Carbon Fiber Tacoma Bed Replacement Camper - Build Thread

[Leighsjor]

April 15, 2022 - Camping on the Pacific Coast of Baja​

In the second half of 2020, my wife and I toured the U.S. in a camper van we had spent most of 2019 building. We loved the freedom that van life gave us. By the time we returned home, it was clear that I had fallen in love with the process of designing and building camper interiors. That passion led me to start Haven Overland, with the goal of building vans for others. After spending countless nights on the road, our love for travel had only deepened—but we also began to recognize the limitations of camper vans, especially when it came to off-road capability. In 2021, we sold the van and bought a Tacoma, setting out to create our own modified version of van life—which, I suppose, some of you might call overlanding. 😉

In 2022, my wife and I—along with a couple of our best friends—drove our Tacoma from Washington State all the way down the length of Baja and back. It was our first real taste of international overlanding, and we absolutely loved it. Some of you might recognize my 2016 Tacoma build, which I documented in this thread. During that Baja trip, my mind was racing with ideas (as I’m sure many of you can relate) about how I could build a more capable, purpose-driven overland truck. That’s when I started developing a list of criteria for what would become my dream overland vehicle—one that would carry over the best aspects of my existing build, while improving on nearly every front through clever design and aerospace-grade construction techniques.

To be honest, I’ve debated on how much to share of this journey, but I’ve come to the realization that I really don’t feel like keeping any “trade secrets”. After all, I am just a guy passionate about overlanding and building cool things. So without further ado welcome to the start of a thread chronicling what I can say is without a doubt the coolest thing I’ve ever built.

 

[Leighsjor]

Examples of some of my favorite overland builds.
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For quite some time now I’ve admired the European style campers built on midsize vehicles such as the Land Cruiser, Hilux, Ranger, or others. These vehicles, purpose-built for overland travel, strike an ideal balance of compact size, lightweight construction, and off-road capability, while still offering surprisingly efficient and livable interior spaces.


As I sat by the campfire during the final week of our Baja trip, I found myself forming a clear set of priorities for the camper I wanted to build. I already loved the Tacoma as a platform—it had performed beautifully in Baja, and its off-road capability far surpassed our previous camper van. My goal was to design a camper that played to the Tacoma’s strengths, rather than accentuating its weaknesses as some campers on the market. I wanted a camper light enough maintain optimal off-road capability and freeway handling, small enough to be plenty maneuverable down tight trails yet spacious enough inside to lend itself to comfortable living on the road.


So, as soon as I got home, I went straight to the drawing board and dove headfirst into design and research of potential construction techniques.

First Concept Drawing
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The first thing that I noticed is that all of the top performers in the weight category either cut a bunch of the vehicle off to make way for a composite habitat or shed the bed tub to do the same. The Tacoma has a rather small payload capacity and as such every bit of weight shed from the factory curb weight would be a benefit so a bed replacement habitat seems like a no brainer for a purpose built overland vehicle like this.

 

[Leighsjor]

Now we get into the nitty-gritty of the design process. I had already decided that this camper would replace the bed of the truck and that it needed to be built from composite materials. I’ve always appreciated how foam-cored composite panels add both structure and impressive strength to a build. The challenge, though, was aesthetics—most foam-core composite campers on the market look pretty boxy, and I just couldn’t bring myself to pair a sleek, modern truck with a generic square box. So, I dove into 3D design and began sketching a camper with intentional lines, angles, and curves—something that would actually complement the Tacoma’s styling, not fight against it.

Initial 3D renderings of the camper design.​

I may be biased, but I think the design I came up with really complements the look of the Tacoma. It maintains a similar overall exterior width to the stock truck bed, but thanks to the composite construction and integrated design, it offers an additional 6 to 8 inches of interior width on each side. That adds up to a total of 12 to 16 inches more interior living space—without compromising the truck’s footprint.


Another major advantage of an integrated camper is its ability to keep out dust and water. Traditional wedge-style or topper campers often struggle with sealing, especially around the bed of the truck. During our Baja trip, our previous setup let in a lot of dust—mostly because it's nearly impossible to fully seal the junctions between the camper and the truck bed, not to mention the tailgate and rear hatch. An integrated design, on the other hand, allows for continuous weather sealing—like using bulb seals around all doorways—which drastically reduces intrusion and creates a much more controlled interior environment.

 

[Roam.Wild]

Looks promising! The Tacoma is very underpowered so being as light as possible is a great idea!

 

[Leighsjor]

Looks promising! The Tacoma is very underpowered so being as light as possible is a great idea!

Yes for sure! Final numbers are still pending on weight for the empty camper prior to buildout, but it's already looking impressive. Also, with the new 4th gen Tacoma having a slightly higher payload capacity and more power I think we've got a pretty solid potential recipe for the dedicated overland rig market.

 

[Leighsjor]

With weight and strength as two of my top priorities for this camper, I dove deep into researching different construction methods. Composites seemed like the way to go to accomplish my goals, but there’s many different methods you can use when building with composites. I was looking for a process that would not only produce strong, durable parts, but also be repeatable and lend itself well to producing the sleek aesthetic I envisioned.


The method that stood out most was vacuum infusion. Commonly used in aerospace and marine industries, vacuum infusion process (VIP) allows materials to be laid into a mold dry, without the time pressure of curing resin—something I found especially appealing. Since the part cures under vacuum pressure it also naturally yields an ideal resin-to-fiber ratio, resulting in parts that are both impressively strong and lightweight. On top of that, VIP is one of the cleaner and more environmentally friendly composite methods. Because the resin is mixed in a container and drawn through the laminate under vacuum, fumes are minimal and waste is significantly reduced.

Here's an example time-lapse of a vacuum infusion on a large boat hull.

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