Sent the camper off to have it Rhino-lined. Should have it back in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I have been revising the camper to reduce the overall height and to reduce the overall length of the cab-over section by 18 inches. I don't want the bed to protrude into the living/stand up area, so I'm going to have 2 feet of the bed pop out of the side of the cab-over similar to the trailer pop-up camper where the bed pops out once the camper is raised. I am still going back and forth on what material to use for construction - aluminum or fiberglass? I have already started pricing both and am leaning more towards aluminum because I have more experience working with it. Any recommendations?
jeep jk unlimited camper project
- Thread starter bamajeep
- Start date
I was wanting to attach the fabric in a way that's similar to the way that the bottom lip of the soft top windows attach to the tub of the Jeep JK's and TJ's, but can't seem to find anything online. Jeff, was wondering what you used to attach the fabric to the tub on the yellow trailer - thanks in advance.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
My trailer tub has the factory soft top retainers on it, so I sewed plastic strips into the bottom of the fabric sides to slip under the retainer just like the factory soft top. The plastic strip came from Home Depot - it was disguised as lawn edging
. The type you push into the ground at the edge between the grass and the flower beds - it's wider than needed as has an angle on the bottom and a round section on the top, but it's easy to cut a 1"-wide strip out of the middle with a straightedge I used a 6' piece of steel angle I had handy) and a utility knife. There are multiple grades of this stuff, get the more expensive kind because it's thicker, the cheap stuff is pretty thin. It sews pretty easily if you've got a decent sewing machine.A few photos...
This one is a test I did, the plastic strip is sewn into the bottom of this piece of fabric. Not part of your question, but the top edge of this piece is hemmed with 1" webbing inside the hem to provide a very strong backing to put snaps in.
These next two photos show a test piece being tried on the tub rail.
Got the camper back from being coated - they didn't do as good of a job as I would have liked. Considering this is somewhat of a prototype, it'll have to do. All that's left to install on the exterior is the drip-rail, tail lights, and fabric for the pop top. Hoping to be camping before summer. Camper is super dirty and covered in pollen and dust, but the pics show progress.
http://s1156.photobucket.com/user/schaevk/slideshow/Jeep JK Unlimited Camper Project
http://s1156.photobucket.com/user/schaevk/slideshow/Jeep JK Unlimited Camper Project
Jeep or Tacoma
Explorer
looking great
That looks terrific!! a few questions though? why black other than to match your jeep isn't it going to every hot? and it is it removable how hardis it to do that and throw on a soft top? An excellent job though !!!!
That looks terrific!! a few questions though? why black other than to match your jeep isn't it going to every hot? and it is it removable how hardis it to do that and throw on a soft top? An excellent job though !!!!
As far as the color, the main reason I chose black was to go with the Jeep. Played around with a couple other color combinations, but came back to black. Plan to coat the top of the cargo area white to reduce some of the heat. Removal now is not fun - using ladders and railroad jacks, but if I had actual camper jacks, it'd be fairly straightforward.
Not exactly sure how they went about prepping the camper. Told me they'd coated many products constructed of wood and I assumed they were professionals, but that obviously wasn't the case. Lesson learned.
Jeep or Tacoma
Explorer
hoist?
could you rig up a hoist, There are dozens of threads on it I did it in my garage yours is likily too tall unless you have one of those rv garages
could you rig up a hoist, There are dozens of threads on it I did it in my garage yours is likily too tall unless you have one of those rv garages
Unfortunately I don't have a garage or a shop - if I did, I'd be very dangerous... did this all in my front yard.