Well its been a while since I update this and a lot has changed so time to do it! I posted in the Pop-up camper section that our camper was hit by a hit and run driver when we are on our way home from Overland Expo West 2017. The short version of the story is that the camper was ultimately declared a total loss by the insurance company. Hallmark in the past had shown no interest in building a flatbed specific version of their product but that has changed. After many months of working through product development and then constructing what is now the first of its kind product I took delivery of my new camper the end of May. I will post more detail about the camper in the popup camper thread. I'll discuss the renovation to the truck that I have been doing all winter to get ready for the camper here.
First - here is the end product in comparison the the end of the road for the old camper:
and here's the new one:
And from the rear:
So, what's changed?
New camper is 13' long (roof) and the floor is 8' so the overhang is 60% of wheelbase for my friends in Austrailia! (Well I cheated a little bit...the bed and camper are 60%. The steps stowed as shown are in excess of that. In USA nobody cares how far your rear end hangs out so it's all good.
To accomplish this I moved the bed back to the 13' point so the camper sits all on the bed. The old one had 2' hanging out and the waste tanks hung below the camber behind the bed. The bed has been shortened to 8' long and the front bulkhead is gone so the bed is the same size as the footprint of the camper.
The bike garage is a separate deck but it sits on the same subframe that supports the main flatbed. The main reason for this is that it was easier to do that then extend the rear of the old bed.
The new bumper is now attached to the frame of the truck instead of the camper jacks and camper. Its hollow to store long skinny things...(not what you think).
No jacks on the new one because that's what got hit before. You can't hit 'em if they aren't there!
The wood doors on the bike deck are made of teak that I salvaged from a building we remodeled over 20 years ago and has been kicking around my shop waiting for the right project. This is the world's first Fuso Woody!
The aluminum tunnel box is the same one but its moved back a few inches to give a bit more room for the spare tire and jerry cans which is all new. The spare weighs as much as I do and I always worried that it would kill me if it fell while I was wrestling it down so I built a swing arm that supports the spare and pivits down with a cable and winch. I can now stand safely out of the way with a wireless remote control and raise or lower the spare without lifting anything! My back feels better already.
Odds and ends: New ham radio and antenna. New backup camera on the license plate frame and another camera that is wireless that I can mount at various locations as needed. If I need to spot myself through a rock garden I can locate and aim that camera at wheel level to see what I am doing.
Relocated air compressor and air tank in the subframe and ran lines to both sides of the truck.
Last but not least, the camper has no grey water tank for the shower.
there is just a 3/4" hose fitting hidden behind the door for the cassette toilet. If we are camped where we can let that drain on the ground we hook up the 6' piece of garden hose in the rear bumper to that and let it rip. If we are in a campground where that is frowned upon I built a tank into the subframe under the camper out of plastic drain pipe left over from my shop build. It works it way from the back right corner of the bed (look carefully at the photo) behind the tool boxes to the front off the subframe then goes through the frame to the other side and back the left rear corner of the truck. There is a valve there and hose fitting that I can use that same length of hose to dump at a dump station.
Still to do: Add some tool boxes behind the rear wheels. They will be shallower that the existing ones so nothing hangs down below the bumper. Needs to be big enough to store my little BBQ. Need to sell my old ones first...both the 18" x 18" x 18" steel ones below below the bed but also the old aluminum 72" x 16" X 12" drop door boxes on top the bed in the "before" photo.
Buckstopper
