Build your own Fuso FG6 4x4 based camper/overlander!

[Family Friendly 4x4]

Cool. My worry with the popup is heat loss/insulating it. I like your design with a single section rather than a full popup as it minimizes that, but I was wondering if it would be possible to use it without the popup engaged on the coldest nights (my build will be used as a base for skiing frequently). 500mm is pretty claustrophobic. That's similar to sleeping under my current van platform set up. Maybe I'll crawl down there and see how it is.

Yeah we don't have to cater for the cold in sunny South Africa.

You could build a pop up roof with solid insulated sides of course, there are many body builds like that on this forum. You know the ones that have a low roof but when you park you can jack the entire roof up for head space. Some have canvas sides and others solid insulated walls.

It would required some engineering of course.

And then you still have the dilemma to tilt or not to tilt....?

 

[MarcusBrody]

Yeah we don't have to cater for the cold in sunny South Africa.

You could build a pop up roof with solid insulated sides of course, there are many body builds like that on this forum. You know the ones that have a low roof but when you park you can jack the entire roof up for head space. Some have canvas sides and others solid insulated walls.

It would required some engineering of course.

And then you still have the dilemma to tilt or not to tilt....?

I do admire all the lifting hardside campers, but I'm not sure it's a good idea for me for two reasons:
1. It would just be lots more engineering which would mean more time and complication and longer before I finished and got to using it.
2. If I wanted a bed over the cab, I can only gain at max 2x the height of the lowered cabover section (and really probably 6 inches less than that to account for the overlap and insulation of the ceiling) unless you want multiple panels. So if I were to build a 2 foot section above the cab, the whole body could only really raise 18 inches in the best case scenario. That's a lot of work to get an 18in increase, so I'm liking your soft top. I was considering a hardsided version of your style roof though. I think it would be easier to engineer so if I only got 18 inches on one side, It wouldn't be as big a deal.

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

I do admire all the lifting hardside campers, but I'm not sure it's a good idea for me for two reasons:
1. It would just be lots more engineering which would mean more time and complication and longer before I finished and got to using it.
2. If I wanted a bed over the cab, I can only gain at max 2x the height of the lowered cabover section (and really probably 6 inches less than that to account for the overlap and insulation of the ceiling) unless you want multiple panels. So if I were to build a 2 foot section above the cab, the whole body could only really raise 18 inches in the best case scenario. That's a lot of work to get an 18in increase, so I'm liking your soft top. I was considering a hardsided version of your style roof though. I think it would be easier to engineer so if I only got 18 inches on one side, It wouldn't be as big a deal.

No that certainly would not be worth the trouble nor the expense of it.

Just letting my mind go here, is there any type of material available that is similar to a rescue blanket or some other type of insulating material that you could line the inside of the canvas sides with? Or perhaps zip or velcro on?

I mean mountaineers sleep inside tents on the snow!

There must be a solution out there.

 

[MarcusBrody]

I've slept in tents in the snow on a good number of occasions there was a lot of down involved though. Ive also done a good number of nights in my car/van in ski hill parking lots. There were many where I was actually too warm in my sleeping bag. Somehow when thinking of a family camper build though, my standards of comfort get much higher. I mean, l'm considering a design that doesn't require Gatorade bottles if you need to pee!

I think you could definitely do a pretty well insulated pop up section, if not as well insulated as sandwich panels with rigid foam. That's esp true if it was just a relatively small section like yours. I was thinking maybe a vinyl/wool army blanket/vinyl sandwich and just letting it fold into the bed when closed.

Anyway, I'm not starting construction soon, so it's not something I need to figure out immediately, but I like to have some rough ideas as I start collecting materials. Plus, for me, dreaming and planning is half the fun.

 

[unkamonkey]

No that certainly would not be worth the trouble nor the expense of it.

Just letting my mind go here, is there any type of material available that is similar to a rescue blanket or some other type of insulating material that you could line the inside of the canvas sides with? Or perhaps zip or velcro on?

I mean mountaineers sleep inside tents on the snow!

There must be a solution out there.

I have a pop top and It has around 1/8" of foam in the side curtains. I had a shop sew up some extra blankets for the sides with some foil faced bubble wrap sort of insulation encased in nylon fabric.
Velcro to hold them in place.
With 2 people in there at night the furnace only fired up a few times.

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

Unkamonkey is onto something there MarcusBrody. I am sure you could combine the pop-up canvas sides with an add-on interior insulation solution.

