The TARDIS - A Four Wheel Camper Build

[Overland Hadley]

Chaco Hooks

Here is the use for the hooks, a place to hang and dry the Chacos during the night. (I wear these sandals 90% of the time, I guess it is the water rat inside me.) It is nice to have a place outside to hang them to dry, gives a little more room inside the camper for the dog to lay by the door. This is a little camper and every little bit of space helps.

The hooks are Sea Dog Hammock Hooks, I bought them from Defender.com.

 

[Overland Hadley]

This is the first time that I have used the passenger side AT fuel can holder, and I needed to do a little trimming on the strap to fit it on around the door rail. I also sanded down the edges of the strap so if your hand brushes it there are no sharp edges. A Dremel tool is an amazing thing.

The tan "Arabic" Scepter can is the new grey water tank. It really blocks the motion sensor light, wish I had mounted it up a little higher.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Wood Care

Decided I would go ahead and put another coat of stain on the bottom of the camper. To my eye the finish on the wood from the factory was a little light, plus I had drilled more than a few holes in the wood and I wanted to get those sealed up. But the main thing was that the staples were starting to rust, and I was not thrilled about that. (I have read before that it would be nice if the factory used stainless staples, I agree.) So I went around and coated all the staples with Rust-Oleum. It was funny as the Rust-Oleum (it was just what I had leftover from another project) was an exact match to the factory bottom color. I could have left it at that, but I also had a fair amount of Cabbots in a light grey leftover from yet another project, so I decided to go ahead and re-stain the whole bottom. I made a special effort to seal up the corners of the wood. Three coats of stain later and I think the wood bottom is good to go, for a while at least. :ylsmoke:

 

[Redline]

Decided I would go ahead and put another coat of stain on the bottom of the camper. To my eye the finish on the wood from the factory was a little light, plus I had drilled more than a few holes in the wood and I wanted to get those sealed up. But the main thing was that the staples were starting to rust, and I was not thrilled about that. (I have read before that it would be nice if the factory used stainless staples, I agree.) So I went around and coated all the staples with Rust-Oleum. snip...

Nice idea, I may want to consider doing this myself.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Nice idea, I may want to consider doing this myself.

Hmm, I thought you lived down in the sunny south where you never had to worry about such disgusting things as rust?

 

[Overland Hadley]

COG

Good news!

I put the camper on the truck today, (good news in itself) and it is 75% packed for a trip so I took the opportunity to find the center of gravity fore/aft. After some jacking up and down, and moving about a sawhorse with a broomstick taped to the top, I found the COG within an inch. I am 7" in front of the rear axel! Yeah. That is better than I had hoped.

 

[takesiteasy]

Sounds good on the COG. I'm visualizing jacks and sawhorses and trying to imagine exactly how you determined it.

I had the same problem with my Starlight. Between the flood lights and the gas can holders, the motion sensing never really worked right. I ended up taking the light off and replacing it.

 

[Redline]

Hmm, I thought you lived down in the sunny south where you never had to worry about such disgusting things as rust?

I live in Northern Nevada. No big rust problems per se but we do have freezing temps, snow, and generally very low humidity. Because of the overall dryness as well as being comfortable using my camper in cooler (winter) weather, I thought an extra coat of sealant on the wood bottom sounded good.

 

[Redline]

snip... I am 7" in front of the rear axel! Yeah. That is better than I had hoped.

Very good news, I'm confident I don't have such good numbers.

 

[Kodachrome]

Nice to see it coming along, these rigs are fantastic to work large format out of. Speaking of which, what are you doing for film now that Fuji is steadily nixing chrome which is what I assume you use? I have about 100 sheets of Velvia left, don't shoot a lot of color because I can not darkroom print it like I can black and white and I am not at all interested in digital so it should last me a couple years.

Either way, it sure is nice to have a warm and dry place to load and unload film holders, backs, etc....

 

[ETAV8R]

I picked up the molding today and did mine as well. Had just under ten feet left over. It is a pain but once you do one side of one panel, top and bottom, you figure out the best way to do it and the rest follows fairly well. Hopefully this makes a difference in the wear on the liners.

I used the molding with only one tooth side instead of both sides having the tooth.
This is the part I used: http://www.mcmaster.com/#24175K16

I think a wider cross section might make it easier to put on too. Something like the following:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#24175K79

 

[Overland Hadley]

Happy Holidays!

 

[Overland Hadley]

Hello everyone. Sorry for the total lack of updates. When I returned from traveling, day-job life hit hard, and I have been swimming hard to keep my head above water. Things will be less crazy now and I will work on updates and photos from the autumn. Thanks for checking in, soon there will be more interesting content.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Emptying the last fuel reserves into the tank, after crossing the remote sections of the San Rafael Swell.

 

[Super Doody]

I've been wondering about you Nathanael. Glad you are enjoying the outdoors. What are you storing on your roof rack?