How to Build Your Own Tent Camper

Constructing your own tent camper vehicle offers the ability to craft your own special home away from home when camping, but it requires mechanical know-how and a few tools and supplies. When fully extended, the concept involves a simple frame with fabric such as canvas for materials and walls. However, to be able to compact the camper while traveling involves building the unit in a particular sequence so it can be folded and unfolded as necessary.

Things You'll Need

  • Trailer
  • Aluminum brackets
  • Aluminum metal framing
  • Canvas
  • Industrial sewing machine
  • See through plastic sections
  • Door flap zipper
  • Water-proof tape
  • Sealant
  • Laminate flooring
  • Table saw
  • Flooring adhesive
  • Camping trailer furniture
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Instructions

    • 1

      Purchase or find a full-size trailer that fits the floor dimensions you want your camper to be. Pick a larger trailer if you will need space to handle more than one person inside when camping.

    • 2

      Bolt aluminum brackets at the corners of the trailer floor and in the middle of the sides if the unit involves a long trailer bed. Insert aluminum tubes in the brackets vertically that can be collapsed as necessary or expanded upward with push-in locks. Apply brackets to the top of the poles and install tubes crossing horizontally to make the roof frame.

    • 3

      Stitch sections of canvas together to form the camper walls. Provide enough material so that when the support arms are extended, they are fully covered by the canvas but collapse with folding material when dropped. Cover the top square or rectangle of the trailer area with a roof piece of canvas as well. Craft each canvas piece with an industrial sewing machine and connect the pieces together with either double-stitching or snap buttons.

    • 4

      Remove sections and stitch them per your design, re-installing them to check the fit on the camper frame. Cut a section in each sidewall and stitch in a replacement panel of see-through plastic if you want windows.

    • 5

      Cut a section out of the back panel at the rear of the trailer and install a section that seals with a stitch-in zipper as a flap door. Seal the canvas layers where they meet with water-proof material tape and sealant when the final sizing and installation is complete.

    • 6

      Go inside the tent camper and place planks of laminate to create the floor. Cut the pieces to size with a table saw and glue them to the trailer bed, using the trailer surface as the sub-flooring for the planks.

    • 7

      Install necessary bedding framing, cabinets, sitting booths, and a collapsible table if desired to form the internal furniture. Anticipate how the camper will collapse to determine placement of the trailer furniture and how it needs to compress when traveling.