A few months back I started a real crappy thread when I first purchased the truck. I wanted to start new with one thats easier to follow and more extensive on the build I'm doing. The plan is to shred a (homemade?) truck camper and do a bed-off, frame mounted cabin/camper. I want to do this because a few friends and I got bit by the van-life bug! My first vehicle was a 1973 vw bus hightop camper but it wasn't practical as i was throwing stupid money into it to build an overlanding baja bus. So i sold that, took a small loss, and at the same time a friend threw this truck up on CL. I grabbed it for $2400 with around 259,000 miles. Seems like a lot but i know if i put some tlc into it it'll be fine. 4x4 works great and I'm slowly debugging all the problems it has.
So the first thing to do was grab a cap for the bed and get some new shoes. The stock steel 16" inch rims weren't doing it for me and I love FJ rims. So I waited for a pair of take-off's that only had 30 miles on them and grabbed them for $700. Seemed like a lot but all-in-all after I sold the steelies and tires for $350 I wasn't too bummed about spending $350 on new rims and tires that will keep me on the road for awhile.
Next was I tore through the engine bay with new hoses, new plugs, and new wires. Then all new suspension with an AAL package to stiffen up the rear for the camper. After that was over I decided to take the bumper to cut excess metal off from when the truck was used to plow and clean things up. Did a cardboard mockup of a bumper I may get after soon. So currently the cap is up for sale and I've got the truck camper on hand.
After i grabbed the camper from a junk yard up in Mass for $500, the first order of operations was to get the camper off the bed. It easily weighs over 1000lbs and the truck didn't like that at all. Luckily I've got a trailer hanging around and decided to build a frame to put the camper on so i can work on the truck and camper at the same time without the truck feeling all that weight. It was made up of simple 2x4 framing and after 4 hours of slowly cranking the camper off the bed i was able to reverse up to the trailer and drop it down on the stands. It took awhile doing it solo but kept it as safe as possible!
Once the camper was solid on the stands, it was time to hack it up. Over the past few weeks I looked at a few truck campers and camper caps and most actually had steel framing with was terrible. This having aluminum framing was a big plus so it was no question. I haven't found any builder marks so my guess is still that its homemade. And made very well! So the plan, as i might have poorly stated earlier, is to do a bed-off mounted camper on the frame. A major design decision behind this build was that i wanted it to be garageable while I'm away at school and still fit into an auto body shop when things I'm not skilled enough to tackle need attention. So back to the images below. I decided the best way to achieve this was to cut the part of the camper that slides into the bed off completely (this probably reduced the weight of the entire camper by half) and also cut the wedge off the front to make a 6'x6'x5' foot cabin that will mount to the frame off the truck (the bed will go into storage) and stand only 12"-18" taller than the cab. Yes, I won't be able to stand in it but the weight of the vehicle and aerodynamics will get as close to stock as possible. I also plan to travel in this long term so if i can get it to look very utility-box-esque, ill be happy. So here are the shots of the camper getting skimmed by around 150 pounds. By this time I've probably dropped its weight by 300lbs or so with all the extra crap that was in the camper that is now gone (60 gallon water drum that was half full.. SO DUMB almost 250 pounds of random weight)
So the first thing to do was grab a cap for the bed and get some new shoes. The stock steel 16" inch rims weren't doing it for me and I love FJ rims. So I waited for a pair of take-off's that only had 30 miles on them and grabbed them for $700. Seemed like a lot but all-in-all after I sold the steelies and tires for $350 I wasn't too bummed about spending $350 on new rims and tires that will keep me on the road for awhile.
Next was I tore through the engine bay with new hoses, new plugs, and new wires. Then all new suspension with an AAL package to stiffen up the rear for the camper. After that was over I decided to take the bumper to cut excess metal off from when the truck was used to plow and clean things up. Did a cardboard mockup of a bumper I may get after soon. So currently the cap is up for sale and I've got the truck camper on hand.
After i grabbed the camper from a junk yard up in Mass for $500, the first order of operations was to get the camper off the bed. It easily weighs over 1000lbs and the truck didn't like that at all. Luckily I've got a trailer hanging around and decided to build a frame to put the camper on so i can work on the truck and camper at the same time without the truck feeling all that weight. It was made up of simple 2x4 framing and after 4 hours of slowly cranking the camper off the bed i was able to reverse up to the trailer and drop it down on the stands. It took awhile doing it solo but kept it as safe as possible!
Once the camper was solid on the stands, it was time to hack it up. Over the past few weeks I looked at a few truck campers and camper caps and most actually had steel framing with was terrible. This having aluminum framing was a big plus so it was no question. I haven't found any builder marks so my guess is still that its homemade. And made very well! So the plan, as i might have poorly stated earlier, is to do a bed-off mounted camper on the frame. A major design decision behind this build was that i wanted it to be garageable while I'm away at school and still fit into an auto body shop when things I'm not skilled enough to tackle need attention. So back to the images below. I decided the best way to achieve this was to cut the part of the camper that slides into the bed off completely (this probably reduced the weight of the entire camper by half) and also cut the wedge off the front to make a 6'x6'x5' foot cabin that will mount to the frame off the truck (the bed will go into storage) and stand only 12"-18" taller than the cab. Yes, I won't be able to stand in it but the weight of the vehicle and aerodynamics will get as close to stock as possible. I also plan to travel in this long term so if i can get it to look very utility-box-esque, ill be happy. So here are the shots of the camper getting skimmed by around 150 pounds. By this time I've probably dropped its weight by 300lbs or so with all the extra crap that was in the camper that is now gone (60 gallon water drum that was half full.. SO DUMB almost 250 pounds of random weight)
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