Allochris's ultimate buildup thread!!!

[kcowyo]

Got a couple more question here...

1)At 70 to 100lbs, is your roof light enough that anyone like my mom would be able to lift it? I figure you lift the roof up in 2 sequences? By lifting and locking the back end first and then the front end, right?

Yup, two steps, the rear then the front. There is a cross support on the ceiling at both ends. In a crouched position, I put one shoulder under it and stand up. Then push the bi-folding wall out with a free hand till it snaps into a locked position. Because you stand up to open it, not just push it up with your arms, I would say any normal size adult of either gender should be able to do it.

2)Btw, I can see that having those foldable plywood panels up at front-rear do prevent side to side movement. Question is, how do they prevent the roof from pivoting forward or backward, kind of like a rectangle, collapsing into a parrallelogram, then totally flat?

I dunno. But I'll attach a few more interior pics to help you get a visual. Parallelogram? I didn't know there was gonna be geometry questions on this quiz.....

3)For the aluminium looking bar attached to the folding panel, are their sole purpose only to prevent the panels from folding? or do they do more than just that...?

The goldish color aluminum square trim pieces are probably the answer to your previous question. They keep the end walls rigid. The silver triangle bar at the front, that snaps to a loop on the ceiling is used to push out the front wall when lifting, since it's a bugger to reach over the bunk.

4)For the roof vent, according to your setup, where do you think is the best place to mount it, directly right above your cooking stove or elsewhere? Tell me also the opening direction you would like it to face too.

Mine is in the center, more or less over the center aisle, past the end of the bed. The hinge is towards the front of the vehicle so it opens towards the rear. That's how you'll want it because when your driving, the wind helps force it closed, where if it opened to the front, the wind at 60mph would rip it open and off.

I like it there because I usually leave it slightly cracked or wide open while I sleep depending on the weather. If it were over the bunk and I left it open and it started to rain during the evening, my bed would get soaked probably before it woke me. If it rains as I have it now, it would just drip onto the floor. And a tip, try to leave it cracked while you sleep. Helps reduce condensation in the morning.

I like the layout, you're doing some great work and making good time doing it. :clapsmile

 

[allochris]

Wow thanks, I think i finally understand the mechanism now. If you didn't post those picture, I would never be able to understand how your setup would keep itself up from falling forward or backward. (I didn't see that there are a 2nd layer of plywood at each end.)

I attached a picture below to summarize what I understood. Correct me if i'm wrong.

Btw, how high is your whole setup on the truck, from ground to highest point of roof? And inside from floor to ceiling when collapsed?

I have to squeeze mine to 7feet max outside to avoid expensive over-size BC ferry charge...in sacrifyzing head room space with unopened roof, that only leaves me about 44" inside height.eepwall:

Thanks again.

 

[kcowyo]

Yes, you've got it. Glad those pics helped.

The rear wall with the snap sling is snug. I believe this helps the rear wall from bending in (collapsing), in the event of a stiff wind. The two pieces can't seperate and bend in with the snap sling in place.

The triangle bar snap sling over the bunk is merely to keep the pushbar up and out of the way when opened. I still knock my head on it occasionally. Basically the two ends slip into the gold square trim. It just flops around. You can see in the pic with the camper 1/2 opened, it lays flat. It's sole purpose is to act as a pushbar to push the front wall open over the bunk. Then snap it up to the roof to keep it out of the way. It provides no support at all.

I'll have to measure heights for you. I can do that over lunch and post back up this afternoon.

 

[kcowyo]

Btw, how high is your whole setup on the truck, from ground to highest point of roof? And inside from floor to ceiling when collapsed?

I have to squeeze mine to 7feet max outside to avoid expensive over-size BC ferry charge...in sacrifyzing head room space with unopened roof, that only leaves me about 44" inside height.eepwall:

When closed, on the outside, the body of the camper is 48". Add in another 3-4" for the roof vent. Inside when closed is closer to 46" and it's OK. I can sit in there and make lunch when it's closed up. When opened, there is 6'1 interior height. I would assume on the outside when opened up, 6'3-ish....?

The camper is off the truck right now so I'm not sure how tall the whole set up is. I'll bet over 7 feet but less than 8 feet.

 

[allochris]

Finally, all the welding is now done. I ran out of shop time with the tig machine, so I had to use a mig spool gun with 4043 Al Wire to finish up the roof & additional reinforcement frame work. btw, i really hate to mig aluminum! Tig is the only way to go!

The total camper framework is about 170lbs, that's including the roof & the 4 legs i've made for the camper to stand on its own.

The flatdeck framework, with rear bumper, including wood is about estimated @ 300lbs.

As u see the roof is a sheet of 3mm plywood + 16mm nidacore honeycomb sheet. There will be a sheet of 20g Al sheet over the top. Yes, i can stand right in the middle of the roof!

Tomorrow is putting up the wall & siding.

:cheers:

 

[StumpXJ]

Not sure how I missed this thread, but it looks great man! It makes it that much better when you build it yourself! Very cool design. :clapsmile

~James

 

[erin]

very cool, i will be watching this one. looks like a strong design

 

[allochris]

today progress.

 

[StumpXJ]

looking good! Sweet hat by the way!

~James

 

[Brian894x4]

That is coming together so awesome. Back when I had my truck, that would have been my dream set up!!

