Is there an "I'll trade firearms for your expertise" section?

[PDX1953]

I want to convert a 6' x 10' cargo trailer into a nice liveable camp trailer. I'd prefer to find someone who can do all of the work (insulation, plumbing, etc) and I'll provide all of the materials. Even better would be someone who's previously done this type of work and can give me advice. Of course, verifiable references for workmanship & a strong work ethic will be required.

I used to be able to do this stuff but had Polio when I was 6. About 15 years ago a nasty side effect called 'Post Polio Syndrome' began to limit my physical abilities & at 64 y.o. I'm unable to do things I could easily do 5 years ago. My physical abilities will continue to diminish but I'm not complaining - it's just part of the process.

I'm starting with a rather blank sheet & although I haven't committed to buy it I'm looking at an excellent used cargo trailer with barn back doors & a side door. It'll need to be insulated, wired, plumbed and will require a combination of construction & automotive skills.

I have a wide variety of firearms to trade but I also have cash. No shotguns but some nice Para Ordnance 1911's, a nearly new (less than 50 rds) Officer size S&W 1911Pro .45 with the Scandium frame, a BNIB 1974 S&W Model 39 and the list goes on. For those craftspeople who want the absolute finest long gun available I offer the exquisite Daisy BB gun which my Father purchased in the late '80s to keep the neighbor's dogs from crapping in his yard. Round count / successful target hits unknown.

I live in McMinnville & would prefer to have the work done in this general area. Driving to Oregon City or Gresham to check on progress would be a pain although Hillsboro to Wilsonville and even Salem isn't out of bounds.

If you or someone you know can contribute skills to get this job done please aim them in my direction. The starting point is a 6' x 10' Interstate cargo trailer with the optional one piece molded roof cap. The walls are also sheeted with 3/8" plywood but it'll need to be removed so the shell can be insulated.

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[gunnails]

As someone who has been involved with several similar projects I humbly suggest don't do it, IMHO you are much better off getting a regular camp trailer.

That said I wish you luck and ask you to post lots of progress pictures.

 

[Camelfilter]

Maybe a ramp rear door might be a better idea, given your health.

Particularly if it should decline to where you might need mobility aids (...& I'm certainly hoping your health will not decline such...).

 

[PDX1953]

As someone who has been involved with several similar projects I humbly suggest don't do it, IMHO you are much better off getting a regular camp trailer.

That said I wish you luck and ask you to post lots of progress pictures.

I've seen some spectacular messes but also some real high quality builds. I need something light enough to tow with a Ford Flex and for the money invested in this build all I'd be able to afford is someone else's garbage. I do appreciate the advice and there's always a ready market for a well built conversion.

 

[RVTECH]

As someone who has been involved with several similar projects I humbly suggest don't do it, IMHO you are much better off getting a regular camp trailer.

I agree - and this is from someone who is IN the RV biz and understands these these things well. I recommend you look (carefully) for a typical trailer that will meet your needs but do NOT even consider it until you have it inspected by an authorized RV tech at a dealership or independent tech and given what is called a 'pre delivery inspection' with all appliances, water & LP systems tested and evaluated.

 

[PDX1953]

Maybe a ramp rear door might be a better idea, given your health.

Particularly if it should decline to where you might need mobility aids (...& I'm certainly hoping your health will not decline such...).

I'm staying away from a ramp door on purpose because I want to be able to access equipment (batteries,etc) as well as storage. Since it's only me I'll have a twin size Murphy bed along one wall & when it's in the up position it can double as a long desk. I've seen others built that way & they work nicely. I also need some special requirements as to where switches are located, where access panels are, etc, etc. I've been adapting things to fit my requirements for years so although I have a pretty good idea on what needs to go where I'm always open to new ideas.

By Christmas I should have my wheelchair seat assembly from Greece. It mounts to a Segway base (which I have) and it's self-balancing. I have a lift in the rear of my Flex so I can store it there & if I wanted to I could use lightweight aluminum ramps to stow it in the trailer. I can walk on level ground pretty well but once I get onto some uneven terrain it's a trip/fall problem. Nobody in the US builds the chairs & they're really amazing. I'll be out $9000 total but it's the 2nd least expensive option and some companies build units that cost over $22k.

There's a brand new one from New Zealand called the Ogo and if you search YouTube for Ogo Episode 56 you'll see what it can do. The bald guy is the inventor who originally designed it for his disabled friend (guy wearing the hat) and they've just hit the US market for the low introductory price of $18,000. Mine won't have the pretty plastic covers but it'll still do 12 mph and go 25 miles on a full charge. I always joke, "Being a cripple isn't cheap!" The inventor in Greece is extremely unhappy with his current US distributor so most likely I'll assume that role. I won't get rich but it'll be fun.

 

[PDX1953]

I agree - and this is from someone who is IN the RV biz and understands these these things well. I recommend you look (carefully) for a typical trailer that will meet your needs but do NOT even consider it until you have it inspected by an authorized RV tech at a dealership or independent tech and given what is called a 'pre delivery inspection' with all appliances, water & LP systems tested and evaluated.

If you're agreeing that a pre-owned travel trailer should be checked out I agree & that's why I don't want one.

I customise 99% of what I own. I build / have others build me custom guns. My Flex is customized to allow me to use a left side gas pedal. When I lived in CT my brother & I invented a left side gas pedal for my Ford Escape & it was blessed by the CT DMV Engineer. I invented a pneumatic rear hatch opener for the Escape years before Ford put in electric ones. A big reason I bought the Flex is b/c it has an electric hatch opener.

Converting the cargo trailer to a climate controlled 'tiny house' isn't rocket science. My brother is a phenomenal woodworker but he's not allowed to own guns & doesn't want them anyway. He lives in SE PDX and I can stockpile what I need to get going but sometimes he takes way too long to get moving. He's also that person you know who always looks out for #1, family be damned. We don't NOT get along, we just don't see each other very often simply because of where we live. If I can get him to work on it here I'll be able to help by explaining what I need and where. I'm putting together a list of materials so all of the behind the walls stuff can be routed properly & if something fails I'll know how it's designed. I'm a retired Mechanical & Software Engineer and have invented, co-invented & designed a lot of specialized equipment but the frustration comes when my body refuses to cooperate with what my brain says it should be able to do.

 

[41mag]

My own experience rebuilding a 1939 Flxible 24 passenger bus into a 'house car' as the DMV labeled it, was enough that it provided a most useful immunization against the fever of my ever having to attempt such a large project again.....however your cargo trailer is 1/3 the size & without the complexity of motor & running gear. I'm glad to hear others are willing to consider such a project.

I'd sure be interested in seeing photos/write up should you make it into the fabrication stage.
You can count my participation in the peanut gallery cheering you onward.

 

[PDX1953]

My own experience rebuilding a 1939 Flxible 24 passenger bus into a 'house car' as the DMV labeled it, was enough that it provided a most useful immunization against the fever of my ever having to attempt such a large project again.....however your cargo trailer is 1/3 the size & without the complexity of motor & running gear. I'm glad to hear others are willing to consider such a project.

I'd sure be interested in seeing photos/write up should you make it into the fabrication stage.
You can count my participation in the peanut gallery cheering you onward.

Well, so far nobody seems to be interested in any of my guns!

From what I can gather I'm either nuts & it'll never work or I should buy someone else's trailer that could very well be a POS even though it's not what I want. Guess I'll just have to take that first big step.

 

[IronMonster]

I can tell you as a guy who owns a fab shop and has done this kind of work in the past if I were to do the work it would end up costing $50$-$70,0000 to turn an enclosed trailer into a living space comparable to an $18,000 camp trailer. That is simply the reality of custom building a one-off thing in relation to an assembly line. The time to figure out and fit every single thing at $90/hr adds up to a huge pile of cash required for a project like this.

I don't know what your guns are worth but I can tell you that even if you had a $100K worth of firearms you wanted to trade I probably couldn't make a deal. My shop overhead and the expenses would simply not allow me to do trade on something like this.

 

[41mag]

From what I can gather I'm either nuts & it'll never work or I should buy someone else's trailer

I've been involved peripherally on several other less demanding individual projects over the years. Various buddies doing such a VW camper van install kit, to less complex installs. And who hasn't done 'a few benches & shelves' in the back of something? One did research & bought full blueprint/instructions for a pick up mount camper. There is a host of headaches from start to finish that must be identified and unknowns always impose their nasty 'ohh-ohhs' upon our dreams. There is usually a bit of 'mission creep' where additions are added & some essentials overlooked/left out as being too cumbersome.

