Convert a 5th wheel camper to a car hauler?
 

Anyone ever convert a 5th wheel camper to a car hauler? This is an older model with a decent frame. I'm looking to keep the very front part -- the overhead bunk and about 4' of the camper to stand up and change clothes, then stick the off-road truck on the platform out back. Price is good -- less than $800 to get into this project. The camper took a tree limb to the back half. Has a 5500# GVRW. My off-road rig is about 4500# -- numbers work.

You can do it but you won't like it and in the event of an accident nobody around you is gonna like it. Horse trailer, RV campers and enclosed trailers have frames that are built light weight because they are designed with it in mind that the surround walls and roof are part of the strength and rigidity. If you just took a flat bed trailer and enclosed it, the trailer itself would out weigh most of the loads.

I have and old RV trailer that I used for a hay trailer for some years and it worked well for that. It never went over 45 or so miles per hour and I could balance the weight out over the entire trailer all as I loaded it. If I loaded all the weight on one corner at a time the trailer would bend and flex.

5500 gvwr with 4500lbs. of off road rig only leaves 1000lbs for trailer frame, axles and whatever's left of the camper. What axles are under it?

I went out and looked at the unit today -- and bought it. I can make my money back by scrapping out the aluminum... :tu:

The axles are 4-lub RV type -- wide-set bolt pattern -- I think they'll carry more than a standard trailer 4-lug type, but I'm still looking them up. (Did some searching -- they are the old Dexter axles. Rated for 6000# on the original trailer -- now downgraded to 3500# -- sufficient for my use and new hubs and brakes are available in standard sizes).

They are solid tube hung on leaf springs and shackles like a car-hauler, so replacing them with heavier axles is possible if it comes to that.

The frame is C-channel 6" front to back. That is as heavy as any other trailer out there. The front kick-up is braced with 6" channel also. It is also a gooseneck hitch instead of a 5th wheel -- a plus for what I'm trying to do.

There is no way that the camper part of this trailer is supporting anything. This one is all frame. Not much to the camper at all. All aluminum framed with foam backing covered with aluminum skin. I might have a winner as far as my purpose is concerned.

It is 64" wide at the frame, which is wide enough for my purpose (car haulers are only 62").

I also have a good 15 feet of flat bed after clipping off the camper where I want it to stop (about 5 feet of full-height floor space plus the huge bunk up front). The loft part has a pair of twin beds mounted on cabinets with a walkway between them. It is over 48" tall. I should be able to do a queen air bed up front and still have room for cabinets, plus be able to do the stove and oven, plus a sink down below.

This will be a long-term project -- have to get my off-road truck built first -- but I'll start posting pics when I get them.

BAD IDEA! It is NOT heavy enough to be used as a car hauler. my 16' flatbed(10,400#gvwr) had 8"x2" box tubing as a frame, you are 20'+ and using 6" c channel, its gonna buckle. the camper did not have 2250#(estimate of 1/2 the rig you are going to haul) focused on any one spot like you will using it to haul a vehicle, I doubt the WHOLE camper body weighed much more than 2500#(spread over the whole length of the frame). I could see my trailer flex some while loading a 3000# car. With everything you are talking about adding the trailer is going to get in the 2500-3000lb range easy and still be too weak to haul a 4500# rig.

If your gonna do this please add A LOT of reinforcing! I looked into doing this before and the frames are not sturdy enough and for a few hundred bux I could have had a way to get my mud truck around, but I wouldn't have felt safe about it.... but I am very nervous when it comes to towing, everything has to be right.

So, if you do it.... please keep the rest of us safe

or wait for the right deal.. i'm pickin up a 28' triaxle this weekend for about 1/3 the cost of a new one :tu:

I'll be the first to agree that a lot of camper frames are not up to the task, but some are...

I've been searching for examples similar to my own, and I've found about 10 successful conversions. Here is one that has the same frame style and axles that mine has.

Attachment 47810

I won't do stupid, but I have a degree in mechanical design and fabricate my own off-road rigs. I'm fairly sure that I can do this project. I'll post pics as I go.

do me a favour bud and do it right :scare2:
we don`t want any more bombers like this :w2::c::pca1:

Axles aren't the issue here as long as they aren't mobile home axles. The frame is the problem. The example you showed the pic of is just a flat bed Gooseneck or 5th wheel with a camper top on it. Nothin wrong with that at all.

But we've all had things we've done no matter what anybody else said, so with that, all I can say is good luck to ya.

The picture I posted WAS a 5th wheel camper before the camper part was removed from the frame and replaced by a truck camper! That is the frame that is under the older models. I've tracked that guys build (he's done several like it).

About 6" channel for frame rails -- most car hauler trailers under 10K have that or less for frame rails.

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Here is one build I've found.
Homebuilt car hauler - Diesel Forum - TheDieselStop.com

I'm considering a short version of the wedge for mine to get the front tires of my off-road truck over the trailer tires, plus that would help to triangulate the frame for more strength without adding a ton of weight. I am not adverse to tying in the edges of the wedges (ha!) with steel up to the top deck. The steel could run alongside the existing camper shell. My wedge would just clear the tires -- not go as high as the ones in the pics on that build.