DIY Bike Trailer Camping

Intro: Building a Bike Trailer Camper

This was a fun project. My friends and I built a tiny camper that can be pulled by an e-bike. The total build weighs approximately 160 pounds and I wanted to pull it with my shelf 250 watt bike. Many improvements to come but this Is how we built it and the first few tests. I’m going to use it to hunker around to various locations and sites, see what I can come up with.

How It Was Made

I don’t always do a how-its-made video for my projects but it seemed like a good idea for this one.

I also recorded an entirely separate video to explain and show how I built the bike trailer. It was filmed for Step 2, my secondary channel. The Step 2 channel is for videos that aren’t quite “main channel” material. Side projects, short videos, fun stuff, things like that. No schedule on uploads, just as they come. Anyway! About the DIY bike trailer, see below.

I’ve always wanted to build a camper trailer that could be pulled by a bike for a long time. If camping can have a bucket list, this was somewhere near the top. A light, cheap, DIY bike trailer can mean a lot of different things, but ultimately I went with coroplast sheets because of how durable and strong they can be while also remaining pretty light.

I’m very happy with how it all turned out.

Build Details

I sketched out the basic idea for the bike camper while on the couch, although I’ve had a general idea for quite some time. Something big enough to fit an adult, but small enough that it could be pulled by a bike. After I figured out where goes where, for the materials I went with coroplast sheets, and styrene sheets. Both are strong, light, and cheap.

The front of the trailer is curved, which made more sense than a rectangle shaped trailer. Plus it looks cool. I used plywood for the floor/bottom. The wheels were sourced from an unused dolly, and a piece of ready rod was used to hold them in place. Everything was put together nice and snug, hopefully which will prevent any rain from getting in.

The door hatch is actually from an older camper that wasn’t being used.

I added checker plate along the bottom and installed some lights, although they were not yet wired. The roof vent was probably the most important piece. My experience in using coroplast shelters has taught me the importance of good ventilation. You’ll cook in the summer.

Once the build was complete, I took the camper out for a test spin. It was a little too heavy and unsteady at first, which is something you don’t really want to deal with while out on the roads. I moved around the stuff inside, adding a bit more weight to the back and it seemed to work just fine. The original hitch system we came up with didn’t work out (attached to the bike seat) so it was modified to attach to the back of the bike frame instead. Worked like a beaut.

It’s mostly finished, but I’ll keep modifying and adjusting. Thank you everyone for the comments and suggestions on YouTube with ideas on ways to improve it. I’ll share an update if there’s any significant changes to it.

Cheers!

Design Drawings

Below are some photos, a bit of a before and after of the DIY bike trailer from conception to finished design. It was a lot of fun to plan and build!

The Finished Product

This is something that will probably never be 100% finished as there’s always something that can be improved upon or changed, but this is what it ended up looking like.

Absolutely had to include a nice slick decal (sticker) on the side.

The wheels might be a tad bit small but they’re made of hard rubber and will last a very long time without any worries.

It’s very easy to disconnect from the bike as well for storage or if I just want to use the bike for biking around.

Thanks for reading/watching! One of the most rewarding projects I’ve worked on in a while.

Hunker down! Cheers