I have been thinking about building my own popup camper,i am about to go to upholstery school,i already have experience with metal/body work,and i worked a job for a while building custom high end $$$ cabinets for homes. My plan is to take a older chevy truck bed maybe 60's long bed? cut it down the center,and add maybe 1 foot to the width,then add about a foot behind the tires,and droping the flor down as far as possible and adding a normal trailer axle.After all that i plan on making a door in the side of it in front of the tire. Everything after that will be all made by me,and adjusted to fit the given area.I have googled my @$$ off and can find no examples of such a creation to draw ideas from.So my questions are 1:has it been done,AND photographed ?2:was it a quality job,when finished mine will be top notch,high quality and comparable to a factory made popup unit,and 3: Does anyone see any issues i may run into ? To all the naysays and the "why" people dont clutter my thread,it is something i want to do in my spare time to have something that is one of a kind. Any positive idea's,and photo's welcome. I will not Steal you idea i am just looking for something for reference.
One thought is trying to keep the proportions looking ok on something that we are used to seeing, but now it looks "wrong" ?? Beds: Chev gmc made a special 9' stepside around 65/66 Not wanting stepside? chev gmc made in early 70s in the 67-72 style, a extra long fleetside. Weird because there was an actual vertical body seam about a foot from the front of the bed. There was a special name, but I forgot. Would a 67/72 3dr long suburban body be any longer inside? Yes, one side would need major filling where the 3rd door was.
I am not so much worried about keeping the dimensions perfectly in check,mostly i am just wanting it to at a glance resemble a classic truck bed with a bed cover while collapsed.But i will look into the extra long beds you guys speak of.
You are going to make up a new trailer frame I would guess. That way you don't have to mess with big funky truck frame, just get the box and do it to it. Sounds like a really interesting project that, well designed and proportioned correctly, would have a decent market as a kit in fiberglass if you wanted to market it.
I think you have a good idea. Having been a good number of places with a pop-up, I'd say the best aspect of them is easy towing partly because of size but also light weight. You will be able to get it down with a dropped axle. We had an old pick-up bed trailer we camped out of before the pop-up and it had the old front axle with the spindles welded straight and mounted on top of the springs, it looked custom. A very positive benefit you will have is the strength from the all steel construction. I also would point out there would be no need to widen a fleetside, and 8' would be plenty long, maybe not, the deciding factor would be the size of the two beds. You know what, you could just have one bed, I mean how many people you want along?
Well,it's just me,my wife,and our son who is 7months as of now.I want the trialer as a haul behind to camp out at car shows,and go to the lake in.I would like to get the box to about 10 feet,and maybe 6 foot wide,now all that will depend on what bed i get to start with,as it stands i have a guy that says if i will haul it off i can have it and its a 67-72' style long bed. Does anybody know the inside length,and width of that style bed,or a early 60's to keep it hamb friendly ? As far as beds i want to have 2 full size beds,if possible.Once again this will all be "ironed out" when i get a bed to work with.
I guess you need two beds so you can dice and slice. My suggestion is go to a camper store and do some measuring.
I've always wanted to transform a vintage 1 horse trailer into a camper. Enclosed with windows, insulated, & sealed up with AC and a bed. About as basic as a teardrop trailer, but with hillbilly flare.
The only bad thing about making a trailer from a couple of nice old pickup beds is that there are jillions of guys tearing up the country looking to buy nice old pickup beds for their nice old pickups! The "prettiest" beds are probably the 60-66 Chevy Fleetside beds.
Since you're going to devise a "pop-up style lid for this jewel you could easily make a couple of fold-out and over the side bed frames using a single bed mattress and a 3rd to mount out in front over the tongue.
Ok guys,take it easy on me,it's not to scale,and not very pretty all i have is microsoft paint,if i had photo shop it would probly look alot better.But at least you guys can see what i am after.I could not find a good side shot of a early 60's bed so i made do with a like one to what a guy wants to give me
Its still gonna look like a redneck camper even if you do quality work. So if you like it and dont mind being called redneck, build it! Sorry but better to be insulted by a fellow redneck now than a outsider after its built...
Why not buy the pop-up and attach the truck bed sides to it saves labor. The horse trailer idea makes me worry about the smell.
Ding ding ding!!! We have a winner. All the "modification" you propose is going to snowball the project into something that takes so long your kid will be grown up before you can use it. If you absolutely gotta do it yourself.....and after building a few pickup box trailers for assorted purposes....my advice is scratch build rather than modify. Use the box sides as decoration. Buy suitable tubing for the frame rails and start from the ground up. Otherwise it's gonna end up a mess of compromised utility or compromised quality. One other thing, early stepsides are real narrow, even if you widen the box, space is at a premium in those style campers. Since trailer tires are skinny, consider narrowing the outer wheelwell/fender by 3 or 4 inches each side. The increased floorspace will be much appreciated. good luck
I dont want a step side,and the doubts of my idea is what i was trying to avoid,I take alot of pride when i do something on my own from scratch.With the skills,and knowledge i already have plus my college training why would i not do something to be different ? Why do you guys chop your tops when you could already by one done and change a small thing about it to make it your own ?
I'd like to see the pics but the link's already dead. I think you are having a hard time finding more pics because there are not many done. I have never seen one myself. I think it sounds like a neat idea. I have designed a number of trailers myself and I would say the best way to decide what you want is to look at others that you like and alway check out the new ones. They are putting more and more cool ideas into these as well as space savers. I used to work at an RV dealer and saw lots of the good and bad. It is just like when you are desining a car for yourself, they say taking note of what you don't like is just as important as what you like so you try to avoid others mistakes! I'm not sure what other advise you want. All depends on what you are going to put in it; turlet, stove, sink, oven, refer, shower, TV, or is just going to be a tent on wheels will all matter for placement of fresh water tank, grey water, black water, heater, water heater, A/C...you get the idea. Power suplies are important too if you will have anything more that just lights. One neat idea I just got from someone is mounting a car horn to the frame and a button by the bed to scare off bears or burglars in the middle of the night.
I have just come across this thread. Here is something you may consider. This is what an AU Falcon Ute looks like: This is what happens when the rear is extended and fitted with a lazy axle to give a 6-wheeler with increased carrying capacity. The camper is the built on.: On this one the van is fixed height, but, there are models where the top section is lower and extends upward. See the extending top on the caravan below and it will give you an idea of how it operates: There are also manufacturers who cutting and widening cabins to adapt to their motorhomes. The roof and rear of the cab is removed and the door sections are angled further outward: I probably haven't explained any of this very well, but, perhaps the pictures and a very good imagination may help to fuse it all together.
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