New and Improved Camper Box Build - Ver 2.0

[Heifer Boy]

Stage Twenty Six – The Tent Goes On At Last!!!

Time to put the tent on permanently before adding any more stuff to the camper. In order to do so I had to put the camper on the back of the truck first. I had a mate over to help out and of course it started raining again but we got into it anyway and soon it was on. Then we lifted the tent on and carefully moved it around without sliding it around until all the bolts lined up. I needed to get to the zip around the bottom of the cover without jambing my arm against the back window so this couldn't be done in the garage. Then I put a rubber O-ring on each bolt to seal the hole and cranked them down for the last time. Excellent.

I think it's looking pretty good and the top of tent sits level with the roof rack which is what I wanted. I'm a happy chap!!! I did set the tent up to take a look but forgot to take a photo. Next time...

 

[Heifer Boy]

Stage Twenty Seven – Drawer Slides and Storage!!

Now it's time to finish off the interior details.

I had the basics of the two drawer slides sorted out ages ago. I partially build them too so now it was time to finish them off.

The LH drawer slide has a removable kitchen box with a large fixed storage box behind that. I also made a handle to pull it out with. The kitchen box is held in place by small 'legs' that go into holes in the drawer slide and held down with SS over-centre catches. It's not finished yet so more on the plans and ideas for that later.

The RH drawer will have the fridge on it with a jerry can holder behind it for water. Behind this is another storage box. This will be moved infrequently because the fridge is on its own slide.

These are all just epoxied together the same as the camper and then varnished. I also made a small drop-down table to hang off the main door at the same time. There is a small lip on the back of each drawer floor that has a piece of foam tape attached to soften the close and this lip slips under a piece of alloy angle bolted to the back wall of the camper to keep the back down of the slide when crashing about offroad. Spring bolts hold the front of the slides in place. Both drawers slide on UHMWPE runners I used on my previous build. Easy.

That'll do it for now but more to come soon!!

 

[Deleted member 9101]

Awesome man, looks really nice and well built!!!

 

[indiedog]

Good to see you back HB. Looking great. :sombrero:

 

[Wavebreaker]

Looks Good HB. Where did you source your door hardware the draw catches?

 

[Heifer Boy]

Thanks for the comments guys. It's good to be back into again.

@wavebreaker

I got the catches and most of my other hardware from Ovesco http://www.ovesco.com.au/ . I don't know if they send overseas though. I know of McMaster-Carr http://www.mcmaster.com/# in the US which does similar stuff as I've seen lots of references to it on various forums.

The onlty other way to get SS stuff is at marine suppliers and adding 'marine' to a product is like adding 'wedding' to a dress. Way too expensive.

 

[indiedog]

Hey HB, you got any updates on how your camper is going now you've been using it? (I hope you've been using it!) You making that teardrop yet??

 

[vhram]

Great looking build .

 

[Heifer Boy]

Hey HB, you got any updates on how your camper is going now you've been using it? (I hope you've been using it!) You making that teardrop yet??

Thanks for asking indie.

It has been a while and every so often I think to myself I really should finish off the build thread. But life got in the way (as it so often does) and we had a few disruptions to the normal state of play. First the house we were renting got repossessed by the bank and we eventually got booted out. That meant I lost the nice big double garage I was working in and the next place was a lot smaller with a single garage full of stuff. I managed to get the camper campable though and we got away for a weekend to the Yarboro/Pigeon House Mtn area. Nice shake down run and everything worked well.





Then we went and bought the house we had been previously been booted out right before Xmas and have been busy renovating it enough to be comfortable over a cold South Coast winter ever since. I've painted every surface except for the floor, renovated the kitchen, put up blinds, installed new lighting and have had a supporting wall removed in the lounge room so a nice wood burning combustion heater can be installed. That goes in the end of next week and then I can finally relax for a bit. I did get my nice big garage/workshop back though so I want to build myself some proper workbenches and storage and then I'll be ready to get into that teardrop... once the finances have recovered a bit.

I'll make sure I do a proper write up of the final days of the build soon. As always, there's things I would change and things unfinished but it works really well overall and I'm happy with it.

We did manage one other week away camping just before Easter. We went down to Bendethera which was great but it went from a nice fun drive to an 8 hour recovery including 4 hours of winching and ended with the camper falling over, ripping off the legs I had just made for it tearing holes in all four corners and crashing to the ground... but that's a story to be told another day :Wow1: Needless to say there is some more work to be done.

How was your trip?

 

[stomperxj]

Loved watching your build HB. Congrats on the house!

 

[indiedog]

HB, that setup looks great on the car. Keen to hear the story of the collapse, sounds like a bummer. The trip to Tassie was brilliant, totally recommended. We did end up having a small fire in the camper on the way back so had a couple of nights in motels, but strangely it will work out in our favour. So we both have tales of disaster it seems.

 

[Heifer Boy]

.
Stage Twenty Eight – Bolts, Door Seals, Lights and Plumbing

It's been nearly a year since my last build update and it's about time I finished off the write up. A few people have asked what happened and rest assured that I did get it finished... although they're never really finished are they. It's been used a few times (as seen above) but there were a few major issues in the last year that prevented me from using it more.

The first issue was buying a new house and starting to renovate it. It not only takes time but also swallows all your spare cash. Nice though.

The second was more camper related. There was a bit of a disaster with the camper after the 2nd trip out which put a hold on using for quite a few months. But more on that later... It's all resolved now and the camper will be getting a lot more use in the new year. :wings:

So on with the story...

Last time around I was just about at the final stage now and it' was time to fit the drawer slide bolts, the door seals, finalise the lights and the water system that are going on the inside of the main door.

