How to Build a DIY Squaredrop CAMPER // ep.1 the rolling trailer frame

so I've finally forced myself to sit down and start putting together the build footage for our little family camper here it's been a while and it'll probably be slow going so I um did record most everything build my camper from building the frame the box and the finishing and everything in different ways it just kind of has to have them permitted whether it'll be a lot of time lapse or me going through an overview after a certain step but I'd always intended to put that footage together if not j

ust for myself you know kind of a record for this um for our family for this work so um I'm finally forcing myself to sit down and start putting all that together um and eat in each stage so it's going to start with the the frame and then I think the frame and fenders some adjustments on the next one and then we'll get into the box and it starts going really quickly um I started the camper the last day of 2020 so December 31st on 2020. with intent to use it for Thanksgiving of 2021. and I was we

lding and fiberglassing the um day before we left for that Thanksgiving trip it was the first time we pulled it out of the garage as a mostly ready uh camper there were some things that came afterwards but was it the day we went on the trip um it was a lot of fun um a lot of work but not not too bad I worked on it as I felt uh I had time you know if we had baseball games basketball games kids events good all that it wasn't in a big rush took my time if I needed to stop and think about how I was

going to do something for a few days or wait on a part to get in or make some changes it there was no real timeline I mean I had plenty of time to to build it and if we couldn't use on Thanksgiving we could always tint Camp so um yeah it was it was fun it was a good process I'd like to do some of it again as always you'd find different ways to do it next time make some changes here and there so I'll start putting out each section of the build as I have time um I'm not very good at the editing st

uff but uh yeah so as it comes out but if anybody has a question about a particular area of the camper feel free to comment below and I will try to kind of focus on some of those areas that other people are interested I know what I was interested in when I was looking at and still look at other people's build videos and want to know how they did a certain thing so that I can adapt that to use in something I'm building it doesn't even have to be a camper but anytime you know you kind of amass tha

t knowledge as a builder and you have different um options different tools to go to uh as you're as you're building something and the more you learn the more you discover okay well I don't have to do this this way anymore I can adapt this method and it'll come out smoother better whatever the case may be so um yeah so if anybody wants to see something in particular about it I'll do my best to try to fit that in and um thanks for watching [Music] [Music] so I finally went and picked up the metal

and it was time to start trying to build the trailer first thing I needed a little chop saw station to cut the metal so I can get the links right and have some stops I was using just a cheap little chop saw I had and you I think I started with a metal cutting blade on it which burned up quickly at the normal speed of the chop saw of course and then I think at some point went to an abrasive blade until down the line I finally brought bought an uh appropriate one so it was cutting everything to le

ngth now I needed to rig up a little square it'd be nice to have something like the the fireball tools squares but I don't do enough of it to Warrant that just yet so um cleaning the ends and gonna start setting up the outside of the frame this is where um I started running into the first rounds of trouble I got it got it perfectly square right here really it was it was nice but I was trying to tack it with the stick and that's where I had trouble had I had the Mig already and could tack everyth

ing with the Mig hold it in place get the trailer that's what I should have done and that's what I'm looking forward to doing if I ever get to do another one I think I could do it a lot better quicker you know it's the second time around but at this point I'm still trying to attack it with a stick and I didn't have a whole lot of luck so I wound up in the end putting too much heat in and pulling the metal which caused me a lot of problems trying to get it square and of course this right now this

is what I'm trying to figure out because I had it perfectly square and then I lost it and I worked and worked and worked right now I'm just practicing welding I took some time each day to try to practice welds from different positions on different uh Bud butt joints from the metal now it's back to cleaning it up so I went ahead and protect Each corner um pretty pretty decently I might have run a bead or two honestly I don't remember at this point I know I know I put too much heat in it and so I

started pulling the metal but at the time I didn't realize what was going on everything's a learning curve I was new to it I'd weld it on my motorcycle years past but um you know not a professional so at this point I'm trying to figure out I wanted to start perfectly square and I was having trouble so the only thing I've wound up doing taking it back apart and shaving off a little bit from each cut and basically starting over and then still doing the same thing I got it closer to square but it

was still off so basically I had to build the rest of the trailer with uh I can't remember if I think it was a 3 8 to or an eighth maybe a 3 8 out it's been a little bit now um but basically out of square and I had to build everything around that so here all the cuts from here on are custom fit for that side um when I get to Mount the axles it's taken into account so the axle to the the nose is true it runs behind the truck great but I'd love to try this again and um I know I could do it better

and start off with some different Metals change the design but right here I'm sticking with it we cut the we um recoat everything welded it and again had a head of a MIG or know how to better attack with a stick I could have made this work but my version of tech and I get it all in place and just basically run a bead to hold it and and uh that was putting a lot of heat in that metal um don't think I already said but this is all two inch 3 16 metal and then my center channel is going to be a two

and a half inch 3 16. so it's it's Overkill it's it's a lot of metal so now I'm putting the cross bracing in um same two inch tubing I wanted the top to be flush so I could build my floor off of it and not have any cavities for the uh the the box to sit in and hold water everything was trying to keep the water flowing or out um down the road I'm going to have to redo this but here's causing myself some more trouble so the more you know the more you won't do it next time but again because of the

