Expedition Pod Concept (Compact Toy Hauler)

[HometownHockeyFan]

Brandon,
Nice looking trailer. I've been working on something similar for a while now...about 2/3rds done...key difference is I am using my enclosed area as storage, instead of sleeping...but, concept is similar.

Here is my rough design.



You can see the progress in my gallery.

Good luck!!!

David

[Outdoorsman]

Hometown Hockey Fan,

Thanks for the compliment, yours is a great idea too. And yes mine and yours definitely do share some similarities don't they?

Outdoorsman

[Outdoorsman]

Update: I bought the wood framing for the walls and roof today. I decided to go with pine 1x2's instead of the 1x1 boxed metal tube I was originally going to go with, I went this route to save on weight, money, and fabrication time. I scored a Kreg pocket hole fixture and screws off Ebay for the joints, and also purchased all of the interior paneling for the walls and roof. The big box store was closing out (hardboard) 1/8" thick 4'x8' light birch paneling it was originally priced over 16 bucks a sheet I got it for about 5 bucks a sheet with tax, couldn't resist the deal considering I needed about 16 sheets for this monstrosity. I figure if I seal the back of the hardboard with something it may help with the moisture intake if I ever develop a leak, but if I do a good job on the exterior seams I should never have a problem I guess.

I will post pictures for everyone with details as soon as i make measurable progress.

Thanks,
Outdoorsman

[Outdoorsman]

Update:
I have made some progress on the trailer but have decided to shrink the whole thing down to 12-feet total cabin length and maybe even use a single axle trailer to save on overall weight. I did away with the sliding mattress idea and will use a stationary one, same basic idea for the cabin just smaller in length and much less material. I built one whole side-wall to the original drawing and was not happy with the overall size, the thing was by no means "compact" so back to the drawing board I went. I will post pictures when I get the new walls built, I think I will be much happier with this size trailer.

Thanks,
Outdoorsman

[mezmo]

As you are now thinking to be using a smaller/single axle trailer -
will you be taking only one ATV at a time? - and since you're doing
a little 'rethinkin', I just thought I'd throw this out too for consideration.

I've seen a couple of homebuilt or custom builds for hauling ATVs,
that had a side hatch for loading an ATV and and the
rest of the unit was built similarly to a pickup camper with a bed
over the ATV area - that'd be analogous to the PU camper's cab-over
bed. This had the ATV loading in the front and it was all enclosed
for transit and the area was then usable as another living space area
when the ATV had been off-loaded:


The other one was like a reversed PU camper built on the front of a
flatbed trailer with the cab-over bed section pointing to the rear,
thus being over the ATV loaded from the rear onto the trailer deck.
Sorry, I don't have a pic of that one/style. Still going with your original
floorplan you'd be able to keep the full front counter, have a full-width
aisle/walking space, and then a single width dinette [@30-42in wide/deep]
or a couch on the back wall with fold-away table, and then the bed above
the ATV to the rear.

The advantage of both was that the ATVs were loaded lower, actually
on the trailer deck, thus helping keep the CG lower.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo