- 1 hour ago
From the outside, it looks like a stealth cargo trailer—inside, it’s a handcrafted tiny home built for life on the road. Retired industrial arts teacher Michael transforms a 14-foot all-aluminum V-nose trailer into a comfortable home for two, featuring custom cherry woodwork milled from a tree in his own yard, live-edge counters, a folding table, and a striking slatted ceiling.
Patrick from New Jersey Outdoor Adventures tours the build and its practical systems, including 750 watts of rooftop solar, a Bluetti power station, mini-split heating and air conditioning, a full kitchen, shower, and composting toilet. Discover the storage solutions, woodworking details, and thoughtful DIY choices behind this four-season cargo camper conversion. For fans of DIY RV builds, cargo trailer conversions, tiny homes on wheels, off-grid camping, and woodworking tours, this in-depth walkthrough offers inspiration and ideas for a custom camper build.
Patrick from New Jersey Outdoor Adventures tours the build and its practical systems, including 750 watts of rooftop solar, a Bluetti power station, mini-split heating and air conditioning, a full kitchen, shower, and composting toilet. Discover the storage solutions, woodworking details, and thoughtful DIY choices behind this four-season cargo camper conversion. For fans of DIY RV builds, cargo trailer conversions, tiny homes on wheels, off-grid camping, and woodworking tours, this in-depth walkthrough offers inspiration and ideas for a custom camper build.
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TravelTranscript
00:00YouTube's amazing. It's just amazing. I love YouTube. I learned so much from YouTube, and I couldn't have built this
00:06as well as it's been done without it.
00:08Our plan is to take this for the next few years and just see the country. We'd like to see
00:13all the national parks.
00:15This is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel. Very excited to have Michael on the show today.
00:20A lot of you guys write in asking for more cargo trailers. Well, here's one for you.
00:24This thing is amazing. It's a DIY cargo trailer conversion, and the inside is absolutely stunning.
00:30Michael's going to give us a full tour inside and out, so join us.
00:34Thank you, Patrick. This is my cargo trailer. I'm a big fan of your channel, and I'm so excited to
00:41be able to share my build with you guys.
00:45We're going to start off in the front up here.
00:49Well, first, let me tell you. I ordered a stealth all-aluminum trailer because we wanted it to be lightweight,
00:56capable of being pulled with a regular half-ton pickup truck.
01:01We did do a number of upgrades. We raised the roof up to the seven-foot height.
01:08We had stabilizers put on the back.
01:12We ordered a larger door.
01:15We went with the barn doors on the back instead of the ramp style.
01:20The framing is on a 16-inch center as opposed to 24.
01:26That's about it.
01:28So we did order a lot of special features knowing that we wanted them for the camper build.
01:34Over here, we have a mini-split unit, the outside unit for the mini-split.
01:40I had to custom build all of the structure holding this up out of a uni-strut.
01:47Everything's bolted into the frame and the studs of the wall.
01:52So this thing does a great job.
01:54It heats and does air conditioning.
01:57The bigger door, I put the window in.
02:00All the windows were put in by myself.
02:03They are the awning style.
02:05So we can have them open during rain.
02:09I did a ton of research on YouTube and these are the things that I landed on.
02:15Stuff like that.
02:17Added the step.
02:18Step is bolted into the frame.
02:21Also added two stabilizers on the front.
02:25This step does retract and pull out.
02:30So we have a safe way of getting in and out.
02:34We did have them leave the regular cargo trailer locking mechanism.
02:39I had them add the RV style lock, however, to the door.
02:43This acts as a handle as well.
02:46It gives us a little hold on to grab pulling in.
02:49Oh, we upgraded the metal as well.
02:53The cladding is a heavier gauge aluminum.
02:56And we went with this screws, non-screw siding that's all just laminated on.
03:05We did go with larger wheels as well.
03:08I added the rubber trim because that was kind of a sharp edge right there.
03:13And it has the double axles, which adds for a lot of stability.
03:18Right here we have a GFI outlet for the exterior use.
03:23This is for an indoor-outdoor thermometer.
03:26This actually is not in use.
03:28This was on the trailer when I got it, but it's been blocked off.
03:31This is an outlet for a thermostatically controlled computer fan,
03:35which automatically comes on if it gets a little warm where the electrical system is on the inside.
03:42We do have solar.
03:44I have about 750 watts of solar on the roof.
03:47Two panels, two Hyundai bifacial solar panels.
03:51I built all the bracketry by hand and bolted everything to the frame.
03:58It does have an air deflector piece of trim on the front to help with aerodynamics a little bit.
