cheap wanna be off road pop up

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ginericLC

ginericLC

Wagon Wheeler!
10 Year 15 Year 20 Year
Joined
Jan 29, 2003
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362
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8,407
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MH, IDaho
I can't afford to buy one of the new handy dandy Starcraft RVs, Jayco Bajas, or Fleetwood RTs. So I've been working on building my own. Here is where I'm at so far. The victim is a 99 Starcraft 2106 10 foot box. Eventually it will get a new frame with a small platform. It is definitely not a Rubicon trail trailer. But one that can see some backroads without falling apart now. 3500lb axle, Spring Over Axle, 10.2” trailer brakes, 15x7 1991 80 series wheels, 225/75/15 so about a 27” tire. Clearance under the trailer is 11.5” So it is pretty decent. Better than the 80 is with 35s. I need to work on the jacks next. Then I'm going to change out the water tank and add a hot water heater and outside shower. So far I'm in it about $3455 with tax and license and the new axle, tires, and wheels. Which is cheap compared to the 11k price of a new RV, or the 12k for the RT, I'm not sure what the Baja runs right now.
camper trailer done 004 (Small).webp
camper trailer done 005 (Small).webp
 
Sweet.
This is what I'm talking about. Any pictures of the axle swap?

What are you doing with the water tank?
+++ on a hot water tank, I don't know why they make it optional.

I'd suggest you get a bottle of Gorillia glue and add a bead inside the cabinetry joints, or better add some blocking, glue, and screws. Typical RV cabinet construction falls apart fairly fast on rough roads.

I'd would also recomend you add gussets to the frame at the joints.


As soon as we get rid of a few vehicles and I find the right trailer I'll be following your foot steps.
 
I'm probably going to gut it. I don't like the cabinet lay out. I've already gone through and put screws where they just stapled it. I'm not going to to do serious off roading with it, just forest service type roads. I've been thinking about a whole new frame. I have so many specific needs. We've had the trailer 3 summers now and as you use them you learn what you want and need.
 
In many ways the average FS road is tougher on rigs than a more hard core trail. Constant vibration from washboard, hitting pot holes at higher speed, it all adds a lot of stress.

On my 57 Tear Drop I added triangular plates at the frame joints, wherever they welded a cross member into the frame rail. It was broken in a couple of places and cracked elsewhere. The plates fixed the problem and we got many miles more out of the trailer before we traded up. Replacing the frame seems like overkill to me.
I mostly gutted the 57 and built new cabinetry, some of it I saved and re-glued/screwed. For a rig built with staples it would be a lot less work to build new than try to strengthen up the existing stuff.

Our Arctic Fox had an enclosed undercarriage, this seemed to stiffen the whole frame a lot. Light gauge sheet metal riveted or screwed to the bottom of the frame would probably give similar results. I've considered this but I'm not sure the extra weight would be worth the strength.
 
Nice choice in campers! I would rename the thread inexpensive rather than cheap though. These starcraft campers are by far the best built I have ever seen, I have the 12'er I bought for 5K 4 or 5 years ago. Great minds must think alike! 12K on a Jayco, NO THANKS!
I've been wanting to do this for years myself and finally started swapping parts this year. I've had the spring over for a few years now but swapped the axle for a solid 2" bar and threw an old set of Suzuki wheels and tires on, rides better than ever. Thinking about throwing my 80 wheels on after these wear out. Hubs are fairly inexpensive. Instead of a full frame though I was thinking of chopping the front tongue off and throw some tubing on from just beyond the springs to the front and lower the tongue slightly. This way I could get a single taller tank in the front, move the tank forward and weld a rail for the bike on the tongue just off the box. Part of the weight game I was going to remove the water tank and throw it under the frame next to the axle or on top of it and move the batteries more to the center. I'm only looking for a single place to get the bike off the back of the truck. My kid is getting close to riding so I will either mount his on the back or top of the camper and the wife's will go on my front hitch. I strapperd the bike to the front to test and drove 65 MPH and it wrode great!
Just got back from the hills and drove up a forest road and camper at 10,500' with some rough road. No issues and never removed the bike. Had a few people stop on atv's telling me I was crazy. Meh whatever. No damage.
Couple pics of my setup with a few more of a Jayco underneath if you want ideas. Jacks and lower or double step definitely next on the list! Good luck!
P6300033.webp
P6300034.webp
P6300035.webp
 
nice window shot. did she know you were taking pix, or are we just lucky? :grinpimp:
 
She was probably trying entice me to get my a** back in the truck and get home, I sadly didn't even see it until after I posted.:doh:

I figured I'd leave it though and see if anyone noticed it. If I would have known I would have had her flash her knockers and maybe could have made the cheerleader thread.:D
Seriously though Gineric keep the posts coming I'm interest to see what you come up with. Sorry about the interruption.
 
Holy cow, that's Jayco's idea of a "lift"? Looks like Bubba's F250....
 
That's the way to go. Buy an older popup and make it what you want. My parents bought a 72 Starcraft in about 1985. I can't tell you how many miles we put on that thing. Dad flipped the axle early on, we never put oversized tires on it, but just flipping the axle helped a bunch. Then in the early 90's we gutted it due to the chap ass cabinets all being rattled off the walls. We then stripped the it down, put better insulation in the walls, took out all the electrical and junk like that, as we never ever stay in a park. Left the good old stove in. Rebuilt the cabinets out of plywood and 2x2's, and screwed and glued it all together. Fixed some of the roof, as some of the wood had gotten rotten in the sides. We also put on new sliders on one bed and a new jack on one corner.

Actually what caused the rebuild was the fact one corner tiedown on the roof broke loose going down the highway in a 50 MPH cross wind, yanked the roof right up. We crossbolted all the jacks and put better tiedowns on after that.

A couple of years ago we got new foam for the seats and beds. That is nice having new foam, the old was too soft and broken down.

The poor old thing isn't much to look at, but it will follow you wherever you want to take it, and it beats a tent on the ground. We hunt out of it alot, and even with all the work, I think dad only has about 4000 in it after all these years.
 
Well I still blew a freaking tire on the maiden voyage. I made it to Montana and about 70 miles from home one of the tires delaminated. So it has two brand new tires on it now they are 8 ply trailer tires. I could have bought 10 ply but I thought that was a little over kill for the weight I'm carrying. I've decided I'm going to pull it in the garage this winter and gut it. The cheap stapled together cabinets have to go. I'm debating on what to do with the frame. I want it longer though so I can leave it hooked to the Cruiser and set it up. I also need to get on that cheap 2000lb ATV winch install to replace the noisy crank.
 
winch

I was thinking the same thing on the crank. Mine got bent in a crazy wind storm off the Hood river in Oregon a few years back. I bought a 2000 lb champion from sams auction site for $30. I thought about moving it to the back to clean up the front of the camper but I'm still a little concerned about an emergency manual crank if the batteries die. Please post what you come up with if you go thru with it. I would be interested in seeing some ideas.
 
saw this trailer in person 2 weeks ago and had a nice long chat with eric, very cool trailer indeed. I will be watching the re-build for more ideas.:popcorn:
 
Hey can you post some closer pics of the mount for the bike?? I'm trying to figure out a way to mount my bike on my 416,, If I dont figure it out soon out goes the 416 for something bigger,,
Thanks,,
Steve
 
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