the exposed wood with a good durable paint.

Next we found garage lino that was the perfect width so we were able to lay it down in one sheet. We cut out around the tie downs so they are accessible for securing cargo.

Canadian Tire had a sale on Maximum garage cabinets. The three units you see here give us so much storage. The upper units hold our dry goods.

The double doors on the bottom hold two 5 gallon water jugs. Right now we have a hand pump on them. We plan on installing a sink where the brown bowl is and have a hand pump that leads to a water jug below. The sink will drain into a second empty jug.

The drawers house all our dishes.

The cabinet has plenty of room for our clothes, and other camping neccessities like a hammock, games, lanterns etc.

We mounted E-Track everywhere. It’s great! J-Hooks to hang baskets, jackets or gear. Rope tie-offs to secure gear against the wall.

We built our bed frame to fit into the wood beam end sockets. We then mounted single anchors up high so we can store the bed against the ceiling.

Simple slats secured to a metal bracket makes a great platform for the mattress.

Here’s the bed in it’s raised position. There’s a shelf at the head of the bed for our books and flashlight. When raised, the bed has a clearance of about 6’4” so the space below is fully usable.

Lace curtains that were gathering dust in my cupboard work great as a mosquito netting.

The ramp gets a little dirty so the curtain hides the grime from view when the ramp is up. If you look closely you can see the top edge of the metal sawhorses that we use to support the ramp when we use it as a deck.

Even in lowered position, the bed is high enough so there’s plenty of room for storage underneath. The kayaks slide in easily.

The bikes go in last and we secure them to the bedrame.

We’ve added this Eccotemp hot water-on-demand to our outdoor kitchen. It has a pump for those sites where we don’t have any water hook-up. We mounted it onto a dolly so it’s easy to move in and out of the trailer.

This was inspired by the whiskey barrel hot tub. What could be more delux after a day of hiking then to climb into a tub of hot water? Not so practical to haul around a whiskey barrel however. So then we contemplated a hammock hot tub, but it wouldn’t be easy to find branches strong enough to hold the weight.

So . . . why not a big rubber tub? We went on a hunt and found this one. The hot water on demand shown above can be rolled down to the water’s edge or we can haul the water to fill the tub up and heat it by cycling it through the water heater to the desired temperature.

Voila!

I’ll post an update in the comments when we’ve had a chance to try it out.

This picture says it all. What could be more magical than to back into a spot by the lake and watch the setting sun from our room with a view.

The act of creating is magical. We don’t have to be T.S. Eliot, or Picasso to create. Go create something new today!

May your day be filled with beautiful color and moments of wonder.

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