'81 Grandby on '91 Jeep YJ - New build

[Boonie]

What will my "camper" be?

First let me say what it will not be. It will not be the Starship Enterprise on a five year mission to boldly go where no man has gone before. Nor will it be an Earthroamer with "unmatched luxury and convenience without sacrificing any of the comforts of home". I do agree with Bill Swales founder of Earthroamer that I want "to travel and camp in comfort far away from cluttered RV parks and campgrounds."

Every vehicle is a compromise, but designed to best perform its intended task. I cannot see my camper as an "expedition" vehicle, or an "overlanding" vehicle, or even as an "adventure" vehicle. It will be, well, a boondocking camper designed to allow my to "wander the west." I will have accommodation to lounge, cook, and sleep inside. After 40 years of camping, I no longer desire to put away wet gear only to get to the next night and set up wet gear or to weather an afternoon thunder storm huddled under a tarp.

I want my camper to be lightweight. (It is much easier to recover a 4,300 pound vehicle that a 15,000 pound one.) Simple (Less to go wrong.) And reliable. I think I can use the 80/20 rule and achieve 80% capabilities of an Earthroamer ($425,170 base) at 20% of the cost (Maybe 2%!)

So after studying what is available at what price, I found what I wanted in the Thaler ActionCamper, but I cannot afford either the base vehicle ($30,000+) nor the price of the camper ($36,000) so after careful measurements I will be making my own version of the ActionCamper by mounting a modified 1981 FWC Grandby on a modified 1991 Jeep Wrangler YJ.

Let the build begin.

 

[EDR]

Sounds lke a great project. I'm looking forward to following your build.
Good luck and post lots of pictures.

 

[Boonie]

Thanks for the interest EDR, I think like most people one picture is worth..... a few words anyway.

Having tried to post my first build picture I found out that the pictures from my camera creates a file that is too large to download, so my assignment tonight is to read the website tips on how to resize the file. I hope to have the first pictures up later tonight.

 

[Boonie]

As I was saying: "mount a modified 1981 FWC Grandby on a modified 1991 Jeep YJ."

(First attempt at pictures. Figured out how as an attachment, but still haven't figured out how to include a picture as part of the post.???)

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

As I was saying: "mount a modified 1981 FWC Grandby on a modified 1991 Jeep YJ."

(First attempt at pictures. Figured out how as an attachment, but still haven't figured out how to include a picture as part of the post.???)

This might help with embedding photos...

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/13441-uploading-photos-to-comments-and-gallery/#entry156534

 

[Boonie]

Thanks, Sagebrush. It could be my computer but when I paste the copied address to the URL box and click "OK" it does nothing, click "cancel" it does nothing, click "X" to close the box, it goes to an "Options have changed. Are you sure you want to close" and from there I am in a dead end loop forcing me to close everything. What did DD say in the beginning "We are not going to the moon here guys". Sorry DD, but if I were involved we would not make it to Cleveland.

 

[Boonie]

Sagebrush, Here we go again on another computer! Now I need to figure out how to size it!

 

[poncho62]

Me like....following thread

 

[Beach]

Looks like a good project, should keep you busy for a while. Do you think front to rear weight distribution will be an issue? Beefing up the rear suspension won't help to put weight back on the front axle which could have traction issues off road.

 

[Boonie]

Beach, Great question.

By looking at the picture, the seats are in the middle of the wheelbase, so I am assuming that the axles, frame, and body are for the most part balanced front to rear. The engine, transmission, battery and radiator are the extra weight (838 lbs) on the front axle while the only extra weight on the rear is the gas tank (15 gal=127.5 lbs). adding the camper weight (assumed) 650 lbs, water, propane, porta-potti, food, clothes, etc., estimated at 400 lbs., the extra weight on the rear is estimated to be 1177 lbs.

I will be working on the placement of the camper utilities to keep them low and on top or forward of the rear axle. Obviously there will be some weight aft of the rear axle that actually adds more to the rear axle and takes weight off the front axle. All that said the math says I am looking at an almost ideal weight distribution of 60% rear and 40% front. My fingers are crossed.

 

[Beach]

Assuming it will be crawl/walk through?

 

[Boonie]

Exactly, It saves the weight of the front wall and the pass-thru window, but sacrifices the insulating value that the wall provided. The main hoop of the Jeep roll bar is right at and frames the "walk thru". I have an idea of attaching snaps on the roll bar and making a fabric divider so if on a cold night the conduction of cold air from the cab into the camper becomes an issue. I hope to be at the point that I can start posting photos later in the week.

