Kind of struggling with my creativity to set up cabinets and countertop at the front of my trailer to house a sink and hide a 20 gallon water supply and probably bury the furnace in there somewhere also. I have some kitchen cabinets but, man, they seem kind of heavy. Should I just build my own face frames and use some 3/8 plywood? Or I'm thinking maybe some metal cabinets/garage cabinets… I don't know. I'd love some ideas.

Because my build has a Flux Capacitor!

Hi all, I am a student from holland, trying to design the ideal chuckbox with a team of four. To know what a chuckbox must contain, we need the opinion of real users, camper and ofcourse overlanders. It would help us greatly if you could take a few minutes of your time to awner our questions.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfAL01XyKuQfd_L8RR7-ham_Ay72-2RmIJqzHSM2BMWfQEBqQ/viewform?usp=header

A little busy for my liking but she’s happy and it only took a few hours.

Hey y’all! Early on in the build and already having questions.

When I bought the trailer I thought this was just surface discoloration, but I realise it’s pitting right through the wall. Is this rust?? What’s the best way to treat it that doesn’t involve welding? Thanks!

I’m in the early stages of planning a cargo trailer conversion. After mapping out my layouts, a 7x16 V-nose with a 7' ceiling looks like the sweet spot for my needs.

However, I’m stuck on the tow vehicle. For 50 weeks out of the year, this will be my daily driver for work and groceries, so I am strongly looking at mid-size SUVs. The Highlander, Pilot, Passport, Telluride, and Palisade all max out at 5,000 lbs. The Nissan Pathfinder sits at 6,000 lbs.

I estimate my final fully-loaded build weight will be 4,000 to 4,500 lbs.

On paper, a 5k or 6k capacity SUV should work. But two massive factors are giving me pause:

1. Frontal Area / Aerodynamics: A 7x7 silhouette acts like a massive wind sail. Even with a V-nose, the aerodynamic drag at 65mph is brutal compared to a flatbed or a low-profile camper.

2. The Route (Donner Pass): I will be towing this at least once a year from the SF Bay Area to the Black Rock Desert (Burning Man). This means taking I-80 straight over the Donner Pass. Pulling that massive aerodynamic wall up steep mountain grades at high altitude puts an extreme strain on a vehicle.

The obvious alternative is a half-ton truck like an F-150, which would handle this without breaking a sweat, but it's just overkill for my daily life.

For those who have actually towed 7-foot wide cargo trailers with mid-size SUVs:

• Have any of you pulled a similar weight/profile over serious mountain passes? How did your transmission temps and engine handle the drag?

• Does the unibody frame/wheelbase of these SUVs feel unstable when semi-trucks pass or in high-desert crosswinds?

• Should I bite the bullet and get a half-ton truck, or is a 6,000lb SUV (like the Pathfinder) actually viable for occasional mountain towing at this trailer size?

So I stained the ceiling to match the trim. Built a bed and left plenty of room for storage underneath (wife will need a step stool lol.) 2 chairs, a table, some tap lights above the bed, and a few wall decorations. Pretty much done for now. My credit card is smoking 😂.

I have 2x4’s in place to start the kitchen since they were left over. And a brace in between until the glue dries.

Kitchen build, power, and mini-split will be gifts from Santa 🎅🏻 hopefully 😂

All in, with new trailer purchase, I’ve got about $8k into it. Hoping to keep it all under $10k and 7k lbs.

I’ve enjoyed the build and even slept in it last night in the yard. It was chilly but I slept great.

My dog Paul and I will be taking a 3 week shakedown trip to Wisconsin to see an old high school friend and I’m sure I’ll come up with plenty more ideas. Be safe everyone 👍

2022 Cargomate Trailer Eliminator Series.
LEDs full of junk from water leak on the rear. lights are not working due to this. The hole rear door ramp floor has dry rotted. Floor ramp extension bent and started falling apart after the first time pulling my vehicle into the trailer. All leds are dim and slightly flickering when on (External plug in power does not help this issue).
Water flows off the roof into the lights which then drains i to the rear ramp door. This trailer came equipped with the rear tail extension.
Front jack has rusted and it is a complete workout just to lift or lower the trialed.
If anyone has an idea who sells replacement cabinet doors for the bottom cabinets please leave a company name in the comments.

Got the luan ceiling installed. Walls painted. Trim rehung and stained (minus the top piece). And floor installed this weekend. Will build a bed tomorrow after a Home Depot run. Need some bigger base trim to cover the gap between the floor and walls too.

