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Camperwagon 3.0 - Eljestmobile

A small wagon to put your running stuff in and bring it along but also a place to sleep in at night for multi day adventures/trips.

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Build a small wagon based on wheels and handle from a kids bike wagon. It will be extraditable so it's big enough for one person to sleep in. It should also be possible to take it apart and rebuild it relatively easy for transportation to/from adventures with train or car.

Some design goals:

  • Hard shell, last wagons I made used a tent.
  • Good looking, aiming for a Citroën HY Van look.
  • Sleep area to be ready really fast, e.g. just a few thing folded out.
  • Kind of easy or at least possible to take apart for transportation by train/car
  • Lightweight as possible but not to expensive, tried to use PVC and Aluminum where possible
  • My aim is that this should be possible to build in my apartment with no strange tools, because of this some stuff get a bit more expensive and not optimal but I don't have a garage space and tried to keep it kind of over all cheep e.g. not buying expensive tools.


Goal idea is to make it look "kind of close" to this mockup I made in a FreeCAD.  To simplify the design Ill remove all bendy/roundish stuff and adopt the sizes to my wagon. As the time of writing this there is still some work needed to reach the end goal so it will be interesting also for me to see hos it turns out.

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  • 1
    Before starting

    This is not a complete instruction and should be used more as info to inspire your own build. Ill try to document and show how I did stuff, but before and during the build I expect you to re-measure and adopt. You will probably not be able to use these instructions without modification and some of your own engineering. I will not promise that this instructions will work out of the box, instead Ill promise the opposite, this will probably not work without changes/adaptations so be prepared for that. :)


    I manage to get a wheel-base,break and handle from another wagon (dumpster find, I found a bad throwaway bike wagon, a North 13.5 Roadster wagon) and I had wheels (2x20", 1x16" from another wagon) that fit. The width to the build in my info will be based on the wheelbase I used e.g. 615mm and needs to be adopted if you try this with other parts.

    Most part I found a my local hardware store, many of the small special screws and stuff could be bought per item or per weight so I almost never had to buy a box of things. 

  • 2
    Create the base

    The aim for this step is to create a frame to add the wheel base, handle and the slider.

    To think about in this step:

    • Slider length (750mm in my case)
    • Width of wheelbase screws.
    • Position of wheel and slider fasteners so middle beam and wheelbase screws are not in the way.
    • Leave room in the back behind the slider to fasten a handle (I used 30mm)
    • I will have a front area sticking out in front of the slider (yes this complicates things a lot) so I selected shorter frame compared to the slider in the front, so it can be fasten in a good way.

    A frame was created using square 20x20 aluminum pipes to fasten the wheel base and sliders on. For the corners I found nice plastic "create a shelf system" corners, The idea here is to make a frame there to keep the wheel base and slider in to proper position. I created it with one middle beam to make it more sturdy, the wheelbase will also work as a middle beam.

    As my wheelbase is fasten 595mm apart I select 615mm (595+2x20/2) as a width of the frame so the wheelbase will be fasten in the middle of my 20x20 pipes.

    I used the following measurements:

    • Outer frame size: 725x615mm
    • Middle beam at 400mm from back
    • Wheel rotation center 260mm from back
    • Slider 30mm from back

    Main parts used:

    Slider 750 mm with locking1 pairFor the extendable bed area
    Aluminum beam 20x20x1 mmFor frame structure
    X-Fastener (X-förbindelse) for Aluminum 20x20x1mm2 x T-shape
    2 x L-Shape
    2 x 3way corners
    To make the frame shape like a digital 8, The 3way corners was used in the back to create something that I could fasten the handle on, depending on your handle solution this could be replace with L shaped.
    Angular fastener (Vinkelplåt) left/right 45x60x16mm4 left
    4 right
    To fasten slider to frame
    Wheelbase for 2kids bike wagon1This will determine the width of the build
    Handle with fasteners from (same) 2 kids bike wagonI got the pipes holding it to the original frame and the folding endcaps to the same handle. 
    Aluminum beam 25x25x1 mm150mmJust used to fasten the handle pipe folding endcaps to 3way X-Fastener  (X-förbindelse).

    Angular fastener (Vinkelplåt) - I use both a big and a small version in the build, the big is for fastening the slider to the frame and the smaller is used later in the inside for the bed area. NOTE: The picture above with measurement is from the smaller one but the you look and work the same

    My X-Fastener  (X-förbindelse) used 20mm in each "corner" so I cut my pipes a bit shorter.

    Before sawing the pipe I spend some time to figure out in what holes on the slider to put the angular fastener (Vinkelplåt) and if I should use left or right version against the frame pipe to make it work compared to the wheelbase and middle "bar". I also decided the needed space behind the slider for the handle (30mm). I ended up using a mix och left and right version on each side to make the fastening points end up in "clever" places. In the front I place backwards to make sure I could have a shorter frame. Going from front to backwards I used made the first point backwards (as mentioned), then front, front and the last backwards, but this depends on the holes on your selected slider, the wheelbase and where you place the middle bar in the frame. I also wanted to make the fastening easier by trying to get them into the plastic of the X-Fastener (X-förbindelse) as much as possible where I could just use a wooden screw. There is picture a bit below.

