To our delight, our travel trailer sold quickly. In February, we emptied it of all our belongings and delivered it to its new owners. The only problem now was how we were going to get all our possessions from Arizona back home to Colorado. For those of you that don’t know, we had been living full-time in our travel trailer for the winter here in Arizona. Well, as some things just seem meant to be, 4 days after selling our travel trailer we purchased this very cool little utility bed trailer.
It’s a truck bed converted in to a trailer complete with topper and toolbox. We wanted something large enough to cart all our stuff back to Colorado but small enough to tow along with us on some of our longer camping trips. We figure there’s no better way to haul extra food, water, fuel, firewood, etc.
We immediately put the new trailer thru it’s paces traversing many miles of Arizona back-roads. It performed flawlessly, served as a great kitchen setup (see Mark cooking in the 1st photo) and got us excited about no longer having to keep certain things in the camper like paddleboards and firewood.
We don’t intend to take it on every camping trip as it does add a level of difficulty in terms of how much space we need to turn around and slows the pace at which we feel comfortable traveling on dirt roads. But for those longer camping trips where we’d like to bring along more resources, it’s the perfect solution. It can go a heck of a lot more places than that 30′ monster that we were hauling around for a few months.
Only a few nights in to owning our new toy and we were coming up with all kinds of fun ideas to make it the ultimate adventure trailer. We could add a solar panel, an inverter, lighting in all the cabinets, an awning, a sink, the possibilities are endless. But, the whirlwind of buying and selling a travel trailer in a few short months has left us wanting to slow down and be more thoughtful about our future projects.
The first project will be new tires to get all our possessions safely back to Colorado as well as possibly swapping out the truck axle for a trailer axle and adding trailer brakes. Mark is still heavily debating that idea.
When we sit at camp and look at this trailer and think back to the travel trailer, we’re humored by how much better this cheap, weird, one-of-a-kind little homemade trailer fits our lifestyle.
This will be an ongoing project that Mark will tinker with at his leisure. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on any fun modifications we decide to do!
4wd trailer, adventure trailer, homemade trailer, off road trailer, truck bed trailer, truck camper travel, utility bed trailer
That is a SWEET little trailer! I think it will fit you guys perfectly. Looking forward to see what kind of modification you two come up with 🙂
Thanks Greg! We’re excited, it has a lot of potential.
Yes, a fun/funky trailer. I was thinking it might be kind of heavy, what with it’s former life as a truck. But then I thought that extra weight might give some extra stability in crosswinds. And it sure looks like it could be handy. I look forward to learning what you do with it.
We’re looking forward to seeing how it handles in highway and off-road travel. Haven’t done much highway travel with it yet but off-roading it’s handled very well.
I think you found the perfect fit! I love the trailer!
Hi guys, I love the site and the entire setup. Michele, I am soooo happy there is another source for me to read YOUR writing. Yeah!!!
Love you both so much,
Jamie
Thanks for reading Jamie! Love you!
Hi. I full time in a truck camper and pull a trailer too. I have been on the road 5 years now. Have stayed in 12 campgrounds for a total of 38 nights, in 5 years. The remaining, almost, 1800 nights, Boondocking.
One thing you should be aware of, you are required to have brakes on your trailer if it exceeds a specific weight. But more important, you will need them on long steep grades like west side of Death Valley or Cottonwood Narrows in Cottonwood Canyon, Utah.
I also have solar on my trailer, 600w. If I can be any help, let me know.
bryan
1800 nights boondocking…that’s incredible! We’re working on getting brakes on our trailer. Thanks for the head’s up.
Have you considered using a utility bed on your Ford truck, and mounting your FWC to it? It seem like a good idea, but you don’t see them much, and I wonder if there are problems doing that, so people don’t
It’s a great idea and we would love to have that setup. From what we’ve found, the utility beds themselves aren’t cheap and then you have to have an FWC custom made to fit it.
Well maybe you didn’t look far enough in your search. As you can get a utility bed right out of a manufacturers catalog at the normal price. No custom bed required. If it fits in a truck bed it will fit in a utility bed. No custom Truck Camper needed. I have done it, written about it in Truck Camper Magazine and helped more than a dozen others do it themselves. For me? I have a Lance TC on a Ford Truck with a Knapheide utility bed. Nothing custom.
I’d love to read more about yours and/or what you wrote for TC Mag. Do you have a link you could share?
Hi. There are a number of them, including one on Stealth Camping in Truck Camper Magazine coming up in the next couple of weeks. Try this link; http://www.truckcampermagazine.com/ and just type in my name (Bryan Appleby) in the search window and you will get a bunch of links of things I have written there and if you check, Xtreme Boondocker you will find other locations I am published, as well. (you’ll see I comment above here before) Your thoughts of a utility bed and Truck Camper is typical and I have worked really hard to inform people that there is a cheaper and easier way of doing it. One of the Sponsors for Truck Camping Magazine sells custom utility beds for Truck Camper enthusiasts too. You’ll just spend twice as much for their bed than I did. But don’t get me wrong, you will have a beautiful utility bed. (Douglas Truck Bodies in Bakersfield, CA). But I am just a functional kind of guy. Just like modifying your trailer. But to be honest, the weight of my truck makes my rig stable and wind does not impact it and I am able to get into remote locations, like I am now. Good luck and safe travels.
Bryan, I know exactly who you are! I read your article on TC Magazine last year and drooled over your setup. You’ve obviously put a lot of thought in to it. The utility bed idea didn’t hit our radar until after we purchased our rig so we didn’t do that much research on it. Our utility bed trailer came about from needing a trailer to move all our belongings out of our travel trailer and back home when we sold it in AZ and moved back to CO. It’s nice that it just happened to work out well for our camping trips also. Down the road, when we’re ready to change our setup, we’ll definitely look further in to doing the utility bed, especially after hearing from you that it’s not as complicated as we thought. Thanks for all the info you’ve shared. I’m going to go search for some of your other articles now!