what up welding with that stick I went ahead and started putting all the heat in I was I was going from corner to corner inside to outside top to bottom doing kind of figure eight like you would on um uh putting a tire on you know doing the circle pattern or something but it was still putting too much heat into that metal too early before having all the pieces in place to hold it so again out of square bows pulling Metals May causing problems that I had to work with down the road that I'd love t

o have to say this before and get a get a chance to try it again um here that Center channel two and a half inch 3 16 running the full length of the trailer uh 14 feet and I wanted to run it full length so I was just finding center cleaning up the metal and putting those welds in um on that stick I was running 70 18 eighth inch stick and um I finally learned to just put the stick in and run the bead don't move it don't do any kind of pattern with it just put it in let it let it build the puddle

and drive the puddle across the across the joint and then it that everything changed once I figured that out finally um so that's just getting a view of how I want the the A-frame portion to come across because I would like them at this point to do what you're seeing around the tire there I want the same A-frame to come and be my step and kind of guard from the tire and just running more welds again like I said at each step I would kind of finish weld that step which I knew wasn't the best thing

to do but it was what I had to do uh or what I thought I had to do at the time um I've got a 110 Mig now so um went and got another order uh picked up another supply of metal that's gonna be fenders some bike rack stuff some other things and my Timber and 3 500 pound axles finally came in I think I waited two months on those and this is again where I noticed I should have done some things differently when I designed the trailer in my head originally I was going to use a normal uh leaf spring se

tup so the two by two square tubing was going to work just fine then I discovered you know uh Dexter axles Timber and axles and just started going bigger and bigger until I loved the timbering and it was a great buy but I should have two by three uh side metal at least on the sides for these 3 500 pound axles the the um I think the 2000 or whatever the the slightly smaller ones would work and Center up the mounting bolts on the two by two but these three quarters won't you need to be Center up a

nd to Center up in the metal where the bolts go and not be cutting through the top or bottom you need to have a two by three so here I pull out that Center Channel and this is some quarter inch a four inch angle that I'm going to cut the tops and sides off and weld into each side to give me the side wall I need and the strength I need to mount those Timber and axles and then I'll put the side the center bracing back in once I get that all set it was a lot of cutting on that four inch quarter inc

h angle but I think it's plenty strong enough and you see it rests up there nicely I can mount it from the underside and from the side because I'm going to run two pieces of that four inch angle on each side so there's a piece on the inside and there's going to be a piece that wraps around the two inch there it goes in I just had to cut it to fit so it would be flush and they're not overlapping each other I had to cut that you know that two inch down I mean the four inch down to two inches and m

ake it flush so now I've got a flat surface and more than enough metal to hold this thing it's not going anywhere and then when the center channel goes back in and I was even considering running the cross bracing from the Timber and to the to the from each Timber and across that that's kind of set up there if you don't have a cross brace which meant I would have had to cut my Center Channel and I would have frenched it in where I would weld it all back together but that was definitely even more

Overkill so I let it sit as a as it stands and figured if I needed it I'd put it in down the road and so now every time I needed to weld something I'd you know flip the thing flip the the frame I'm building upside down put it up on this side I have some um weight lifting rings that I use on the other side that I would tie it up when I needed to move it to that side it was getting pretty heavy at this point but I could still manipulate it on my own for now um so we get the we get the those quarte

r inch angle mounted and in place and and welded up or tacked in place at this point then it's time to figure out where the axles need to go um and so I can put that cross bracing back in but again setting the axles um you need to figure out the the math on the if you're going to use the 4060 I actually did a weight and balance for the trailer and included the the water that I wanted down the road the front box a ton box for a little bit of wood stuff on the inside the garage in the back so I ac

tually Drew up a weight and balance and did the the datum distances for the moments and everything and and came up where I wanted the trailer and where I wanted the axles the only problem was down the road and in Whittle I guess probably be maybe the next video I wound up lengthening the trailer so it kind of changed where the axles wound up being it still works out it just adds a little more tongue weight um than I wanted but it's still within the standards for your standard 1500 pound uh truck

so not that big of a deal but I did wind up changing the trailer again after it was almost all said and done um drilling through all that metal two layers of quarter inch angle the 2x2 3 16. took some doing um half inch drill of course and start with a with a little bit and work your way up to the I think those are 5 8 bolts on those things if I'm not mistaken grade eight and I ordered all of I I'll try to link stuff but I ordered it all from um I can't remember the name of that company but it'

s a it's a hardware company and they have everything it was great but so I had to rig up some pipe clamps to make my own little on the Fly drill press that I could lean into to drill the hole suicide once I once I set that up and using a couple different Pike plant pipe clamps then it it really started uh becoming doable I spent I think that the first or second hole I spent an hour or more just trying to get the one done um keeping it you know the drill running slow keeping it oiled up but um an

d the with with sharpening blades sharpening drill bits and everything but once I figured out how to get those pipe clamps it started going going a little more smoothly at that point these are some tires off an old my old truck from um out back that had the same bolt pattern but I was never going to keep them on these wheels it just was to kind of help me set up where I thought the Fender needed to go and where my steps were going to be and I believe now we're going to put that Center Channel or

