anyone made a shop in a camper?

[Alex Stace]

I have 28 foot camper with a rough interior. Considering gutting it an turning it into a woodshop.
Couple issue I am considering
-Low ceiling
-awkward entrance (side)
-condensation ( northern winters, hence temperature swings iff I do not keep it continueally heated.

[Matt Meiser]

Add weak floors to your list.

[Steve Meliza]

Power distribution for power tools may be inadequate.

[Alex Stace]

weak floors are a good point

Would be gutting and installing new wiring

[David Giles]

Easy for someone to steal your entire shop.

[Matt Meiser]

Not if you take the wheels off and put it up on blocks.

[Alex Stace]

tires are already bad replacing them would cost more then I paid for the trailer I think

Need to find a good roofign sealer as a First step I think

[Jim Andrew]

Don't know anyone who put a shop in a camper, but there was a guy in a local town who put his shop in an old mobile home. Was a pretty good sized one.

[steven c newman]

There was a fellow over on WOOD's forum, about a year ago.

[David Hostetler]

There was a guy on Woodworkingtalk that did that in a cargo trailer...

[Alex Stace]

ahh what the hell, If I gut It I can always build new cabinets, and pine would be lighter the the particle board in there anyway...
Build thread will follow the end of muzzle loading season...

any suggestions?looking at layouts and width I am thinking it will be tough to fit full work stations on both sides... may need to put a wood rach down one side and work stations along the other to keep the weight balanced..

off to sketchup I go

[Scott T Smith]

Consider putting a ramp or door on the back end to allow longer lengths of lumber to be brought on board.

I recall that one of my older wood shop books has an article about a guy that converted an old bread truck into a mobile workshop back in the late 60's or 70's. He simply drove it to the job site and worked out of it. As I recall he set it up so that large doors on the sides would lift up, and some equipment would slide out (such as a RAS) for easy access.

It was a pretty cool setup.

[Richard Shaefer]

do you have a camper that you want to use, or are you just thinking out loud?
If you have a camper, then you may want to use it strictly for hand tools work, and then have a second 'wing' with a commercial shipping container for the heavy stuff. They're pretty cheap and havestrong floors, buy two

[Alex Stace]

picked up a 28' camper last summer for 1,000 I was going to fix up and live in for a bit, but that never happened. Would take a pile of money to put tires on it and rebuild the gas lines, but not much money to gut and paint.

well once I pull the 1000 bd feet of pine out of it.

Definately need a rear door, side door was a pain to get the wood in.

all my tools are 110v benchtop for now

[Larry Edgerton]

Until last year I had a 28' ramp back cargo trailor set up with a shop for job site work. Kept a jointer, tablesaw, and a bandsaw in it as well as a bench, storage, etc. etc. I had the ramp back set up so it was level with the floor when needed.

It worked well, but times change, and I could no longer justify the diesel truck it took to move it from job to job. Change is inevitable.....

Larry