Pulled the Trigger on a Bobcat

G

Gussie

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2014
Messages
106
Location
Dunsmuir, California, USA
After many months of searching for a used FWC or ATC shell for my 2011 Tacoma, I finally went for a new ATC. I really like them both, customer service is apparently excellent with both - but I got a soft spot for smaller businesses, and Jeff has been great to work with so far....

So, from ATC I'm getting the cooler/cabinet; a propane cabinet (for adding heat later - probably Wave); roof racks; cold weather add-on; wired for solar (add-on later); aux battery; fantastic fan; and the awning.

Looking forward to customizing some cabinetry with my somehat decent carpenter skills. I'll be thread searching and/or hitting you guys up for a strong, lightweight material for the cabinets, counters and drawers. A good friend has mad fabrication skills, and he'll prolly help me out.

I have the Firestone airbags, hope it's enough...

Freekin' excited - can't wait for May!
 
Gussie, Ski3Pin has a wonderful build thread for his Bobcat, and I am sure there are others. Congratulations!

As soon as my Grandby sells, I will be looking for a used Bobcat/Eagle/Fleet shell to do the same.
 
Gussie,IMO you made the right choice.
Marty and Jeff are great to work with.
We have enjoyed our Bobcat going on 7 years.
It has taken us to a lot of great places and worked very well.
Have fun with your build.
Welcome to the "cult". May will come soon
Frank
 
Congrats on your purchase! I look forward to watching your build when you get to it. We are happy owners of an ATC as well. :)
 
I got a Bobcat shell 8 months ago and love it. They are great guys who build a great product. Check out my blog in the signature line for things I have done to make it a great lean traveling machine. The hardest part is being patient waiting for them to build it. Good luck.
 
Awesome! Congrats on the purchase.

I'm another happy Bobcat/Tacoma owner. The ATC guys are great to work with. They always answer the phone within a few rings. And even tough I bought my camper used and not directly from them, they've always been super helpful in answering my questions and helping me trouble shoot my proposed modifications. I previously had a FWC on a Ford, and although Four Wheel is great to deal with, I found the service to be more direct with less run around with ATC.

I do find the cabinet plywood is a bit flimsy and the veneer in mine is starting to peel in the high wear spots. It is lightweight, though.
I'm a hobbywist woodworker myself, and I were to buy another camper, I'd likely build the cabinets myself with a 1/2" baltic birch or similar. Although,I bet that would add a good bit of weight.

The first upgrade I did to my truck was to add new leaf springs. I went with the Old Man Emu Dakar's. When I asked about airbags to my local suspension dude he likened them as adding band-aid vs. actually fixing the problem of the lack of support and suspension sag for the Tacoma. I think that was good advice.

I also spend a lot of time driving on remote desert roads for work. The thought of popping an air bag would be a nightmare for me. I guess it just depends on what your overall goals and travel plans are. Before changing out the springs I had the camper on the truck for about a week. It sagged horribly and the springs were completely riding on the factory bump stops. If your camper is off the truck a lot, the airbags will be nice to help level the load and not have as harsh of a ride when unloaded.

Good luck with the mods! There's a ton of advice on the WTW forums. I bet the hardest part is waiting for your camper to arrive!
 
Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone! I've already picked up alot from some of your posts, especially the build threads.

Adamdrummer, I don't plan on taking the camper on and off. I'll be off road quite often, so your advice is valuable. I guess I'll see how the airbags go... my attitude towards this camper is that it is a blank canvas, a work in progress. I'm going to be preemptive, tho, and look into the Old Man Emu Dakars. What might I expect to spend, with labor?

Yeah, I'm figuring good quality ½" ply - although I'm not going to like the added weight. But I'm mos def going to keep it simple! Hopefully I can find some formaldehyde free stuff. Anybody have experience with that?
 
Hey Gussie~

One place to check for parts is Wheelers Off Road. There in Ashland, so kind of in your neck of the woods. I had a shop in Bend just take care of the springs for me. I think I paid $650 or $700 installed. Something like 3 hours of labor. This also included the longer u-bolts I needed.

I also added the Wheelers Superbumps. They have made a huge difference over the stock bump stops and were cheaper than the Timbrens. I installed those myself and it was pretty easy and had not done any suspension work myself up until that point.

I also replaced the stock Bilsteins with ICON shocks as one of my was leaking. That has also been a nice improvement in ride!

I've attached a pic.

It's easy to throw some big $$$ into suspension upgrades, but some of these upgrades are necessary for the anemic (IMHO) stock suspension on the Tacoma.

And then, you can get into tires... Good luck!!!
 

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Gussie said:
Yeah, I'm figuring good quality ½" ply - although I'm not going to like the added weight. But I'm mos def going to keep it simple! Hopefully I can find some formaldehyde free stuff. Anybody have experience with that?
Click to expand...
I've used 1/2 birch, single sided, plywood in my ATC Bobcat shell on my old 2000, Ford Ranger XLT, 4.0L V-6, 4x4.

I've not had any issues with the wood, formaldehyde wise, I didn't even ask at the lumber yard (about $30 a sheet). I do have problems with cigarette smoke and that has formaldehyde in it, so, maybe my plywood doesn't have it, or maybe it's all the other chemicals in cigarette smoke that I can't take.
The iron on, edge tape was about $6 a roll in 3/4" wide, so a lot of trimming and fine sanding to clean up the edge of the tape.
I also used the plastic, push button, cabinet latches (link to source in my build thread), and no drawer glide slides (way too much weight for me), just wax the wood and everything slides and glides just fine.