that Center cross bracing back in now that I knew where all the bolts were in the timber and axles because I didn't want to cover up any bolts and I wanted to leave access to them if I ever need to pull an axle off when it's all said and done I was trying to plan and build this thing so that I had accessed everything I needed to the wiring as I go down the road I'm not kind of boxing myself in where I have to destruct things to fix them um and you know right here finally decided how I'm going t

o do the the A-frame portion of the trailer coming back and a lot of this was just about making the decisions and looking at it a hundred different ways drawing some things up on paper coming back to to the trailer after drawing it and staring it and you just keep staring at it until you decide yes that will work and I thought as about as many curveballs as I can think of stuff down the road what by making this decision now what's it going to do to me five steps down the road when I get to doing

the fiberglass or even the wood um so just trying to trying to think it out and move slowly but continuously um and I think it it paid off in the end I mean I would change some things of course but I think we all would build something differently the second time and that's what it's about so I got one side on clamped up some leftover of that quarter inch angle so I could hold the frame up on the front and I put the basically what's going to be the fender mounts the 10 inch section coming off of

the trailer frame where once I finally decided the the spacing I think it was 36 inches off the trailer Square then I had the point for the A-frame where it could come from where I wanted it on the trailer tongue back to that scabbed out piece of metal that will make the step for me to get up on the roof and climb on and around the trailer down the road and then I'll just put in some pieces on the back so that it kind of has a mirrored a similar look on the front side and the back side as well

as a step so now I gotta take the axles off and weld it start welding everything down but that's that's the trailer as I um had originally planned it it's going to change down the road once I figured out I couldn't do everything inside the way I wanted it uh made some made some alterations but um here we are putting I cut some of the two inch metal just on some angles and tacked them on I think I've got eight of them under there this one two three four five yeah eight and there will be 12 when I

uh on the final change now I've got the 110 Mig and tacking it on there's a whole lot easier now so I can tack everything and then run a bead with that 7018 stick which will really uh bite but um those tabs that I'm well known are where the bolts will go through the box of the trailer and hold it to the frame again I've got access to them all so if I need to unbolt them tighten them check them or take the box off the trailer I've got access to to every bit of it I'm not covering up one portion

of the build down the road so here's just cleaning all the mill scale off because I'm going to I that was going to powder coat it I was thinking about that poor Pur 15 stuff I wound up just going with some top Side Marine Paint for that you would put above the water line on a boat both the primer and the paint I didn't record putting the primer on but after all the mill scale was cleaned up with some abrasive pads I primed the whole thing and then I'll cover it in the black paint which is what's

going up now and um other than me spilling quite a bit of primer right there in the middle of my garage floor this part went on pretty fairly smoothly and being enamel it has a nice finish it kind of It kind of self levels itself um but there's it painted the axles bolted and torqued on and um now we're going to start moving forward a little quicker building uh the metal part of the trailers first one I've ever done it took a little while um because I was designing in my head as I went I didn't

use some CAD program or anything I guess now I'm torquing them but um yeah I knew it in my head what I wanted to do and I would kind of play around with getting that on paper drawing the measurements up I drew a scale version of everything on graphing paper and uh it just came down to making it happen in 3D so this is going to be the first test drive I had to rig up some chains rig up some lights just so I could take it down the road and I hope that it didn't drive beside my truck that it actua

lly followed the truck down the road that was um I'm not really the worry but that was the plan at this point and uh first time get pulled out of the out of the garage right here and it was it was nice and heavy at this point too all that 3 16 metal eighth inch tubing uh two by three for the the exterior frame and two by two on the inside it's gonna be super strong the 3 16s was quite a bit of Overkill family of five everybody is as large humans and I wanted to make sure that that nothing was go

ing to fail on me I've got three of my lovely kids sleep in the rooftop tent occasionally I'm in the tent in the top and we're big we there's a lot of weight up there so I wanted to to build it robust enough to not have any worries about that so it it turned out it rode behind the truck nicely it tracked behind it the Timber and axles I believe you can see them in action here pretty pretty decently I didn't go very far just kind of around the neighborhood hit one fast road to make sure but the t

railer's not bouncing those Timber and axles are great I've really liked them they on our we just went 4 200 miles out to Montana and Yellowstone and there was I think twice where I saw the trailer bounce and there's some pretty good dips when that happened but they do a great job I'm very pleased with those those axles down the road I might I went with the the level no lifted version of the Timber and axles I've been thinking maybe down the road I might put the two inch lift version on but I do

n't know why it's just one of those things you're always looking for stuff to change [Music] so that was the the first run of the trailer which I couldn't see backing it in you know that without a box or anything on it you're kind of backing it up blindly um I guess you do have the camera on the new truck but still that was it that um that's the first version of my uh trailer frame it was a lot of fun I would love to do this part again because I've got ideas in my head I know that I can make it

better I can make it quicker um you know when you're when you build things that's that's what gets you excited this one's done I would like to do another one but that's not something I can do right now it's expensive time consuming and we have other other projects that need addressing