The TARDIS - A Four Wheel Camper Build

[Overland Hadley]

Thanks for the explanation

No problem.

 

[Overland Hadley]

I just realized that your door is hinged on the left. Wonder why they changed it or even if it makes any difference?

When they switched to the radius door the hinge moved to the drivers side.

With the door moved passenger side of center, having it hinged drivers side makes sense. Also, it makes getting into the camper on the side of the road easier. And campers and motorhomes are made for outdoor living to be on the passenger side, so fancy campgrounds are set up that way.

 

[Overland Hadley]

N-

The build is going well. I'm leaning more and more towards installing a Wave 6 heater in my Hawk. Right now I'm using a Mr. Buddy and it works well, but I'm growing tired of changing the propane canisters throughout the night, this mostly applies to camping with the kids. My question to you is this; If I mount it on the back wall, next to the door, would you be concerned about the heat in regards to the small side cabinet?

Mine is a shell model, so the cabinet is the small sliding door model above the side window.

I do not think it would be a problem. The heat from the Wave is very directional and that is a good thing in confined spaces. If you are worried about it you could always mount it with a small shim, thus pointing it more into the center of the camper.


On a side note, I am considering not mounting my Wave on the back wall. But I am not sure where it is going yet. Also, I removed that small shelf above the window to access inside the wall, while it was out I weighed it and it came in at ten pounds. I found that a bit heavy (with the weight being high and aft) for the small storage space it provided. So at this point it is not going back into the camper.

 

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

The shim is a great idea! Be sure to post up where you end up mounting your Wave. Out of curiosity, what made you change your mind about mounting it on the back wall?

I'm still going with the back wall because I'm going to incorporate a propane tank on my rear bumper swing-out. Having the Wave on the rear passenger side wall will be the shortest distance hose wise to the propane tank. That way the tank can fire my Wave and my Partner stove that will sit on a fold down shelf on the swing-out.

 

[Overland Hadley]

This will be this weekends project. I have the parts so it should be fairly straightforward.

Roof Lifter Gas Springs

I will be ordering the FWC with roof rack tracks, and will be transferring over some of the Thule rack from the topper.

Ideally I will not have much on the rack. But at some point I might need to have a Thule box on top for winter gear. I also want to be able to carry a canoe or a couple of kayaks if needed.

After looking at Northern Explorer's Finch, I decided that some roof lifting springs might be a good idea. Especially when I carry a canoe and other gear up there.



All the following info came from a thread over on WTW, so thanks goes to those guys for figuring out the specific parts.

Suspa part # C16-15952 40lb

the horizontal distance between center of pivot to center is 22 3/4" for the suspa lifters, when the top is down, of course.

The horizontal distance between the brackets must be greater than or equal to the length of the compressed strut. Place the extended strut at the points you want to attach it. Mark both the bottom and top bracket points. Lower your roof and measure the horizontal distance between these points. If it is greater than the length of the compressed strut, then you are good.

Here are the links.

Suspa Gas Springs
Link

Mounting brackets
Link

Thread on WTW about "roof lifting helper shocks thingys"
Link

Here are a some photos that I dug up for reference: (Photo Source)

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/...attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=10348

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/...attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=10349

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/...attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=10350

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/...attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=10351

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/...attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=10352

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/...attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=10353

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/...attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=10354

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/...attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=10355

 

[Overland Hadley]

The shim is a great idea! Be sure to post up where you end up mounting your Wave. Out of curiosity, what made you change your mind about mounting it on the back wall?

The interior layout has changed a little, but when I went to answer your question about why I was not mounting it on the back wall I started to think that maybe that is where it should go. Thanks for asking the question, made me look at my location for the heater in a new light.

So, after thinking about it I might take my own advice and use some shims and still mount the heater on the back wall.

 

[NothingClever]

Also, I removed that small shelf above the window to access inside the wall, while it was out I weighed it and it came in at ten pounds. I found that a bit heavy (with the weight being high and aft) for the small storage space it provided. So at this point it is not going back into the camper.

I'm not trying to be snarky but if that 10lbs of weight counts as high and aft for your desired specifications, isn't a truck camper simply a bad start point to begin with?

