Post Pics of Your Hard Side Camper!

[Shredgnar]

 

[leebones]

 

[CoMtnExpl]

Mt. Antero, Colorado in July.
This is our most favored spot - remote, tough to get to, and can go a week or better and not see anyone else. Plan to spend the first week of October there.
About 9,300'
'04 RAM 2500
'95 Shadow Cruiser
/K

 

[Willard27]

Working on some renders - going to get one of these and build it out. They come empty from the LCC - kind of cool to have a blank canvas.

 

[NOPEC]

Are you going to make a dedicated build thread? I've been watching CPT shells for a while and would love to see what you do.

The pulley tiedown system is cool. A thought about it is that even though it connects the camper and truck in 4 places, it is only 2 tie downs vs the normal 4. With 4 independent tie downs there is twice as much redundancy. If the 2 tie down system fails on one side, there is nothing to keep the camper for tipping out the side of the truck in an off camber or hard corner situation.

Could you keep the pulley system in the front and bring the cable back to an independent anchor point mounted to the rear of the box and have separate tiedowns for the rear?

Simple
I hate to miss answering a query and I did miss this one, sorry. A bit late replying but good point on redundancy. I did consider the system that you suggested, as well as all the other options out there with inbox tiedowns but I felt if the components were skookum enough with the pulley/cable system, I should be OK. My hard bashing days are over so lots of forestry roads and the odd track is about as crazy as I get. So far, it has been great.

I did notice however on the initial shakedown run that the camper will move a bit laterally within the wheel wells. Dimensional 2x4s on edge and a couple extra cranks on the pulley fixed it and there hasn't been any more movement. I thought the bilateral factory rubber skids would be enough but I guess the light weight of the camper was the issue. cheers

 

[Willard27]

Simple
I hate to miss answering a query and I did miss this one, sorry. A bit late replying but good point on redundancy. I did consider the system that you suggested, as well as all the other options out there with inbox tiedowns but I felt if the components were skookum enough with the pulley/cable system, I should be OK. My hard bashing days are over so lots of forestry roads and the odd track is about as crazy as I get. So far, it has been great.

I did notice however on the initial shakedown run that the camper will move a bit laterally within the wheel wells. Dimensional 2x4s on edge and a couple extra cranks on the pulley fixed it and there hasn't been any more movement. I thought the bilateral factory rubber skids would be enough but I guess the light weight of the camper was the issue. cheers

Just finished finding and reading your build thread NOPEC - I only hope my build comes out half as good as yours!

 

[NOPEC]

Just finished finding and reading your build thread NOPEC - I only hope my build comes out half as good as yours!

Willard27

Thanks for the compliment. As far as your CPT build, I would suggest spending a few extra bucks and get a roof........
The key to the build is taking your time and enjoying the learning curve (in my case, it is always a cliff!)

In his great book "Build your own Overland Camper", Steve Wigglesworth summed it up pretty well, "When your project gets underway, be prepared for extraordinary highs and all-consuming lows. Some days, you can do no wrong, others you will make a hash of everything you touch!" 'I always take heart with these words on "sideways" days!

Good luck

 

[Shapeshifter]

Working on some renders - going to get one of these and build it out. They come empty from the LCC - kind of cool to have a blank canvas.

This is an excellent idea. I built this from a "blank canvas" but I'm getting ready to retire it. These CPT rigs look like an excellent upgrade!

Check out my build and see if it gives you any ideas. We have been using it for a few years and love all the space it gives us, but I would like a bit wider one like the CPT Type 1.

 

[mangymarmot]

Thursday pic….

 

[BajahaMontana]

Our 1985 Bigfoot. Total restoration. 2008 F250 with F450/550 suspension 600 amp hr victron system with 1280 solar. 110 gallons water, 65 gal diesel

 

[IdaSHO]

Our 1985 Bigfoot. Total restoration. 2008 F250 with F450/550 suspension 600 amp hr victron system with 1280 solar. 110 gallons water, 65 gal diesel

did you happen to open up the walls (from the inside)?

Ive repaired a few of those and the insulation job on them is utterly terrible....
All white styrofoam, fitted about as roughly as you can imagine. Massive gaps.

 

[janders]

Picked up our empty shell from Overland Adventure Truck in Olympia, WA a few weeks back. Cranking on the build out now.

 

[crazysccrmd]

Forgot my real camera but cellphones are pretty good these days.

 

[sn_85]

Picked up our TC camper built by BEAR Adventure Vehicles about a month ago. We love it so far. It's crazy how having a dedicated camper makes you just get out more. Owned it for a month and we've used it every weekend to ski camp except for the one we were out of town.

 

[MT-Camper]

I bought this Teton Traveler almost a year ago as a finished, empty box. Previous owners mostly kept it in this trailer and used it like a camper trailer, and it was really just a sleeping area, not really a "camper". I definitely like having the option to pull it behind me sometimes, and not have to put it in the back of my truck to use it. I plan to mostly use it as a hunting setup in my truck bed (hauling my pull-behind trailer down rough, snowy roads in the fall was killing it and it's never fun to pull a trailer in the snow...), but also a few times during the summer, most likely.

I'm starting to build it out, just doing very simple stuff to make it more comfortable. Trying to keep things within my current skillset, and keeping weight down to a minimum. Most of what you'll see for my choices has to do with: what I actually have the skills to do, what I can afford, what's most lightweight given those first two limitations.

What I'd really like advice on is getting propane set up safely. If anyone can point me toward a thread covering that, I'd appreciate it. It's currently got a hole cut in the wall with a soft propane line feeding a Wave catalytic heater. From what I've seen in other campers, it seems like soft lines are ok outside the camper, but there must be some regulation that says interior lines need to be hard.

I want to keep this as simple as possible. I want one soft line coming from the propane tank to the exterior wall, connecting to an interior hard line with one Y right on the inside wall of the camper. I'll have a two burner stovetop and the catalytic heater, no other gas appliances. I can buy a propane line bending tool (the really cheap kind) to take care of some very minor bends, but hopefully build things so that they connect fairly straight, without bending.

Let me know if you've got ideas, and thanks!

How it started






Where it is now. Dinette is self-explanatory. You can see where the sink will go soon. On the other side I'll put a drop-in Suburban two-burner stovetop I found used, and the Wave heater will go under it so that the propane is all on one side.




The previous owner installed the mirrors crooked, it's not my countertop that's crooked...

And I should definitely post photos of it in my truck...