Hi All,
Long time lurker here, figured it was my time to give back some. Caution though, this is a long post and has a bit of back story.
I'm currently in the planning stages of a new build based on an FG84 single cab. My wife and I had been wanting to move into something a bit more comfortable than a tent for quite a while, our main design criteria being a comfortable bed, inside toilet and just getting that sense of space and comfort when stuck inside. We expect to be living most of the time outside though, so easy access to external kitchen, drinks fridge and the like are important. We wanted the camper to be able to handle both hot and cold weather, it is intended this will see cold & snow, so good insulation were important to us. Our intention is to stay in Melbourne for the next couple of years until my wife gets Australian citizenship, then take it through South America for a couple of years. Thus being able to containerise it would be ideal.
After looking at a LOT of options, I was almost at the point of buying one of the first shipments of Four Wheel Campers flat tray designs to Australia when an XPCamper came up for sale about 30 minutes drive from where I live. I'd been lusting over one for about a year, and made a number of enquiries to the US about them, but the shipping and costs just didn't make it worthwhile. There were some hydraulics issues with it (chain of events that started with a broken drill piece for lift puck installation, or so I hear), but it was a condition of sale these be fixed. Camper I bought
Over the course of 9 months, parts were ordered from Marc at XPCamper, some fibreglass fixes were done to the camper and general maintenance while I went in search for a suitable truck. I did a lot of digging and research on vehicles (I call this my OCD project), looked at GMC 2500's, Ford F250's, Ford F350's (didn't like any of them really), Nissan Patrols, Hiluxes, Landcruiser 70's (all too small in both dimensions and capacity) before deciding to move up the scale a little bit.
Moved onto Canters next. Hadn't ever driven one before, nor spent much time around them, but this forum really helped form some ideas. Found we REALLY didn't like the ride in the SWB, the dual cab would have been nice but with the camper on it, we'd have been over a self imposed height restriction of 3m, primarily to get under some low bridges around here. Found though that the dimensions would work perfectly on a single cab, with space for 2 spares and a quad bike under the cabover section. Sounded like the way to go. Started hunting down one in good condition.
Came across some good dual cabs, asked multiple truck dealers about single cab Canters, talked about wheels & suspension with Alan, went and saw Owens (SkiFreak) truck before finally deciding to buy one from John (whatcharterboat) in a private sale (he'd been doing it up as a side project). Wife and I flew up to see it, meet John and confirm it was what we wanted/expected. It was, asked John to arrange a couple of options from the ATW parts catalogue and flew home happy.
Unfortunately, the XP wasn't doing so well. Right at the same time as we were going up to see John, hydraulics failed again. The new parts hadn't worked out, previous owner wasn't happy about it and couldn't in good conscience sell it to me. I got my money back on it, will be keeping in touch with previous owner though. It's a real shame it didn't work out, I loved the sense of space inside, how everything just works and fitted 95% of what we wanted and some we didn't know we wanted. Still remains my preferred option, but can't have everything you want and we can't afford a new one. It would have meant I could be up and running by May.
Was meant to pick up the truck a couple of weeks ago as it's ready, but was too sick to drive it back (4 years and counting, several doctors and 10's of thousands spent trying to figure it out, still haven't gotten anywhere, it comes on for a few weeks/months then will switch off). Will be trying again at Easter. Picture of the truck before and after.
So back to square 1, but having committed to a truck. Immediate though, Westyss replica. After much discussion, planning, learning Autocad and help from Owen, here's where my plans are at.
Camper Closed
On the truck
Camper closed up. I'll have to see what sort of lift the parabolics give over the CAD image Owen sent me, but we're currently sitting at 2.54m based on the front axle, 2.63m at the rear without allowing for weight to adjust the springs. Unknown what we'll end up at. But should be able to drive under the bridges locally, and I'm hoping drive straight into a container.
Camper opened up adds about 550mm in height.
Camper Open
Layout
I've got 2 options, both of which we're still considering. On both, straight in front of the doors is the fridge (sized it around a Vitrofrigo DW210), to the right is 2 bench seats, shoe storage in base of the first seat, then queen size bed with under bed storage for clothing (will be lift up hinge).
On the left from the door, I've got two options, both of which we're still considering. The galley kitchen with cooktop, sized for a Webasto X100, and sink. The major difference is how we have the bathroom.
Option 1 is a dedicated shower/toilet section, drain into the void created by chassis step.
Option 2 has a pantry first up, toilet/shower closet. If you have a shower in this one, curtain extends into the walkway. The entire floor section in this design is raised up about 40mm with a slotted floor, shower basin extends all through the kitchen but hidden with a removable floor. I measured my torso up to get an idea of window layouts/workability within a few designs, I call him Mr Roboto, makes it more interesting to see the layout from his eyes. Smaller version is Mrs Roboto.
Both layouts have a large 1.5*2.0*0.7m externally accessed storage area for misc stuff we either add or take away with us. Some space will be taken up by the 100l grey water tanks and 220l fresh water tanks. On the roof, there's space for 6 150W Voltech flexible solar panels, which I want to feed into a 450AH lithium battery pack. 2 spares sit on the rear, frame welded to the subframe and bolted through the panels likely to a second support bracket to make sure it doesn't go anywhere. Overall, expect to come in around 6.8m. Camper dimensions come in around 4.4*2.15 external, 4.25*2.0m internal with an internal open/closed height of 1.55/2.1m retrospectively.
I'm currently talking with a few panel manufacturers about getting the shell built for me, or providing the panels. Hoping to get the basics (subframe, shell, roof lifting mechanism) done in the next 3 months, the rest progressively over the next year. Lets see how we go with that.
A massive thanks to both John and Owen for all their help and support sofar, I wouldn't have been anywhere near where I am today without you.
