Has anyone else considered this?

shreadhead

New member
For a long time I've been thinking that it would be alot easier to get a work back like plummers & electricians use and modifying it to fit my needs. A full bed replacement shell made out of aluminum fully spray lined w/some basic options. There's some pretty cool designs, but none with pop-ups. When I get more serious about this I'll ask if any of the builders would do such a modification.
Brent
 

shreadhead

New member
I forgot to add that this would be on the back of a 99' Tacoma X-cab 2.7 with 4:1 gearing. I've been using a Snug Top for many years & it gets a little cramped on week long trips.
 

ntsqd

Heretic Car Camper
Friend of mine did that many years ago. Kept one side loaded with the camping gear, and the other got loaded with tools etc just before a trip.
 

shreadhead

New member
I've looked at many camper configurations and they all seem overkill for my purposes. It would be easy to get some basic power options added. There are already pre-made water tanks. A sleeping platform about a foot above the wheel wells and lots of well balanced storage underneath. I could actually go on and on, but I won't leave out the awning & jerry cans just so I can complete the picture.
Brent
 

Bogo

Adventurer
You likely can get the modification you want, but expect to pay dearly for the back. I would not be surprised if it runs you $4000 plus.

I've thought about going that way. Eventually I decided it was easier to make my own back. Existing work shells took up to much of the available load capacity and provided no insulation. Also by building it I get the functionality I want and the lightness needed. I'm working off of a '94 Toyota mini truck which only has 1700 lbs of carrying capacity including driver, passengers, and fuel. I really wish Toyota sold one ton 4x4 small trucks here in the USA. Once supplies are added it is very easy to go over that weight limit. Extra fuel and water are the killers. At least the frame is a 1 ton frame and I can get a heavier full floating style axle and springs.

As for making a back there are composite panels that can be used for the skin. They provide both structural rigidity as well as insulation. They can be glued to a frame made out of AL angles or plate bent to shape then welded into a framework. Auto body glues or VHB tapes are used to do the gluing. Do a search on "VHB Tape" here. The bed is the hard part because it must support all the weight of the back as as well as the supplies carried. Furthermore it must do this while driving over rough terrain. Fear not it can be done. Take a look at the structure of your pickup bed. They use hat channels or similar to transfer the load from the floor of the bed to the truck frame.

http://thesupercamper.blogspot.com/ is home made using Nida Core which is very light weight, but expensive. If you read their blog posts from back in 2006 you will see the construction.

As for designing it. I'm using a combination of paper and Google's Sketchup.
 

shreadhead

New member
I've seen some service backs that do have a felt lined option, and that would be enough for me. Most of my backwoods experience is in mountaineering and multiday pack trips, so keeping warm isn't an issue as I am still quite the gear whore. It seems I can justify buying new equipment as I get older, 40, and my back steadily gets worse. And as for campers, $4,000 isn't that bad for an aluminum back compared to $10,000+ for the cab overs I've seen. If I could fab something myself I would definately do it, but modification is about my skill limit.
Brent
 

Bogo

Adventurer
The $4000 is for a steel skinned custom service body, not AL. AL will be more.

For my back I'll have a metal fabricator cut and form the hat channels and curved corner pieces. I'll then cut them to exact length and miter the corners, etc. myself. Then they go to a welder to be welded into a frame. I'll take that frame home and glue in my side panels and finish it out inside and out. My current design is about 350lbs for a hard sided popup using NidaCore honeycomb side panels. Using AL/foam/AL it is about 500lbs with the extra weight being mostly due to the AL skins used. If I skinned the Nida Core honeycomb with AL skins of the same thicknesses I'd end up with the same weight. That gets me a back that is 6'6" long by 6'1" wide with a 6'2" ceiling height, all dimensions are interior dimensions. When the top is lowered it only sticks about 8" above the cab roof. If I made the popup top soft sided I may be able to save 60lbs off the weight for both. That's it. Note: My calculations are rough. I didn't take into account frame piece or panel overlap. Taking those into account will reduce the weight a few percent.

Using single skin AL will actually weigh more for a given strength and stiffness. This is because the composite panels gain strength and rigidity much like an i-beam does. A 0.065" thick piece of AL is roughly the same weight per square foot as a 1" thick NidaCore honeycomb panel. I can bridge that NidaCore panel across two saw horses 4 feet apart and stand on it. That won't work with the AL.

I used a spreadsheet to do most of these weight comparisons. It allowed me to easily substitute in different wall weights in lbs per sq ft. From that I could calculate rough weights for the whole thing quickly. I can even resize it for different widths and lengths and see how that effects the weight.

PS: Alaskan Camper now has the Alaskan Mini which will fit the Tacoma. It was just introduced in 2009. Sadly I feel it weighs way to much except for casual camping. 1030 with ten gallons water and 2 gallons propane.:Wow1: The 2010 Tacoma's carrying capacity limit is 1435lbs. 405 lbs for you passengers, fuel, food and gear isn't near enough.

I guess what I'm trying to say is watch the weight carefully. The small pickups quickly have their carrying capacities overloaded when you add much structure to them.
 

RMP&O

Expedition Leader
The idea of using a utility bed as a base or parts to build up a custom camper set up started crossing my mind a couple weeks ago. Looking around at a lot of trailers both manufactured and custom built and then seeing the AT "Taco Chaser" really got me thinking about this more....

I own a business that does service work. I have 3 full size Chevies with utility beds on them. Two are steel and one is aluminum. Yes steel is heavy, one of my beds which is large is really heavy. The aluminum is light but lacks strength. Bins are pretty standard on my beds but I do have one that is a bit special. It has lift up sections on the top sides of the bed to access top bins. This I really like because it maximizes space and you can not tell the bins have a top lift section just by looking at it. You also can not see where the handle is unless you look close...basically it is a really secure set up because 99% of thieves will not even know this bin exists on your truck.

Any ways, hacking up a utility bed to build my own set up really started appealing to me because they are lockable. A lot of camping set ups I have seen are not very secure and geared more torwards weekend campers than say people who travel to mutiple countries. Security is important to me.

You can find old used utility beds from $200 to $2,000. I have seen them locally for sale here for as low as $400 in decent condition. I was thinking hack it up and then weld it up to suit my needs and truck. Bins could be made smaller, only certain bins from the bed used, ect. I was thinking basically a trailer type platform made from the utility bed that would replace my stock bed. Have a roof tent on top of that.

I have not done anything yet, just ideas floating around in my head. I think it is doable though and you could come up with something very functionable and very useful. Obviosuly some skill would be required to make it. I am not sure if it would be worth the effort though....it might be easier to just fab an entire new bed to suit my/your needs. It also may be much easier and more doable for a trailer instead of a bed. While a trailer is sweet I myself would rather not haul one to Central or South America.
 

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