04:04And I did include, I added spotlights, these LED spotlights, all the way around the vehicle.
04:09They're all individually switched as well.
04:15These are the stabilizers that we had the dealership at.
04:19They welded those in place for me.
04:21So we have the stabilizers I put on on the front and these to give us some stability in the
04:26back.
04:29Another window that's on the rear.
04:34We have, this is the water side of, or the plumbing side of the vehicle.
04:40We have a city water connection here.
04:43We also have a 35 gallon fresh water tank.
04:46This is the fill.
04:47And I have a 110 outlet here that serves a Blue Eddy unit that we use for all of our
04:53electrical power needs inside.
04:56Have an exterior shower.
04:59Hot and cold running water.
05:01I do have a shower inside, but we also thought it would be nice to have outside shower as well.
05:07Another window.
05:09Another LED spotlight.
05:11Very bright.
05:11I love these.
05:12If we're out in the middle of nowhere and we need to see where we are, what we're doing, we
05:16can always turn those on.
05:18I have a 35 gallon gray water tank, which has an electronic ball valve right here.
05:27And that's switched on the inside.
05:29So if we come to a dump station, I can just simply hose it down and then turn it on
05:34inside.
05:36The underside is all fully coated with truck bed underlayment.
05:45I used eight cans to give us more, you know, weather resistance under there and hopefully extend the life of
05:52the vehicle a little bit longer.
05:55This 10 pound propane tank serves a hot water tankless hot water heater.
06:00It's mounted on the other side of this wall for our hot water needs.
06:05This is an exhaust fan that I have switched.
06:08So if we are using this unit, I can turn that on and we have exhaust.
06:13Even though it's a ventless system, I just didn't want to take any chances.
06:16Let me explain a little bit about the weights and measures on the unit.
06:20It's a 14 foot V-nose cargo trailer.
06:25Again, I special ordered it with certain features.
06:28It's 14 feet from the nose to the bumper in the back.
06:34And we have an additional like two feet or so of tongue on there.
06:38So it's close to 17 feet, I believe, in overall length.
06:42The width of the box is seven feet.
06:45We have seven feet in headroom inside.
06:49And the dry weight when I bought it was just shy of 1,500 pounds.
06:55And I believe I put in another 1,500 to 2,000 pounds.
07:01I haven't had it officially weighed just yet.
07:03But I'm pretty sure that's where we're going to land, somewhere in that area.
07:07So we went with the barn doors.
07:08These come standard with the ramp.
07:11But I wanted the barn door set up thinking that it would be easier to use and keep the door
07:19open and stuff.
07:20I know a lot of people like to make the ramp into a deck and everything.
07:23But let me just lock this so the wind doesn't bother us.
07:26I put PVC panels on here.
07:29I custom cut all of this.
07:30I even painted all my screw heads white so everything would match.
07:37This is my electrical side of the unit.
07:40I have a Blue Eddy.
07:42It's currently turned on.
07:44It provides both DC and AC power.
07:48It has an inverter and charge controller.
07:51So we have a 30-amp circuit over here that goes to my panel.
07:55And then we have AC.
07:57Everything's individually circuited up here for each of my appliances inside.
08:03Let me open that up.
08:05So standard RV setup with your 110 household-style current here.
08:12Low-voltage 12-volt over here for all the camper-style appliances, fans, and such lights.
08:22This is my little thermostatically-controlled fan that I included in case this were to get warm under here
08:30when this temperature hits 100 degrees, that kicks on automatically and takes all the hot air out.
08:36This unit is a DC-to-DC controller that allows me to convert 48 volts out of this unit into
08:46the 12-volt current up here.
08:47I also can use this.
08:49I haven't hooked it up yet, but we want to use this to help charge this unit while we're on
08:54the road from the alternator in the truck.
08:57This is all conduit under here.
08:59This is a chase that I ran all of my wiring from this side over to that side.
09:04I also have a chase on that top piece of wood that goes through, so all my wiring from the
09:10back to the front is all located there.
09:12So if I ever need to service it, all I need to do is pop that piece off.
09:17I have it screwed in.
09:18It's not nailed in, so I can access that.
09:21This is our water hookup supplies in this bin.
09:25I have a ladder to access the roof, a telescopic ladder.
09:29And then this is the plumbing system.
09:32We have a pump, accumulator tank.
09:35We have a city water connection, so we can be either hooked up at a city water connection,
09:41or we have a 35-gallon freshwater tank here for those needs.
09:47These buses are just power distribution for this side of the vehicle.
09:51I have shutoffs for everything.