And if I missed this part please forgive me, but what is the goal you're trying to achieve that requires such unsual limitations on weight?

I guess I'm a little perplexed....I have a loaded Fleet and my Toyota Tacoma does great on power, handling and gas mileage. Granted, I did supension work and a re-gear but you're simply carrying a shell. If all I had was a shell, I'm 100% confident I could carry it with my truck in stock trim and still have enough capability to handle some more "stuff" in my camper without having to worry.

Your fixation on weight is admirable if you were backpacking the AT or the PCT but for a person truck camping, it's something I haven't seen often here in the forums and I must be missing something.

 

[davidd]

I think he is trying to design a highly personalized and usable truck camper that when truly loaded with everything one needs to hit the road isn't grossly overweight. It seems that generally speaking when others have weighed their rigs the end result is typically not lighter than first thought, but more of a holy %$#& that thing is heavy!

I think this is a killer thread that is one persons take on their ultimate overland vehicle...I can't wait to see the results. I believe that the results of this thread are that many people are going to have found ways to improve and customize their campers thanks to his intensity in design. I have seen people with shells on 3/4 ton diesels and grossly overloaded complete campers on short bed Tacoma's. Everyone it seems has their own comfort zone, and opinion when it comes to loading a vehicle.

I just wish there more updates as I am dying of curiosity:lurk:

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Remember than Nathanel also comes from a sailing background where weight is EVERYTHING! That is also why he's finding such cool products not normally used in rigs. The Sailing Industry is light years ahead of the Overland and RV industry

I agree that it's cool to see the products he's using and have already made multiple bookmarks on a few I plan to implement into our camper

 

[dmoose]

Little weight here little weight there adds up and the point of these vehicles is to pile miles on the lighter the lower the profile the better the gas mileage the more places your gonna see on your travel budget .

Also you wanna keep the weight low to keep the vehicle stable on goat tracks

makes sense to me

 

[Overland Hadley]

Good things noted in the 3 posts below. If I do not carefully watch the weight the camper will easily end up hundreds of pounds heavier than I wanted.

I will just add that I when I go backpacking I count ounces, and I am guilty of cutting the handle off my toothbrush to save weight. Now that is scary. (Then I haul around a couple hundred pounds of camera gear, o'well.)

 

[Overland Hadley]

.... his intensity in design.

Thanks.

I just wish there more updates as I am dying of curiosity:lurk:

I wish I could posts more updates, but I am working my butt off to help pay for future journeys. So the build updates will come slowly, hopefully that will translate into more future trip reports.

 

[westyss]

Good things noted in the 3 posts below. If I do not carefully watch the weight the camper will easily end up hundreds of pounds heavier than I wanted.

I will just add that I when I go backpacking I count ounces, and I am guilty of cutting the handle off my toothbrush to save weight. Now that is scary. (Then I haul around a couple hundred pounds of camera gear, o'well.)

I have to agree with the thought process that you have employed considering weight, I bet if every camper on the road was put on a scale there would be an incredibly huge percentage of them over gross!! I believe most people are in denial about how much their rigs weigh when in camping mode wet, and it's simply amazing how stuff starts to add up, a little here, a little there and pretty soon ,,,,,,,,,.

Just having the mind set of squeezing every bit of weight saving from a build generally is a great idea, not only for the GVW but for fuel, ease of travel on rough roads etc. besides it has made for a great thread!

 

[brianjwilson]

You know it's funny, part of the appeal of the hard side camper that I owned was the storage area. When I sold it last week, I was amazed how much extra junk I had stuffed in the cupboards and not touched in the last year. Now I'm drawing up plans for a smaller pop-up, with more emphasis on longer boondocking (water/battery/solar/propane) and much less emphasis on "junk" storage. Although I'm not really obsessing about weight as much, it is interesting to see how different people prioritize these things. That's the fun of outfitting it yourself...

 

[takesiteasy]

Just having the mind set of squeezing every bit of weight saving from a build generally is a great idea, not only for the GVW but for fuel, ease of travel on rough roads etc. besides it has made for a great thread!

x2.