Random FWC Photos

Here's an article about making a low-budget off-road camper.

Low Budget Expedition Camper

http://overlandjourney.com/tag/camper/

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Building a low budget camper or camp trailer does not mean that it has to be cheap or fall apart. I have had some really nice camp trailers in my day, but not this time. I have been on a low budget kick I guess, but I get great satisfaction from building something for less money. It also comes out of necessity since we sold our last trailer, the Conqueror Camper. These types of campers are nice, built to handle a lot of abuse, but we needed something a bit different.

Our kids still like to tent it, momma doesn’t. With six kids, we needed a trailer to haul more gear anyway. But I wanted something that we could quickly put up if the girls needed to go to the restroom or we wanted to grab a quick roadside lunch. After searching high and low, I came up empty. They were either off-road capable with no restroom or quick deployment with standing room, or they had all that and were built for street use, maybe a gravel road at best.

In my frustration, and lack of time with summer coming up, I came up with this idea! I took a military trailer, M101, and slid a Four Wheel Pop Up. I wasn’t sure if this would be permanent so I wanted it cheap as well. I found the trailer on craigslist for $500, and the Four Wheel Camper for $500 also. The trailer was in great shape, and the camper was in fair shape. Not bad I thought! I have a expedition capable off-road camper design for $1000. Certainly a lot cheaper than other trailer designs. Is it perfect? No. But neither were the $20k Aussie Camp Trailers, for what I needed anyway. Does it do the job? Absolutely!

How I Did It:

Take one M101 Military Trailer
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Cut 1.5 inches out of the wheel wells
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Then add one cheap ol Four Wheel Pop Up Camper:
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Note:

There is still plenty to do, but technically you can go camping in this setup tomorrow. It took less than a day to put this together. I still want to

* bedline the inside
* bolt the camper down
* Adjust the tailgate out one inch so it will close with camper in bed
* Install new hitch assembly
* Extra water storage
* Solar power
* New Fridge setup
* etc.

It will never end. Its one of those types of projects. But what I like about it, I can be camping with it and modify it slowly if we decide to keep this setup. Ill be posting more, as our first camp trip for the summer is next weekend. Lots to do.
 
Robert and Martine from France are probably using a new custom made Four Wheel Camper for the remainder of their deliberately slow tour of the world.

The Spring 2010 Issue of the Overland Journal has an article about them. If you zoom in on the photo (http://www.kookynet....ournal-zz_q.jpg), it is easy to see the words Four Wheel Camper under the blurred section.

Does anyone have any more information or photos of the camper and truck?

http://www.kookynet.net/index.html

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After quick Google search, I have a found a partial answer:

http://www.expeditio...hp/t-47611.html

"...In June, Four Wheel Campers & the French travelers (Robert & Martine) unfortunately parted ways, and the camper is now back at the Four Wheel factory in Woodland, California. A variety of circumstances resulted in the decision. We wish the best for Robert & Martine in finding a solution that best fits their specific needs, and ours, too. The camper is being refitted with a few items and appliances, and will be available for sale in the near future."

Too bad, it would have made an excellent camper and truck combination.

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This may be more about my truck than my camper, but I wouldn't have been out there -- central Nevada on January 1 (or 2 or 3?) -- if I wasn't using the camper. Heading home to Bend, Oregon, after a few days camped at Great Basin National Park in far-eastern Nevada.
I stopped at a rest stop on Nevada 305 between Austin and Battle Mt. and I noticed major road-slush structures had built up on the on the camper jacks (so this is camper related) as well as wheel wells and lower panels...

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but most amazing were the slush stars that formed on the wheel hubs:

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I've never seen anything like this...maybe only forms when conditions -- air-temp and sun on the pavement, maybe salt on the road -- are just right. Beautiful...in a dirty-snow kinda way.
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Anyone else ever see such a thing?
 
Anyone else ever see such a thing?