09:54If I want to go with the tank, I just shut off city water.
09:58I turn on the tank line, and vice versa, if we want to do that.
10:04There is a light up under here in the garage, so at night we can see what we're doing.
10:10So if you're wondering about how I insulated the vehicle, you can see the foam board insulation in the walls.
10:17It's one inch thick.
10:19I did a half inch underneath the flooring.
10:22Then I put plywood down, and then I did the vinyl flooring on top of that.
10:27The vinyl plank.
10:29This is a really high-quality, waterproof vinyl planking.
10:36If you come around to here, the windows, you can see I trimmed them all out in this cherry.
10:41Just a little bit about myself.
10:42I was an industrial arts teacher for my career, and so I did teach wood shop, among other things.
10:49But I now have a furniture-making business, so woodworking is a big part of my life.
10:55All this cherry came from trees that we took down in my yard.
10:59You'll see more of it inside.
11:05I'm going to take a look inside.
11:08And here we go.
11:12So when I initially started to do all my research on YouTube to figure out what we wanted to put
11:18in here,
11:18I started off thinking, well, we need a nice, comfortable bed because we're going to be living out of this.
11:23The plan is to travel quite a bit.
11:25I wanted a decent kitchen with a nice sink.
11:28I wanted heating and air conditioning.
11:31I knew my wife might want a shower.
11:33And, of course, we have a toilet, a nice, large refrigerator.
11:37It's an apartment-style, regular household refrigerator.
11:41We wanted all the comforts of home, but in a tiny little vehicle.
11:46And that's what I think I achieved.
11:47So if we start here, we have a larger closet.
11:53We can hang items in here.
11:55We also have a storage spot for our two wooden chairs right there.
12:00And then this is the lines and such for the mini-split.
12:04The mini-split unit, it does provide heating and air conditioning.
12:08This is all, again, the cherry that was harvested from a tree in my yard.
12:13I milled it up myself and built this door custom.
12:16This is actually maple, but it's been painted.
12:18So I made the handles as well.
12:20It's an indoor-outdoor thermometer.
12:24Over here we have a storage area.
12:29Just sort of a catch-all here with some bungees to keep things in place.
12:32This is a three-in-one oven.
12:35It's a microwave convection air fryer.
12:38This cabinet was custom-made for charging.
12:42I have 110 outlets, USB ports here.
12:46So for phones, batteries, anything we might need.
12:49This lantern gets charged in there, obviously.
12:52These switches control all of the outside spotlights.
12:56I have one on each side of the vehicle.
12:59This one controls the larger one and brighter one that's on this side of the vehicle.
13:04And it is set to a dimmer because it is really, really bright.
13:09But since that's where we spend most of our time outside, I wanted it to be dimmable.
13:13The interior lights are also dimmable.
13:16And they're switched individually here.
13:18And the ceiling, again, is all cherry.
13:23And I had a black canvas that I installed initially through across the entire ceiling.
13:32And then I painstakingly put each one of these up by myself.
13:36It took me a couple weeks to get this part done.
13:40Moving on, we have a little table, desk kind of area to sit at, to eat, do work, whatever.
13:48We have a couple folding chairs.
13:50I just bought these off Amazon.
13:52They store away in the cabinet or the closet.
13:56This can be folded down.
14:02So, we have a little bit more room in here when we're not using it and for when we're in
14:08transit.
14:09So, and then again, these fold up and we have a spot right there.
14:14This is a shiplap that I just bought at Lowe's.
14:18Very, very light.
14:19It's about a half inch thick.
14:21And I just clad, you know, whatever wall space was left over after I did all the cabinetry.
14:27All the cabinetry I built custom by hand.
14:32And you can see that everything is soft close, really high-end hardware.
14:40And I put the boat latches on so they can be locked in transit.
14:46This again is all cherry live edge for the countertop over here.
14:53I have live edge cherry here.
14:55I have it on the headboard and footboard of the bed as well.
14:59And the folding table I showed you earlier.
15:02Also live edge.
15:03All came from the same tree.
15:05My sink is a nice, big, deep, stainless steel sink.
15:10It did come with a cutting board, but I didn't like it.
15:13It didn't match my counter.
15:14So, I just used the same board that was removed for the sink cut out.
15:19So, you can see how the grain matches up here.
15:23We have a lot of storage under our sink area.
15:28Again, nice, big sink.
15:30That's plumbed in down to the gray tank.
15:32I'm going to build a little holding spot here for our induction cooktop.
15:37This can be taken and stowed away when we're not using it to gain more countertop space.
