I’ve been thinking about the parts of this cargo trailer build that frustrates me. It occurred to me that there are parts of me that should not have started this project. What parts? …glad you asked!
Patience
First and probably the most important part is the impatient part of me. I like to start a project and get it done quick. If I run into a snag I’ve been known to just drop the project because the snag is not worth the effort and time it takes to resolve. While building this conversion I’ve encountered so many snags along the way that my patience ran a little thin. Fortunately I’m too time and financially invested to just drop it so I power through the snags and figure out solutions to the problems.
Time Management
I remember the first time I ever bid on a job to put siding on a 3 story home, some 30 years ago. What a disaster that turned out to be! I had a small crew helping me and we worked very efficiently. Before we were 2/3’s the way complete I had run out of time and couldn’t keep paying the crew based on the jobs’ bid. I learned a valuable lesson: Don’t be over optimistic in estimating the time involved to do something!
In my mind, at 66 years old, I can still dunk a basketball. In doing the work on this cargo trailer conversion I have to keep reminding myself that I couldn’t dunk a basketball in my prime playing days!
Everything takes longer to do than my optimism predicts. Everything is more difficult than it was when I was 40 years younger. It’s easy to estimate a task and think it’s going to get done today.
Refer back to Patience
By the way, I talked to the homeowner and told him of the situation and said I’d have to finish without my crew because I didn’t get the estimate right. He said he fully expected my estimate to be short and told me to continue with the crew and he’d pay for it. PHEW! We ended up being great friends.
Optimism Strikes Again
When I started getting serious about doing this cargo conversion I started adding up the costs, as much as I could think of. I figured I could get this done for under 20k. With the initial purchase of the custom built Rock Solid cargo trailer at 12.5k I was well on my way to being over optimistic again. As the Amazon, Home Depot and other orders started piling up I realized that 20k was just the beginning.
I’ve learned that for every new part/piece you need for the build there’s 6 more things that go along with it that doesn’t even cross your mind. Installing the foam board insulation was more than just purchasing the foam board. I had to get replacement blades for the knife, tape to hold the loose pieces, Great Stuff to fill in the gaps, caulk to seal holes and on and on… There’s just a lot that goes into building a cargo conversion, much of which I didn’t realize until I was fully committed.
Neat Freak(out)
When it comes to being organized, I can go to all extremes. I’m generally a pretty neat and tidy, clean-as-you-go type. As I look at my desk while typing this I realize that may once again be an overly optimistic thought. I know exactly where everything is but don’t start cleaning my space or I’ll be lost.
Since we are parked in our grandkids driveway… ok, our son and daughter-in-law’s driveway… we feel like we need to keep everything looking neat and organized. Everything inside the trailer has to come out every morning then put back in at the end of the day. It’s an organized mess and adds a lot of time to the build. I’d much rather leave everything out overnight.
It’s a very small rural Iowa town where we don’t worry about theft so leaving everything for the next day wouldn’t be an issue unless the weather is going to be a problem.
Skills
There are some basic skills needed to do a cargo trailer build. Can you measure once and cut twice? Are you able to envision several steps ahead to plan your build?
Willingness To Learn
If you are the type that enjoys learning new ways to do things? Do you like digging into something like an entire electrical system and learning how to build it to specs or at least to be safe? If you are not, you might want to reconsider doing a cargo trailer build!
I was able to draw on past handyman, remodeling experiences to build the cargo trailer. For some things I depended on the experiences of others, like Bill and Deb from “I Ride Tiny House Adventures“. I also leaned heavily on my brothers expertise in electrical wiring. I enjoy figuring things out and learning new ways to do them.
For the most part I just dive in headfirst, find out I did it wrong, then learn the right way, rip out the original and finally do it right. That’s the Jeff’s DIY “hands on” way of learning.
In Conclusion
The last thing I want to do is talk someone out of doing a cargo trailer build. It’s a great community with so many great people that are always willing to lend a hand. Everyone is welcome to join the Cargo Trailer Build community but…
If you are not patient, able to manage your time or have plenty of time to kill, good at estimating or have deep pockets then you are not an ideal candidate for doing a cargo trailer conversion build. If you don’t have all or most of these attributes then you might want to give it some serious thought before diving in. It can be done without these attributes and I’m proof of that but the struggle is real!
The one thing that keeps me pushing through this build is the satisfaction I get when completing part of the build and knowing that I did that all by myself. It may not be perfect but it is perfect for me. You’ll do your build and it will be done perfect for you. That’s the great thing about building it yourself, it’s all yours!
