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ACO Power has a new Indiegogo campaign for a cube-shaped stackable battery. It's $530 for a 230Ah (12vdc) battery. That's a pretty good deal, and the form factor is neat too. I ordered battery and an all-in-one charger. I'll let y'all know how it works when it arrives. ACO Power already had an...

I used Coosa Board for the floor and bed platform of my camper (link to build thread). It's much more expensive than plywood, I think it was $300/sheet. It wouldn't hold up to heavy use like a utility trailer deck, but it seems to be great for a camper floor. I insulated under it with XPS board...

I got her out this weekend. There is still a lot to sort out, as she is just a shell, but we had fun camping at the end of an old FSR with an great view of Mt. Rainier and Keecheelus Lake in Washington State. Things that are great: Swing out awning: it was great to get leveled then swing out...

More progress this weekend. Saturday was mostly rainy and that was bringing me down a bit, however, I had some more details to finish on the tent. About the time the tent was done, the chance of rain was down to 20% and I decided to try installing it. This pic is from the dry-fit. i clamped...

This is a sweet ride and a sweet deal. GLWS

Thats a great tip, thanks. Great car too. Love the old school overlanding.

Last weekend was a lot of drilling. 540 holes to be accurate. I'm using nutserts and some standard RV extrusion to hold the pop-up tent on to the frame. I thought about using self-drilling screws, but they only work well once. Nutserts or plusnuts, or rivnuts... need holes. The RV extrusions...

I have a quick tip to share - I was working on adding screens to the tent for my popup camper (build thread here). I needed to get the edges rolled to add strength to the seam, but the fabric was super slippery and didn't want to sit flat, especially around curves. I used some 1/4 wide masking...

I found the original catalog for the 1994 line of Hiace trucks. I'm sure there is a lot of really good info in there, if I could read Japanese. I'll use google translate eventually, just haven't had time. I took the truck (bare frame) to the CAT scales north of Seattle. The truck weighs a total...

I had a lot going on in July and didn't make much progress. July 11 was my (hopeful) first trip date for the truck, but the truck simply wasn't ready and I had to tent camp. Oh well. It was still a fun outing. I've been making some progress. As I said in my last post, the first lift I built...

I've used Coosa board as a good plywood alternative. it's expensive, but really great stuff. about the same strength as plywood, but much lighter and won't absorb water or rot. The major downside is that it doesn't hold wood screws very well. Most screw-in fasteners will need to be t-nuts. It...

It is a small throat, and I've made very large tents (24' dia) with this machine. It takes a little planning, but it works.

I should also reply that the sailrite can sew anything you can fit under the foot.four layers of 40 oz VCP juuuust fit under and it's almost 1/4" of hard grabby material.

I spent some time engineering the windows for a successful build. The windows open from the top, the bottom doesn't open. The windows are cut out of the main body, leaving a 3" flap at the bottom and a generous seam allowance around the opening. This material is offcut, to be used for...

Around 2007? I bought a sailrite LSZ to make climbing equipment. I started making haul bags out of 40oz VCP and 2" webbing, it was... a challenge and I learned a lot. Since then I've built 3 different event tents for Burning Man out of 12oz VCP, each about 20' in diameter. They have survived 50+...

Are y'all aware that Snow Peak opened a campground in Washington? I hear they have had camp grounds in Japan for years, and this is their first stateside facility. Some friends stayed there and loved it. Apparently the gift shop is well stocked and expensive.

More progress this weekend. I designed the camper to be small and lightweight. This was to not overburden the very small engine, retain some offroad capability, and also to eliminate the need for seams in the roof and sides. I found some 5'x12' sheets of ACM at Grimco. My truck is 67" wide, not...

It was a mostly wet weekend in Seattle. I spent a little time trying to fix a couple of misaligned clip nuts in the floor. I was able to grab one with a sharpened bolt and get it aligned for the countersunk screw. The other one just won't grab. Oh well. I'll have to pull all 6 seat tracks and...

That looks like Poyurethane foam in the core of those panels. You can get it in the states. The linked material is natural color, but it can be had in black as well. Coosa is a modified PU foam with glass added as a stiffener.

Seattle had a break of nice weather late last week and into the weekend. I took the time to get some things done. Thursday/friday I insulated the floor with 1.5" XPS foam. The floor structure is fairly complicated with 6 pieces of L-track connecting through the camper floor to hold the...