The Memorial F150 Craptor.

dbhost

Well-known member
Hopefully the common and (relatively) low cost water container(s) work for your setup. If not, you might want to check Ronco Plastics water tanks, ranging from 3 gallon tanks to 380 gallon tanks:


I saw one at Amazon, 21 gallon that measures at... 34" x 9" x 16", which will EASILY fit under the bed, and allow me to reduce the height of the uprights to 10", and still have LOTS of room for the 12V pump, fittings, plumbing etc...

They also have a longer at 39" 25 gallon tank that is sold singly instead of paired up with a 16 gallon... but I digress.

Now consider 1 gallon water daily for cooking and drinking, and 2 for washing up / bathing that leaves me with a capacity for 7 days. My intent has always been to have a between provisions stops at around 5 days, and of course fuel is going to need to be taken care of more often than that.

I think for my intended purpose, I can probably get by with using 2 of my AquaTainers in the back of the cab, or just riding along in the aisle in transit for now, their only purpose is to provide water source for showers and dishes after all, and a few of the grocery store 1 gallon bottled waters refilled when safe and often.

My long term goal as I have mentioned before, is to build a "foamie" pop up Project M type camper shell. WIth that in mind, I can easily go with as much as a 30 gallon fresh tank without gobbling up too much room but I may end up with more weight than I want to deal with in a half ton truck... I was trying to stay around 24 / 25 gallons fresh total for weight reasons...

This does leave me with the issue of where to store / haul the toilet. WIth the bed cut down now. My total height on the bed frame is going to be 14", my total height on the toilet is 17". I can grab a 2.6 gallon toilet but that would reduce my duration between dumps of the black tank, not something I want to accelerate.

So much to try to cram into such a small space... Ugh.
 

dbhost

Well-known member
Okay, got the wheel well setback adjusted. Drilled and dowelled the original screw holes so the 2x2 theoretically should be as strong as new, Might end up putting additional vertical braces at those points to reinforce that area.

Got the verticals all cut down to 10", and the 4 main corners assembled, The AquaTainers will fit, sideways.

There appears to have been a change in design on the AquaTainer 7 gallon since I bought mine. The newer ones / current models have a screw on cap, presumably with a gasket or an O ring can be used to seal it for the vent. A trip to Walmart may be in order, because if these actually will fit, problem solved.

Definately running out of me for the day though. Been busy working on the house, working on the truck / camper, and visiting with friends. Gonna chill out for a while now...
 

dbhost

Well-known member
I forgot to mention I made a stop by Harbor freight on the way home today and got 2 of their badlands winch dampener blankets as they were on clearance for less than half the price of everyone else's. As in 2 of them after tax for $29.00 and change.

If no one has figured it out yet between the synthetic line wench the soft shackles in the line damper instead of my jacket I jacket I'm trying it's trying to make winching as safe as physically possible

I'm sure the rest of you have seen that you have seen that off road recovery fatality it's the fatality recently that spooked the crud out of me... And yes it WAS stupid to attach to the trailer ball, and not have any sort of dampener, but I have been injured by broken steel cable before while winching so I am just eliminating potential hazard points, and honestly reducing weight load on my little 1/2 ton truck.
 
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dbhost

Well-known member
No photo tonight as it's too dark but Amazon delivered the d rings that are red with black isolators instead of the silver ones that the bumper came with. I know it's a stupid cosmetic detail but Hey it was cheap. Walmart had the aquatainers super cheap so I went ahead and ordered 3 of them. 21 gal fresh water capacity. Not bad.
 

dbhost

Well-known member
So progress so far of the bed platform, we are snug agaist the wheel well on the right sideand on the left well, I had to turn the cabinet 90 degrees. It barely fits the battery length wise but I can make it work this way. Again I needed a night stand, and I can use the open space between it, and the bed wall to stash the stuff sack full of the hoses for, and the shower water heater. I guess I could try the box shorter height wise and pull the clamp to slide the box in place... But this works and gives me open storage that I actually need. Planning on screwing the 2 cabinet frames together to make one solid unit. I drilled and filled as the cross bars were in the wrong place, so I have to wait a hair before I can install the cross bars and remaining uprights, but once installed, I whould be good to go with the foamie part of it... Still need the lid. Planning on piano hinge and 26.5, 25 and 26.5 lids respectively hinged from the right...
20221009_133806.GIF

And just a stupid cosmetic thing, but the red powder coated D rings look a LOT better, at least to my eye, than the silver ones...
20221009_133949.GIF
20221009_134002.GIF

One thing I dislike is access to the hood latch. It is by the passenger side headlight now, and unlike the stock location that is center and down about 3/4", the plate this bumper provides is level to the bottom of the grille. I have to catch the latch from the gap for the winch...
 

Dougnuts

Well-known member
On the left / right thing. Nope, It is common for example for a new Lexus or BMW to have the license plate mount on the drivers side of the front bumper so that it is not in the way of the lower grille. And it would seem to me that upright would be if you look at a 3D grid, let's say Upright is your Y axis, horizontal is your X axis the unnamed left / right would be on the Z axis and would require all 3 coordinates to have an actual specification of orientation and location.

Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I meant no rotating it clockwise (right) or counter-clockwise (left). The bottom must be horizontal to the ground.
 

dbhost

Well-known member
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I meant no rotating it clockwise (right) or counter-clockwise (left). The bottom must be horizontal to the ground.

