IHDiesel73L
Adventurer
Last week I sold my F-350 Regular Cab because it really didn't fit my growing family. In the meantime we're upgrading to a 4WD Kia Borrego-it will be a good way to move the whole family around and do some mild overlanding until I can find an F-450 or 550 Crew Cab to use as a custom camper platform. The thing is I really only want to have one truck, so I'd like to build something that could be easily removed as a slide-in camper would be so that I could I put stake sides on the flatbed and use the truck to haul firewood. Most of the custom campers I've seen built on flatbed platforms are permanently attached, so I'm wondering how tall of an order this is. In a couple of years I'm hoping to find something like this:
The bed on this truck is 11' long which would make for a pretty good sized camper. I've researched a lot on this site about building camper shells using composite panels made from plywood/foam/fiberglass mat and that's what I'd be leaning towards. Would it be possible to construct a camper on a flatbed platform that could be easily removed as a slide-in would? I was thinking that some sort of outriggers (maybe even removable ones) could be incorporated into the sides near the corners where camper jacks could be mounted in order to lift it on and off, but what about actually securing it to the flatbed? I was thinking about threaded inserts in the floor of the bed so that the camper could be slid on and then fastened using large bolts that would be inserted from the inside of the camper, through the floor, and into the threaded holes. My concern is making sure that the walls are sufficiently strong and tied into the floor since the floor would be the only part actually fastened to the floor. If anyone has a custom camper on a flatbed that is removable I'd love to see it.
The bed on this truck is 11' long which would make for a pretty good sized camper. I've researched a lot on this site about building camper shells using composite panels made from plywood/foam/fiberglass mat and that's what I'd be leaning towards. Would it be possible to construct a camper on a flatbed platform that could be easily removed as a slide-in would? I was thinking that some sort of outriggers (maybe even removable ones) could be incorporated into the sides near the corners where camper jacks could be mounted in order to lift it on and off, but what about actually securing it to the flatbed? I was thinking about threaded inserts in the floor of the bed so that the camper could be slid on and then fastened using large bolts that would be inserted from the inside of the camper, through the floor, and into the threaded holes. My concern is making sure that the walls are sufficiently strong and tied into the floor since the floor would be the only part actually fastened to the floor. If anyone has a custom camper on a flatbed that is removable I'd love to see it.