Isuzu build finished!

[IGBT]

Two years four months from conception to reality (so not a quick build by any means).

It is no rock climber but packs a lot into a relatively small footprint (27 feet long). The 10 foot garage is 8 feet wide on the inside, has 6'10" of headroom, dual 3500 pound winches to raise the ramp door, built in work bench and shelves welded to the steel frame of the pod, and a seamless aluminum roof with no holes. There is a full aluminum roof rack for canoes and kayaks on the garage pod.

The main pod has a full queen size bed in the loft, 8 feet of headroom in the main area, 2 seat sofa, kitchen with solid walnut countertop, 12/24 volt compressor fridge, 3 burner propane stove, 6 gallon water heater, 18,000 BTU furnace, 4kW Magnum inverter/charger with generator sharing, Midnite solar MPPT charge controller connected to 1100 watts of solar panels on the seamless 0.040" aluminum roof.

The siding of both pods is 0.062" aluminum bonded to the welded steel frames with Sikaflex 252. The insulation is polyiso 2" thick (1" thick in the garage pod walls). Both pods use the same plug in jack stands to load/unload from the 20 foot flatbed Isuzu NRR.

 

[SkiFreak]

It's a house and garage on wheels.

 

[dlh62c]

Looks good!

Congratulations on its completion. Its great that you have the skills, tools and a facility to take on such an effort.

What material did you use on the garage pod interior walls?

Do you plan to winch the bikes up the ramp when loading them?

 

[IGBT]

The garage pod walls are just 0.090 white FRP. It does give a nice finished look and is easy to wipe down.

As for loading the motorcycles, they are 300 pound Yamaha WR250R and I have loaded them on steeper ramps into our pickup, so expect no issues. That being said, the welded steel frame ramp door with the oversized dual winches could probably lift a smart car, so yeah, I could use it as sort of a lift to get the bikes in if needed. I could also only lower the ramp door part of the way and use a small assist ramp to make the total incline shallower. Options.

 

[yabanja]

That is awesome! Have you weighed it yet?

Allan

 

[dlh62c]

The garage pod walls are just 0.090 white FRP. It does give a nice finished look and is easy to wipe down.

It certainly does.

Did you glue the FRP to a wood panel like luan or just attached it to the polyiso foam and studs using an adhesive and wafer head screws?

Did you use FRP on the ceiling as well?

 

[mog]

Outstanding! It looks great and the concept is trendsetting.
Any interior photos of the camper section?
BTW I like the mini side access door in the garage pod

 

[IGBT]

We went on a short ride today (80 miles round trip) with the complete rig and also went to certified scales to weigh it.

As expected, the garage pod took some weight off the front axle (yay!).

Steer axle 5920 pounds
Drive axle 9960 pounds

Total 15880 pounds

2006 Isuzu NRR maximum ratings
Steer axle 6830 pounds
Drive axle 12980 pounds
GVWR 19,500 pounds

So right now we have 3600 pounds available for people + cargo. Not as much as I wanted at the start but maybe enough to get us by until a 2001 to 2006 Isuzu FTR or GMC T-7500 with 20k miles driven by a little old lady falls in our lap.

The 2000 pound flatbed could have some of the 900 pounds of wood removed since we really don't use it much as a hauling flatbed. Replacing the wood with aluminum extrusion would gain us 500 pounds of cargo.

dlh62c, we just attached the FRP to the steel wall studs of the garage pod with truss head sheet metal screws (#8 screw, 0.125" drill bit). The stuff seems thick enough that it can span the 16" spacing of the studs without flexing and just rests against the polyiso. I didn't think gluing it to the thin foil facing of the polyiso would be worthwhile. Yes we used it on the ceiling as well. We used the molding trim they sell for use with the FRP 4x8 foot sheets too.

Mog, here are a couple of shots of the interior...it is a little more finished than these pictures but this is close to what it looks like.

 

[yabanja]

oooh a real couch! Nice!!! The whole setup looks super comfy!

Allan

 

[kerry]

no toilet or shower? Did you build the house around the sofa or did it fit thru the door?

 

[IGBT]

no toilet or shower? Did you build the house around the sofa or did it fit thru the door?

LOL yes there is a bathroom with thetford 403c toilet. It is off to the side in the pics.

No indoor shower. I am 6'7" and anything reasonably comfortable to take a shower in would not fit well in this small footprint camper. You also have all of the negatives of a indoor shower (extra humidity, plumbing). On the truck camper forum it seems half the people use their shower for storage after trying it one or two times.

We did put in an external shower with hot and cold on tap.

Oh, and the sofa fits through the door easily. The backs come off the sofa (a dual recliner model...very comfy).

 

[kerry]

shower

I agree about the general issues with indoor showers. I prefer to use our outdoor shower if I can. In cold weather however, the indoor shower comes into its own.

 

[GR8ADV]

I will have to go find the build thread to check this out. Awesome vehicle. Luv the idea of taking your garage with you. What is the overall height and width? Thx

 

[IGBT]

Removed flatbed wood and took a road trip.

It has been a few months since the NW expo and we have made a few modifications.

We added a propane carrier under the flatbed, steel frame with expanded metal sides/bottom and a diamond plate aluminum front to match the other boxes. It looks great and holds three 20 pound tanks.

We removed the pods to take the truck in for service and while they were off we removed all of the old flatbed wood. It ended up being about 800 pounds of wood. We only added back three 20 foot lengths of apitong (around 150 pounds) so we have lightened the whole vehicle by over 600 pounds (yay!). This gives some breathing room on our cargo capacity as we were near 16,500 with the motorcycles loaded in the garage pod (now under 16,000 with GVWR of 19,500). By the way, the vehicle is 12 feet high to top of solar panels and 8 feet 4 inches wide.

We went on a trip to Mount St. Helens and the vehicle performed great. Over 10mpg and not a horrible ride (maybe because we are so heavy). Stock Isuzu NRR seats perhaps not the most comfortable though.

 

[yabanja]

That is great!!! You should add these pics to the camper examples thread for future reference!

Allan