I basically build a box for the cabinet with a small horizontal support brace at the back or above the 1/2 plywood door on the front to keep everything square.
I dado all the corner joints, glue and brad nail them for strength without having any angle brackets.
Each box is screwed to the next box and into the Bobcat horizontal plywood wings of the floor pack.
The counter top is also 1/2" plywood that holds it all together as well, with a Formica edge and top.
No backs are needed, as the interior walls in the camper are the back of the cabinets.

You can find my previous build in the Build Thread... that interior had about 250 lbs of plywood added.

On my current interior, which is a big difference from the previous one (I need to update my build thread - soon hopefully), I created a more traditional layout, side dinette that makes into a low sleeping bunk, and the left side of the camper is the furnace, exterior propane locker, glass covered cook top & fridge with some storage. After completely removing the previous interior, I've added about 175 lbs of these plywood boxes and equipment to the Bobcat shell in my current build (lighter than before).
The neat thing about building boxes it that they are easily removed and you can do the interior differently the next time.

i believe that my camper in it's current interior build, without supplies and personal belongings is pretty light at 775 lbs.

And, it's the stuff that you put into the cabinets and the rest of the camper, that weigh much more than the cabinets themselves.
Heavy things like my cast iron cookware, love it, but I leave it at home, and water storage, I only carry 2, 2-1/2 gallon Arrowhead containers, I just buy replacements when I need to. Never any issues with bad water taste, frozen water lines, etc.

What ever you do, you'll do fine.
Congratulations on going with ATC... Marty & Jeff are great!
 
adamdrummer said:
Hey Gussie~

One place to check for parts is Wheelers Off Road. There in Ashland, so kind of in your neck of the woods. I had a shop in Bend just take care of the springs for me. I think I paid $650 or $700 installed. Something like 3 hours of labor. This also included the longer u-bolts I needed.

I also added the Wheelers Superbumps. They have made a huge difference over the stock bump stops and were cheaper than the Timbrens. I installed those myself and it was pretty easy and had not done any suspension work myself up until that point.

I also replaced the stock Bilsteins with ICON shocks as one of my was leaking. That has also been a nice improvement in ride!

I've attached a pic.

It's easy to throw some big $$$ into suspension upgrades, but some of these upgrades are necessary for the anemic (IMHO) stock suspension on the Tacoma.

And then, you can get into tires... Good luck!!!
Click to expand...
Thanks Adamdrummer, I'll check it out.... looks like they're in Grants Pass, north of Ashland. Jeff at ATC said I should be fine with the Firestone AirShocks, but I'm thinking another spring might be smart.
 
Alley-Kat said:
I've used 1/2 birch, single sided, plywood in my ATC Bobcat shell on my old 2000, Ford Ranger XLT, 4.0L V-6, 4x4.

I've not had any issues with the wood, formaldehyde wise, I didn't even ask at the lumber yard (about $30 a sheet). I do have problems with cigarette smoke and that has formaldehyde in it, so, maybe my plywood doesn't have it, or maybe it's all the other chemicals in cigarette smoke that I can't take.
The iron on, edge tape was about $6 a roll in 3/4" wide, so a lot of trimming and fine sanding to clean up the edge of the tape.
I also used the plastic, push button, cabinet latches (link to source in my build thread), and no drawer glide slides (way too much weight for me), just wax the wood and everything slides and glides just fine.

I basically build a box for the cabinet with a small horizontal support brace at the back or above the 1/2 plywood door on the front to keep everything square.
I dado all the corner joints, glue and brad nail them for strength without having any angle brackets.
Each box is screwed to the next box and into the Bobcat horizontal plywood wings of the floor pack.
The counter top is also 1/2" plywood that holds it all together as well, with a Formica edge and top.
No backs are needed, as the interior walls in the camper are the back of the cabinets.

You can find my previous build in the Build Thread... that interior had about 250 lbs of plywood added.

On my current interior, which is a big difference from the previous one (I need to update my build thread - soon hopefully), I created a more traditional layout, side dinette that makes into a low sleeping bunk, and the left side of the camper is the furnace, exterior propane locker, glass covered cook top & fridge with some storage. After completely removing the previous interior, I've added about 175 lbs of these plywood boxes and equipment to the Bobcat shell in my current build (lighter than before).
The neat thing about building boxes it that they are easily removed and you can do the interior differently the next time.

i believe that my camper in it's current interior build, without supplies and personal belongings is pretty light at 775 lbs.

And, it's the stuff that you put into the cabinets and the rest of the camper, that weigh much more than the cabinets themselves.
Heavy things like my cast iron cookware, love it, but I leave it at home, and water storage, I only carry 2, 2-1/2 gallon Arrowhead containers, I just buy replacements when I need to. Never any issues with bad water taste, frozen water lines, etc.

What ever you do, you'll do fine.
Congratulations on going with ATC... Marty & Jeff are great!
Click to expand...
Alley-Kat:
Yep, I'm thinking the same thing - 1/2 birch ply, secure but removable, minimal weight. Like most people, I have a tendency to overbuild, so your insights are a good reminder for me.
My plan is to just go camping as soon as I get the thing in late April, and start a wish list based on the first couple of trips. I'm lucky to live in an area that people drive hours for, with plenty of good camping locally. Perfect for 'test runs'...
 
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