pappawheely
Autonomous4X4
Love your new house! The truck bed looks great!
OBS F250/F350 Flatbed camper build
- Thread starter longroad2nowhere
- Start date
longroad2nowhere
Active member
Got some little 3/4” indicators lights in for the side of the flatbed today. 3 amber and 1 red for each side. Hoping some of you that are better with electrical than I (it’s definitely my weak point) can give me some tips for the best way to do this. I want the 3 amber ones to be on whenever the lights are on. What would be the best and/or easiest way to do this. I imagine I’ll run the three cables on each side into one butt splice with one wire out on each side, and then maybe those two into one, but where would be the best place to splice into the light on/off? I suppose i could just do a separate switch, but then I’d still have to splice into power somewhere unless i can them all the way to the battery which seems silly.
The red ones will go on the back corners and i intend to have it work with my brake and turn light rather than just a running light. That seems to make the most sense to me so people can see when I’m merging. That one seems easier i should just splice into the hot wire for the turn and then into the ground since it’s just a two wire not a 3 like my tail lights.
Here are said lights. Let me know if you guys have a best case scenario to light these guys up.
Also got these sweet little guys. They replace the screws holding on your license plate and you can angle them to light up the plate so you don’t have to have some big dumb plastic light on your bumper. Pretty sweet.
The red ones will go on the back corners and i intend to have it work with my brake and turn light rather than just a running light. That seems to make the most sense to me so people can see when I’m merging. That one seems easier i should just splice into the hot wire for the turn and then into the ground since it’s just a two wire not a 3 like my tail lights.
Here are said lights. Let me know if you guys have a best case scenario to light these guys up.
Also got these sweet little guys. They replace the screws holding on your license plate and you can angle them to light up the plate so you don’t have to have some big dumb plastic light on your bumper. Pretty sweet.
Fun build, starting my flatbed soon as well. Thanks for the inspiration
As for the leds, two options.
One just tap into the taillight harness for the running lights. Should be able to find the wire for running, vs turn and brake. Depending on how ford did the lights back the.
Option two, tap into the trailer light harness. You might even be able to purchase a 4 wire trailer adapter and plug into your existing harness and not really tap into anything but that.
As for the leds, two options.
One just tap into the taillight harness for the running lights. Should be able to find the wire for running, vs turn and brake. Depending on how ford did the lights back the.
Option two, tap into the trailer light harness. You might even be able to purchase a 4 wire trailer adapter and plug into your existing harness and not really tap into anything but that.
longroad2nowhere
Active member
Well, winter, work, and home ownership really slowed things down, but finally trying to get moving on this again. Finally drew up what I WANT the camper to look like, now to figure out how to make it a reality. All the extra shapes and curves will make this a bit more difficult to build, but if I can pull it off, it will be worth it. We went away from the idea of doing a hardsided poptop, as the more we thought about it, and drew it up, just seemed like it was gonna make things a lot more difficult, and a lot heavier than it needed to be. So here is the general idea, so now to get real shop drawings done, and get to building.
longroad2nowhere
Active member
Door location has more to do with interior plans. Originally had it more forward, but it would have interferes with what we are planning on the inside.
BajaSurfRig
Well-known member
One thing that I wish my four wheel camper had is enough space to have storage under the cabover bed...
You might want to consider making the cabover section a little thicker to accomplish this.
What are you going to make the camper out of?
Epic renderings and project!!
You might want to consider making the cabover section a little thicker to accomplish this.
What are you going to make the camper out of?
Epic renderings and project!!
longroad2nowhere
Active member
That was something i wanted to include, but a bigger priority to me was keeping the overall height when closed as low as possible. We live up in the mountains at about 5500 ft, on very windy roads, our sprinter was 9 ft tall, and even with custom valved fox suspension, it kind of sucks driving it up there. I had originally had more room under the bed, but seeing where the overall height came in, i decided to get rid of it. There is always a compromise when working with these small spaces.
longroad2nowhere
Active member
Quick update: this project is taking longer to get moving as these things usually do. Found a good deal on a used James Baroud rtt, so i figured we’d make a quick temporary camp set-up so we can get this truck out this summer, while we slowly build the actual camper. So yesterday we welded up this rack to put the rtt on. The tent will sit partially over the cab, leaving me a full 4 ft+ of space to load dirtbikes or mountain bikes behind the tent.
Lucky to be engaged to a lady who’s a better welder than myself. Didn’t quite finish the mounts to attach it to the bed, and unfortunately had to head out of town this morning, so hopefully we’ll have it completed next week.
Had these pipes custom bent and then cut and welded the rest of it up ourselves. Maybe it time to invest in our own pipe bender.
Anyways, that’s all for a quick update for now. Also bought a rear disc brake conversion that i can hopefully get on next week as well
longroad2nowhere
Active member
Ready to make some real progress. The true camper build is on hold, but excited to have a cool summer set-up going soon. 
