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I've had a small step ladder kicking around my camper to get in and out, pull branches off the roof, etc... I had planned to have a fixed stair on the back bumper to get in and out, but having a portable step ladder around has been too useful. ...but it had this weird handle/guard thing...

That's a great looking camper. Reminds me of the Mazda Bongo Friendee (Great name, isn't it?).

It seems like my build is all over the place. I've got a few projects running in parallel so I don't get too fatigued on any one task. Current open projects: 1. Turbo installation - The oil drain return is in the oil pan. Making decisions on what to use for intake tubing from the stock airbox...

spent some time getting started on the turbo over the weekend. I'm not 100% sure I want to push to have it done before a trip I have planned in June. If I do, it will not have the requisite instrumentation, and that feels a little sketchy. I did get started on a mod that doesn't require me to...

I think it's a good product, super overkill for this cabinet. After initial glue-up, we had a big rainstorm. I just left it outside. No issues at all. 1/4" seems thin for under-truck stuff. Were you going to skin them?

I had a bit of ok-ish weather and some coosa board left over from the structural camper build. I decided to use it to build a galley cabinet. If you don't already know, Coosa is a composite consisting of polyurethane foam with a front and back layer of non-oriented fiberglass to provide...

There's an installation video from HD Automotive. It's not all the same stuff as our trucks, but it's a good stating point. They do show needing to drop the diff to get the oil pan out. I've been doing a lot of thinking about the installation, looking at the build thread at iH8Mud, and a few...

Dry weather in Seattle meant time to work on the truck. There is a lap joint between the ACM and the diamond plate corners on the roof of my camper. It's got a reasonable amount of 5200 marine adhesive and sealant up there, but I wanted another layer. On friday I scrubbed the roof and saturday...

more work this weekend. I added a bunch of nutserts on the interior to mount /waves hands/ stuff. I don't really know what the interior will be, so I wanted to add nutserts in locations where I might want to add something. I had been using a 13" nutsert/rivnut tool and it works well, providing a...

I've been trying to get some work done during the relatively dry Seattle winter we are having. I managed to finish insulating the lower camper with 1.5" XPS foam. I found the best way to cut it is with a sharp snap-blade knife and make a few passes. The insulation saws and even the serrated...

I have had some luck looking for garage fabricators on CL, Marketplace, etc... It's a little risky, but I've found some super-experienced retirees who are just looking for things to build.

Ute LTD imports stuff. They seem to be the least expensive option for these beds in the US.

Well, i've got the new torsion bars installed. Ill try them for a bit, but keep the old ones and look in to the digressive shocks. Thanks for the tip

Hadn't thought about that. My limited experience with suspension comes from the mountain bike world. The first step is to dial in the spring rate, then adjust damping, as higher spring rates need more damping. I'm not even familiar with digressive-damped shocks. I'll have a look around. Thanks

I took the truck to the local CAT scales a while ago to find out how much the camper weighed and to get information to start dialing in the suspension. The camper is just under 1k lbs, and 200 of that went to the front axle. the rest is riding on the rear. I noticed a fair amount of front-end...

I don't want to belabor the point, but not having a system specifically designed to handle lateral loads means that the systems you have (gas struts and actuators) will have to handle it. I get that your systems are aligned to lift the lid, but that's not accounting for lateral loads from wind...

Gas struts and linear actuators are designed for an aligned push. They are typically installed with clevises and ball joints to reduce misalignment and non-ideal loads. Misalignment, side loads, etc... are likely to lead to leaky seals and jammed actuators at a minimum. You might consider a...

I've got a build thread for my camper with a 30" pop up. I attached my canvas using RV screw rail to a flat surface. The canvas went from the inside of the rail to the outside. On the bottom, I used a 90 degree extrusion, on the top, I used a flat extrusion. For canvas, I used sunseeker UV &...

there's a discord group for these trucks, Dynas, Hiaces, and Atlas. Let me know if you want an invite.

I put together a tauler jack and replaced the handle with a 1/2 socket receiver. I disassembled the jack (4 screws, 1 ring) and cut the handle off, then welded an old 1/2" extension on to the shaft section that carries the bevel gear inside the jack head. Now my handle is a 1/2" extendable...