Out of interest here is a photograph of the pop-up area from the inside. This was our first attempt and a half completed melamine interior. Since this photo we have insulated the metal part of this area (otherwise you would get condensation) and made it a lot neater and complete than shown here.

But this photo shows the skeleton and air rams which may be of interest to you.

You can also see the D-rubber seal sticking out behind a half completed melamine side panel there. This seal runs right around the bed extension against the camper body frame. And it seals very tight.

 

[unkamonkey]

I also made interior covers for all of the windows and vent from the same materials. Wind shield cover and side window covers. In the middle of the day it is as dark as night inside if you want it to be. It works for the cold as well as to help the AC. I'm usually out with a frosty one by then.

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

The advantage of a tilting bed-over-cab

Here is a pic that demonstrates how convenient and easy it is to simply tilt our bed-over-cab extension up to allow for tilting of the cab.

You do not want to have to remove your camper body in order to check the truck's oil level!

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

Roof with a view

We finally finished the manhole to the roof platform with enough space for two deck chairs and a case of Savanna!

When completed the roof deck will have a collapsable safety rail surrounding it.

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

Roof business

We had the entire roof rubberized to avoid leaks.

This photo also shows our solar installation. We discovered afterwards that these two panels in fact are not nearly sufficient for charging our batteries effectively. We will be installing a second alternator in the engine bay in the near future that will do the job much better AND whilst on the fly.

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

Super singles dilemma here we go again.....

So we finally moved the camper body over to the new FG84.

Not that the other FG is old, in fact the other one has only done 15,000 km from new. But as we use the black FG for business purposes it keeps interfering with scheduled camping trips and so it was either give up the dream or get a dedicated truck for it and use it for what we build it for!

Of course this meant going through the whole excersize of installing air-assist supension to the new truck as well as all the 100 other little mods you did the first time around that you had already forgotten about! Sigh



One of those issues being that of the super singles which are not available in South Africa!! And I was really trying to avoid having to import them from Aus.

For the first FG I managed to source second hand rims (we suspect they are O.E. Isuzu or FAW) we are not sure as we literally measured a 100 rims in a pile at a scrapyard until we found 6 suitable ones. And then I had stainless steel wheel spacers turned for the front in order to get the front and rear wheels in track (if you zoom in on the front wheel of the black FG in the photo above you will see these spacers..... and the unknown rims).

They seem to do the job but they do not have the 100mm offset, and these are tubed whilst I would much prefer tubeless rims; so for the new truck I would like to do it properly.

None of the big wheel manufacturers in SA are interested in building the 16 inch rim for us to accommodate the Michellin XZL tyres. And I certainly do not want a 2-piece rim either. Been down that disasterous road before (I had a locking ring that dislodged itself whilst we we parked up. It caused the unsupported inner tube to explode at 6 bar pressure and it took a good chunk out of my camper body! Had it been a driving wheel we would have rolled the truck. Never again split rims!).

Local manufacturers can supply a 17.5" rim but then we are stuck for tyre choice!

So I am back between a rock and a hard place once again.

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

Changing a flat super single

Ever wondered how you can ease the task of changing a super single on your FG?

Well this is my answer in 2 easy steps:

1. Most of us have some kind of lifting device installed, a winch being most common... [video]https://youtu.be/bB18GNzDNSM[/video]

But not so common is the handy use of hydraulic outriggers when you have got them!

2. Lifting your body to just the correct height with the help of hydraulics... [video]https://youtu.be/J7cUuSQ1aMM[/video]

Some photos of the exercise:




So after yet another tube popped at speed on the motorway and almost killing us we decided enough is enough and ordered those lovely tubeless rims and Trackmaster tyres from Kym at GoannaTracks. Watch this space.....

.

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

Trackmasters

The Trackmaster tyres and rims finally arrived in Cape Town from Goanna Tracks in Australia.

I could not wait to get them fitted and swop the XZL's back to the other truck.



And what an awesome setup it looks. So much better than the skinny XZL's!

Looking forward to testing them.

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

It has been a while since my last post but work has not stopped on the FG.

The latest is the addition of an exterior slide-out kitchen unit mounted to the chassis underneath the camper body.

I wanted a small gas grill on the outside, something we do not have in the interior kitchen. Although we usually BBQ on an open fire I thought it might be nice to be able to grill some sausages or similar during quick stop overs or when in sensitive outdoor areas.

I made the initial rough concept sketch and quite happy with the final product:




I also had some sponge cut-outs laser cut for the drawers:



Just got to mount it to the truck now..... (to be continued).

 

[SkiFreak]

Very nice.