Project: "Poor Man's" Toy Hauler

[cal_look_zero]

$50. Lights, brakes, a/c, propane, and water pump all work. No fridge or water heater. And so begins the quest to build the ultimate little cheapo toy hauler for track days and other nonsense.

My girlfriend, bless her heart, is skeptical that I can make anything useful out of "That ugly thing" but alas, she's riding around on a GS850 that I bought in parts and pieces. Shame on her for not believing.

My goal, is to lighten it as much as is possible, while still making it comfortable and safe. Part 2 of the goal, is to not spend more than $500 cash on it. Now, that's an unattainable goal by most standards, however I am the champeen of CL bartering, and won't count barter transactions towards my "cash" output.

Basically I'm going to eliminate all of the unneeded amenities like the toilet, shower, kitchen sink, and therefore; the waste tank. It's going to be set up with an outdoor shower and spigot for drinking water. I'll be getting a length of tubing and making a small frame on the roof for heating the water for showering. Most tracks have shower facilities, all have toilets.

I'm not super keen on building my own ramp door on the back, so I'm scouring locally and abroad for a wrecked toy hauler or car trailer that I can snipe the door off of. I'll build one if I have to, but I'd rather not.

I have a 100' spool of 14/3 romex that I plan to use to rewire the whole thing. As I was stripping the panelling off, I was blown away by the total of 14 electrical outlets and 8 lighting fixture this trailer had. It's under 17' for pete's sake! The ceiling is toast, the front and side walls are in decent enough shape to justify not replacing the framework or insulation. Probably going to go super cheap and just slap thin plywood on the walls and paint it to look decent.

There's 2 broken stationary windows that I'm going to replace with plexi. I considered doing all of the windows, but I don't find it necessary yet.

One of the larger expenses is going to be the flooring. I'm probably going gangbusters and dropping in 1 1/8" TG flooring. $32 a sheet is steep, and I might be able to score nice "blowouts" for $10 a sheet like my first trailer, but it's one of those things I can't see skimping on. Not that I've ever had bad luck with 23/32", but eh... we'll see I guess.

As far as the exterior, I'm going to seal all the seams as best I can, lay out the cheapest white single stage I can get, and call er good.

Interior amenities... going to try and build a bench/bed similar to that of a VW vanagon, or a futon I guess. Lots of light material storage cabinets, and probably find a "throwaway" craftsman or similar toolbox to mount in there. Most of what I take is larger and would take a lot of cabinet space to hold, so I'll be putting E-Track on the walls towards the rear for securing stuff; tires, stands, etc. I'll be fortifying the framework in the rear for that.

Standard issue chocks and recessed D rings for strapping the bike(s) down. Initially it's going to be built as a 2 bike rig, I may expand later for quads or otherwise.

Well if you read this far, congrats; you're bored! I plan to keep a running tally on this and hopefully get it completed by opening day at t-hill next year, and on par with the budget.

Trailer Purchase - $50
Wiring Adapter for Car - $15
2 trips to dispose of interior of trailer - $8
Total 9/6/11 - $73

 

[cal_look_zero]

I forgot to mention, at this point, I've stripped 450lbs out of it (Weighed my pickup before I hit the transfer station and after) and I haven't even touched the bathroom or kitchen. Looks like I'll have this trailer nice and lightened up by the time I'm finished gutting it.

 

[Flaming Chainsaws]

Cool project. Subscribed.

 

[cal_look_zero]

Had about 45 minutes before work today. Managed to rip out everything else except the shower. I plan on fortifying the roof a lot better than it is currently. I think the large gaps between supports is what led to so much leakage. Going to run cross supports so the roof is actually supported by a frame and not just supports every few feet.

16' x 7' 6" is my floor layout. Going to draw up a few different plans and see what lays out best.

Going to finish yanking everything out tomorrow morning and start on pulling the floor up and seeing what the frame and plumbing look like.

 

[cal_look_zero]

Woohoo. Just scored a toy hauler ramp door for $50 and five rolls of R15 for $20. I'll have to frame the door in with something sturdy, but I cannot believe I found one, and for so cheap! Some delam on the wood, but I can brad nail it back down and live with it.

The trailer is INFESTED with little ants. I can't tell what kind they are, but they're all gonna be dead by this time tomorrow.

Almost got a nasty surprise pulling the bathroom apart. Shouldn't have taken the guy's word that the black tank was emptied... I'll let you figure out the rest.

The floor was 1/2" ply over 2"x2" framework. I don't like it, so I'll be going through with my plywood flooring. Found shop quality 3/4" for $16 a sheet. Also found cheapo MDF wall paneling for $7 a sheet. Need 14 sheets though, ugh.

Here's the tentative budget at this point.

Trailer - $50
Wiring adapter - $15
3 trips to dispose of interior wood - $12
Insulation - $20
Ramp door - $50
4 sheets 3/4" ply - $64
14 sheets wall paneling - $98
= $309

HOWEVER, I sold some CB goods to the tune of $135
309-135
=$174

 

[Dodik]

if your budget allows it invest in some HD spring/leaf springs for the mitsu, you;ll save more on gas if that truck is leveled than springs will cost you. And it will be much better ride to the track.

 

[cal_look_zero]

if your budget allows it invest in some HD spring/leaf springs for the mitsu, you;ll save more on gas if that truck is leveled than springs will cost you. And it will be much better ride to the track.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've had a set of OME heavy lift springs sitting in storage for this truck for over a year now. When I saw the rear sag, I remembered I need to install them and torque the front torsions up.

I think I hit a snag in my $500 budget: Tires, brakes, and a weight distributing hitch. I didn't realize proper trailer tires for this application would run, oh, $400 a set or better. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and do some bartering for a set of decent tires? And a WD hitch?

 

[Dodik]

well you might get away without WD hitch at first. when you took that pic i think you had most of the weight in front of the trailer (kitchen etc.) so when you put your whole thing together try to make trailer balanced and have the bikes sit over the axle, this way trailer will be more or less balanced with beefed up suspension you may not need that hitch for now and when you get funds just add it later.
as far as tires go look on CL, ebay etc for a some decent deals you dont NEED them to be a matching set, as far as condition and size is same you should be good.

 

[cal_look_zero]

Buying a Sawzall tomorrow...

mwahahahahahaha

 

[BigD_83]

Buying a sawzall? Up here that would cut into your $500 budget pretty quickly (yes, bad pun intended...no extra charge)

 

[cal_look_zero]

Bazinga.

$25 at Harbor Freight. Piece of crap? Perhaps. But as long as it lasts long enough to cut out the floor and hack off the back... Good enough for me.

 

[Mop Bucket]

Oh this thread is awesome. I might have to book mark the trailer section and get in on the fun. Watching with great interest.

 

[Erki]

lovin the budget build. will be following this. looks good so far.

 

[Guest]

This looks pretty cool Cal, will be keeping an eye on it for sure!

 

[cal_look_zero]

Had a little fun with the sawzall. $25 on sale with a 20% off coupon... works well for $20.

Ok, maybe I had A LOT of fun with the sawzall. Too much fun? No such thing.

 

[Etcheberri]

dude! you gotta stop before you end up with this :

nice progress btw.