cph05a
Member
Our system has a water bladder that we put underneath the truck which acts like a staging area. We have a little compartment for it next to the stairs for it. The filters don't necessarily need to keep up with the shower
SRW 450 Mountain Build
- Thread starter cph05a
- Start date
Our system has a water bladder that we put underneath the truck which acts like a staging area. We have a little compartment for it next to the stairs for it. The filters don't necessarily need to keep up with the shower
cph05a
Member
Where do you ski at? I'll PM you if I'm heading there.That looks great! Maybe we will run into you on the slopes some time
java
Expedition Leader
Greater PNW area. WA, OR, ID, BC for the most part.
Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
Spaceman spiff
Member
Any more pics? Love this build!
cph05a
Member
Let's get a few more pics in!
We got back from Moab where we attended the AAC Cragging Classics. It was a great first trip for the new camper. We didn't take it off road yet, just a camping test. I did drive through a lot of snow this morning though.
I wish we had taken some pictures while climbing, but my wife and I both left our phones in the car. I'll get some adventure photos up soon.
It was really important to us to be able to fit roughly in a single parking space. Mission accomplished.
This is our bathroom/shower. It pops up from the countertop. It's been unusually cold here lately so I have the shower winterized at the moment. I'm eager to test out the water reuse system but waiting until it warms back up a bit first. The shower uses a 40gal water tank and a water 60gal bladder to catch the gray water. The bladder has an opening on each side so we'll have the shower drain hose on one side and the filter pump hose on the other. Using a bladder instead of a hard gray water tank saves a ton of space, especially since we won't use it every day.
Here's the filter system. It's a pre-filter into a 4 stage cool knight ultra filter. @DzlToy, I believe this is a nominal rating, although I'm not 100% sure. We're not drinking it so I think it should be okay? I think it'll work, but I think this system might require changing the filters constantly so I might end up doing something different. Probably more carbon whole house filters. I dunno yet. That blank box there houses 2 12V/300ah deep cycle batteries.
Solar panels on the roof. I can also charge the batteries with the truck while driving down the road, and we have a 120v shore power plug if I never need it. Phoenix put in a 6000W pure sine inverter which I can toggle on and off. This powers the 120v outlets inside and outside the camper, and the wall A/C unit. It's also hooked up to a couple of oil pan heaters under the truck and I have a switch in the camper to toggle that on and off. The white antenna is a cell signal booster. I might add a bar in front of it to protect it from branches.
We have a pass-through into the cab of the truck. It has some insulated panels that cover it. We've sent the dog through a few times already
Those are the stock bench seats in this picture, but I did get some nicer seats which are being put in today. We plan to build a storage box for the backseat with cushion back there where the back seat used to be. We'll put the dog on one side and the cat carrier on the other.
I'm working on getting an RVS 360 camera system up and running. The cameras and display are installed and working, but I haven't calibrated it yet. I'll replace the car picture with a truck and get it rendering without all the crazy distortion, but for now it's a working backup camera at least. When I put my turn signal on, it shows what's going on in the lane next to me. Should be even better once I get the bird's eye view calibrated.
We have a bunch of really cool spaces in the camper, like this pantry. It holds a lot more than it looks! I put a load of bread and a pound of coffee together in one of the lower compartments. We have storage under the back dinette seat, under the shown compartment, under the sink, under beds, next to the beds, and an OHC above the sink. Most of them are still empty, but not for long!
I'm at my 10 file limit. I'll post more soon!
Spaceman spiff
Member
Looks awesome! Thanks for the pics! I always wonder how those tire carriers can handle so much weight back there. Any insight?
cph05a
Member
Total length from the front license plate to the back wall is 21ft 9in. The spare tire and A/C unit stick out a little past that.
The tire rack is pretty burly. I think it's tubular aluminum but I didn't ask what material it's made of. It's mounted to the back frame of the camper which is pretty thick on both sides of the corners. Pics earlier in the thread. I was told that I can even add some jerry cans to it if I ever need to. It feels pretty solid and doesn't flex or anything. I was told not to use the winch with it swung out. The tire is mounted from three lugs and only sits on the saddle to help get it on and off.
I was told not to use the winch with it swung out.
The tire rack is pretty burly. I think it's tubular aluminum but I didn't ask what material it's made of. It's mounted to the back frame of the camper which is pretty thick on both sides of the corners. Pics earlier in the thread. I was told that I can even add some jerry cans to it if I ever need to. It feels pretty solid and doesn't flex or anything. I was told not to use the winch with it swung out. The tire is mounted from three lugs and only sits on the saddle to help get it on and off.
I was told not to use the winch with it swung out.
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Spaceman spiff
Member
I did a little bit of reading and I was really misusing the term pivot frame a bit
I found a picture of a similar attachment on an F-350:
View attachment 507574
I think this similar to the plan for my build. It has a pivot point in the rear that allows the truck frame to move a little bit independently of the camper.
