Hello everyone, my name is Justin. I am new here on Expedition Portal but I have been lurking for years looking at various builds, and gathering ideas for my first build. My idea of an ideal rig was something under 9k lbs, under 9' tall, and capable of comfortably driving at interstate speeds. With a modest budget of $5000, I set out to gather the needed pieces of my puzzle.
I started my project with a 1996 Ford F-250 that is equipped with the 460ci V8 and an E4OD transmission. A good customer at my shop was looking at getting rid of it cheap as it needed a lot of TLC, but the core functionality of the truck was sound. After replacing the tires with an aggressive set of 265-75-16 Goodyear Wrangler Authorities, all wearable suspension components, hoses, lines, belts, etc I have a solid and dependable work horse. The truck has served me well for various projects with my landscaping business as it pulls my skid steer around quite well, and hauls 3500lbs on the flat bed with ease. While basic, I feel these trucks lend themselves quite well to a variety of tasks as they have a high payload capacity without having an overly high curb weight. With a full tank of fuel, the flat bed, and my tools it scales in right at 6,000lbs. Not bad considering the 750lb lump of cast iron nestled between the shock towers and heavy axles. The only real weak point has been fuel economy, so I have made a few modifications to help bolster it's efficiency. I swapped the mechanical cooling fan for a set of electrics, bumped the base timing to 14BTDC, and installed a free flowing exhaust. Currently at 60mph I'm netting 11mpg with the camper, and 13.5mpg-14mpg unloaded, so I feel that is about as good as it's going to get for this setup.
Total truck investment so far is $2800.
Next, I found a 1996 Jayco Sportster 8 pop up camper for $100. It had some minor water damage to the front section of the roof, but the canvas was all in good shape so I took the risk on it. I replaced the flooring, the wood on the nose of the roof, and resealed the entire camper. Amazingly, the furnace and 3-way fridge work quite well and the previous owner mounted a 5k BTU window A/C unit in the rear wall (which helped keep me to an overall height of 8'6"). To make better use of the storage space on the flatbed I built up some walls out of 1/2" plywood.
Total camper investment with all camping gear and Generator - $1600
For off grid camping, I've added additional water storage bringing up the total capacity to 34 gallons on board. To address electrical needs, I'm running a Group 31 Deep Cycle battery, 100w of solar power, an 1700w inverter generator, and an 8ga wire with isolation relay from the truck to the camper. I may add a second battery and 200w more of solar power if we decide to go out on an extended off grid camp. A cassette toilet is nestled in one of the right storage covers to give us 5.3 gallons of black water capacity.
Fully loaded I am sitting right at 8800lbs, which is coincidentally the max GVWR of the truck, and my overall height is 8'6". Now all that is left is to go out and camp more!
I started my project with a 1996 Ford F-250 that is equipped with the 460ci V8 and an E4OD transmission. A good customer at my shop was looking at getting rid of it cheap as it needed a lot of TLC, but the core functionality of the truck was sound. After replacing the tires with an aggressive set of 265-75-16 Goodyear Wrangler Authorities, all wearable suspension components, hoses, lines, belts, etc I have a solid and dependable work horse. The truck has served me well for various projects with my landscaping business as it pulls my skid steer around quite well, and hauls 3500lbs on the flat bed with ease. While basic, I feel these trucks lend themselves quite well to a variety of tasks as they have a high payload capacity without having an overly high curb weight. With a full tank of fuel, the flat bed, and my tools it scales in right at 6,000lbs. Not bad considering the 750lb lump of cast iron nestled between the shock towers and heavy axles. The only real weak point has been fuel economy, so I have made a few modifications to help bolster it's efficiency. I swapped the mechanical cooling fan for a set of electrics, bumped the base timing to 14BTDC, and installed a free flowing exhaust. Currently at 60mph I'm netting 11mpg with the camper, and 13.5mpg-14mpg unloaded, so I feel that is about as good as it's going to get for this setup.
Total truck investment so far is $2800.
Next, I found a 1996 Jayco Sportster 8 pop up camper for $100. It had some minor water damage to the front section of the roof, but the canvas was all in good shape so I took the risk on it. I replaced the flooring, the wood on the nose of the roof, and resealed the entire camper. Amazingly, the furnace and 3-way fridge work quite well and the previous owner mounted a 5k BTU window A/C unit in the rear wall (which helped keep me to an overall height of 8'6"). To make better use of the storage space on the flatbed I built up some walls out of 1/2" plywood.
Total camper investment with all camping gear and Generator - $1600
For off grid camping, I've added additional water storage bringing up the total capacity to 34 gallons on board. To address electrical needs, I'm running a Group 31 Deep Cycle battery, 100w of solar power, an 1700w inverter generator, and an 8ga wire with isolation relay from the truck to the camper. I may add a second battery and 200w more of solar power if we decide to go out on an extended off grid camp. A cassette toilet is nestled in one of the right storage covers to give us 5.3 gallons of black water capacity.
Fully loaded I am sitting right at 8800lbs, which is coincidentally the max GVWR of the truck, and my overall height is 8'6". Now all that is left is to go out and camp more!
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