 

[Boonie]

Since this is not a Jeep forum, I am not going into the Jeep part of the overall build. but a few details will answer some questions.

The Jeep Wrangler is categorized by some as a 1/4 ton vehicle. My needs are going to be in the 1/2 ton class, so upgrading the Jeep drive train was necessary. Fortunately I had access to a 350 TBI engine out of a Silverado 1500 that had a blown transmission. I had the 4L60e transmission rebuilt and adapted to the Jeep transfer case with a Novak adapter kit. The stock Jeep Dana 35 rear axle is rated at 2770 lbs., so I swapped it for a Ford 8.8 with disc brakes rated at 3800 lbs.

The ActionCamper is designed to fit on a longer wheelbase Wrangler JK, so I needed to increase my wheelbase by 24 inches. This was done by cutting off the original YJ 24 inches behind a datum point behind the door.

 

[Boonie]

I purchased a junk YJ tub and frame, which was usable from the seats back, and cut it off 24 inches in front of the datum point giving me a 24 inch overlapping compartment formed by the old fender well / foot well.

 

[Boonie]

So I now have a 118" wheelbase 1/2 ton 1991 Jeep, well, more than a 1/2 ton because the Jeep body is much lighter than a conventional rated 1/2 ton.

I hope that this information will dispel the notion that I'm crazy, and there is no way you can put a 1981 Grandby on a 1991 Jeep.

 

[mitch h]

Looks like good project. We built a couple rockcrawlers, jeeps are a fun vehicles for builds.

 

[Boonie]

Amen, Mitch.

One of the reasons I chose to build a Jeep, rather than just buy a Tacoma, was all the aftermarket products and shared experiences from guys like you that have done it before. In the Jeep world "Build it, don't buy it."

My hope is to carry that philosophy (and 40 years experience camping) over to the camper world to make my camper what I want, not a generic camper sold to meet the anticipated needs of the average buyer.

One of the other reasons was cost. As you are aware all too many jeep projects start with great ambition and great intensions only to end up on Craigslist as an uncompleted project. I bought mine for $1500. It was poorly executed, no top, no title, but had some great products making it worth the purchase price. I bought a top for $100, cut off the front half (seen in the pictures) and sold the windows and rear hatch for $100. The second Jeep tub and frame I purchased for $100 with title, I sold the title and VIN plate for $100 (I had already cleared up the title on the original Jeep) and then sold the wiring harness for $40 and the windshield frame for $20.

I will probably do a final cost breakdown at the end, but I am on my way to the 2% cost figure I mentioned previously.

 

[rtpvibes]

Good luck awesome project


Sent from my iPhone using Wander The West

 

[mitch h]

Keep us posted. We all love pictures.

 

[Boonie]

Ok, with the camper sitting on blocks tall enough for the cab-over to clear the roof of the cab (actually shown in the initial picture), it will allow me to move the camper fore and aft to determine its position on the Jeep.

For reference the stock Jeep has 36" behind the seats to the tailgate. I have added 24", so I have 60" or 5 feet of Jeep plus a rear overhang similar to the ActionCamper to work with. I have already determined that I will be carrying a Porta-Potti. As much as it is ok for me to pee-on-the-tree as my grandkids like to do, my wife has not mastered that skill. And so as not to waste storage space and to make the P-P (pun intended) more easily accessible, I will be locating it in the rear overhang and not in a cabinet as the ActionCamper does.

I first positioned the camper so that the position of the original front wall was over the Jeep roll bar/behind the seats. This put only the original 23" of unsupported cab-over to the front but left 36" rear overhang. Much too long, I would need to shorten the camper. Next I moved the camper forward so that the front on the cab-over aligned with a line of the windshield extended. This put 39 1/2 " of cab-over with only 19 1/2" rear hangover. Perfect for the 16" P-P with a little elbow room (or butt room in my case.) I would only have to address the extra unsupported cab-over. I am already anticipating narrowing the camper, which means changing from a east/west sleeping to north/south. (I'm 6'-2") The 39 1/2" outside gives me 38+" inside and with a 38" slide out, a 78" queen bed length. If you are doing the math, my inside cabin length will be 78 1/2". 40" open with the bed extended.

I now have the dimensions I need to build a mock up "collar" to attach the camper to the Jeep. With that I can safely mount the camper to allow me to move it side to side to determine the the width. My intention is to have a vehicle that can pass through narrows that the wheelbase track allows and nothing overhanging the sides.

Mitch, I will post a picture of the "collar" and the final position of the camper! Stand by.