Joe
Long time lurker here, figured it was my time to give back some. Caution though, this is a long post and has a bit of back story.
I'm currently in the planning stages of a new build based on an FG84 single cab. My wife and I had been wanting to move into something a bit more comfortable than a tent for quite a while, our main design criteria being a comfortable bed, inside toilet and just getting that sense of space and comfort when stuck inside. We expect to be living most of the time outside though, so easy access to external kitchen, drinks fridge and the like are important. We wanted the camper to be able to handle both hot and cold weather, it is intended this will see cold & snow, so good insulation were important to us. Our intention is to stay in Melbourne for the next couple of years until my wife gets Australian citizenship, then take it through South America for a couple of years. Thus being able to containerise it would be ideal.
After looking at a LOT of options, I was almost at the point of buying one of the first shipments of Four Wheel Campers flat tray designs to Australia when an XPCamper came up for sale about 30 minutes drive from where I live. I'd been lusting over one for about a year, and made a number of enquiries to the US about them, but the shipping and costs just didn't make it worthwhile. There were some hydraulics issues with it (chain of events that started with a broken drill piece for lift puck installation, or so I hear), but it was a condition of sale these be fixed. Camper I bought
Over the course of 9 months, parts were ordered from Marc at XPCamper, some fibreglass fixes were done to the camper and general maintenance while I went in search for a suitable truck. I did a lot of digging and research on vehicles (I call this my OCD project), looked at GMC 2500's, Ford F250's, Ford F350's (didn't like any of them really), Nissan Patrols, Hiluxes, Landcruiser 70's (all too small in both dimensions and capacity) before deciding to move up the scale a little bit.
Moved onto Canters next. Hadn't ever driven one before, nor spent much time around them, but this forum really helped form some ideas. Found we REALLY didn't like the ride in the SWB, the dual cab would have been nice but with the camper on it, we'd have been over a self imposed height restriction of 3m, primarily to get under some low bridges around here. Found though that the dimensions would work perfectly on a single cab, with space for 2 spares and a quad bike under the cabover section. Sounded like the way to go. Started hunting down one in good condition.
Came across some good dual cabs, asked multiple truck dealers about single cab Canters, talked about wheels & suspension with Alan, went and saw Owens (SkiFreak) truck before finally deciding to buy one from John (whatcharterboat) in a private sale (he'd been doing it up as a side project). Wife and I flew up to see it, meet John and confirm it was what we wanted/expected. It was, asked John to arrange a couple of options from the ATW parts catalogue and flew home happy.
Unfortunately, the XP wasn't doing so well. Right at the same time as we were going up to see John, hydraulics failed again. The new parts hadn't worked out, previous owner wasn't happy about it and couldn't in good conscience sell it to me. I got my money back on it, will be keeping in touch with previous owner though. It's a real shame it didn't work out, I loved the sense of space inside, how everything just works and fitted 95% of what we wanted and some we didn't know we wanted. Still remains my preferred option, but can't have everything you want and we can't afford a new one. It would have meant I could be up and running by May.
Was meant to pick up the truck a couple of weeks ago as it's ready, but was too sick to drive it back (4 years and counting, several doctors and 10's of thousands spent trying to figure it out, still haven't gotten anywhere, it comes on for a few weeks/months then will switch off). Will be trying again at Easter. Picture of the truck before and after.
So back to square 1, but having committed to a truck. Immediate though, Westyss replica. After much discussion, planning, learning Autocad and help from Owen, here's where my plans are at.
Camper Closed
On the truck
Camper closed up. I'll have to see what sort of lift the parabolics give over the CAD image Owen sent me, but we're currently sitting at 2.54m based on the front axle, 2.63m at the rear without allowing for weight to adjust the springs. Unknown what we'll end up at. But should be able to drive under the bridges locally, and I'm hoping drive straight into a container.
Camper opened up adds about 550mm in height.
Camper Open
Layout
I've got 2 options, both of which we're still considering. On both, straight in front of the doors is the fridge (sized it around a Vitrofrigo DW210), to the right is 2 bench seats, shoe storage in base of the first seat, then queen size bed with under bed storage for clothing (will be lift up hinge).
On the left from the door, I've got two options, both of which we're still considering. The galley kitchen with cooktop, sized for a Webasto X100, and sink. The major difference is how we have the bathroom.
Option 1 is a dedicated shower/toilet section, drain into the void created by chassis step.
Option 2 has a pantry first up, toilet/shower closet. If you have a shower in this one, curtain extends into the walkway. The entire floor section in this design is raised up about 40mm with a slotted floor, shower basin extends all through the kitchen but hidden with a removable floor. I measured my torso up to get an idea of window layouts/workability within a few designs, I call him Mr Roboto, makes it more interesting to see the layout from his eyes. Smaller version is Mrs Roboto.
Both layouts have a large 1.5*2.0*0.7m externally accessed storage area for misc stuff we either add or take away with us. Some space will be taken up by the 100l grey water tanks and 220l fresh water tanks. On the roof, there's space for 6 150W Voltech flexible solar panels, which I want to feed into a 450AH lithium battery pack. 2 spares sit on the rear, frame welded to the subframe and bolted through the panels likely to a second support bracket to make sure it doesn't go anywhere. Overall, expect to come in around 6.8m. Camper dimensions come in around 4.4*2.15 external, 4.25*2.0m internal with an internal open/closed height of 1.55/2.1m retrospectively.
I'm currently talking with a few panel manufacturers about getting the shell built for me, or providing the panels. Hoping to get the basics (subframe, shell, roof lifting mechanism) done in the next 3 months, the rest progressively over the next year. Lets see how we go with that.
A massive thanks to both John and Owen for all their help and support sofar, I wouldn't have been anywhere near where I am today without you.
Joe
