Hodakaguy's Overland Tacoma Builds - On to new adventures!

[Hodakaguy]

Some camper mods and a review of the cooking gear we carry.

Custom floor mats on the cheap! I picked up a $20 foam backed kitchen mat for the entry of the camper. A little trimming is in order to make it fit perfectly.

Getting ready to trim the mat to size.

I used a socket and a razor blade to round the corners for a factory finished look.

And installed in the camper. The fit is perfect and the foam backing feels great on bare feet. I'll purchase a couple more mats and custom fit the rest of the camper out.

Next up a storage location for our cooking supplies. Storage space in a small camper is at a premium so we need to utilize any available space. This box will go in the open area under the bench seat.

This wood box is light weight, fits the open space perfectly, it's durable and only $17! It also matches the campers interior very nicely.

Adding adhesive backed felt pads to the sides and rear of the box to prevent any wood to wood contact/scratching. Rounded the corners with the socket and razor blade.

Test fitting in the camper....spot on.

Continued Below....

 

[Hodakaguy]

Continued from above....

Ultra light weight/compact cooking gear review....Our cooking setup in our SWIFT.

With small campers weight is everything and space is a premium, the lighter the overall weight the more enjoyable the trip. Over years of long distance off road motorcycle travel and camping with our past FWC we have refined our light weight cooking gear set. This entire lot of gear fit's nicely into the small light weight wooden storage box and stows perfectly in the open space under the bench seat.

And unloaded.

JetBoil stove: This stove gets used heavily. It's compact and the whole unit stores inside it's own cook pot. It will boil a pot of water in 2 minutes! We use this every day to make coffee in the morning, for anything that needs hot water and you can also cook soup etc in the Pot. The cook pot has a heat sleeve around it and as soon as the water is boiling you can remove the pot from the stove, snap the plastic lid back onto the metal bottom area (Protects you from the hot pot) and hold the pot comfortably in your hand to eat out of if needed. The fuel canister lasts a surprisingly long time, love this piece of kit.

BioLite Wood Stove: This is a very efficient and compact wood burning stove. It will run on any type of wood that you can stick into the burner, I carry pre-cut chunks of Hickory to cook with and can easily restock on the road with bags of BBQ smoking wood chunks available at most stores . There is a small internal electric fan that creates a swirl chamber inside the burner pot for smoke free operation. Once the stove is up and running the TEG (Thermo Electric Generator) produces electricity from the heat and charges it's own internal battery, runs the fan and will even charge a cell phone from a USB port. There are multiple fan speeds to control heat output. The optional grill attachment is awesome, we cook steaks, chicken, hot dogs etc almost nightly with this unit. You can open the lid on the grill and feed the burner without removing the grill. The setup makes for a VERY compact and efficient BBQ!

The TEG Unit.

And grill attached.

Folding Bucket: This is a super light and compact bucket that folds up into a little square pouch. Once deployed it's very durable and self supporting once filled with water. We use this for washing dishes, fetching water to put out a camp fire etc. Very handy.

Primus Fuel Stove: This is a ultra compact stove that screws onto the same bottles of fuel that the JetBoil uses. We use this with the small folding handle pan and have cooked many meals for the three of us with this setup. It's very stable once set up, weights almost nothing and takes up very little space.

Handheld lighter/torch: This is a small extendable handheld lighter that puts out a nice intense flame. Great for lighting the BioLite stove, camp fires etc. There is a small adapter I carry (Pictured) that allows refilling the lighter from the Jetboil fuel containers.

Cooking gear loaded into the camper.

Hodakaguy

 

[toyotarig]

Ugh, I can't see the pictures! What is happening stop teasing me. Stupid slow internet.

 

[MCX]

Just came across this thread and worked my way through it...WOW! Amazing quality work! I love your build!

 

[Hodakaguy]

Ugh, I can't see the pictures! What is happening stop teasing me. Stupid slow internet.

They are working on my end.

Hodakaguy

 

[patoz]

They are working on my end.

Hodakaguy

They're working fine for me also.

 

[Hodakaguy]

Time to install the ARB Air compressor and fabricate a folding aluminum step for the camper.

With the Dual Batts and the SwitchPro already mounted under the hood space is becoming harder to find. I looked around a bit and decided the only area that I liked for the Compressor is directly behind the passenger side headlight. The space here is tight but the compressor will fit.

Here's the open area behind the passenger side headlight.

Time to start fabricating the mount. I will utilize the two factory bolts that hold the power steering reservoir to the fender as well as an open hole up high next to the radiator that I will install a bolt through, no drilling on the truck will be needed

Laying out the design and cutting parts.

The upper left hole will be a through bolt that will mount to the body, the remaining three holes will have studs welded into them. All 4 holes will secure the compressor to the bracket.

Fabricating the lower mounts. I love MagSwitches!

The extra brace is bolted onto the unit for easier install.

Setting up the compressor. Installed the Solenoid for the front locker, pressure switch and riser for the air hose fitting. I went with the Single cyl unit for the size, this compressor will air up tires and the air bags as well as running the locker. I'll get a rubber cover for the air fitting.

Mount finished and painted.

And installed in the truck, fits like a glove! Shown here with the washer tank removed for easier install.

