Alaskan

[dzzz]

Truck Camper Magazine has an Alaskan Factory Tour that includes more pics of my camper. Which is nice since I've never actually seen my camper in person. (Hope that will change some day)

This pic has a door I didn't expect:

From left to right cassette toilet door below and mystery opening above, frig. access door (not sure why I need it with an electric only refrigerator), mystery door (apparently for a non-existant propane furnace), and a storage access door. I really like how the storage door looks like a refrigerator door. At the time of ordering the upcharge seemed a bit high for the storage doors but now the price seems fair.

I can probably think of something interesting to do with the unused furnace door. Maybe access to food for outdoor cooking.

The other surprise is that the water tank is installed vertically and enclosed. Interesting idea I may or may not keep.

The truck camper magazine guy seems a bit perplexed about the 100 gallon water tank with a 5 gallon cassette toilet. Good thing he doesn't know about the additional 100 gallon water tank on the truck.

 

[ersatzknarf]

Cool that you found photos of your yet unseen-in-person camper

I think that mystery opening above the potty's cassette door is for the toilet's water filler, possibly ?

<snip>

From left to right cassette toilet door below and mystery opening above, frig. access door (not sure why I need it with an electric only refrigerator), mystery door (apparently for a non-existant propane furnace), and a storage access door. I really like how the storage door looks like a refrigerator door. At the time of ordering the upcharge seemed a bit high for the storage doors but now the price seems fair.

<snip>

 

[Dave Bennett]

:drool:

 

[dzzz]

Cool that you found photos of your yet unseen-in-person camper

I think that mystery opening above the potty's cassette door is for the toilet's water filler, possibly ?

I pictured the fill on the inside. The floor is 53" off the ground. That would make the fill......high.

My thinking (I think) was that a plumbed toilet would make winterizing more complicated.

 

[oddball]

Man that looks awsome

 

[Overland Hadley]

Man that looks awsome

can't wait 'till it's mounted on the Mog.

 

[dzzz]

Not terribly exciting except for the person who owns the truck. It's nice to see the truck all back together. A mog is short so the extension makes it look closer to the proportion of a normal cab/chassis. With all the hydraulic lines, CTIS and other goodies the stretch was a lot of work. Not just the construction but the plans from the Mercedes engineers and ordering the parts including steel from Germany. All that work to look like the untouched Hino's in the yard.

The driver side fuel tank shown in the photo is the new secondary tank that fills the space created by the frame stretch. Curb side has a 100 gallon replacement primary tank in place of the 60g stock tank.

There's also a rear frame extension that will be trimmed where shown in the photo. No current plans to carry anything heavy hanging off the rear, but a small extension was needed for the winch anyways.

The camper frame was mostly tacked up on the shop floor next door. It's interesting how they do it attached to plate steel to prevent warping. Frame mods and camper frame weigh about 2400 lbs. Never considered aluminum.
Finished dry weight with camper will be roughly 20,500 lbs. Leaving 13,000 lbs for stuff.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Finished dry weight with camper will be roughly 20,500 lbs. Leaving 13,000 lbs for stuff.

Nice.

 

[dzzz]

I figure after one dog and one woman I still have 12,800 for beer and motorcycles.
The dog has a nice air suspension seat. Still need to find a place for a woman.

My motorcycle/ATV platform came out at 50" x 88".
How long are snowmobiles?

 

[ersatzknarf]

Don,

There are basically two models of that cassette potty. One has an external door for the flushing water tank and the other does not. As for winterizing (storage), I presume it would be a simple matter to drain the flush water tank into the cassette and take it from the camper...

Here's some more information : http://www.thetford.com/HOME/PARTS/PermanentToilets/CassetteC200CWSCS/tabid/568/Default.aspx

(PS you might need some little penlight batteries for it, too.)

I pictured the fill on the inside. The floor is 53" off the ground. That would make the fill......high.

My thinking (I think) was that a plumbed toilet would make winterizing more complicated.

 

[DT75FLH]

the camper looks fantastic.


I wonder if you could shorten 1 of the outside doors so you would have access to that area from 1 side even if the camper is in the down position?

the truck looks nice also.:victory:

 

[dzzz]

.........


I wonder if you could shorten 1 of the outside doors so you would have access to that area from 1 side even if the camper is in the down position?

:

One advantage of a hard sided popup is that it can be made very secure compared to other designs. I'll even be adding a locked gate/stairs in the back to cover the rear door.
With a 17.5' bed I have a ton of storage outside the camper. Mostly under bed boxes. I'll just need to set everything up so I don't need to get in the camper on short stopovers.

 

[Cody1771]

13k payload.... wow... cant wait to see this thing finished up! is there a build thread on the truck i missed?

 

[dzzz]

.......... is there a build thread on the truck i missed?

There's not one thread, no. But I have posted questions and had discussions in the Unimog section.
I am confident that all this will come together, but it doesn't lend itself to an orderly build thread with pics. At least not as it happens. The camper is 2000 miles from me, the truck is an hour and a half away, and my front hall is filled with unopened boxes (the UPS and fedex drives must wonder what's going on).
I will have a functional camper when the truck and camper are integrated in a couple weeks at the Alaskan factory. Then I will install the more complex systems at some undetermined location in the Pacific Northwest. I need to figure out where to do that. Either indoors or find a dryer outdoor location.
The original master plan (and we know how that goes) was for me to be in Washington July/August. But now realistically I have to plan for wet weather around Seattle. I could also go west. The one advantage staying east is all the marine suppliers.
Any suggestions welcome. I don't know anything about western (dryer) Washington and Oregon.

 

[Cody1771]

ohh your going to be close to me! to bad i dont have a large barn or garage to offer, id definatly help on a sweet rig like that. if your in the Vancouver area i can give you some locations that would be giant vehicle friendly and you wouldnt have to worry about low trees ect. if you have the funds you might want to consider one of those modular garages, they can get some pretty tall one, or maybe a military mod ted or something.