Why not contact some suitable fab shop with design features you want & see what kind of actual Cash-in-Fist they'd want. Everything for success :

1) specified design features;
2) given time frame;
3) identified terms and cost;

Most of the failed projects I've seen relate more to leaving out essentials from each phase of this little summary. Pulling up to an actual shop filled with tools and a couple skilled craftsmen willing/thrilled to make a few extra bucks to do some basic mods on a solid Cargo Master seems like a great idea to me.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

What does the trailer you want to convert weigh? I looked up the Flex and it is listed at 2,000 lbs towing capacity without the towing package and 4,500 lbs with the towing package. https://www.ford.com/resources/ford/general/pdf/towingguides/17RV&TT_Ford_Flex_Sep7.pdf It was hard to find the exact dry weight of the trailer, I came up with a figure of around 1100-1200 lbs dry weight. In my opinion if you did a conversion and if you did not have the towing package you would be overweight, but with the towing package you would probably be ok. The trick is If you can find someone to do the conversion that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I don't think a couple or few guns would come anywhere near the cost. Another thing is there enough room underneath for holding tanks for waste water. You can get some pretty thin tanks but it is a consideration. Not trying to rain on your parade but there are a lot of things needed to be worked out before the project is even started.
On a more personal level I can very well empathize with you. I was born in 1951 with cerebral palsy. I fortunately had it not so bad but still have problems(hearing loss, speech impediment and uncontrolled muscle movements). I attended grade school at the old Holiday Center for Crippled Children on NE 7th in Portland until 4th grade when I went Alameda GS, Grant HS and then to PCC for 1 1\2 years. The next doors neighbor daughter had Polio as did my dad's best friend. He was treated at the old Shriner's Hospital at 82nd and Sandy Blvd in the late 30's-early 40's. I was able to go on to live a fairly normal life and as you overcame or coped with my handicap. It sucks that in your case 'Post Polio Syndrome' raised it's ugly head. You are lucky you are still able to drive. I voluntarily gave up driving 3 years ago due to my increasingly severe degenerative arthritis(caused by my CP) rather than risk harming either myself or others. I wish I could offer some better help but I hope the considerations I pointed above will be of some use.

 

[PDX1953]

I've been involved peripherally on several other less demanding individual projects over the years. Various buddies doing such a VW camper van install kit, to less complex installs. And who hasn't done 'a few benches & shelves' in the back of something? One did research & bought full blueprint/instructions for a pick up mount camper. There is a host of headaches from start to finish that must be identified and unknowns always impose their nasty 'ohh-ohhs' upon our dreams. There is usually a bit of 'mission creep' where additions are added & some essentials overlooked/left out as being too cumbersome.

Why not contact some suitable fab shop with design features you want & see what kind of actual Cash-in-Fist they'd want. Everything for success :

1) specified design features;
2) given time frame;
3) identified terms and cost;

Most of the failed projects I've seen relate more to leaving out essentials from each phase of this little summary. Pulling up to an actual shop filled with tools and a couple skilled craftsmen willing/thrilled to make a few extra bucks to do some basic mods on a solid Cargo Master seems like a great idea to me.

I'm not after an expensive custom van and I have the design capability and project management skills to make this happen. What I don't have is a body that will physically cooperate with what my brain says. I've sourced multi-million dollar contracts, managed large software integrations and created more technical documentation than I care to remember. I started working as a service tech for a company when I was 18 & when they chucked me out nearly 37 years later I was working two levels below the CEO of a multi-billion dollar global company but I wasn't alone in the chucking department. If an employee was 55 or older with 25 or more years we had a target on our backs b/c we were under a fully funded pension plan & every year we stayed out pensions grew dramatically. It was cheaper in the long run to buy us out with big fat checks & eliminate our jobs. It's not illegal - I checked. Immoral? Yes.

If I wanted a $100k 4w/d Mercedes Sprinter with a diesel & fancy woodwork I'd buy one but that's not what I want. I'm happy that someone can charge $90/hr to modify things but the guys who worked for me were charging $460/hr so that may give you an idea of the salaries we were earning. Some folks need to express their bank balances by having the latest greatest while others will leave a lot for their kids/grandkids and have a ton of fun building something unique. I like unique & am having a one-off double stack pistol built on a STI 2011 frame. It'll be a few months but I'll post pix when it's done. The 1st quote I got was from Joe Chambers & he wanted $5500 but his guns are works of art & worth that kind of money. Mine will be a new daily carry gun & it doesn't need to be a work of art.

I think this conversation has now come to it's logical end.

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah

 

[EPS]

I don't know man have you seen some of the new trailers these days they are light and are very nice compared to the old days when they where so heavy you needed a huge truck to pull them not any more people are pulling them with mini vans