15:44And, again, these are all boat latches that lock tight while we're in transit.
15:52These drawers?
15:54So, again, a series of drawers.
15:56A lot of storage.
15:56I tried to think of how to include a lot of storage.
16:01So, again, this is the company, my furniture-making company, Westfield Woodcraft.
16:07So, I do a lot of built-in furniture like this.
16:13This is just an inexpensive tile I bought on Amazon.
16:18It's actually PVC.
16:19It looks great.
16:20It looks like real tile.
16:21And it was just peel and stick.
16:23And I just added it and, you know, put it up.
16:27It looked great.
16:28We have outlets everywhere.
16:29We have USB options on these outlets.
16:34I've added a mirror here for my wife to have.
16:37She can put her makeup on, get ready.
16:39I have another mirror that I installed in here.
16:43More windows.
16:44Again, all awning style.
16:46Trimmed into cherry.
16:50Over here, I have another control panel.
16:53These are the gauges for both of my tanks.
16:55My freshwater tank and the graywater tank right here.
16:59These turn on and they're individually switched so that we don't have to have them on all the time.
17:05We can just switch them on to check what our levels are.
17:09These are switches here for various lights.
17:12I have under-counter lighting here.
17:14I have an individually switched kitchen light here.
17:19And this switch operates the valve for the drain on the graywater tank.
17:30This cabinet is going to be used for laundry.
17:32It does go all the way through to the garage section.
17:36We'll probably have a couple of hampers in there to keep our dirty clothes.
17:41Nice place to put that.
17:42I saw on YouTube that a lot of people don't think of that.
17:45So, again, I tried to think of everything.
17:49This is just added countertop prep space.
17:52Again, cherry.
17:55This is limited.
17:56So, I figured, well, the more horizontal space we can add to the vehicle, the better.
18:01And then these are three very large drawers that we plan to keep all of our clothing in.
18:09So, my wife will probably get two.
18:11I'll probably have one.
18:14This is a regular residential queen-size mattress.
18:18Fortunately, it just fit in between here.
18:22Again, we have the cherry theme throughout with the headboard and footboard.
18:28That's live edge cherry.
18:30We have some window covers back here for blackout that I just custom made out of some plastic.
18:38We have a breathing pad under here.
18:41And, again, my research said that we need to get this well ventilated because we don't want any mold to
18:46build up.
18:47So, there's holes drilled throughout this platform.
18:52And we have a max air fan here.
18:55I do have another max air fan in the shower area as well.
19:01Over here, oh, let's start over here.
19:04We have some reading lights that can also double as night lights if we want them to.
19:11So, we each have one of those.
19:13I haven't yet installed it, but I'm going to do a USB port for my phone over there.
19:18My wife has one right here.
19:19There's an oscillating fan mounted here.
19:24We're going to use an internet-based TV with YouTube TV.
19:28As long as we have Wi-Fi, we'll be able to watch television.
19:33This is just a regular residential apartment-sized refrigerator.
19:37Again, one of the important things I wanted was a bigger refrigerator.
19:41So many campers, you see, have the small, very limited-use refrigerators.
19:46But this one has a nice freezer section and a nice big lower refrigerated section as well.
19:54This has just added storage.
19:56It also doubles as sort of a lockdown for my refrigerator.
19:59I have it sort of securing that.
20:01Up here, we have a lot of storage into the V-nose section.
20:07I made some custom trays to hold whatever we might need up here.
20:13And I made two more that custom fit into the V-nose on the left and another one on the
20:21right.
20:22I do have a light for that cabinet up there.
20:29And these just, again, fit right in.
20:33And that locks in.
20:35This is the switch for that fan I pointed out earlier.
20:40So, we have a full shower.
20:44Measures 24 by 36.
20:48I just bought this on Amazon.
20:50It fit perfectly in there.
20:53I saw, again, on YouTube, somebody recommended that that be better than the actual plastic base.
20:58I custom-made all of this.
21:00This is just a panel that I bought at Home Depot.
21:04And just behind this is half-inch plywood so I can screw through this and mount things
21:11and put towel racks in and do whatever is necessary inside the shower.
21:16We do have a fan here.
21:18It has a light.
21:20So, when we're taking a shower, we can turn that on.
21:24This is a boat hatch that I bought off Amazon that allows me to access the hot water heater.
21:31And you can see everything was installed with PEX-A style piping.
21:40And, yeah, that's a German XL hot water heater that, again, I kind of got some advice from somebody on
21:48YouTube.
21:48Did a lot of research on YouTube.
21:50We do have a composting toilet, portable composting toilet.