And washer tank re-installed. Now to hook up the wiring and locker tubing.

Next up....Fabricating the hitch step for the camper. Since the camper sticks out past the rear of the truck the step needs to be quite a ways out to be useful, because of this I wanted the assembly to be fold-able so it can be tucked out of the way when traveling.

We will be using a Weathertech BumpStop Step (easy on the shins if you run into it) and 6061-T6 Aluminum for the extension/folding mechanism.

My father at work drilling the holes for the hitch pin.

Continued Below...

 

[Hodakaguy]

Continued From Above...

Using a Jig saw and a steady hand to cut out the pivot plates from a sheet of Aluminum.

Notching the Tubing.

Welding on the pivot plates

Assembled and on the truck. The pivot bolt and pivot lock pin are temporary in these pics as I didn't have the right size on hand, I'll snag some tomorrow. The whole assembly is super light, strong and folds in just a few seconds.

And extended. The step works great with no deflection....seems to be rock solid.

Hodakaguy.

 

[lactic]

I have to admit it. After reading your posts and seeing the work of you an your dad, I am fighting a losing battle of gearhead inferiority. Just amazed by the quality of work and how effortless you make it seem. Keep it coming!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hodakaguy]

I have to admit it. After reading your posts and seeing the work of you an your dad, I am fighting a losing battle of gearhead inferiority. Just amazed by the quality of work and how effortless you make it seem. Keep it coming!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, I enjoy this kind of work. I'll keep the updates coming as they happen.

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Solar Install.

Originally I was planning on utilizing two 120W flexible solar panels on a custom aluminum mount that I would fabricate to fit the FWC, I utilized a similar setup (with 3 panels) on our old Syncro and it worked out really well. After doing some more research I found a 175W single Mono panel with almost the perfect dimensions for the Swift so decided to switch to this panel. This switch will save a lot of time and hassle over using the flex panels, and should be more durable in the long run.

The NewPowa 175 W Mono Panel.

Back side of the panel.

The factory solar plug installed on the roof of the camper is an SAE connector, I will shorten the wiring on the panel and install the SAE connector in the proper location. I'm using high quality crimps and two layers of marine grade heat shrink on the splices. The connections will be covered by the panel. The insulation on the panel wiring is quite a bit thicker than the wire on the SAE connector, the actual conductor size is very close to the same size.

You can see the factory installed solar plug on the roof of the camper in this shot. The panel will mount on the Yakima roof tracks and fit between the two vents.

Fabricating 4 mounts from 1.5" aluminum angle. These mounts will bolt to the Yakima tracks then onto the aluminum frame of the solar panel.

Connecting the panel to the camper.

Panel mounted up. The size of the panel is perfect, almost like it was made for this application.

It was raining and nasty this morning, after the sun popped out I was able to check out the panel operation. I ran the heater and roof fan for a couple hrs to pull some juice out of the batteries so the panel had something to make up. The sun eventually started popping in and out but I seen as high as 8.5 amps going back into the batts, not bad. I programmed the 3000i charge controller for a bulk charge voltage of 14.8v for the AGM batts, and a Float rate of 13.8V.

Hodakaguy

 

[Matt.H]

Solar Install.

Originally I was planning on utilizing two 120W flexible solar panels on a custom aluminum mount that I would fabricate to fit the FWC, I utilized a similar setup (with 3 panels) on our old Syncro and it worked out really well. After doing some more research I found a 175W single Mono panel with almost the perfect dimensions for the Swift so decided to switch to this panel. This switch will save a lot of time and hassle over using the flex panels, and should be more durable in the long run.

Louis Pateur: "Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés."
or very simply put "Luck favors the prepared mind"

 

[Hodakaguy]

With 5K miles on my truck it's time to pull it in the garage and change the engines vital fluids, I know they aren't due yet by the book but having fresh fluids in the engine every 5K miles makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside Installed fresh oil and filter, greased the upper control arms, greased the front drive shaft and will rotate tires soon.

Someone was asking for a picture of the amber back lighting on the S8 bar, not the best shot but you can see what they look like.

Our running errands this weekend and parked next to a fellow Snork

Installed my fathers RAM phone holder on his TPAM mount today, I love this setup!

Also installed my fathers Snorkel this weekend.

I typed up a detailed How-To article on the installation with lots of pics and info. The install article is located here: CLICK HERE

Snorkel on my fathers truck

More to come.....

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Re-visiting the storage box area. Decided to make some rub rails out of 1/4" ABS Plastic to protect the wood next to the storage area.

Piece of scrap ABS that I picked up a few days ago.

Cut a 1" Strip on the table saw.

Beveling the ends that are open to the camper.

I'm using 3M tape to adhere the rails to the camper. It can be removed if needed by carefully sawing through the tape with some fishing line.

And installed in the camper. I will install matching ones in the rear and back corner. Should do a good job at protecting the camper from the wooden storage box. I left a gap on the front edge since I thought it looked better than the plastic going all the way across....if I change my mind down the road I'll install some new pieces

Hodakaguy

 

[patoz]

What about under the box? Shouldn't it have a couple of runners also?

BTW, is that a very large piston that vise is mounted on?