Can't wait to see how it turns out when you're done.

 

[p1michaud]

Progress

Wow,
that is coming along nicely. Job well done! :victory:

Cheer :beer:,
P

 

[allochris]

sorry for not being able to tune in with the news on the camper.

Since last update i left montreal to Toronto and just barely finished up the camper in a week time with my dad. we were quite skepticle about the roof raising mechanism as we built it but at the end we got it dial on the same day of my departure! my roof weights 95lbs & it supports my weight on top & me(150lbs) hanging under it too when it's pop-up! The whole camper shell/roof/bench weight about 550lbs.


I did take the rest of the construction pictures but unfortunetly i don't have them with me on the road to showjust yet.

Last monday night i finally packed up the truck and left toronto @ 11pm. The drive out across canada from toronto to vancouver was quite a trip. we were 2 people, 100lbs dog

, gear packed truck/camper, 220lbs ish furnisher to deliver, and a 22 foot long sailboat/trailer (650lbs).

With about half a tank (36L ish), weigh station scale showed 1090kg front axle, 1600kg rear axle, and 240kg trailer axle. Front tires @ 38psi, rear @ 48psi.

The gvwr is 2425kg, does that mean i over loaded my truck?

Driving against the strong head winds btwn regina/medicine hat was quite a feat! With an old 325xxxkm 22re pulling a 6000lbs truck & sailboat, it was pretty much 85-90km/h in 4th gear everytime uphill is involved.

Going into the rockies wasn't hard actually, as it turns out that calgary is kind of higher than the base of the rockies mtns.

 

[allochris]

We had no trouble driving down the steep kicking horse pass with the boat either, i'm just glad that i put in new front discs b4 i left montreal.

Aside from being really good on time, (toronto-calgary : 48hrs) we got lucky not having to wait for the transcanada hwy 1 closure due to mud-slide closesure 65km west of golden, bc, near roger's pass. We've met people waiting outside Tim horton's in golden for 3days straight and we've only waited for 10mins!

driving downhill from roger's pass

through the revelstoke/3 valley gap, shuwswap, okanagan was definetely a blast, as it's all downhill until we had to climb a couple mtns on the coquihalla hwy, ranging from 200m al to 1400m al & again and again for at least 5-6 times. Of course, that involved lots of 3rd & even 2nd gear at some place just to get us rolling up the hwy! Finally, after we climbed the last hill, we pretty much descended 1400m the whole way down the coquihalla hwy to hope in about 30mins time.

I don't know how we did Toronto-Vancouver in 3days with all that load, seems crazy to me, and that's including a sleep-over at a friend's place in calgary!

The difference in engine performance wise b4/after this drive:
-louder coolant rushing sound when starting out in 1st gear with heater core opened (warm air)
-constant up and down rpm while idling (700-1500rpm)
-starting to burn oil. Did oil change just b4 the trip with 5w30. during the drive (4600km) i've put in about 2L of oil. is this acceptable


Gas mileage:
-(b4 trip, no camper/boat, just flat deck): 11.5-12l/100km

-best during trip: 12.9l/100km
-average: 13l/100km
-worst: 15l/100km
-whole trip: 4700km Toronto/Vancouver, $700Cad burned into the atmosphere

Gas price: (ouch!)
Toronto cheapest: 1.06
sault st marie: 1.09
winnepeg: 1.199
Medicine hat: 1.1
Calgary: 1.17
Field: 1.18
Golden: 1.259
Hope: 1.22
abbosford: 1.18
vancouver: 1.27

Animal:
-Saw a moose in Northern Ontario
-rolled over a road-kill (big bird of some kind...) oups...didn't see it.
-white tail fox in the prairies
-bugs non-existant except estern alberta

 

[Grim Reaper]

The difference in engine performance wise b4/after this drive:
-louder coolant rushing sound when starting out in 1st gear with heater core opened (warm air)
-constant up and down rpm while idling (700-1500rpm)
-starting to burn oil. Did oil change just b4 the trip with 5w30. during the drive (4600km) i've put in about 2L of oil. is this acceptable

The Idled flakes when brakes applied? Base idle is set too high. Adjust it down to 800 RPM and it should fix that. That's the screw right on the top of the throttle body. Don't mess with the linkage stops that will screw up the TPS setting. The screw in the top of the throttle body is a air bypass.

My 22RE does not like 5W30 for long drives and drinks it. According to my 86 4Runner owners manual 5W30 is not recommned in temps above 50f. Towing I would recommend a 20w50 and so does my Machine shop that built my engine. The factory manual says that 20w50 can be run as long as the minimum temp stays above 10F.

Stay away from 10w40. most are bad news with a high content of paraffin wax and it does a number on the rings.

Nice build. Look forward to seeing the rest of the build pics!

 

[allochris]

the up down idle happens sometime when we were pulling into towns waiting at a stop lights from driving on the highway non-stop at the range of a tank of gas. (also when brake pedal is not depressed). At every stop I did re-adjust my idle back to 750-800ish, however i'm just wondering why it keeps changing from stop to stop. In calgary though, after a 7hrs rest, the engine started on 1st turn of the key and idle right at 750rpm.

Oil wise, i meant 10w30. (typo),.

I will look into 20w50. What do you mean 10w40 doing something to the rings? (cause i just those all last summer long!) My oil consumption did increase!

Thanks.