Coyotetrips DIY Squaredrop Camping Trailer Build
Design and build time: 4 months. Total cost: just under $5,000

We love to camp on our motorcycles and also with the car, where we can then take our dog. But being in Oregon, the good weather season is fairly short and tent camping in the rain isn't much fun.

After canceling yet another camping weekend due to heavy rain, I decided we needed a camper. While we would love a Sprinter Van, it's out of our price range. We also have only a small car, so towing a large camping trailer is out of the question.

I looked into teardrop camping trailers and we liked the concept. But looking closer at teardrop camping trailers, I saw a lot of things I didn't like: While the teardrop shape gives it a low wind resistance, it greatly reduces the usable space inside. The galley cover protects the actual galley from rain, but you'll be standing in the rain while cooking. The price for an off-the-shelf teardrop camper is also quite high. Building a teardrop yourself (DIY) is complicated due to the rounded shape.

Then I saw images of square drop (squaredrop) camping trailers and immediately knew that this was the solution I had been looking for.

The build took place from November through March in my unheated garage. Due to very low temperatures I couldn't work on some evenings or weekends, otherwise I could probably have built it in 3 months. Another time-consuming task was the constant moving around of tools and material in my garage, which is clearly too small for a job like this.

There are plenty of YouTube videos about camping-trailer builds, but I personally like to read a description and take my time look at photos, instead of constantly pausing a video and rewinding it. That's why I created these pages.

In the the descriptions below and on the following pages, I describe the reasoning behind my design and the DIY building process, and I link to some products that I've used that I think will make it easier for you. I'm not paid or sponsored by any of these products, but I may receive a few cents when you use the link to purchase an item.

I recommend getting Amazon Prime, at least the 30-day trial, as you will be ordering a lot of stuff. It comes out a lot cheaper with Prime and gets delivered quicker.

The trailer was on purpose built without AC, but we found out that we need a heat source if we don't have shore power and propane heaters seemed a bit sketchy. Therefore I built a portable diesel heater, which we can run off our battery. I wrote how to build one on these pages.