My DIY OVRLND-style Pop Up Camper

[evan96]

Is there any dust instrusion into the bed when closed and driving? Also, how does it perform when camping in cold weather?

There's a little bit of dust that gets in around the tailgate, but I'm planning on sealing that up soon-ish with a tailgate seal. We sealed up a couple holes in the front edge of the bed (between the truck bed and cab) with aluminum ducting tape, so that eliminated entry point. Haven't done tons of dirt road driving yet though, so I'm sure there's other vulnerabilities that haven't been exposed yet.

Cold weather performance has been pretty ok so far, considering the popup fabric isn't insulated (planning a DIY thermal pack similar to what all of the major pop up companies offer). In the evenings we get the camper up to 60-70 degrees before bed, and I usually have to wake up between 4 and 6 to turn the heater back on the next morning. By that point the camper had cooled down to about 10 degrees over outside temp (20-30 degrees). Got a little condensation on the aluminum bars, but we found that leaving the roof vent cracked overnight helped the condensation a lot, and didn't make it that much colder inside. Then running the heater with the roof vent opened in the morning cleared most condensation out by the time we wanted to take it down. I'm hoping adding an interior siding like coroplast or 1/8" plywood will made the condensation even less of an issue though.

 

[evan96]

I can confirm that the canvas does help with the front to back movement. I recently moved my struts to the sides as well. The camper is looking great.

You could try running bungee material in the drip edge to keep it tight.

Thanks!
The bungee on the drip edge is an interesting idea, might have to try that. I tried duct taping some sections of medium gauge picture wire to the drip edge to stiffen it up, but that did pretty much nothing. The wires bent, and then the drip edge was just stuck in the bent position instead of at least falling down when not moving. I'm considering trying to make just the front drip edge out of metal. Another option I've thought of is a large enough fiberglass wind fairing that just prevents air from getting underneath the drip edge in the first place.

You made your drip edge out of duct tape right? and no problems with water getting in underneath it?

 

[97heavyweight]

Thanks!
The bungee on the drip edge is an interesting idea, might have to try that. I tried duct taping some sections of medium gauge picture wire to the drip edge to stiffen it up, but that did pretty much nothing. The wires bent, and then the drip edge was just stuck in the bent position instead of at least falling down when not moving. I'm considering trying to make just the front drip edge out of metal. Another option I've thought of is a large enough fiberglass wind fairing that just prevents air from getting underneath the drip edge in the first place.

You made your drip edge out of duct tape right? and no problems with water getting in underneath it?

Metal would be the way to go. Yes my drip edge has been holding strong since September last year. I have had to make one repair, but luckily it's duct tape and I carry spare roll with me. I've honestly been impressed with how well it has held up.

 

[evan96]

Well its been a while since I've updated this thread. I did some work here and there on the camper, but mostly just trying to get out and enjoy summer. Thus far I've spent 15-20 nights in the camper, including its inaugural trip to Utah and Mammoth. It's been a super comfortable camping rig for exploring around the northwest. Now that it's getting into fall, and I've gotten a better idea of how I'd like the interior arranged, it's time to redo the interior and make other improvements that didn't make the cut in the initial build out.

 

[evan96]

One big improvement I made over the summer was adding vinyl sheet flooring to the insulated floor platform. It makes such a big difference for cleanup, and generally just not seeing the plywood get dirtier with every trip.

I also started working on main control panel for lights, battery monitor, heater, and a USB port. I got halfway through that and decided it was going to be better to re-do the cabinets first. So that's what I'm doing now. I realized that for having a short (5'8") bed truck, I want to be able to put tubs of gear and the dog as close to the truck bed/cab wall as possible, especially when the sleeping platform is extended. The full back cabinet really gets in the way of that. So we're switching to doing two side cabinets instead. Might do some sort of lagun style table at the front for eating dinner inside, but that is yet to be determined.