Drew these up last night and ordered aluminum for the storage box today. This set-up will allow the truck to be extremely versatile for work and play. I can remove it all to haul work loads when needed, remove the box if i need to move big flat stuff (i move a lot of plywood), or leave it all on for camping fun. Definitely taking inspiration for the box from norweld builds out of australia. It will hold fridge, frontrunner boxes with camping gear, and all my mountain bike gear. Should have some real progress on this tmw.
Also got my frontrunner awning and water tank in the mail today.
Also put in a big order for all the electrical needs. Went big and got the redarc dc to dc charger. Maybe somewhat overkill for now, but will hopefully be worth it once I do solar on the real camper. Also toasted some batteries in our sprinter van, so hoping the redarc will avoid that. Going two 6v agm in parallel that will give 220 amp hours.
Hopefully have some progress photos tmw. stay tuned.
Drew these up last night and ordered aluminum for the storage box today. This set-up will allow the truck to be extremely versatile for work and play. I can remove it all to haul work loads when needed, remove the box if i need to move big flat stuff (i move a lot of plywood), or leave it all on for camping fun. Definitely taking inspiration for the box from norweld builds out of australia. It will hold fridge, frontrunner boxes with camping gear, and all my mountain bike gear. Should have some real progress on this tmw.
Also got my frontrunner awning and water tank in the mail today.
Also put in a big order for all the electrical needs. Went big and got the redarc dc to dc charger. Maybe somewhat overkill for now, but will hopefully be worth it once I do solar on the real camper. Also toasted some batteries in our sprinter van, so hoping the redarc will avoid that. Going two 6v agm in parallel that will give 220 amp hours.
Hopefully have some progress photos tmw. stay tuned.
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longroad2nowhere
Active member
Welp didn’t make quite as much progress as we hoped, but things are moving. We are new to tig welding, so it’s definitely taking a bit longer than our normal mig welding routine.
First we finished up the mounting brackets for the rack. The steel is just a spacer for some abs plastic that will sit between the steel and aluminum on the sides and bottom. The upright bracket will allow up to bolt-in the box. This will allow for easy in and out of the box, and meant we didn’t have to put any excess holes in the bed itself.
Realized I didn’t take many process pics today but we got one side of the box basically welded up. Here are all the pieces but before welding. Most pieces are cut to size for the box minus the doors so just a matter of plugging away on the welding.
Also worked on getting a mount sorted for the awning. Since the rack follows the profile of the truck, it meant if i mounted directly to the rack, it would hit the truck, so working out a fix for that as well.
Maybe I’ll actually mount the tent up there tmw and see how she looks.
First we finished up the mounting brackets for the rack. The steel is just a spacer for some abs plastic that will sit between the steel and aluminum on the sides and bottom. The upright bracket will allow up to bolt-in the box. This will allow for easy in and out of the box, and meant we didn’t have to put any excess holes in the bed itself.
Realized I didn’t take many process pics today but we got one side of the box basically welded up. Here are all the pieces but before welding. Most pieces are cut to size for the box minus the doors so just a matter of plugging away on the welding.
Also worked on getting a mount sorted for the awning. Since the rack follows the profile of the truck, it meant if i mounted directly to the rack, it would hit the truck, so working out a fix for that as well.
Maybe I’ll actually mount the tent up there tmw and see how she looks.
longroad2nowhere
Active member
Battery placement....
So i’ve got two 6v agm batteries on the way for my “house” set-up, but i can’t decide where to place them. I wanted to put them on the frame rails but because of the mounts i made for the flatbed, there isn’t space. There is space inside the frames but the only way to get them in there would be to remove the whole flatbed, mount to the bed and somehow drop it down perfectly into place. Not happening. Putting them inside the mix probably makes the most sense, but i would really like that for as much storage as possible. Which leads me to the thought of putting them on the floor in the backseat. Is this a bad idea? They are sealed agm, so they really shouldn’t have much off gas. I’d build a little box and cover with some vents so my dog can’t get into the wires. I had agm batteries inside my van that we lived in for a year a half, but being a much smaller space i guess i have slight concerns. Our van was also very well insulated and had a fan/vent so it never really got that hot.
Thoughts?
So i’ve got two 6v agm batteries on the way for my “house” set-up, but i can’t decide where to place them. I wanted to put them on the frame rails but because of the mounts i made for the flatbed, there isn’t space. There is space inside the frames but the only way to get them in there would be to remove the whole flatbed, mount to the bed and somehow drop it down perfectly into place. Not happening. Putting them inside the mix probably makes the most sense, but i would really like that for as much storage as possible. Which leads me to the thought of putting them on the floor in the backseat. Is this a bad idea? They are sealed agm, so they really shouldn’t have much off gas. I’d build a little box and cover with some vents so my dog can’t get into the wires. I had agm batteries inside my van that we lived in for a year a half, but being a much smaller space i guess i have slight concerns. Our van was also very well insulated and had a fan/vent so it never really got that hot.
Thoughts?