by JQuisumbing
Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos of BIKE CAMPERS. One channel in particular belongs to a German ‘DIYer’ & adventurer, ENDURO RENE. I love to vicariously follow him touring the beautiful German countryside in a variety of bikes towing a little blue camper for one.
Yes, his videos are in German (Deutsch), but thank goodness for subtitles.
Watching him build his little camper, heated up my own creative juices. So, I decided to design my own concept of bicycle campers in the hope that maybe someone out there will build it and take it on their own adventures. I get a lot of pleasure doing this, mainly because I get to play with my 3D program, Sketch Up.
Most bicycle campers have to be towed, but I wanted to conceptualize a camper where the peddling and the housing are combined into one unit. Of course, I’m stealing some of the ideas from other similar campers in Youtube. LOL!
This is what I came up with.
Both concepts utilizes the recumbent trike.
Recumbent is when a cyclist is in a supine position giving him/her better peddling leverage. I limited the overall size of the camper to be a little over 8 feet in length and about 4 feet wide (give or take). Take note of the aerodynamic property of the nose.
As to the camping set ups, here are 2 concepts.
The first concept is when the cabin expands like an Accordian. The left side flips down into a platform with support legs. This would provide the camper with about a 7 foot sleeping palette. The right side hatch flips up to form an awning. Protruding at the rear end of the cabin is a utility bump-out. The camper can use this extra space to prepare/cook their meals as well as use it for storage.
The second concept may require sometime to set up.
The cyclist’s seat would have to be folded down, then a board laid out on it with a foam mattress rolled out. This will give the camper about 7 feet to stretch out. The open sides will be covered with coroplast fitted panels. Extra coroplast floor panels may need to be added to keep bugs from getting in underneath the cyclist area. Again, there will be side hatch that flips up to form an awning and bump-out for cooking and storage.
Well, this is as far as I can go.
Hallo Rene. Ich hoffe, dass Sie meine Entwürfe berücksichtigen. Von einem Fan auf den Philippinen. – Johann
Johann Quisumbing 