Otis24's Otisbound Outdoors Bodonkadonk Supercharged Twin Locked Micro Camper Build (OOBSTLMC)

I have a damaged baggage hatch(fiberglass&alum) that I got cheap off ebay. I am going to section it down to the size I need. The door trim extrusion is just rivetted to the fiberglass panel and the hatch frame is only held together with rivets theough the hinge flange. But I have a couple more I would like to do before I enclose the walls and build out my storage and building some custom sizes would allow me to place my wall studs where I would like them to end up. I still have to mount a heavy ass 270 awning, rotopax and some recovery gear on the outside and stud placement obviously plays a big part in that.

 

I used these hinges in all the doors. So far they’re holding up well.
https://www.gemlux.com/121502
I attached them with #10 stainless hardware I got at an Ace hardware store. I drilled the holes with a 3/16” drill bit which is close enough to the screw’s diameter that the screws actual thread into the aluminum a little bit.
When I finish painting the camper I'll remove all the hardware. Before I put it back on I’m going to use 3M marine 5200 adhesive sealant in addition to the screws. I’ve used that stuff elsewhere on the camper. It’s a little sticky and kinda difficult to work with but it’s super strong.

 

Man what a build!
Is the camper steel or aluminum, how do the Dakar leafs hold up to it on the back?
I’ve been wondering how well they are with the added load offroad. I plan to do the kinda Aussie inspired flatbed and dog boxes style setup but with two dog boxes. One upfront for fridge/camping gear and one on back for bikes and ski gear. And sliding drawers under the flatbed and everything. Quite a bit of weight on these little trucks but I have no doubt it would handle it, just curious as to how your leafs are sitting, have they started to flatten a little yet?


I can’t wait to start building the back especially after seeing yours. My plans are pretty much like this for the flat bed but with a second dog box instead of a tray.

 

How about a Dirty 30 build? That thing is insane!
I spent a lot of time researching Aussie campers. Once I figured out the correct Australian terms a whole world of camper greatness opened up.

Bodonkadonk is all Aluminum, acrylic double sided tape, self drilling self tapping screws, epoxy, foam and a bit of wood.

The Dakar’s do so so even with the add-a-leaf. I also have Timbren load bearing bump stops. I’d love a set of King’s and custom Alcan springs. Maybe in a few years.

It’s heavier than my old set up but the weight is distributed much better. Before for a long trip like Baja it would sit solidly on the bump stops (they’re 5.5 inches tall). Now with the same stuff there’s a 1 inch gap. All the weight is between the axels.
I built it pretty light.
I don’t think a manufacturer who sells these could get away with this kind of construction.
For one thing building this way is super time consuming compared to welding.
Another is that while it’s pretty tough and will stand up well it’s not meant to take any kind of impact. If I drive into a tree or hit a rock with it it will be damaged severely.
I learned this kind of thinking from buying backpacking gear from GoLite in the 90’s. The back pack From them was designed for adventure racing. It’s 40 liters and weighs 17 ounces. They state that it’s light so you have to take care of it. If you have 30 pounds of gear in it don’t drop it down a mountain. It has no lifetime warranty because warranties like that result in overbuilt overweight gear. Which, of you look at all the major gear manufacturers they all do that. Today’s backpacks are much better. They’re strong and lightish. Back then they were strong and stupid heavy.

 

Lol...I started to update that a few months ago and didn’t get far at all. It’s so far behind.

 

Check this out. Except he only did 2. And it seems like he doesnt have an account on TW anymore

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/aluminum-flatbed-tray-canopy-eaf.524201/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqV05RhZhTs

 

Oh man the dirty 30 would be an absolute dream, so is Sooty. I wish I could do the 1HD diesel that he put in the dirty 30 into my Tacoma If only we could get the same diesel Toyota’s they get. Same with Shorty, they have the absolute best vehicles over there. 4wd action has definitely influenced my ideas for long range touring. I live in Florida where everything is flat and muddy, it was fun as a kid but I want to go 4wding in the mountains to remote locations or on the coasts, not mudding haha. So I am trying to build a rig that can travel across the country to the west coast and still hit some tough tracks and make it back home. At least until I move out west lol

She looks fantastic, I was expecting it to be bought when I first saw the pics. You definitely did a bang up job on it.

Right now my leafs are shot, the previous owner just put a rough country spacer lift and it has about 4 leafs and then a 3” spacer and over the past two years of occasionally loading tile in the bed the leafs are starting to frown and axle wrap is horrendous. Considering how much weight you’ve got with the Dakar’s I think I will end up going with them for the time being until I really start adding weight on the truck.

Glad I found your build Because it’s definitely given me some ideas for an aux fuel tank. Yours is pretty genius with the manual button that transfers fuel from the aux tank. I have been wondering how to set one up, I don’t really like the idea of caring multiple jerry cans. Would be much easier and safer to have the aux tank, let alone carry twice as much as stock.

 

I’ve seen that video. They did a great job with that canopy. Like he said Norweld are super nice but they cost as much as a truck. They’re a little overbuilt and heavy as hell but bombproof and it’ll last forever.
You actually lose a little storage space with a lot of those but you gain easy access to everything. Lots of advantages over a stock bed and camper shell.