No worries. I actually have a proper flip down license plate holder for the Hawse fairlead. I had one for the old roller fairlead, but upgrading to a synthetic line / hawse fairlead equipped winch rendered that mount useless...

Not going to take a pic of it at this stage, but the uprights on the bed platform are all reinstalled and it is solid as a rock. I moved some things around so some screw holes got drilled and dowelled for strength. We will see how it holds up to my weight. I probably should have done the whole thing in 2x3s minimum. Took a scrap of 1/2" ply and height tested it. Plently of headroom now... And the new / new style AquaTainers fit fine flipped sideways and seem to be water tight so no leak worries.

My portable toilet is a 5.3 gallon model and is too tall to fit under the bed. Considering most guys that run these truck shell campers either have no toilet at all, or use a bucket toilet with peat moss, I think I am just going to slide it in, double bagged lest it leak, to the back corner by the tailgate. It can be moved to the cab for lotdocking, or set up in the ensuite for fully off grid...

Something I did NOT calculate as it were, for is the 20lb propane cylinder, honestly smart money would be to get a swing a way carrier made for the spare, put a gray tank where the spare is now, and mount the propane tank to the swing a way... But that would make the truck more than blantantly obvious, and it would make getting in / out of the truck bed harder... For now I have 6 of the Flame King 1lb refillables, and will use those for shorter duration trips. Longer duration I am just going to have to swallow my pride and grab 1lb cylinders as I go. I hate the disposables but I see no good option for in transit refilling of the certified 1lb cylinders.
 

dbhost

Well-known member
Heading over to the Home Depot to get my plywood for the bed, have them do the first 2 major cuts and then I will have extra to trim off for the electrical center. May abandon the foamie goal as I have T&G beadboard in excess in my shop. And I just want to get this part of the build done.
 

dbhost

Well-known member
Webbing / strapping in red came today. Need to make a winch hook HANDLE strap. All of them I have seen are just straps. I want a handle so it is easy to grab and drag the hook / line with big gloved hands. Also need to set up pull straps for the tailgate and camper shell hatch...
 

1000arms

Well-known member
Webbing / strapping in red came today. Need to make a winch hook HANDLE strap. All of them I have seen are just straps. I want a handle so it is easy to grab and drag the hook / line with big gloved hands. Also need to set up pull straps for the tailgate and camper shell hatch...
Will a lat bar for a cable weight-machine work for you? Or perhaps something else designed to connect by cable to a weight-machine? For an example, see:

 

dbhost

Well-known member
Will a lat bar for a cable weight-machine work for you? Or perhaps something else designed to connect by cable to a weight-machine? For an example, see:


Well, it would certainly be overkill for my application. I am just looking for a simple strap handle, just a loop of nylon webbing basically. I am figuring on the tailgate just using one of the cover screws to attach to the tailgate, and to the hatch, the bottom part of the extrusion is hollow, just use a couple of shallow rivets. The whole idea is just to have something easier to grab onto than to reach out and around to get to the hatch...
 

dbhost

Well-known member
Filled the ends of the flares, get to cut that out, sand it down and paint it this afternoon or tomorrow after the expanding foam cures... Then the flares get reinstalled.

Debating, and I mean stupidly debating cladding the electronics enclosure. Need one side set up with plywood to hold the charge controller. Got the 12V outlets / switches / USB chargers pulled from the old group27 deep cycle box. Not sure my emergency CPAP power battery is a happy camper anyway. I left it for about 5 months without a charge I was able to charge it back up, but I see where it spit and spewed on itself while charging... Cheap O'Reiley deep cycle battery.

anyway, need to start getting the 12V box ready to go. Still no clue how to secure the battery but will figure that out as I go...
 

1000arms

Well-known member
Webbing / strapping in red came today. Need to make a winch hook HANDLE strap. All of them I have seen are just straps. I want a handle so it is easy to grab and drag the hook / line with big gloved hands. Also need to set up pull straps for the tailgate and camper shell hatch...
Will a lat bar for a cable weight-machine work for you? Or perhaps something else designed to connect by cable to a weight-machine? For an example, see:

Well, it would certainly be overkill for my application. I am just looking for a simple strap handle, just a loop of nylon webbing basically. I am figuring on the tailgate just using one of the cover screws to attach to the tailgate, and to the hatch, the bottom part of the extrusion is hollow, just use a couple of shallow rivets. The whole idea is just to have something easier to grab onto than to reach out and around to get to the hatch...
:unsure: ... For the "winch hook HANDLE strap" you mentioned? ... :)

Or maybe:

 

dbhost

Well-known member
Will a lat bar for a cable weight-machine work for you? Or perhaps something else designed to connect by cable to a weight-machine? For an example, see:


:unsure: ... For the "winch hook HANDLE strap" you mentioned? ... :)

Or maybe:


Ah, I thought you meant for the tailgate / hatch straps. Sorry, Yeah that could work. I already whipped up a quick and ugly winch cable strap handle though. I am a lousy sewer. I know it is a strong joint but boy is it ugly...
 

1000arms

Well-known member
Ah, I thought you meant for the tailgate / hatch straps. Sorry, Yeah that could work. I already whipped up a quick and ugly winch cable strap handle though. I am a lousy sewer. I know it is a strong joint but boy is it ugly...
No problem! :)
 

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