21:55It separates solids and liquids.
21:59We didn't want to go with a black water tank on board.
22:03So, this was the alternative.
22:05And we'll use this when we don't have access to an actual bathroom somewhere.
22:10Michael, this is awesome.
22:13My key takeaways are, for one, the V-nose really increases your living space, allows you to utilize this whole
22:22front area for systems, right?
22:25So, you've got your air conditioning and the heat pump and the refrigerator up here.
22:28If this was just a regular square box trailer, this stuff would have had to shift forward.
22:33Right.
22:34And a lot of these cargo trailers I go inside, they don't have a seven-foot-tall ceiling.
22:38So, you can feel it.
22:41This feels like a room, like in a house.
22:43Yeah.
22:43This is plenty of spaces.
22:45Again, I watched, I probably watched hundreds of hours of video and tried to gain as much information as I
22:51could.
22:51So, I really can't take credit for all these little features because other people, YouTube's amazing.
22:58It's just amazing.
22:59I love YouTube.
23:00I learned so much from YouTube.
23:01And I couldn't have built this as well as it's been done without it.
23:06But let me just show you.
23:07I'll show, this was my plan that I made a couple of years ago, well before I even started construction.
23:15And I pretty much held to it.
23:18There's a few things I changed.
23:19The front was redesigned to accommodate the refrigerator.
23:23And then once I did redesign it, I figured out how I could incorporate all this storage and that cabinet
23:29or that closet right there.
23:30But you're right.
23:31The V-Nose does add a ton of extra space.
23:35And did you have a budget that you were trying to stick with initially?
23:38Not really.
23:39I just, I just figured, you know, initially we were going to buy a camper.
23:46We went to the Hershey RV show.
23:48We did a lot of research.
23:49We were going to maybe buy a Class C or a travel trailer.
23:53And I was not real impressed with the quality of construction.
23:56And they were expensive.
23:59So I said to myself, I think I can build one of these things.
24:04It's not going to be easy, but I think I have the skill set and the desire and drive to
24:10be able to do this.
24:11So, you know, our plan was to have something that we could travel across country and as we're now retired
24:17teachers.
24:19I wanted it to be able to accommodate, you know, two people comfortably and have all the comforts that we
24:25needed.
24:25And that was my first initial thought.
24:28And I figured if I build it, it's going to come in far less than it would be to buy
24:34it.
24:34So, and when I did my research, I found out that that was absolutely true.
24:40The trailer was around $10,000 with all the added features.
24:44And I think I have about $11,000 in additional material and appliances and such.
24:51And hundreds of hours of my time.
24:55Hundreds of hours of research and planning and actually making it, right?
25:00Right.
25:01So now that it's done, what's next?
25:03Some people build them and research and then they want to build another one because they enjoyed it so much.
25:10You guys just retired, so you're planning on going out, right?
25:13Yeah, our plan is to take this for the next few years and just see the country.
25:17We'd like to see all the national parks.
25:19We have family and friends in California that we'd like to visit.
25:23We have other friends and family across the country.
25:26And we just want to kind of use this as our home away from home.
25:29And, you know, I really don't look at it as a camper.
25:32I look at it as our home that we're going to travel in.
25:36You know, I'm not really thinking about camping, although we'll be staying in campsites and we'll be doing that.
25:41It's more or less a comfortable way to travel around the country in an economical way.
25:47So that was my sort of thought there.
25:50It's a tiny home on wheels.
25:51Yeah, yeah, exactly.
25:52And it's fully self-contained because you've got your own holding tank, you've got your own gray water waste holding
25:57tank,
25:58and your own battery system with inverter.
26:00So, you know, you don't know what your limitations are going to be yet because you haven't really gone out.
26:05Right, we haven't really used it yet.
26:08It's quite capable.
26:10Yeah, well, I've had a lot of friends say to me that when we're finished, they'd like to buy it.
26:13I've had a few friends ask me to build one for them.
26:17And, no, I'm not doing that.
26:19This took me so long to do.
26:21I'm extremely proud of it.
26:23And I think we're going to get a lot of good use out of it.
26:26But I'm not interested in building another one.
26:28There you go.
26:29Not at this time, anyway.
26:30There's a lot of people watching videos, they write in.
26:31Can you give me his contact information?
26:33I'd love to have to build one.
26:34This is a one-and-done deal.
26:36For now, yes.
26:37He's going to enjoy retirement.
26:39Well, I appreciate you taking the time and coming down to this part of New Jersey to give the tour.
26:43This is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel, and I'll see you guys on the next one.
26:51Take care.