Anything that has to do with overlanding has become very expensive over the years as popularity has increased in this hobby. From vehicals, tents ,kitches ,bedracks, campers, ext the list goes on. All those items now cost a prity penny. Most of us would love to have an unlimited budget to be able to aford all those new latest and greatest gadgets to make out camping experiance better. I would love to be able to aford all the nice things but realisticly i can't.
Insted of buying some gear if its something that i can build i will tipicly atempt to make it. I can't make evrything like a powerstation, lights and other things of that sort. More items like a slide out kitchen, a overland camper, things of that sort i choose to make. For me i would rather buy a tool and learn a skill instead of going out and buying something thats pre made.
I bought a welder becuase of this, The things you can make with a welder are amzing. I have build multipe things including my Overland trailer with my welder. The way i look at it is that my welder has actually saved me money by giving me the skills needed to build muiltiple projects.
At times having the skills to repair or rebuild something can come in hand, it can give you the ablilty to find awsome deals on items that need some repair. This the tent picured below i was able to buy for $200 dollars and repair myself. If you would like to see the rebuild check out the video on YouTube
Before you think that you cant do anything like that, think again. This tent pictured below was rebuilt with a drill, rivets, and some screws. No welding was done. Most things that are overland related are built with aluminum, like a slide out kitchen or fold out table. Working with aluminium isnt as difficult as you think. Most exteam duty items that are built with aluminum like military trailers are riveted together. That being said building aluminum accessories dose not require special tools or skills. I see aluminum as big legos, you can build most things without welding aluminium together.
The way i start a build is go to my local metal supply store. I personaly love industrial metal supply co. They have a remnants section with lots of pre cut sheets. I can tipicly find a size that will work for my next build. This keeps me from having to cut the aluminum to size. This is one way to approch it. Tipicaly if they dont have the size you need they can also cut one down to size if needed. One tip i can offer is to not buy aluminum or steel at a big box store, The pice diffrent is astronomical.
One thing that never gets talked about is Time. Time isnt infinate, once its gone its gone. This is something most odf us have learned. That being said always take time in to consideration for your next project. Think about how long the project will take you to compleat. Most project take a weekend to compleate but others can take months. My Overland trialer build for example took me around 4 months to compleat. That was a lot of time taken from other things that i had to do. That is why i belive most people would rather buy than build. If you choose to build just remember the time it will take to compleat. Dont let time discurage you, just learn to manage and this will help you with your build. I still struggle with this to this day. One thing that i love about building is the feeling after that project is compleat and the satisfaction when using the item you build.