Preparing My Old Camper Frame For A Tiny House

Wednesday I was quite busy even though it was very hot and humid. I am determined to finish my tiny house on wheels before cold sets in. I was preparing my old camper trailer frame for a tiny house.Show more

First the water tanks had to be removed. Because I can only have a maximum weight of 7,000 pounds on the trailer frame I cannot afford the extra weight of the water tanks attached to the trailer. Another reason I want the tanks removed is that once they are built into the trailer frame, they are impossible to remove again. I want to ability to be able to inspect and clean the tanks from time to time.

The gray water tank was empty and clean. I never had anything in that tank anyway. The black water tank had somehow filled up with rain water while the old camper was sitting there. This had to be dumped carefully into my portable toilet.

The next step in preparing my old camper frame to hold a new tiny house on wheels was to cut off all the old steps and bolts that held the old camper in place.

My Ryobi made easy work out of that job. It cuts through metal nicely. It is a very powerful tool considering it is battery powered and cordless.

I used a hammer and while pulling up on the side supports, I hit the metal where it was bent. This made it very easy to bend the supports back into place and made them straight again. These supports are not load bearing supports and will only be used to secure my tiny house to the trailer frame.

It was threatening to rain the whole day so I did not want to really get too far with painting. I could hear thunder coming closer the whole time I was working. But I wanted to at least try to wash the frame to get it ready for painting.

I used a bucket of water and a scratch pad like you use for washing pots and pans. I got a pack of them from the dollar store and thought they might wash and scratch off some of the surface rust at the same time.

I thought wrong. The pads were being torn apart as I worked. The rust was making a mess of things and snagging on the fibers of my scratch pad. This was not working.

I need to figure out a way to clean this trailer frame with the least amount of work and scratch off the surface rust so I can paint the trailer before I build my tiny house on wheels.

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