OverLanding Camper Build

[Bigdave_185]

think he's just ribbing you Chief. if I recall someone here used some hardwood body supports on a fummins here someplace

I did, they still reside on that frame under the steel flat bed. They however aren’t part of my suspension design. Although I have some new alcan springs coming soon, maybe I can make some pine shackles for it too.......

We need to introduce Don to Teflon blanks so he can cut em into other shapes lol


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[Flyin6]

think he's just ribbing you Chief. if I recall someone here used some hardwood body supports on a fummins here someplace

I know he was. Was I too harsh? I have a reason for asking
Wife and kids say I am too harsh, to abrupt.
So I checked, and nope, systems all checked out fine
I seem to be perfectly balanced and normal 

;-))

[Flyin6]

Moving right along...

Looking at things long enough and you will see defects in design.

The air conditioner door has louver style vents which are open on the bottom side. From there moving inward, the AC unit takes up most of the cavity, but not all.

Picture my driving through a rain storm. The rear tires are going to pump water up toward that vent/door at just the right angle. Without realizing I could be throwing all sorts of water into the interior.

So I made up a simple fabric flap for travelling which can be tossed up for overnights when I may want to run the AC

[Flyin6]

Next up was finding a place to mount a sway bar.

Since I deviated from the engineers design with this robust suspension, I will add both a sway bar and a pair of shocks.

To facilitate attaching of the sway bar link, I created this tab/extension and welded it to the end of the trailing arm

[Flyin6]

The bar is the universal one I once had hanging on the Dodge project truck.

I'll use these weld on blocks to secure the bar to the frame of the camper

[Flyin6]

After a lot of wire brush action, and flap wheel smoothing and then a solvent cleaning, I painted the parts with the red paint I had left over from painting the calipers

[Flyin6]

I picked up this theme from the cool off road campers the Aussies are importing. They get all red or yellow with the undercarriage, which in my estimation, looks pretty snazzy.

The other parts either got acid etching primer, painted, or coated with bed liner.

[Flyin6]

I only have to fit some shocks, put it all back together, and remount the wheels (When they get back from the powder coater, and I'm done with the hard stuff.

Coming up will be an interesting process where I go to create a title from thin air, the the thing registered and tagged for use all over these sometimes united states

Getting closer all the time!

[Farmer Jon]

I was wondering what happened to this project. Coming along real nice.

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[America.Mike]

I only have to fit some shocks, put it all back together, and remount the wheels (When they get back from the powder coater, and I'm done with the hard stuff.

Coming up will be an interesting process where I go to create a title from thin air, the the thing registered and tagged for use all over these sometimes united states

Getting closer all the time!

Everything is looking good !


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[Flyin6]

Pushed ahead, finishing the sway bar installation, well 99% done. Still have to source some new hardware tomorrow to button it all up.

That KBS Motor-coater paint is really good stuff. This was just one coat!

The sway bar bushings are greasable as are the control arm bushings, so that's a good thing.

Here it is all test assembled:

[Flyin6]

I was able to reuse some factory sway bar end links off (I think) a Toyota.

[Flyin6]

I welded the sway bar mount to the camper frame after adding a doubler to provide more area to spread out the load. It all seems to fit very well, and the camper is resting on its suspension in these pics

[Flyin6]

A little bit of eye candy from the outside looking in

Left to do:  Find some shocks and build some mounts for those
                 and
                 Remount the tires/wheels when the powder coater folks finish with them


Now off to find suitable shocks. I have an extended length of 15" and a collapsed length of 11"
I think I'll find some with a bit more stuff, but keep the extended length in there as a built-in suspension limiter.

4" of travel doesn't sound like much but that's 8" from side to side, and keep in mind, the guys who designed these suspension arms designed it to have less travel that that!

[JR]

What sway bar is that from the dodge? Need something for the burb and Dmax, getting ideas.

[Flyin6]

What sway bar is that from the dodge? Need something for the burb and Dmax, getting ideas.

Yes, I had it on that W250 build...Kept it

[Flyin6]

Got the three camper wheels/tires back from the coaters

[Flyin6]

Started/finished the shock mounts this afternoon. Keeping it simple I sawed off equal sections from a 4X4X.250 angle and created lower and upper mounts.

The lower mount contains a standard bolt-through-bushing setup, while I opted for a simple stud mount for the top

The big holes are for weldment

[Flyin6]

Rancho RS5000 shocks with the stud top mount. Makes it all pretty easy

[Flyin6]

Test fitted. Shocks will have plenty of stuff and droop to allow the suspension to cycle a lot more than the designers had originally allowed for

[Flyin6]

Couldn't leave the shocks alone

Tex will like this

[Flyin6]

First pic is resting on the rubber pillows. Second pic is with some air added. Third is the RMTUA (RealMan thumbs-up Approval)

[Flyin6]

All done save mounting the shocks tomorrow after the paint has cured.

Pre-rangers hoisted the spare onto the mount

I'm happee

[stlaser]

 

[JR]

Looks good.

[TexasRedNeck]

Couldn't leave the shocks alone

Tex will like this

I approve..


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[Flyin6]

Couldn't leave the shocks alone

Tex will like this

I approve..


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Thought you'd like that!

[Flyin6]

Back at it on this thing...as the days tick away until its go time for the summer's Real-Man meet in Wyoming.

On the inside I worked out some bugs on the lift mechanism. I had some binding of the lift actuators which was due to a slight shift of the top fore-aft as the hinge mechanisms unwind and stand up. I elongated the holes for the aft lifts, relocated a couple mounts and just like that, I had that working fine. I plan to semi-permanently mount a couple of spare mechanisms inside just in case I see a failure on the trail.

