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philpom
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# Posted: 22 Mar 2026 04:58pm
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Or a tiny camper.
It was back in 2020 during the.... I don't know what to call it, but found myself with few options to go do. I decided to build our own tiny camper. The cabin is 8'x5' and total length is 12'. I purchased a harbor freight HD trailer kit for the chasis. A million nuts and bolts, was fun putting that together.
It's 100% custom 1 of a kind, we've put thousands of miles on it and camped in multiple states. It has been a super fun project. I can't say it's done because I have lots of ideas for additions I wanna make. The outside is covered in PMF or poor man's fiberglass. It's 7lb cotton duck canvas glued down with TB II and painted with an exterior latex paint. The outside will never check. There is a full queen bed inside, heating and air conditioning, storage etc. Powered with a 100 ah lithium battery with shunt and can be charged with shore, generator, or it has 200 watts of solar. I planned, designed, and built from scratch though I did buy RV doors, windows, hatches etc. It's fully wired for DC or AC and has an on board 750 watt inverter.
Anyways, enough but I'll share some pictures.
If anyone is interested in this topic, I have extensive photos of the build and a mountain of resources.
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philpom
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# Posted: 22 Mar 2026 05:05pm
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Few more pics. Besides the cabin this is by far the most complex project I ha e taken on, took 2 years of evenings out in the garage to get it builr.
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darz5150
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# Posted: 22 Mar 2026 05:31pm - Edited by: darz5150
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Nice build.Quoting: philpom I don't know what to call it
I had something similar. We called it a "Condominimum" lol
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paulz
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# Posted: 22 Mar 2026 07:21pm
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Yes very nice!
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 22 Mar 2026 07:26pm - Edited by: gcrank1
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Nice job!
Although we built our #1 cabin in 1983-84 we were also motorcycle touring and camping, backpacking, canoe camping and pickup truck with topper camping. I often thought about finding and rebuilding an old teardrop or even little Winnebago type but didn't find one. Eventually we ended up with a Ford conversion van that I pulled the seats and redid as a camper, it sure beat a tent on the ground! Then we had an alum bodied retired 'bread truck' with a diy camper interior, about 12' living space behind the front seats.
I concluded that it would be nice to have a tow behind so we could at least leave a campsite without totally breaking camp or change up tow vehicles so we got an old canvas 'pop-up' (ughhh) then bought a new A-Liner (SWEET).
But as our traveling days were closing out it was return to cabineering. We have now had this new property for 5yrs come August 1 and although it had a shack it was too far gone so we designed and had prebuilt a 12x28 milled log cabin, it was delivered 2 years ago come May 1. We were just there yesterday (it is less than an hour drive north from home) and have no need to travel and camp. A friend has a nice modern teardrop for sale, we talked about it and it is not for us any more.
I guess we BTDT, but I admire what your did there
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paulz
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# Posted: 23 Mar 2026 10:12am
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Before I bought my property we had an old camper van. Anything you brought had to fit in the one tiny side door, so I cut one side and turned it into a lift up door. Could bring tons of stuff along, even motorcycles. Often groups would hang out under it, cook, listen to music… had it at the property until the cabin took over.
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philpom
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2026 04:02pm
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Quoting: gcrank1 I guess we BTDT, but I admire what your did there
Thank you, sounds like you've enjoyed your own journey. I've read a bit about van builds and have ideas but that's one I'll probably never do. Would be a fun project though.
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philpom
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2026 04:06pm
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Quoting: paulz Before I bought my property we had an old camper van. Anything you brought had to fit in the one tiny side door, so I cut one side and turned it into a lift up door. Could bring tons of stuff along, even motorcycles. Often groups would hang out under it,
That's awesome, why they don't have features like this to start is interesting. The utility of it is huge. Maybe it needed netting to keep bugs out?
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philpom
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2026 04:18pm
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We like to hit lots of places through the year, this makes it easy, pull up and camp. Wake up and leave, of course this depends on how complex we make camp, we can spread out pretty good.
One thing we have done is taken it to our cabin and used it to take 1 night trips to places within range but where you'd have a better time overnight. A great lake, awesome creek camping etc. We can be responsible adults and drive home the next day
At one point I thought, "maybe I should have built an extravagant place to park an RV with large room, big deck, hookups etc. Not healthy to second guess so I stopped that line of thinking. For about a year we did let my little brother store his 30' rv on the land. They'd go up for the weekend and have fun. In exchange he'd keep the yard. As it stands today I have to drive 7 hours to do it. I purchased an old yard machine that I leave up there for that, I use to haul one on a trailer. Riding that thing reminds me of an old Ford. Hold your tongue just right, rub the dash and cross your fingers. A far cry from the automatic with cruise control I enjoy at our main home.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2026 06:08pm
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We had no need or reason to 'have a lawn' at our old hill cabin and intended to not have one at the 'new' property. Then the infestation of little Blue Stem took over..... We upgraded the home lawn tractor and took the old one to cabin, it gave us a yard but our view on the deck was being blocked farther out too.
Fortunately the JD1025r I bought from the neighbor came with a rear rotary mover, tale end of summer and early fall I moved 2/3 of our meadow; got our view back.
We have no idea if that will slow or encourage the LBS, this year will be interesting.