    In my case I ended up with this:

    For the length I made two of the following setup (from front)  L-shape  X-Fastener  (X-förbindelse) , 300mm pipe, T-shape  X-Fastener , 365 mm pipe and last a 3 way  X-Fastener (20+300+20+365+20=725mm) . And for the sides I made 3 x 575mm pipes (20+575+20=615mm). 

    I then used a rubber hammer to make the pipe and the X-Fastener (X-förbindelse) stick together.

    NOTE: I first didn't use the X-Fastener  (X-förbindelse) 3 way corner at the back but a L shaped one, later I replaced it with a 3 way one but some pictures are taken from the initial assembly. (Sorry about that)



    Then I fasten the slider using the big Angular fastener (Vinkelplåt), as mentioned before a lot of planning was done to get them near but not in the way from the X-Fastener  (X-förbindelse), middle beam, wheel base and also the front part of the wagon to be able to build a plaform in front of the slider.  To fasten it on the places where they where near a X-Fastener  (X-förbindelse)  I just used wooden screws (4.2mm and predrilled 3.5mm hole) Only one pair ended up not over a X-Fastener  (X-förbindelse)  and for it I used a M5 rivet nut tool that I got for the project, but you could also just drill all the way trough and use longer screws with a normal nut.

    I also drilled and fasten the wheel base so the wheel rotation center ended up 260mm from back, I hope this will be good but unfortunately I have a hunch that it would be better to have it even further from the back to have a better balanced wagon, but we will see.

    Here is a picture of the frame with the X-Fastener  (X-förbindelse), wheel base and Angular fastener (Vinkelplåt) on it. I hope this picture clears up some of the description above.


    On the back behind the slider the handle will be fastened. I initially was going to just put some square pipes and figure out how to fasten the handle I had. But I discovered that I could also take the pipe the handle was fasten to from the broken wagon together with some nice plastic end caps that will make them foldable. Then endcaps was fasten to a 25x25 square pipe on the original wagon so I fasted so short (65mm) 25x25 pipes on the X-Fastener  (X-förbindelse) 3 way corner with some wooden screws (4.2mm and predrilled 3.5mm hole) roughly like this:

    I added a 20x20mm pipe in between the X-Fastener  (X-förbindelse) and the 25x25mm pipe but that was unneeded and if I redo it Ill remove it, the wooden screws holds it firmly enough.

    The 65mm long 25x25 pipes was measured to make the pipe fold down perfectly right above the slider.

    I fasten the slider to the Angular fastener (Vinkelplåt) using M5 screws with flat heads. Now the frame is ready!

    I don't trust that the X-Fastener (X-förbindelse) would not slide out during usage later so I will add an extra screw for each pipe where there is none already, but I will do it in the end to leave room to move stuff to make the slider operate smooth if something ends up a bit "not perfect", then I can make some small adjustment by moving the frame pipe on the X-Fastener (X-förbindelse) slightly. BUT do not forget to to it in the end.

  • 3
    Front platform

    The front platform is a about 500mm long in front of the slider. The idea is that the front can be opened and one can access the stuff inside, plan is also to make this a way to climb into the wagon and a place to sit and rest or eat on the road.

    I also wanted to see if I could make the front non square so that is also a big reason for using 750mm sliders and adding this platform infront outside the sliders compared to just using 1000mm sliders and having a much easier design. I also want to be able to detach this fairly easy for transportation.

    Main material

    • Aluminium L shape 65x35x2 2x150mm
    • Plywood 615x530x15 (I had this at home but less thick probably work)

    The plywood needs be fastened to the inner area of the slider in the front screw holes. The plywood should stick out about 500mm in front of the slider (or the length you want for the living area. The problem is that the frame is in the way AND the inner part of the living area will end up inside the slider, e.g. from the inside 

    1. Inner, "back" living area, fasten to the frame e.g. not moving.
    2. Outer, "middle" living area and "front platform", fasten to the inner sliders e.g. moving
    3. Slider, outside fasten to the frame, inner part moving, outside part not moving.

    So the plywood needs to be below it the Inner "back" living area when not slided out.. (If this description didn't make sense it might be good to re-check this after reading further down) 

    I didn't find any thing good to buy to solve this. But fortunately it will be quite easy to solve it by making our own fastening bracket. Using a aluminium L shape beam 65x35x2mm and sawing it 150mm long and saw a jack so the 65mm side can be fastened in the slider but the 35mm side can be below the inner area. Like this:

    I made it so the plywood will end up at the same level as the frame. I'm not sure if that will be good or bad but remaking new brackets will be easy if needed.

    I saw jack in the plywood to match the brackets and drilled two 6.5 mm holes into plywood and the brackets to fasten it.

    I used 4 x M6 screw with a flat head and fasten of with a bigger hand tight-able nut so I can disassemble/reassemble it easy for transportation. I found quite fancy ones but a wing nut would probably work equally god.

    I didn't put the screws too tight to the frame as I might add legs her, we will see.

    As making the fastening angular thing turned out quite easy I could have made my frame go all the way up to the length of the slider. That would make things much more easy. If you do it in your build let me know how it worked out!

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