Another Skamper 072S budget build
- Thread starter mbroughton02
- Start date
mbroughton02
Member
Bed Extension... As many of you know, the Skamper bed over the cab is just barely larger than a twin: 43" wide. My girlfriend and I are of average size, so I was having serious doubts that we could sleep comfortably on a twin sized mattress. I wanted a double bed at minimum. In my head I had this elaborate mechanism designed involving DIY heavy duty drawer slides. Thankfully I didn't do that; the solution I went with was much simpler:
Basically a piece of 3/4" plywood supported on the back and side edges by 1"x1" strips of pine.
For the support on the passenger side, I mounted the 1x1 to a plywood plate so that the plywood plate could be screwed into the top of the wall section where there is actually framing behind the wood paneling:
The other two supports hit solid framing without any additional plates.
Since the plywood extension was only supported on 3 sides, I doubled up the plywood on the remaining edge to add a bit of structural integrity:
I plan to use a double / full size air mattress. I expect that it will wrap around the roof supports without an issue. And since I'm 6'2" and my girlfriend is 5'3", as long as she sleeps on the side with the supports, we should be comfortable. We'll find out soon.
I also got my water tank installed. I will probably catch some crap for this, but I could not justify buying a $50+ RV water tank when I had one of these inexpensive "Aqua-Tainer" 7 gallon tanks lying around with my camping stuff.
Although 7 gallons isn't much, I don't have room for much more, and on many previous 3-day tent camping trips with my girlfriend, 7 gallons has gotten us by just fine. No reason why it shouldn't in the Skamper, and weekend camping is what I'm planning to do the most of.
I figured out that the "spigot" fitting on the Aqua-Tainer is 3/4" NPT threads, so I bought a 3/4" NPT Male-to-female 90º bend (Lowes), and a 3/4" male NPT to 3/8" ID tubing adapter (Amazon):
For the fill, I purchased 3/4" ID tubing (will be a slow rate of fill, but with only 7 gallons I'm not worried), a bulkhead with 3/4" NPT female threads, and a 3/4" NPT male to 3/4" ID tubing adapter. I found all 3 at Lowes. I had to drill a new hole in the Aqua-Tainer, so it's not really useful for tent camping anymore, but you can't beat the price. At the end that connects to the Skamper's outside "fill" port, those were 1 1/4" NPT female threads, so I used a 1 1/4" male threads to 1" female slip fitting, a 1" male slip x 3/4" female threads adapter, and another 3/4" male threads to 3/4" ID tubing adapter. Again, all at Lowes.
I may have spent $25 or so on fittings and tubing, but even if I went with a new tank I would have needed $10-$15 worth, so I consider this method a big savings over a small RV tank.
Basically a piece of 3/4" plywood supported on the back and side edges by 1"x1" strips of pine.
For the support on the passenger side, I mounted the 1x1 to a plywood plate so that the plywood plate could be screwed into the top of the wall section where there is actually framing behind the wood paneling:
The other two supports hit solid framing without any additional plates.
Since the plywood extension was only supported on 3 sides, I doubled up the plywood on the remaining edge to add a bit of structural integrity:
I plan to use a double / full size air mattress. I expect that it will wrap around the roof supports without an issue. And since I'm 6'2" and my girlfriend is 5'3", as long as she sleeps on the side with the supports, we should be comfortable. We'll find out soon.
I also got my water tank installed. I will probably catch some crap for this, but I could not justify buying a $50+ RV water tank when I had one of these inexpensive "Aqua-Tainer" 7 gallon tanks lying around with my camping stuff.
Although 7 gallons isn't much, I don't have room for much more, and on many previous 3-day tent camping trips with my girlfriend, 7 gallons has gotten us by just fine. No reason why it shouldn't in the Skamper, and weekend camping is what I'm planning to do the most of.
I figured out that the "spigot" fitting on the Aqua-Tainer is 3/4" NPT threads, so I bought a 3/4" NPT Male-to-female 90º bend (Lowes), and a 3/4" male NPT to 3/8" ID tubing adapter (Amazon):
For the fill, I purchased 3/4" ID tubing (will be a slow rate of fill, but with only 7 gallons I'm not worried), a bulkhead with 3/4" NPT female threads, and a 3/4" NPT male to 3/4" ID tubing adapter. I found all 3 at Lowes. I had to drill a new hole in the Aqua-Tainer, so it's not really useful for tent camping anymore, but you can't beat the price. At the end that connects to the Skamper's outside "fill" port, those were 1 1/4" NPT female threads, so I used a 1 1/4" male threads to 1" female slip fitting, a 1" male slip x 3/4" female threads adapter, and another 3/4" male threads to 3/4" ID tubing adapter. Again, all at Lowes.
