msiminoff
Active member
My wife, two kids, and I set out on a one-year-long adventure in October 2015. Due to ages of our kids (9 & 11), and this being our first big family expedition, we are primarily focused on travel within the continental US with a few quick visits into Canada, and a little detour through the southern hemisphere (we like summer!). We have been traveling in a truck camper on a Ram 3500 which is quite comfy and performing beautifully.
Now, just a 5 months into this 12-month journey, we're already planning expedition #2... and #3. These next trips will take us considerably further from our home, to places like Alaska, Mexico, and ultimately Central & South America. We love the current rig, but we have come to the conclusion that for future expeditions we will want a more suitable expedition vehicle. To me that means: room for 4 people's worth of stuff, a super-strong high-quality build, more water capacity, more battery, more solar, less weight (yes, I know that one will be a challenge), and most importantly --> beds for the kids that don't need to be reconfigured every evening and morning. I also want a de-mountable "truck camper" type of configuration... and I have a strong preference for a Cummin's powered, 4x4, crew-cab, short wheelbase, pickup truck chassis.
I have searched high and low for the "perfect" family overlanding vehicle, but as yet I haven't found it. None of the commercially available truck campers even come close. An Earthroamer won't give us enough space (and storage) for a family of 4... same goes for an XP Camper. The offerings from the likes of GXV and UniCat are just too big for us and not de-mountable. I have scoured this forum, googled the interwebs, and attended a few O-land Expo's...but no-dice. So I have decided that I'm going to need to have a camper built for me... or do it myself.
I'm a mechanical engineer by trade. I have strong 3D CAD modeling skills, I have my own machine, welding & woodworking shop, plus have many years of experience with composite fabrication. I am 100% confident that I could build us a new camper myself, but there is one thing that I am seriously lacking and that is TIME. My business keeps me very busy, my wife doesn't have a whole lot of tolerance for side-projects, and my kids are growing up so darn quickly it's like I can see it happening right in front of my eyes. I think that I am realistic about the budget and timeline of a project like this (read: it will cost more and take longer than I expect). Also, we'll be on the road continuously from now until mid-September '16, and I cannot spend the following year (or more) doing a ground-up build of our next camper. At this stage of our lives, we believe that this is time that would be better spent earning or traveling.
I have started work on a basic layout and I think I have narrowed down my choices down to two build options; 1) Have a company like Phoenix build me a custom hard-side flat-bed truck camper or 2) find somebody like Total Composites to build the composite panels for me and I (along with local craftspeople) will do the finish work. Note that my design is still in process, and I have not yet made contact with Robby or Jeff. Of course I know that they both frequent this forum.
I am specifically looking for advice from people who have had a Phoenix Camper built for them and/or those who have ordered panels from Total Composites. Don't hold back, I want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly! I am also open to suggestions for other manufacturer/fabricators who may already offer or be able to build what I am looking for.
I'm including a simplified 2D view of my proposed floorplan (below). In the most basic terms, this is a dual-slide, flat-bed, side-door truck camper with a basement and a set of bunk beds in the rear. All of the heavy items (batt's, tanks, etc) will be in the basement and up against the front wall. We don't mind having a wet bath and we'll be perfectly happy with a portable style toilet too. (although I will still prob' install a small black tank). I am still toying with swapping the location of the bunk beds and the galley. I expect to have; 50 gal of fresh water, 700-1000W of solar, 400-500Ah of AGM batteries, ~20lbs of LPG, a window air conditioner.
Thanks in advance for any contributions you have to offer!
Cheers,
-Mark
Now, just a 5 months into this 12-month journey, we're already planning expedition #2... and #3. These next trips will take us considerably further from our home, to places like Alaska, Mexico, and ultimately Central & South America. We love the current rig, but we have come to the conclusion that for future expeditions we will want a more suitable expedition vehicle. To me that means: room for 4 people's worth of stuff, a super-strong high-quality build, more water capacity, more battery, more solar, less weight (yes, I know that one will be a challenge), and most importantly --> beds for the kids that don't need to be reconfigured every evening and morning. I also want a de-mountable "truck camper" type of configuration... and I have a strong preference for a Cummin's powered, 4x4, crew-cab, short wheelbase, pickup truck chassis.
I have searched high and low for the "perfect" family overlanding vehicle, but as yet I haven't found it. None of the commercially available truck campers even come close. An Earthroamer won't give us enough space (and storage) for a family of 4... same goes for an XP Camper. The offerings from the likes of GXV and UniCat are just too big for us and not de-mountable. I have scoured this forum, googled the interwebs, and attended a few O-land Expo's...but no-dice. So I have decided that I'm going to need to have a camper built for me... or do it myself.
I'm a mechanical engineer by trade. I have strong 3D CAD modeling skills, I have my own machine, welding & woodworking shop, plus have many years of experience with composite fabrication. I am 100% confident that I could build us a new camper myself, but there is one thing that I am seriously lacking and that is TIME. My business keeps me very busy, my wife doesn't have a whole lot of tolerance for side-projects, and my kids are growing up so darn quickly it's like I can see it happening right in front of my eyes. I think that I am realistic about the budget and timeline of a project like this (read: it will cost more and take longer than I expect). Also, we'll be on the road continuously from now until mid-September '16, and I cannot spend the following year (or more) doing a ground-up build of our next camper. At this stage of our lives, we believe that this is time that would be better spent earning or traveling.
I have started work on a basic layout and I think I have narrowed down my choices down to two build options; 1) Have a company like Phoenix build me a custom hard-side flat-bed truck camper or 2) find somebody like Total Composites to build the composite panels for me and I (along with local craftspeople) will do the finish work. Note that my design is still in process, and I have not yet made contact with Robby or Jeff. Of course I know that they both frequent this forum.
I am specifically looking for advice from people who have had a Phoenix Camper built for them and/or those who have ordered panels from Total Composites. Don't hold back, I want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly! I am also open to suggestions for other manufacturer/fabricators who may already offer or be able to build what I am looking for.
I'm including a simplified 2D view of my proposed floorplan (below). In the most basic terms, this is a dual-slide, flat-bed, side-door truck camper with a basement and a set of bunk beds in the rear. All of the heavy items (batt's, tanks, etc) will be in the basement and up against the front wall. We don't mind having a wet bath and we'll be perfectly happy with a portable style toilet too. (although I will still prob' install a small black tank). I am still toying with swapping the location of the bunk beds and the galley. I expect to have; 50 gal of fresh water, 700-1000W of solar, 400-500Ah of AGM batteries, ~20lbs of LPG, a window air conditioner.
Thanks in advance for any contributions you have to offer!
Cheers,
-Mark
