Short bed pop up remodel with shower and toilet for Ford f150 supercrew

[randman]

New to Expedition Portal and havent quiet gotten the hang of it yet, but here it is. The modifications I made to our sunlite pop up.
Please be patient with the following link as it loads slow :

http://63.229.236.62/camper.htm

My next project: a lightweight hard sided pop up with a slide out, most of the design work has been done and I am in the process of creating the model.

 

[dbolton]

Wow, that is very cool. Couple of questions:

1. Who makes the hot water heater you used? Any problems with it to date?

2. Where does the shower drain?

Thanks - had some similiar ideas for my pop up - any help appreciated!

Dan

 

[randman]

Answer for dan

Hi dan,
I purchased the hot water heater online from sportsmans guide, they have 2 models and i bought the smaller of the two. The water heater is fired when it senses water flowing through it (electricly ignited runninng on 2 d batteries) The system works great and takes up less space than a convential Rv water heater. The batteries have lasted a year and it doesn't seem to burn much propane. The only problem i have had is when the temperature dropped down to about 15% with a 20 mile per hour wind the pipes froze. The heater has a bleed off valve and i had drained it because i knew it was going to be cold so the only hoses that froze were the supply hose and I had used PEX just in case this happened.
As for the drain, when we built the "basement" that we put the shower pan in, I ran a peice of 1 1/2 pvc from the shower drain to the side of the frame and out the back. I also routed the kitchen sink drain down into the same pipe. On the end of the pipe, in the back, i put a pvc 3/4" hose bib on so i could attach a garde hose to evacuate the gray water away from the camp site. This camper is truly a dream to be in! please let me know if you need any help with your mods. The only thing different i think i would have done differently (and i am doing in my new camper i am building) is relocate the fresh water tank to the basement, it lowers the center of gravity and would give more storage room in the camper. ( I will go out to the camper tomorrow and get the name of the water heater off of the unit)

Thanks and "cheers"
Randy

 

[breakinstuffzfun]

Randy great mods to the camper. Did you decide not to go with cassette toilet?

Heath

 

[randman]

Thanks Heath!
I found a cassette toilet that fit under the front bench. So I cut a hole in the bench and the toilet is exposed when you take the cussion off, the black water tank/toilet can be acessed through the door in the bench. The bench is also storage for the 2, 6volt batteries, the fresh water tank and the water pump.

 

[eugene]

Interesting, I'm doing similar but with an older camper that was made for full size trucks so I didn't need the basement. Where did you put the water heater, I don't see much extra space for one? Mine doesn't have space under the top bed either but where your power convertor is under the sink I have a cabinet there as mine is in the closet wall.
I see a water heater on sportsmans guide for $319 available in three sizes, is that the one?

 

[randman]

eugene-
the water heater I used was the small one for around $119.00. the reason i used the small one is because i choose a 2 gal per minute water pump ( i did this on purpose to save water). the water heater works great. I mounted it on the side of the camper on the drivers side twords the back of the camper. There's a picture on my website thats a little foggy, but you can still see it. if you were going to mount it on the inside of the camper you would have to 1. duct it outside and 2. build a fire proof box out of sheet metal as the heater does have an open flame. Although the flame is contained within the unit it still getts pretty warm and the co2 would be a concern. I will try to get over to the camper in the next few days and take some more pictures of the heater since it seems to be what everybody has interest in.

Randy

 

[eugene]

Ok, I think I see it now, its outside under the closet area so its behind the truck fender. I searched for water heater on sportsmans guide but only found that one more expensive one in three sizes. How much water does your camper hold, mine looks to have a pretty small tank, I was thinking of building a box under the back there where your heater it because I have a sliding door so I thought I'd put the porta potty there and put a bigger water tank in the front.

 

[randman]

eugene,
sounds like a great idea! my truck bed is only 5 ft, 7ft with the tailgate down. so i dont have the room in back. If i did thats where i would put it.
The camper works great but i would like to have a camper with a seperate bathroom , more water in a lighter package that would fit on my truck. Thats why I am building the new camper, the only way i could figure out how to acomplish it was to create a slide out for the dinning area> I have the 2D plans done and am working on the 3D modeling now. I'll post the bottom half of the 3D with hopes that it gives you more ideas!

 

[eugene]

I'm going to build my own eventually, but started with this one to have somehting to use until then. I was thinking of trying to make both sides slide outward some. The floor of the sides that hand over the truck bed now, notice how they are about 24" deep but hang inside of the lower wall a couple inches? My thought is to put an 18" wide floor that sits on top the bed rails then 3-4 large ball bearing drawer rails on top of that and another 18" plyowwd on top of that so the upper layers can slide outward about 12" or so. This way the whole camper is the same width as the truck bed rather than hanging over about 6" like now but when camping then you get about 12" overhang on each side.
I'd like to do hard sides on the popup like the rear of mine where it has two panels that fold up accoridain style.

 

[T.Low]

eugene,
sounds like a great idea! my truck bed is only 5 ft, 7ft with the tailgate down. so i dont have the room in back. If i did thats where i would put it.
The camper works great but i would like to have a camper with a seperate bathroom , more water in a lighter package that would fit on my truck. Thats why I am building the new camper, the only way i could figure out how to acomplish it was to create a slide out for the dinning area> I have the 2D plans done and am working on the 3D modeling now. I'll post the bottom half of the 3D with hopes that it gives you more ideas!

How much do want for the sunlite when your next camper is finished? (I didn't realize I needed a 4rth camping option until I read this thread!)

 

[randman]

Thanks Tlow-
I havent really thought about it yet. I was planning on using it through this summer/fall and then finishing the new camper over the winter. I will probably be thinking around the $2,800 to $3,900 range and that would include the solar system batteries and audio/video system in it. am probably going to paint it and recover the bench cushions. If your really interested, I will contact you when I get closer to a decision. None the less I will give a considerable discount to any Expedition Portal form members!
Randy

 

[jesusgatos]

Great job. Looks like a nice setup.

 

[Pest]

I'm curious to know what you had planned for the mechanics of the hard wall popup with the slide out. I just can't bend my mind around how it would function. Any updates?

 

[randman]

hi pest,
my plan is this: the top part of the slide out would be slightly larger than the lower, so when the top is raised or lowered the top of the slide-out's 3 walls will lower around the bottom slide out's 3 walls. i will use 2 industrial drawer glides (500 lbs capacity each) on the top of the top part of the slide out, attached to the ceiling and the top slide out. so when the roof of the camper is raised, it will pull up the top part of the slide out also. The drawer glides will allow the slide out to be extended. I will also add the same drawer glides to the bottom to allow it to be extended as well. To lift the top of the camper i am planning to use electric jacks with a remote mounted on the outside in all 4 corners to raise the top. and yes there have been some updates, the 3d rendering is about complete and the finished plans are with a engineer (friend) who is double checking the plan. I have realized that to make the build go smoothly, i need to build a new garage. So I am in the process of that right now. Hope to start the build by january of february.