My Off Road Worthy 6x10 Cargo Trailer Camper Build

Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers! Hope all the men spoiled your wife/mother a bunch today too.

We had started to go for a hike, but it started snowing and dumped 6” of wet slushy snow where we were headed, so had to turn around and crawl home down the mountains with a lot of out of towners who weren’t prepared for that. Didn’t get any good photos, because plans changed fast, but back in town it was a nice low cloud and rainy day, which is uncommon for us here in the “high desert”.

Just to rub it in some, here’s the view of what’s effectively our backyard.



Anyhow, it made a good excuse to finished up a few little things in prep for the first adventure. Namely the bedding for the kiddo.

I had just designed and planned for my daughter to sleep under the bed (like waist down would be tucked under there) but the wife didn’t like that idea and wanted a raised bed for her for now. So, with limited options, I came up with a simple board that bridges our bed and the front bench.



We have the tru-fold mattress from the last camper and had no use for it (it was a full size, we moved to a queen in this camper) so the wife helped disassemble it into individual sections from the three folding sections it was and we begun repurposing it as the custom shaped toddler bed and front bench cushions.



We’ll try this setup for now and when she outgrows it, we’ll switch to her going back under the bed (farthest away from the door) and go back to a full bench seat with padding. Its the size of a crib mattress…with one corner lopped off, so sheets and such will fit with a corner tucked under.



Here’s the moisture barrier platform under the mattress. Just raises the mattress up ~1/2” and has plenty of room for air to circulate to keep any moisture from building up under the mattress.

 

Love seeing the progress and thanks for some great ideas. I just finished building up my 6x10 for now. Keeping it simple to keep the dual purpose cargo trailer/camper. Fully insulated, wired for 120v, vinyl plank flooring and added 2 windows for some airflow. Just big enough for the wife and kids to camp out in and still haul around my dual sport, etc.

 

It’s been a couple weeks ago now, but caught up on life a bit and figured I’d come back to post a bit about our first trip.

We had tried to go to a really nice spot we’ve been to before, but trails were closed and we ended up wandering around a bit and found a good enough spot as the sun set.

Trailer towed well, the Tundra definitely makes towing more effortless compared to the Tacoma that does feel like it struggled (mainly just the gearing and weak rear suspension).

Nothing notable broke or jumped out as an issue after a rough ~50 miles towing off road. The zip tie holding the trailer brake cable to the axle broke…which was the only failure.

I did take note that we need a longer fire pit propane hose, we need more usable table space in the galley when we build out the kitchen pullout (to store opened dry food, toiletry bags, kid gear, etc). The heater worked perfectly, the light situation was near ideal for our needs…overall it’s marked as a success.