Her goal was to quickly and easily enclose a standard 6′ by 10′ cargo trailer to protect her belongings while driving to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
…why not make it cute at the same time as practical?
Starting with a brand new cargo trailer and with an additional $400 of materials, this woman built a stunning cargo trailer for her trip.
She plans to eventually build out the inside to make this trailer into a true tiny mobile home.
One of the ongoing challenges was keeping the weight down. Since the trailer would be used for carrying some heavy cargo, she couldn’t afford to add a lot of unnecessary weight.
See how she built the outer shell below.
The trailer is a heavy-duty, triple-tongue model with 24″ crossbeam supports made by Down2Earth.
She kept the metal side rails and added some wood framing using hurricane straps.
More hurricane ties hold the trailer together.
The studs are attached to the trailer inside the side rails.
The roof is made from lightweight polycarbonate panels installed on 24″ centers.
It’s even got a front bay window for driver visibility and a ridge vent on the top.
Repurposed 1/4″ paneling on the exterior along with a spare tire mount.
After battens and some paint.
The window openings are cut to fit some scrap polycarbonate window panels.
Love that cute white fence and trim!
And some flowers to boot.
Ready for the trip!
After the trailer was completed, it was loaded up with ‘cabin stuff’ and towed to the Blue Ridge mountains. With the help of my brother, I built a one-room cabin with loft level in 4 months. Not having the time or money to continue past the ‘weathered-in’ stage I returned to Florida to my family.
The trailer had served its cargo purpose but as it sat in its parking spot, it called to me for a new life. I decided to convert its interior into a camper.
You can follow the transformation of this cute cargo trailer into a camper at her website here. See a brief tour of the interior of the trailer and the first stages of the conversion in the video below.
