BeefCake's build...a roll your own Earthroamerish family expo rig

[java]

Thanks for the input everyone. Mat Mobile...I will use those type of blocks when traveling for sure.

I'm slowly resigning myself to getting the electrics...might buy a basket case camper here locally with good jacks on it. Anyone want a free jackless camper? I'll include the organic matter growing in the walls at no extra charge


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If you find one with a case awning ill buy that off you! (9-6 ish model!)

 

[guidolyons]

Pretty cool. Did you do anything special to tie in the cab over portion into the remains of the camper?

 

[lostih]

did I read it wrong??? could have swore the title of the thread says he built this truck three years ago. It's already done and finished (the build ... not the thread) Look forward to reading more as he finds time to finish his build report

Oh no...definitely an in progress build.

For reinforcing the cabover section I’m tying the roof diaphragm into the cabover roof diaphragm and using lots of sika 252. According to spec it should work. We’ll see. I’m 240ish lbs and can hang on the front corner with no deflection....and I haven’t tied the roof in yet so I’m hopeful

This week went sideways...hope to ha e some progress to report in a few days

 

[Coachgeo]

If you want family safe.... allow no riders in the camper.. only the cab. Travel trailers do NOT have any protection in a crash.. no crumple zones, no crash worthy support members etc. With that in mind... you might consider an internal or external cage on the truck body if not the whole thing. Say that cause if anyone whacks you, or you just slide on an icy road, either pushing you toward angled bank to roll down (been there done that)... in resulting roll the cab over portion of your build will crush down into the occupants in the back seats. Thus need for cage.

I went with an Amublance Box for my build primarily for this reason... They will handle a roll.... actually several... with it being little taller than a cab it also provides some ROP for pilot safety. Will seatbelt everyone else in the box.

 

[Coachgeo]

Oh no...definitely an in progress build. ...

Yeah went back real quick and saw that..... then deleted that post you quoted.... but not fast enough for you to see and respond to it lol

 

[lostih]

Oh no...definitely an in progress build. ...

Yeah went back real quick and saw that..... then deleted that post you quoted.... but not fast enough for you to see and respond to it lol

Oops. Sorry.

 

[lostih]

While I had high hopes of making lots of progress in the last few weeks, relatively little has happened ?

I was able to snag some camper jacks off cl finally. They are Atwood’s, but the price was right. I wanted to make them very removable as I don’t think I’ll travel with them so I decided to mount them on tube that slides into a receiver hitch tube. I decided to get fancy with my gussets...this was a mistake. I tacked the gussets and then went to town welding around them. This caused the thin gauge tube of the jack to warp enough that the jack would no longer retract all the way.

I was able to cut the gusset off and use a combination of clamping and welding on the other side to bend it straight enough that it works now. Lesson learned though and on the other three I did simpler gussets. I also made some simple brackets to catch the top of the jack to help it be more stable.

With the jacks on I took the camper off. WAY LESS STRESSFUL WITH JACKS! I should have just done it this way the first time. Another lesson learned.

I need to re-evaluate the subframe mounts I’m using on the frame. They seem to be fully compressed with the weight of the camper which is a bit of a surprise as they are torqued to 110 ftlbs in their stock application which I would have guessed would be far more load than the weight of the camper.

Yesterday I got some more trim back from the powder coated and so I went back to clamping and gluing. I also got the back of the camper mostly on. Getting close to sealed up.

 

[lostih]

Got to spend some time with the truck this weekend. I started by installing some underbody boxes I picked up off CL.

These will come off for paint but I wanted to get them in so I could mount up my compressor. I’m using a 12v puma. I liked Java’s install so duplicated it in the drivers side box.

I’m using the stock up fitter switches in the dash. Very cool as they are factory wired with relays etc already under the hood. Just had to connect some 10 gauge wire and it was running. There are two 25 amp circuits and two 40 amp circuits. I accidentally had it on the 25 amp one and it blew a fuse when working hard. Easy switch and all is good now. I also did the plumbing for the rear air bags into the cab. That was a giant fiasco of removing interior etc. Ended up with a mount I like. Gauge is one a semi factory location on the dash and switches are mounted out of sight in front of the shifter. No good pics of this as I left it apart to plumb the front bags.

Next I switched to mounting the front bags. Here is the stock suspension:

(Sorry for the bad pic quality)

And here is the suspension with the air bag:

I used firestone bags and built my own mounts. Still need to do the shock mount and plumb them so haven’t driven it yet. Pretty much anything has to be better than what was on there

 

[lostih]

A couple people asked for pics of the front wheel adapters. Here they are with a fresh coat of rustoleum on them to dress them up

I started with .75” plate that I turned a step into to catch the inner diameter of the Hutchinson’s. The out flange is around .5”.

 

[java]

You really need to make some more of those adapters!

Looking great, looking forward to seeing the front air, I've been contemplating the kelderman.

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[lostih]

Forgot to post pics of the bag mounts. Here’s the top:

I used the 1.5” leveling kit spacer that I bought and offset the bag a bit to help with clearance. Worked out really well and made the air hook up easy. I called firestone to make sure that I had the right amount of support on the back and they said 50% on the bead plate was sufficient so this should be fine.

In the bottom I had to get a little tricky as I did t want to do anything that makes it impossible to go back to springs later if I don’t like these.

Hard to see in the pics, but I built a plate that sits on the stock spring bucket and offsets the bag about 1.5-2” outboard. This was for clearance but was more than actually needed once I inflated them. I’ll do less on the passenger side. The bags mount on the bottom with a large center stud which is the bolt you see sticking up.

 

[lostih]

You really need to make some more of those adapters!

Looking great, looking forward to seeing the front air, I've been contemplating the kelderman.

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Are the front dually adapters removable on the Ford?

 

[java]

You really need to make some more of those adapters!

Looking great, looking forward to seeing the front air, I've been contemplating the kelderman.

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Are the front dually adapters removable on the Ford?

Yep!

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[lostih]

Got the air suspension done.

The ride is much improved from before. I used a taller bag than the kelderman folks as it appeared from the tech data sheets that I’d need it for load and lower spring rate. By my calculations it looked like I’d need about 95 psi in the front bag to get a ride height of 13” which nets a spring rate of about 375 lbs/in which is close to factory 3/4 or 1 ton dodge springs. However, it’s only taking 65-70 psi to get the ride height I want which means the spring rate is below 300 lbs/in. Not sure what that will feel like with the camper on back. We’ll see.

For those interested in cost analysis here’s my approximate cost for the front:

$300 two bags
$50 in fittings/airline
$150 in shocks
$25 hardware
$125 air gauge and switches
$75 leveling kit (this was already on but is how I would do it again...made the top mount easy peasy)

It was relatively easy to fab. Welder, drill press, skinny wheel and cutting torch all saw some use but relatively few parts to make for such a big change. Took me probably 6hrs to do the first side and 3 to do the second The torch and cutting wheel were just used on making parts to add...I wanted it to be fairly easy to put back to springs if I don’t like these.

 

[java]

I'm impressed! Looks great.

Are you using the gauges to fill fronts from the cab?

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