Yup -

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I noticed that one after a trip to Billings, MT in March, when I went up to sell my old truck bed topper to some fella. By the time I got back to Cody, WY my truck was covered in icey slush, which I was kicking off the fender wells when I noticed the icey star -

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Seems to happen fairly often to me when driving on slushy roads in frigid temps. Conditions have to be just right, but I get those every so often in late winter. Very cool, pardon the pun. ;)
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Yup -

I noticed that one after a trip to Billings, MT in March, when I went up to sell my old truck bed topper to some fella. By the time I got back to Cody, WY my truck was covered in icey slush, which I was kicking off the fender wells when I noticed the icey star -

Seems to happen fairly often to me when driving on slushy roads in frigid temps. Conditions have to be just right, but I get those every so often in late winter. Very cool, pardon the pun. ;)
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Interesting...
The only other person I've talked to who's said he's seen this is my boss who said he got it on a trip to MT...or maybe WY -- (from Oregon) but I assumed he was just making it up.
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But you have photos to prove it!
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I bet it has something to do with sun melting the snow on the road while the air temps are still well below freezing...maybe. But I've never seen this while driving in central/eastern Oregon, and we have snowy (not deep usually, but covered) roads commonly in the winter. Maybe we don't have sunny-but-cold often enough for this to occur around here.
Does MT use salt -- any kind of salt/deicer -- on its roads? In Oregon, at least where I live, they pre-treat the pavement with MgCL2 solution to reduce ice in advance, but only use sand/volcanic-cinders after it snows.
How about this explanation: Sun or deicer on the roads melts the snow/ice to slush and makes it fling-able, and it gets flung on the wheels/hubs. Then, if it's sun-melted it freezes (since it's no longer in contact with the heated road), and/or if it's deicer-melted then the deiced liquid gets flung/drained off and it refreezes.
 
I bet it has something to do with sun melting the snow on the road while the air temps are still well below freezing...maybe. But I've never seen this while driving in central/eastern Oregon, and we have snowy (not deep usually, but covered) roads commonly in the winter. Maybe we don't have sunny-but-cold often enough for this to occur around here.
Does MT use salt -- any kind of salt/deicer -- on its roads? In Oregon, at least where I live, they pre-treat the pavement with MgCL2 solution to reduce ice in advance, but only use sand/volcanic-cinders after it snows.
How about this explanation: Sun or deicer on the roads melts the snow/ice to slush and makes it fling-able, and it gets flung on the wheels/hubs. Then, if it's sun-melted it freezes (since it's no longer in contact with the heated road), and/or if it's deicer-melted then the deiced liquid gets flung/drained off and it refreezes.


Sounds about right. We get that kind of ice on vehicles when it has snowed recently, so the roads are wet/slushy, and it is very cold and sunny.
 
More random-ness...
 

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A couple of memories.
 

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I bet it has something to do with sun melting the snow on the road while the air temps are still well below freezing...maybe. But I've never seen this while driving in central/eastern Oregon, and we have snowy (not deep usually, but covered) roads commonly in the winter. Maybe we don't have sunny-but-cold often enough for this to occur around here.

Does MT use salt -- any kind of salt/deicer -- on its roads? In Oregon, at least where I live, they pre-treat the pavement with MgCL2 solution to reduce ice in advance, but only use sand/volcanic-cinders after it snows.
How about this explanation: Sun or deicer on the roads melts the snow/ice to slush and makes it fling-able, and it gets flung on the wheels/hubs. Then, if it's sun-melted it freezes (since it's no longer in contact with the heated road), and/or if it's deicer-melted then the deiced liquid gets flung/drained off and it refreezes.



I dunno what, if anything that MT uses on the road..? I remember the ride from Billings to Cody was overcast, the roads were slushy and it was snowing of & on. By the time we got to Cody, the roads were dry. There is some bizarre centrifugal force thing going on for sure though!

Here's another mini-mystery... why does it only happen on the rear wheels?? I'm pretty sure I've only seen it on the rear wheels...

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Here's another mini-mystery... why does it only happen on the rear wheels?? I'm pretty sure I've only seen it on the rear wheels...

I noticed that myself...and I don't know...but I assumed it's because that slush on the rear wheels has been flung there from the front wheels, and since there are no wheels in front of the front wheels....
 

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