Do you happen to remember where you dug up this pic?
Also do you happen to have an instagram so I can follow along with more pics?
For comparison, my megacab Ram with the 6'4" bed is 20ft 8in. But you have significantly better turning radius with the 450 front axle.
cph05a
Member
Right, we can make a U-Turn pretty easily. The only thing I'll say is that the backend has to swing around so if there's a tree in the middle of the turn, I have to pull past it a bit and then turn around.
UPDATES
I had recently tasked Dusty Dog Garage with coming up with a quote for "bulletproofing" the 6.0 and and getting a circulating coolant heater installed. I was planning on doing the heater first and then getting the bulletproof EGR cooler in a bit... BUT ... plans don't always work out that way.
Our EGR cooler failed and started leaking coolant ... so we're moving forward with the Bulletproof EGR Cooler now. Parts are supposed to be here Monday or Tuesday-ish so no adventures this weekend in the new truck unfortunately, but better to get the truck reliable for the future I guess. Our mechanic is going to service the turbo, install a new oil cooler, and replace all the o-rings since everything will be taken apart anyway.
We're also going to start focusing on the cab of the truck. We had some new seats put in recently which are SUPER comfy. They came out of an 2011 F-250, but they're much better than the bench seats we did have in there. Once we get the truck back, we're gonna pull everything out again and add some CLD and MLV under the floor and in the doors to help quiet everything down a bit. We're also planning to build a storage box in the back with some pet seats/carriers on it. I'll post more about that after we get going on it.
We did create an instagram account since I keep having people ask about here and other places. So it's here: http://instagram.com/navigation_errors
I just created it today. We'll put some more interesting things up as they happen!
Pictures from our most recent trip for good measure
cph05a
Member
Yesterday Dusty Dog Garage completed the bulletproofing on our build. We ended up replacing more than we originally thought since everything was already pulled out of the truck. So we ended up with a shiny new turbo and a number of other items along with the egr cooler and oil cooler. There will be more on this shortly. Lots of shiny new parts!
My mechanic and I have had a handful of discussions on why type of coolant to use in the long term on this thing. I decided to go with the red coolant and just carry some extra concentrated coolant with me so that I don't have to worry about how old it gets. I have plenty of storage space on the camper for emergency stuff.
Once we got the truck back, my wife and I started some projects on making the cab of the truck more comfortable. We got new seats recently which we really like but it's pretty noisy and rattly in the cab so started soundproofing starting with the doors.
I'm not sure if we did the dynamat right or now, but we juts started cutting and sticking it on all the flat spots. Maybe we went overboard on the small pieces.
We also cut up some 1lb per sqr ft mass loaded vinyl and put this into the door panels. We haven't tackled the floor yet, but that will be coming whenever we get a break from the snowy weather. There's plenty of dynamat and MLV for the floors. Last night we did the front doors, rear supercab doors, and the back wall.
I ended up going a little overboard on all the bulletproof stuff, new turbo, etc so I might have to put off the coolant heater for another month or so until I get a couple more paychecks At least I don't have to worry about the 6.0 anymore.
If it ends up getting super super cold here I might run the block heater off our camper. My batteries should be able to power this for an hour or two if it comes down to it. I'm hoping it won't get too crazy cold until January, but who knows. It's Colorado.
My mechanic and I have had a handful of discussions on why type of coolant to use in the long term on this thing. I decided to go with the red coolant and just carry some extra concentrated coolant with me so that I don't have to worry about how old it gets. I have plenty of storage space on the camper for emergency stuff.
Once we got the truck back, my wife and I started some projects on making the cab of the truck more comfortable. We got new seats recently which we really like but it's pretty noisy and rattly in the cab so started soundproofing starting with the doors.
I'm not sure if we did the dynamat right or now, but we juts started cutting and sticking it on all the flat spots. Maybe we went overboard on the small pieces.
We also cut up some 1lb per sqr ft mass loaded vinyl and put this into the door panels. We haven't tackled the floor yet, but that will be coming whenever we get a break from the snowy weather. There's plenty of dynamat and MLV for the floors. Last night we did the front doors, rear supercab doors, and the back wall.
I ended up going a little overboard on all the bulletproof stuff, new turbo, etc so I might have to put off the coolant heater for another month or so until I get a couple more paychecks
At least I don't have to worry about the 6.0 anymore.If it ends up getting super super cold here I might run the block heater off our camper. My batteries should be able to power this for an hour or two if it comes down to it. I'm hoping it won't get too crazy cold until January, but who knows. It's Colorado.
cph05a
Member
I've never actually had it fail to start, I just don't like cold starting if it's below 0F if I can help it. I do run PS +cetane boost in my fuel in the winter and I keep fuel filters and diesel 911 with me just in case.