I have come up with all manner of modifications and changes, but all of them will be tabled until after the trip is finished. The floor is perfectly set up for hard foam board to provide insulation. In the middle is a large framed out rectangle in the framing that I think I will convert into a generous storage box which could be accessed through the floor. But again, that can wait until a later time.

I removed the upper awning and worked out the bugs on the 270 unit.

Here it is opening:

[Flyin6]

At this point I realized I needed some reinforcing of the hinge point at the rear, so I quickly fashioned up a couple of braces.

Not pretty at this point, and really just quick production work. I'll get to pretty and powder coat later on, but for now, I need functional

[Flyin6]

That allowed for the full opening:

[Flyin6]

That immediately brought out a big problem: There is no roof over the cabin door. That means rain could blow straight in, getting in/out would be directly into the precipitation, and there could be a nice mud puddle directly below the last spot you had to step prior to entering the bedroom area...NOT GOOD

Have to come up with something to fix this!

[Flyin6]

^^^^ If you blink after each picture, you get a slow-mo hand wave... ;-))

[Flyin6]

Now, the area beneath the awning is nice and very workable. Plan is to walk around the back under cover and into the shower/potty tent when fully set up. So far this is the scene:

[Flyin6]

Next: Under awning lighting:

[JR]

Don't open the door when it rains.

I'm sea sick,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Flyin6]

Threw the shocks on and zip tied the electric brake cable and the air lines up out of harms way

[Bigdave_185]

I’m really curious about that porch light you have there.   


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[Flyin6]

So this part will constitute an experiment.

I need some sort of cover over the entrance door

I looked all over the RV stuff, and frankly I was pretty underwhelmed over the offerings I saw out there

So I started to think about what one might look like if I just created it myself.

I know the thing would have to be compact, and pretty robust. It would have to be simple and easy to deploy, and once out there in the breeze be pretty fuss-free.

I started out with some sticks of PVC Conduit, just cutting pieces and sticking things on the side to see what a fitment might look like and to see if there were any issues. I noticed right away, that if I simply built a single leg on each side that hinged on the bottom and rolled out from the top, I could get something done, but it would require a bit of a squat to get in/out of the camper, and the forward bar would get in the way of opening the frig.

So I had to come up with some compound folding thing, and I started to think about landing gear linkages I have seen over time.

I started with a long and short length of the PVC and bolted one end of each stick together

[Flyin6]

I’m really curious about that porch light you have there.   


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Its a 36 foot length of LED strip lights

[Flyin6]

The box of timbers represents the vertical wall of the camper.

The series shows approximately how the compound linkage would unfold to place the longer pole up higher

This is all very early at this point, but I do think I may be onto something.

[Flyin6]

That will attach at the forward edge of the cabin and just behind the door

[Flyin6]

Thinking I want to really build something along these lines, I created those same lengths of tubing from some galvanized electrical conduit. I fish-mouthed the ends of the tubes, then welded some 1/2" I.D. bushings to the ends of the tubes which will in turn use some 1/2" hardware to keep everything aligned under load.

The tubes were drying when I stopped building for the day

[Flyin6]

They will attach to the body by way of simple aluminum "L" brackets.

Not sure what may be going on with the other end, but I'll need to create a spool about 36" long where I can roll up what looks like four feet of that rip stop vinyl material I am already using for the expandable top. I just need to figure out how to put a spring in the bobbin end to make the thing naturally want to recoil. Then I'll have to figure out some sort of over-center stop to keep everything at the correct angle to put the overhead where it is tilted down a little bit outward to shed water away from the entrance, but still retain some head room.


Hmmm...Thinking...

[Bob Smith]

Don, check out how the company that built your other RV trailer handled opening the door when it is raining. Almost all awning literature says to roll up awning in wind or rainy weather. Get a beach towel to wipe up a little water that enters the trailer and don’t leave the door open in a storm

[Flyin6]

Don, check out how the company that built your other RV trailer handled opening the door when it is raining. Almost all awning literature says to roll up awning in wind or rainy weather. Get a beach towel to wipe up a little water that enters the trailer and don’t leave the door open in a storm

Bob, I'm not looking for something cheap like those RV things, but with these short steel arms and that super tough mil-spec vinyl, it should easily stand up to some moderate gusts.
I had a tent made of that stuff and aluminum tubing that stood up to 70mph gusts in the California high desert. Not a big awning, I am only talking 4'X4'at the largest.
Copy on the towel, good idea. But I was trying to keep the ground just outside the door somewhat rain free(er) if possible.

[Bigdave_185]

My first thought would be a small fiberglass rod that would make a triangle and stitch some more of that green fabric into that rain fly on top of a tent type shape and roll it back up when not used,  snap to body of trailer or maybe some simple twist ties. But you’re one past that now


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[Bigdave_185]

See the simple tri angle on the front?

One rod straight out over the door that fits your required dimensions and it could match what your have on the upper portion? 

Zipper pocket to roll it into, maybe some more Velcro, a few snaps possibly.   But easy sewing machine work and you probably have some scrap material.   



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[Bob Smith]

Or carry along a small entrance step with shoe brush attached. Short legs to keep you out of the lake at the entrance to the camper. Or, don’t park with the door opening over a low spot that collects water.

[Flyin6]

Or carry along a small entrance step with shoe brush attached. Short legs to keep you out of the lake at the entrance to the camper. Or, don’t park with the door opening over a low spot that collects water.

I plan to carry a stool, or weld on some foldable steps.

And Dave hit on something I hadn't considered...A tent rain fly sort of thing on flexible rods...Have to give that some thought.