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DRP
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2026 07:17pm
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I quit my job and was in a sleeping bag in the back of our Datsun pickup all over the place building and framing. I called home on our anniversary from the far coast; it didn't go well. She was in the back of the Datsun the next week. Her Dad got wind, said oh hell no, and gave us the Class A motorhome he had built from the chassis up. It caught fire on the way home, DanG!. We camped out for about a week, rebuilt the engine bay in a junkyard, and the adventure was on. We were on the road for about 12 years till the family circle needed to step in. Building log and regular houses and planting over a million trees, living the life.
I've been gutting the old girl, there is more JC Whitney than you can shake a stick at. The 454 big block has less than 100K on it and if properly tuned will still throw you back in the seat... at 6500 lbs. Gas mileage is deplorable but with the low deck it has the capacity to haul the skidsteer, tractor, or a pile of lumber. It might en up as a funky huge rat rod
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philpom
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# Posted: 4 Apr 2026 11:47am
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Quoting: gcrank1 We had no need or reason to 'have a lawn' at our old hill cabin and intended to not have one at the 'new' property. Then the infestation of little Blue Stem took over..... We upgraded the home lawn tractor and took the old one to cabin, it gave us a yard but our view on the deck was being blocked farther out too. Fortunately the JD1025r I bought from the neighbor came with a rear rotary mover, tale end of summer and early fall I moved 2/3 of our meadow; got our view back. We have no idea if that will slow or encourage the LBS, this year will be interesting.
We never really planned for a proper yard but it just kinda happened. First it was putting a road in and backfilling a retaining wall, then clearing for a building site, then clearing for water well, propane, barn, fire pit, car port.
Next thing ya know I had all this space that needed to be mowed and edged routinely. There are some large rattle snakes so I am sure to keep it short and tidy, they don't like the short grass and I leave nothing piled up for them to hide in/under.
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philpom
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# Posted: 4 Apr 2026 11:55am
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Quoting: DRP I quit my job and was in a sleeping bag in the back of our Datsun pickup all over the place building and framing. I called home on our anniversary from the far coast; it didn't go well. She was in the back of the Datsun the next week. Her Dad got wind, said oh hell no, and gave us the Class A motorhome he had built from the chassis up. It caught fire on the way home, DanG!. We camped out for about a week, rebuilt the engine bay in a junkyard, and the adventure was on. We were on the road for about 12 years till the family circle needed to step in. Building log and regular houses and planting over a million trees, living the life.
That's a cool story and adventurous start. We're waiting for everything to be perfect before going full time. Often I think to myself we should just jump in and do it. We're only getting older, my fear is running out of good years.
It kinda reminds me of a camping trip gone horrible. The memories stick with you snd no matter what happened at that moment it's always fond to look back.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 4 Apr 2026 02:10pm
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A trip where everything goes perfect; ie, has no adversity to overcome, isn't very memorable ime
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paulz
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# Posted: 4 Apr 2026 05:02pm - Edited by: paulz
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Here’s one we remember: we were crossing Nevada, in the RV above, when late one rainy night we passed a McDonald’s. Turning around, we entered the drive through from the side entrance. What we missed was the overhanging ‘overhead limit X feet’ hangin in the main entrance. Pulled up to the ordering menu and ordered ok, but as I pulled forward got stuck on the overhead light fixture. Had to gun it and when it broke free, took the roof window off, along with the rear ladder. Worse than that, as I pulled up to the widow had the ladder dragging from the bumper, along with the McDonald’s light standard. Drove up to the window with a crazed look on my face, paid and got my order from the bewildered kid, and took off down the highway dragging that ladder and lights in a shower of sparks.
A mile away we saw a quarter car wash, pulled into a covered stall to stop the rain coming in through the missing roof window, ate and spent the night waiting for the cops. All good at daylight so ditched the ladder and evidence and off we went. If you look at the photo above the vent window is new and the rear ladder is gone. Had a lot of good times in that thing but goofy things every time.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 4 Apr 2026 07:35pm
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So Paul, is it true that 'confession is good for the soul"?
Have a good Easter everyone!
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paulz
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# Posted: 6 Apr 2026 09:09am
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Quoting: gcrank1 So Paul, is it true that 'confession is good for the soul"?
Not sure about that but wife and I had a good time reliving that trip. Had that little camper van for many years. Another time, I filled it with R12 and got the factory Ford A/C working before another Nevada crossing. So there we were in the blazing heat, AC going along with the powerful stereo I had put in, fridge etc. when all of a sudden the thing coughed to a stop, along with smoke coming out of the engine cover. Turned out al that juice fried the alternator wiring, killing the engine spark as the battery died.
Luckily there was an old house lamp packed, cutting the cord off gave me enough wire to jumper in a replacement wire from alternator out, and the battery had recovered just enough to start it, so of we went down the interstate, no A/C, no music, warm beer.
Here’s the last photo of it, during cabin build. Hard to believe it actually made it up the hill, little 302 must have been floored. I guess we slept in it while I finished building.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 8 Apr 2026 08:44pm
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Quoting: paulz Here’s one we remember: we were crossing Nevada,
Paul, loved that story.  
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 8 Apr 2026 09:16pm
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We got up your way in it, I sold a motorcycle to a guy in Chilliwack. When we got to the Canada border, they asked if we had any weapons. Told them I had the pistol I always carried. They said can’t bring that across, go back to the nearby town, forget the name, and talk to the guy in the grocery store there. Went back, the guy takes me in the back, had a regular weapons storage facility going on, shelves full of Manila folders! They stored it for the week I was up there.
That was over 30 years ago, gotta be different now.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 8 Apr 2026 09:49pm
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A Vincent!
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