1988 Four Wheel Camper Grandby renovation and Tundra Fit

[jimjxsn]

New welder fired up. Getting decent welds right out of the box. We have the main pad.

Ouray,
That looks great!

 

[ski3pin]

Ambitious project, we are enjoying watching the process.

 

[Vic Harder]

that's pretty awesome. Good looking welds. Does the pad need to be that beefy? Seems like a lot of height to add.

 

[Ourayphotography]

The weight is a little deceiving.
I went with thinner wall and larger diameter tube to simplify design. Right now we are at 82 lbs. The plan is to stay below the stock bed weight (about 225 lbs)
The height looks excess as well, but is only about 3/4" higher than stock bed height. I ran out of mig wire and metal, so stopped for the day.
Tomorrow or the next, hope to start the elevated wings sections, and design my frame mounts.

 

[Ourayphotography]

Ambitious project, we are enjoying watching the process.

Thanks! Will be a wild ride for sure. I am the wing-it type, so you never know where it will go.

 

[a8ksh4]

Do you have any good tricks for keeping this stuff square and level as you weld it together?

 

[Ourayphotography]

Do you have any good tricks for keeping this stuff square and level as you weld it together?

I have been you-tubing quite a bit on this point. I often have problems with things moving, usually due to being in a hurry. The most important seems to be, to weld a little and move around the project making short welds. Not let any get too crazy hot. I had a little trouble with light twist today, so I strapped 2 corners and worked on bringing things back when welding. Worked pretty well. When I built my bumpers, things got a little crazy

 

[Bigskyxj]

Looking good

 

[longhorn1]

Looking good, love the dog. Our yellow lab will be 9 at the end of January. Loves camping. jd

 

[Ourayphotography]

Looking good, love the dog. Our yellow lab will be 9 at the end of January. Loves camping. jd

our big boy is going on 15. both dogs are all about camping

 

[longhorn1]

Hope we can get that long of life from Sarah. Our male didn't make it to 11. We adopted Sarah from the same breeder. She had 3 litters, 7, 3, & 8 puppies. We got her at 5-1/2

 

[Ourayphotography]

Well, the bed mounts have become a bit more complicated than I had hoped. The Tundra frame layout is all wonky and curvy, so I need to fab special mounts.
On the bright side, my new welding table arrived today, so it will help in the making of the mounts

 

[Ourayphotography]

Man, that was a long day, but Houston, we have mounts. One of those things you sure wish someone sold off the shelf. The new welder is light years ahead of the old one, so that makes things nice.

 

[Ourayphotography]

Moving along.
Decided to beef up the mounts a little and made progress on the bed. Now design decisions on the wings. They will hang over quite a bit to match the width of the FWC, so.....hmmm

 

[pvstoy]

Looking good.

Have you thought how you are going to attach the camper to the bed? I have always been a believer on bolting the camper to the bed. At this point or future you can weld tabs that you can use as bolt holes through the camper floor.

 

[shellback]

Not sure if I even know what I'm talking about, but doesn't a pickup frame and bed twist a lot? I think that's why 4 wheel campers are only welding on 1 side of the square stock. If that's the case, I'm wondering how your welded up frame that's bolted to the truck frame will fare? I know one fellow with the flatbed build that had problems. I think he went with 1 mounting point in the front center that allowed pivoting.

 

[Ourayphotography]

Looking good.

Have you thought how you are going to attach the camper to the bed? I have always been a believer on bolting the camper to the bed. At this point or future you can weld tabs that you can use as bolt holes through the camper floor.

Thanks! I plan to design some kind of mini receiver mounts in the bed, kind of like small hitch receivers, so I just drop the camper into the bed slots and put pins in. I Haven't figured it all out yet, but along those lines. I am planning to make the camper removable in just a few minutes, no bolts or turnbuckles. Hope that makes sense.

 

[Ourayphotography]

Not sure if I even know what I'm talking about, but doesn't a pickup frame and bed twist a lot? I think that's why 4 wheel campers are only welding on 1 side of the square stock. If that's the case, I'm wondering how your welded up frame that's bolted to the truck frame will fare? I know one fellow with the flatbed build that had problems. I think he went with 1 mounting point in the front center that allowed pivoting.

Hey Shellback, good point.
This is just the flatbed for the truck at this point. The camper tub will be separate and of lighter tubing. It should have a small amount of flex and go with the one sided FWC weld theory. 3/4 of the upper FWC will be stock alum welds, so the upper portion will still do its flex. Thanks for the thoughts on the flex, I will put more thought into how I mount the camper to the bed. This trucks flatbed will have very little flex from frame, so the FWC should have a pretty stable platform. Thanks!

 

[Ourayphotography]

Ok, a little better idea of how I plan to land the Camper. Male tubes attached to the FWC base will drop into these receivers in the bed wings. Uncharted territory for sure.
A long day of assembling, dis-assembling, re-assembling...... getting things square when welding is a pretty big chore to say the least. Was getting dark and the welds were starting to look ugly, so time to call it a day.

 

[longhorn1]

Nice job. I like the attachment idea. Looking forward to watching the build. jd