I fitted nice stainless steel spring slide bolts to the drawer slides. These work with the alloy angle fitted to the back wall to stop the storage drawer slides from not only moving backwards and forwards but also up and down.
The LH bolt simply goes into a hole in an alloy bracket that is also the LH guide for the drawer slide. The middle bolt took a while to sort out because it controls both drawer slides. It's attached to the LH drawer slide and goes through the plywood centre spine and then through an alloy bracket attached to the RH drawer slide. This is because the majority of the time the LH drawer slide which contains the kitchen and pantry will actually be slid in and out to use so the bolts will be open. The RH drawer slide which has the fridge on it will only be moved if it is necessary to change the water jerry can because the fridge itself is sitting on it's own independent slide. The RH bolt goes into straight into the plywood internal wall on that side of the camper. It all works very simply and very well.

The door seals are self-adhesive and I decided to fit them to the door frames with mitred corners. A bit of a fiddle but I got them all fitted OK. They do put a lot of pressure on the doors and hinges but I'll see if they compress and settle a bit over time. Otherwise I think I will have replace them with something thinner. I left a 6mm (¼ inch) gap but at the moment it doesn't seem quite enough. They definitely seal the door gaps though...

I have mounted 2 additional LED lights on the main door. They are both on independent switches with one set to light the inside of the fridge when pulled out and opened. The other lights up the drop down table that I've also attached to the door.

This table is held closed with an elastic tonneu strap and held open by stainless steel fishing traces. I'm going to put a laminate surface on the top of this table as well as the top surfaces of the kitchen box once I find some scrap pieces somewhere. It's nice to have the extra bench space when unloading the fridge although we've got the ute tailgate to work with when the camper's loaded.

I had sorted out the plumbing from the water jerry can to the water pump a while back but needed to complete it from the water pump to the tap. I attached the hose to the door and the bottom of the drop down table in a way that allows it to twist and pivot as everything opened and closed. A bit of mucking around and test fitting and it doesn't kink or jam or pull anywhere strange. The pump has an inbuilt pressure valve so I turn on the tap and I get water. Yay!!! I've wired the pump to an independent switch so I can turn it all off and change the jerry can when needed. It's nice to have water on demand.

Here's a few photos with the lights on at night. This is going to be the first 'lit' campsite we have ever had. I can't see us using the lights a whole lot but I'm sure they will come in handy.

Next up is getting the camper on and off the ute, the final fit and bolting it all down. I can't believe I've nearly finished...

 

[indiedog]

Calling HB, calling HB, update please. :sombrero:

 

[Heifer Boy]

Final Update


Well it's been another 18 months since my last update and it's about time I finally finished the build log. The story writing was actually a bit behind reality as I did finished the camper off ages ago and it has been used in anger for plenty of great camping and 4WD trips since then.


Besides completing the basic design I also took some time on the details. Marine carpets were cut and fitted to the storage areas and laminate tops fitted to the drop down table and kitchen box lids to finish it properly. Then it was loaded up with camping gear and away we went.

On our return from the first shakedown trip the only gripe we had was the loading and unloading effort. Now the camper was complete and full of gear the idea of sliding it off and onto the trolley I had made turned out to be just too much hard work.

So I set about designing and making some corner brackets and wind-up legs to lift the camper high and drop it into the tub. The box needed a lot more reinforcing to make this work so additional corner blocks were epoxied in and internal plates used so the brackets could be through bolted for strength. They work like a charm and made loading and unloading the camper a much, much easier process.

The camper now lives under a tarp on some sturdy trestles waiting for the next trip and the trolley became a great movable workbench in the workshop.

And that was about it. The camper box has never moved around when loaded and I never even think about it when driving because it's the same dimensions as the cab. It only added about 350kg total when fully loaded for a big trip so made no difference to the trucks performance either. The camper itself only weight 240kg dry!! And I was worried it was overbuilt!!


It's a great thing to use in camp too. Everything works well and there is plenty of room for gear. Lots of bench space in conjunction with the tail gate makes for a very usable kitchen and there's plenty of power, light and water on tap. It turned out to be a big step up from Ver 1.0 (no surprise there) and having a fully sealed box was a vast improvement over over the dust bowl that all ute tubs are. Everything stays clean and dry regardless of conditions. We added an awning and a mozzie room off the side of the ute to complete the setup.

I'm really proud of this build. I'm rapt to see all the sleepless nights agonising over the design details has paid off and absolutely chuffed in how the build came together and the quality of the end job. I learned so much doing this and it has given me huge confidence in tackling more projects in the future. I'm happier going further afield on our 4WD and camping adventures now too.


BUT... things change and plans evolve so the Camper Box Ver 2.0 is now for sale. If anyone is interested then please take a look at my ad and give me a call or contact me here.


http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/wool...lightweight-super-tough-4x4-camper/1056206679


I'd like to thank everyone who's taken a look at my build and given me feedback, comments and advice. I've had nearly 90,000 views across the 3 forums I posted and lots of comments and feedback to the build. I'm very humbled with the support and interest. It was fun to build and fun to write about.


Thanks for looking!!


HB

 

[Heifer Boy]

Well despite a lot of interest in my camper build and nearly 100,000 views across the forums, it seems no-one is that interested in buying it so far. So the price has been dropped and don't forget I am open to negotiation so give me a call if you are interested.


http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/sydney-city/camper-trailers/custom-dual-cab-ute-camper-lightweight-super-tough-4x4-camper/1058789751


I'll only be giving this a little longer and if I don't get any interest then I'm stripping down and cutting up the box. I don't want to but I don't have a use for this camper anymore and can reuse many of the parts in future projects. It would be a shame but I guess that's the life of a custom camper.