Toy Hauler Camper build??

[Tunertype]

Anyone have experience converting a camper into a toy hauler?

I have one of these:



I want one of these:



I paid $1500 for the one I've got a toy hauler is hard to find and are somewhere around $5000-$10000. The pop up variety are very hard to find and are more desireable to me for the space savings and lighter towing weight.

These guys(Toy Hauler Fab LLC Home Page) will do the conversion for about $2500, but they're in CO. Also if they can do it labor included for $2500 I'm sure I could do it for say $500-$1000.

I guess it would entail checking the weight distrubition, making sure the axle/wheels can handle the load and is in the right place and welding/bolting on an addition to the trailer. I've also seen some pictures where they just plopped the pop up on a bigger trailer.



That looks a bit odd to me though and I have no way to pick up the pop up and just plop it on a new trailer base. I could probably jack it up remove the base work on it and bolt it back into place though if that would end up being stronger/easier than a simple bolt/weld on addition.

The only problem I see with keeping it single axle is how to centralize the toy weight so that it works out balanced enough with both the bike on the trailer and with it off the trailer. When we're talking about a dry weight of 2000lbs now and maybe 2300lbs after the conversion a 400lb bike on one extreme end or the other will make a pretty significant difference in the weight distribution.

[RandyO]

put the camper on a trolly that will let you position it closer to the wheels if your hauling fewer bikes to balance the load

with the ability to shift it back to the end for use in stationary camping mode

[sedanman]

I was looking at basic landscape style trailers and thought that l could build one cheaper. I built a better one than l could have bought but it WASN'T cheaper. Steel adds up quick whe you pay retail. The trailer places buy it by the train load. If l were dead set on doing this, I'd buy an open car trailer and move the axle and fenders. I guarantee this would be the most cost effective route.

[loudbeard]

Contact Steve Welch at Welch Trailer in Taunton, MA. He can custom build whatever you want and is extremely reasonable. For comparison, I have bought an 18' dove tail, 8k GVW, for about $2800 new. Full wood deck, all the nice bells and whistles. Later I bought a custom 16' deck over for $3100 similarly speced. I'm assuming he could put together a platform for you for about $2k. I don't think you'll get away with a single axle though. Typically any trailer that's 14' or greater is going to be a dual axle (though I have seen a few single axle 14's.). You're going to need something in the 20'+ range. Steve can also add an extended tongue to accommodate the pop up on that side.

At the end of the day, I think you're still getting too close to just buying a 16x8.5" bare bones enclosed trailer. In my mind, that's pretty perfect length. Long enough to wall off a permanent living quarters and hauler in the back anyway.

[JettaJayGLS]

I always thought it would be cool to just reinforce the top of a pop-up and park the bikes on that.