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1.2 A Usable Motorcycle Camper

Dale Coyner

It took me about a year and a half to get from the start of Prototype Zero to the finish of Prototype One. What I got in the end was a usable motorcycle camper.

The cargo box kept the same footprint as the old camper so I could reuse the tent, but it was more than double the depth. It offered plenty of room for a solo camper to pack enough gear for a 2 or 3 day trip. And the way I feel about that is if you can pack enough for 2 or 3 days, you have enough to travel indefinitely.

I painted this camper to match my bike at the time, an Indian Chief. I took a piece of the bike’s painted plastic to the paint counter at Home Depot and they shot it with their camera. The color match was pretty decent. I’ll never paint another camper again though (details in the next “Lessons Learned” post).

There aren’t any really great roads in south Florida, but you can’t beat the camping season weather which runs from about November through May. So for 2018 into 2019, I towed this little camper around to a dozen or so spots in the area for some camping trials. With all my gear inside, I sometimes added a bag or two of firewood on top. It handled well behind the Indian and the bike’s twin cylinder stump puller had no trouble pulling it up to speed.

After a season of camping, I had taken a lot of notes about what I liked and didn’t about this version. I’ll discuss those next.

  • The tent stored in the pocket created by the lower bed section when flipped into stored position.
  • Enough room to take what I needed and not so much room as to load it with a lot of “might need” stuff.
  • Kampereen One at Koreshan State Park, Estero, Florida. First night out!
  • The sleeping area was just wide enough for a twin mattress.
  • I made side and front awnings for the camper. I didn’t use them very often.
  • The sailmaker who made the tent added small windows to the sides which was great. But he didn’t put zippers in the window flaps…
  • First tow and first camp night.
  • First setup of the completed camper

Questions?

For more information about this camper you can contact me through this page.

My business is selling motorcycle campers and trailers and the gear you need to tow them with a motorcycle or trike. I run two sites: Open Road Outfitters and US Hitch.