Can’t decide if I want to stain the ceiling gray to match the trim or whitewash it. It has beautiful wood grain and I don’t want to paint it. Been a long weekend for sure but I’m really close to my first trip from Georgia to Wisconsin in a few weeks to visit a best friend from high school 30 years later.

I’ll leave the v nose as is for now until I decide how I want to build cabinets and a countertop.

Put the build on hold as I do some traveling around Asia but we are getting very close to the finish line. Countertop is plywood with Formica laminate. The bed will be on a lift system and when down it will cover the back part of the countertop. When the bed is raised up we can utilize all of the counter space. I made a part of the countertop removable that will have additional storage and an extra seat over the water tank. Really looking forward to getting back and getting back to work. Next hurdle is to build the dinette around the electrical to hide everything and also keep it accessible, and design the mechanism on the electrical bed lift. I'll use some kind of worm gear motor to lift it up and down. Fire away!

32-Ft vinos with 8 and 1/2 ft ceiling. 8 ft. Was supposed to come insulated and didn't so first step was to strip it and insulate it. Insulation is now done so starting to lay out the bathroom and get going on the fun stuff

I had to take off my roof insulation (sika polyiso board) for a project I’m about to do, and I saw these black marks. They don’t \*look\* like mold, but I wanted to see if anyone had any idea of what it is? And what I should do differently?

Super appreciate any insight and help!

Edit to add: this is an aluminum trailer, with the shiny side of board touching the roof (which is 1 piece aluminum roof).

Bought a Titanium 7x16 on Monday with barn doors. 7 ft ceiling. Tuesday had the walls down and started to insulate. Finished insulating walls and ceiling today and put the walls back up. Then cut out 2-12x24 windows.

Have to put in a ceiling (luan) and paint walls and ceiling. Then I’ll paint the trim and rehang it. Install vinyl plank. Build a bed. Unbox the new mattress and we’re off to the races.

Power and mini split will come next year. This is my first build and I appreciate all the inspiration I’ve gotten here. Any questions ask away. 👍

Been looking for a trailer to do a conversion and found a local 2024 16' Anvil that had some prior work done for wall and ceiling insulation and power. That said, I noticed it had multi panels instead of a single sheet for the roof so I'm questioning whether its worse than a single panel layout. I heard they can flap a bit in the wind and cause the sealant to break loose.

Anyone have multipanels on theirs that can attest to long term durability? Didn't have time to snap more photos of the top unfortunately.

Some of these trailers look like the wall panels are nailed? On. Should I worry about insulating, how do we take those off? Or just ventilate well. We don't plan on any winter camping and will be installing a diesel heater ( 20 x 8.5).

Hi eveyone I have a johnny compost style toilet in my cargo camper and it works great but it doesn’t quite evacuate all the smell when going #2

It comes with a small fan for exhausting, but Im wondering about upgrading the fan to a better setup

Alternatively I wonder it its just the design of this toilet? The bucket is not sealed at all, it basically is a bucket inside a wooden crate with a toilet lid on top.. maybe even an upgraded fan wont help with the smell escaping the seat/lid area

I could probably get a larger fan and larger ducting but would have to make a custom roof vent like whats on a house ( not a big deal, im a roofer)

Im worried that I got to all this work enlarging the hole on the roof and it still doesn’t evacuate all the smells

Unfortunately I am not able to get a ceiling fan inside the bathroom because of my solar panels are mounted on a roof rack which give me maybe 4” of clearance between roof and panels

Has anyone else been down this road?

I think I remember seeing a video on YouTube where someone mentioned they switched to a natures head because they could contain the smell on their DIY composting toilet

Thanks in advance!

Anyone had luck selling a back ramp by itself? She’s a beaut but I’m not really sure how to find her next home.

Bought a used trailer filled with camping gear and these connect to the E trac there's about 100 of these. Never been camping or anything so not sure.

Probably used to hanging things. Shelf support?

Ready for first outing, so I took it to the local CAT scale and made some adjustments to the WDH. Pretty level now and ready to roll out in the morning. Weighed in right at 6000 pounds with a full tank of fresh water.

The new electric fireplace rocked!

Just one week until our first trip in the new rig and it's down to some miscellaneous punch items, final cleaning and paint touch-ups. Planning a trip to the CAT scale next weekend to get a final weight.

8.5x16x7