Truck camper home build

[Avg.Joe]

I ran the furnace some more today while I hung and adjusted the bathroom door. Pics to come of that.
While the furnace was running I worked on the fuel pump mount. It's tap tap tapping was too loud in the living area. Putting a piece of foam between the pump and the compartment wall it's mounted to gave it enough cushion to quiet the pump noise. Now it's barely audible in the living area.

 

[Avg.Joe]

Bike_mech, you were asking about where the heater fuel was coming from...here are a couple pics of the fuel compartment.

 

[Avg.Joe]

I've been working on finishing the bench where it covers the water pump and heater. I'm not super excited with how it turned out, but it's going to be good enough for now. It provides a place to step up onto the bed and also a back rest for lounging.

I've got some paint work to do still. I'll work on that today. The heater is working well but I am thinking I should have gone with a smaller kw unit. With outside temps in the low 30's it was 70 inside. Setting the temp lower or reducing the fuel pump setting to it's lowest hz value made no difference. 70° in a small space is pretty warm, definitely too warm for sleeping. I know that we will encounter much colder temps and with them it would not be so warm but I think I need to aim for a lower minimum setting.

Does anyone here have experience that they'd share on using a diesel heater in a small truck camper?

 

[Avg.Joe]

Here's the finished bathroom door. I had been racking my brain about what to hang for a mirror and where to put it. Recently I found a blind spot mirror that's good size and has adhesive strips on the back. I mounted it above the towel bars on the inside of the door and it is gonna work good enough for taming bed head.

 

[Avg.Joe]

Today I made extension plates for the front jacks. I also cut out the wing pieces at the base of the trucks headache rack. It dressed up real nice with flapper wheels on the angle grinder.

 

[Avg.Joe]

I was all set to load the camper on the truck for the first time. My excitement turned to shock when I found two of the gas strut roof lifters had broken screws on the bottom mounts. I had used deck screws to install them because they were the right length. Silly me didn't realize that there's not enough shear strength with deck screws. I should have known, but was caught up in using what I had on hand.

I asked the Mrs to help me lift the roof back up. With two less struts it would be tough. As we were lifting it, two straps that secure the conduit lifters to the ceiling pulled out. We are not having a good day!! Thankfully it was almost 60°. I had been too concerned with having the straps evenly spaced than hitting wood above the ceiling paneling. There is extra blocking in the lifter area but the mount brackets landed further out than I had planned for.

At the end of the day the strut bottom backets were through bolted with 1/4" bolts. The emt lifter straps got revamped also. It's not very pretty but touch ups will have to wait for better weather.

That night, Christmas Eve, we had nasty wind driven rain for several hours. There were gusts up to 50mph according to the weather app. Yesterday, Christmas day, I went out to check on it and there was a puddle on the floor. No signs of leaking from the roof openings. I noticed the sticky rubber backed felt tape that covers the top edge of the hard side walls was wet in several spots. It seems the the wind driven rain found its way in through the stitching holes in the soft side canvas. I had noticed that light was visible through the holes when we were mounting it but promptly forgot. Now I'm thinking I should seal them up with some e6000. Only trouble is, it's too cold now. I'm adding it to the list of fair weather jobs. I truly hate leaving things like this but what can I do?

Maybe today we'll get it on the truck. Wish me luck!

 

[Vic Harder]

Way to re-think and re-engineer your project! Prototyping made me appreciate all the thought and history of trial and error that goes into a commercial product.

 

[Bike_Mech]

Those few small problems build character! I know, from experience, when your deep into a project they can seem ginormous but in reality they are speed bumps. Keep up the great work!

Roughly what size did you make your toilet closet?
-Chris

 

[Avg.Joe]

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys. It's great to have folks cheering me on!!

Chris, the bathroom is 24"x32". It's just big enough to do your business without banging into the walls, in theory. I haven't tried it out yet.

 

[Avg.Joe]

Yesterday I got the Froli sleep system put together and added a 4" foam mattress on top (3" hd foam plus 1" memory foam). It tested pretty comfy.

I also hung the ceiling track for a shower curtain in the bathroom. It needs some tweaking still. The Mrs. hemmed a long shower curtain I had picked up. I had hoped to die the curtain but being polyester, the wife says it won't take die. Oh well guess we're stuck with white.

 

[Avg.Joe]

The camper went back on the truck today. My goal for the day was to get the tie downs worked out. It went well. The levers are right up against the walls so I cut some hose scraps to act as a shield against damage to the wood sides. I didn't get pics of that but I will later.

We've got some snow coming tonight so I think it'll stay on the truck for a while. Maybe we'll get some road testing done over the next few days.

 

[Bike_Mech]

Looks awesome on the truck!!! Have you tried any ‘flexing’ positions to check clearance between the cab and camper?
Also how about a shot with the top down in driving mode.

Great work!
Chris

 

[Avg.Joe]

Not yet Chris. I will be driving with it on the truck in the next few days. The truck is not really set up for 4 wheeling. We do travel on BLM and forest service roads but nothing too crazy. So we hope clearance won't be an issue for us. Stay tuned though because I'll do a trip report of its maiden voyage on my winter trek to AZ.

 

[Avg.Joe]

The road test went well. No movement of the camper on the flatbed. No sway like with a full size truck camper. Braking distance was good.
The truck with camper scaled at 9080 lbs. Unloaded weight is 7630 lbs. Camper weight is 1450 lbs. I'm happy with that weight.

 

[Avg.Joe]

We've had gorgeous weather here for a few days so I took advantage of the time get this double window trimmed out.

Next the Mrs is going to stitch up some curtains for us.

The first road trip where we actually use the camper will be over easter. We'll have a 10hr round trip ride to CT. If all goes well, we're thinking about a trip out to NM.

 

[Avg.Joe]

After 6000 miles and three weeks of living in the camper, it survived. We were comfortable and dry and everything worked out great. There's a few things we want to tweak but overall were real happy with the camper.

Driving on flat land and with a tail wind we got the same mpgs as unloaded and in hilly country or with a cross wind we lost about a mpg off normal. This was a big gain from hauling the full size Lance.