smokejumper98
Member
Welded up 2x2x1/4" aluminum to a 4"x1/4" aluminum flat plate and attached it to the exoskeleton with 3/8" bolts and rivnuts.
-
Get your tickets to THE BIG THING 2026!
Home Build Composite Panel Flatbed Truck Camper
- Thread starter smokejumper98
- Start date
Welded up 2x2x1/4" aluminum to a 4"x1/4" aluminum flat plate and attached it to the exoskeleton with 3/8" bolts and rivnuts.
smokejumper98
Member
Got the flatbed finished enough to mount the camper and spent the weekend at the TC rally in Quartzsite, AZ. Had a great time and got to see some phenomenal rigs. It certainly made me happy to accomplish what I did on the budget I had and compare it to the $500,000 + truck campers at the rally. I think I did well and it has been performing great.
Unfortunately, I was not able to get the flatbed painted before I headed out so I will have to remove it when we get home a beeline the entire thing and finish up some additional welding/grinding. When I designed the camper, I made sure that it came out at 84" which is the same width that I made the bed. I could use some 2x4's in the stake pockets to keep the camper from moving side to side. It has worked great so far and I have not noticed any movement of the camper on the bed.
The rear attachment point is a piece of 3" channel steel bolted into the stake pocket with a d-ring welded to it for the turnbuckle attachments. The channel has a block of 2x4 cut down to fit inside of it so as not the scratch the camper up if it rubs against it.
smokejumper98
Member
The rear kitchen turned out nice. I used a countertop product from Wilsonart called Thinscape that is only 1/2" thick and can be worked with woodworking tools. It is a solid surface product that is relatively light and easy to work with. I really like the work station sinks that you can get nowadays that come with ledges inside the bowl that allow drying racks, cutting boards and wash baskets to be used in the sink. This helps maintain some working surface. Also, the fold down shower wall frees up a lot of counter space when cooking or working in the kitchen. It's really easy to convert back to shower bath use within seconds.
smokejumper98
Member
Queen size North South bed is comfy. Bamboo plywood doors and drawer fronts turned out great also.
This chest of drawers with counter and control center above it is a nice storage space. Most all the camper controls, heater controls and monitors are in the control center above the window.
smokejumper98
Member
The dinette area with Lagun table mount works well for my wife and me. I didn't have time to sew up cushion covers from an appropriate material before we left so I just used some old sheets for the temporary covers for now. Flooring is a Home Depot laminate. Only took one box and was straight forward to install abdominal looks ok.
The large windows at the dinette and over the sink are awesome and let in a lot of light and air when opened.
smokejumper98
Member
The induction cooktops work well but they will pull 1800 watts on full power. The solar system with 800w of rooftop panels and 400aH of LifePo4 batteries have worked well for this camper that uses only electricity and diesel from the Duramax tank for the water and cabin heat. It's nice to not have to deal with propane.
The one Maxxfan in the kitchen has been more than enough to move air out of the entire camper.
smokejumper98
Member
Overall, I am very happy with the final product. As a guy who builds almost everything for himself including houses, trucks, motorcycles and now, campers, I have several ideas for a TC version 2.0. If I get time to work on version 2.0, stayed tuned as version 1.0 could be for sale some day.
Before we loaded the camper up with all of our junk, I did take it to the scale to get a weight and I was surprised how light it came in. 2200# dry weight. It has 35 gallons of fresh water capability and 26 gray water. Depending on how you load this thing you could easily get by with it on a SRW 3/4 ton and possibly even less.
Similar threads