I may have spent $25 or so on fittings and tubing, but even if I went with a new tank I would have needed $10-$15 worth, so I consider this method a big savings over a small RV tank.
mbroughton02
Member
My double / full size air mattress came in so I tried it out on the bed extension and it works quite well:
Also got my table done. Nothing fancy here. It's a nice-ish piece of 3/4" plywood, sanded to 220 and sealed with 3 coats of Arm-R-Seal:
I just need a kitchen faucet and this thing is ready to go. First camping trip scheduled next weekend.
Also got my table done. Nothing fancy here. It's a nice-ish piece of 3/4" plywood, sanded to 220 and sealed with 3 coats of Arm-R-Seal:
I just need a kitchen faucet and this thing is ready to go. First camping trip scheduled next weekend.
rangerdogg
Adventurer
Nice job man making it your own . Enjoy
My double / full size air mattress came in so I tried it out on the bed extension and it works quite well:
Also got my table done. Nothing fancy here. It's a nice-ish piece of 3/4" plywood, sanded to 220 and sealed with 3 coats of Arm-R-Seal:
I just need a kitchen faucet and this thing is ready to go. First camping trip scheduled next weekend.
Nice Table set up. I like !! Can you provide the source for the pedestal ?? Mine's missing and I want to copy what you did - but I May change the table shape/size (i.e. round ?)
rangerdogg
Adventurer
Amazon , camping stores , eBay sell them
Shoot me a PM. I have two of those foot things you can have cheap.
Horse Head Bookends
New member
https://plus.google.com/photos/112372094434073293146/albums/5766645393950966305?authkey=COzl5djC39TsowE
Try this one. I took it from another Skamper thread. I am getting ready to tackle my electric as well. Good luck!
mbroughton02
Member
Finally ready to head out for the first trip!
Finally ready to head out for the first trip!
Enjoy !! Let us know how everything works out !!
mbroughton02
Member
Sorry I just saw this. Yes, there is one thing I would have done differently:
Not sure how far along you are, but the holes I cut to access the area in front of the wheel wells are a challenge to deal with. Getting the ratchet strap in place between the eye bolt on the skamper and the d-ring in the truck bed takes a few minutes and I have fairly long and skinny arms / hands.
They are expensive, but I think the torklift frame mounts are really the better solution for holding down the front of the camper.
mbroughton02
Member
Added a canoe rack with some helpful advice from @bikerbill2021 regarding what exactly is structural on these roofs. Canoe is only about 50 lbs. The rack is as light as I could stand to make it- 2 pieces of 1/8" wall x 1" aluminum box tube, and some 1/8" x 1.5" aluminum angle. First trip tomorrow. We'll see how it does.
Last edited:
bikerbill2021
Member
Killer man, glad you got it figured out and I could be of help, it looks good, lmk how it holds up, as I may be doing something similar here soon as well.
Also now that I remember, I was gonna ask you about your sleeping platform extension. How much of a difference has it made for your sleeping comfort with that extension? Have you slept up there with two people before and after adding that extension? I was going to do that to mine as well to give a little more room for two people, but the first solo trip I went out on with it I used my twin air mattress up there, only to find it incredibly uncomfortable/wobbly. I guess when I used to use it in the actual bed of the truck with my old tent setup the wheel wells helped stabilize it, but up on the platform there was really nothing to hold it. Plus my buddy bought all new foam for his camper and gave me his old foam, with one piece being the exact size I needed for that platform, so Ive been using that. But I would like to revisit the idea and possibly do something like the FWCs do with their sleeping platforms and jigsaw puzzle like foam pads. I'd love to do a north to south sleeping style too not unlike the FWC/Halmark campers, but the HECO system makes that tricky, and that would extend way into the living quarters. Being over 6 foot is a little tight up there sleeping east to west, so I'm brainstorming it a bit.