 

Did a little work in the fridge/stove slide.

I cut the angles where the slide releases are to make using them a little easier.

Painted the aluminum angle.

I replaced the OSB with Latvian birch plywood and covered the whole thing in epoxy.

I made the plywood platform
for the fridge long enough so it’s lodged between the door and the couch on the other side of the camper.
It’s also long enough to fit a Dometic CFX65 now.

Before:


After:

 

The double sided tape holding my rear view mirror camera monitor thing failed to stick to the ram mount and fell off.

I reattached it with some 5 minute epoxy. It kept slipping and seats were full of tools. I couldn't sit anywhere near the mount to hold it while the epoxy cured. It was getting harder and harder to keep in 1 place.

This framing square worked pretty well to keep it in place.

 

Just went through all the posts.. best use of my weekend by far

When I'm done making my tacoma mechanically sound, I'm copying so many of your ideas!

 

Sweet!
I’d probably do a lot of things differently!

 

The other day I was at a spot doing something with my truck.
I had the main entry door open with it resting in the ground like this, but no mat and all other doors were closed.

Got back in the truck and started driving away.

I heard a loud snap sound.

I never closed the door.

It got half ripped off the camper.

Luckily both #10 stainless screws on one side is of the hinge snapped.
Both hinges are badly bent.
No damage to the door or door frame though. Might have been overbuilt? It did carve a 4-5 inch furrow in the ground.

So I stole a screw from the other hinge and used a bunch of bailing wire to put it back together.



Ordered 3 new hinges (1 will be a spare)

 

I posted this over in the NorCal wheeling thread as well.

I went out last week for some camping.
Started out by going down near Big Sur area on Monday.

On the way the transmission cooler I added 150 miles previously sprung a leak.
I watched the temp go from 250>270>290>305 in a matter of seconds.
I pulled over and put the hoses back to stock.
Luckily I’d just met up with @theed and family and they were able to go into town and get 6 quarts of transmission fluid. I had a little with me but not nearly enough. Rigged up a funnel and added 3 quarts.


After Big Sur I headed to Bald Mountain area. I kept adding transmission fluid a half quart at a time along the way. In the end it needed 5 quarts. The whole bottom of my truck is coated in transmission fluid.

First night near Bald Mountain.


I’ve had a few friends move away that gave me their white gas they couldn’t take with them so I converted my propane Coleman to white gas.


Wednesday I drove up 168 to a nice spot with an amazing view of the Kaiser Ridge to the north and Lake Thomas A Edison, Silver Divide and a bunch of 13,000 foot peaks. I’ve gone back packing over there. It was cool seeing from this vantage.
I hiked the upper 3 miles of the Dusy Ershim. It’s closed so no one was around. That trail is gnarly.

Made a grilled cheese for dinner.

After that I rolled over to the other side of 168. I moved about 8 downed trees off the road. The roads were standard uninteresting forest service roads. There were a couple nice views.
Kaiser Ridge in the back ground.


I headed back down to Bald Mountain and camped for a few days, met up withTHEED again and headed back Sunday.

 

Better Overbuilt than under built!

Maybe a couple of door switches and a light in the cab to prevent that from ever happening again.

 

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. A light and an obnoxious sound.

 

This isn’t really truck related but it’s camping.
Two friends and I climbed Mt Dana in Yosemite National Park last weekend, June 19th.
I camped cowboy style at a BLM site outside the park Friday night.

Some assholes came in late and made a ton of noise so I only slept about 2 hours.


We woke up at 4am, drove to the trail head and were moving by 4:30am. We were making good time and stopped to eat once the sun started coming up.
We passed some lakes on the way to the Couloir.


as we got closer we crossed this snow field. It was about 63*F but baking in the sun.

The Couloir is 1200 feet high. It’s at about a 45 degree angle. It’s covered in a few inches of frozen snow and under that was ice. The going was slow.
At one point we set up a belay. The surface was all ice. We couldn’t chop steps too well.
I think we were around 12,000 feet in this picture.


And it was freezing cold in the shade.

after a couple hours we got to the top of the Couloir.


and then it was a leisurely slog to the summit at 13,035 feet.

I didn’t take any pictures at the summit. I was pretty hungry and tired. I stowed my helmet and ice ax. I took off my crampons and mountaineering boots and put on my trail running shoes for the hike back down the main trail.

I made a short video:
https://youtu.be/WQeA-xlqoW0

 

I don’t think I’ve written much about where I got a lot of the materials.
Finding stuff took a lot of time.

I think the time to actually build the camper is somewhere around 400 hours.

But I might have spent as much or more time on the internet. I started thinking about this in 2016 or so. It wasn’t until 2018 that I made the decision to build a camper. It’s been about a year since I got fully into building it.

So I think what I want to do it share my Bookmarks.

https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/116/825

I was looking for a waterproof gland to run the solar panel cables through. I didn’t buy anything on this page but I bookmarked it.
I ended up buying one made specifically for RV’s and campers.


https://www.otrattw.net/home.php
I use this place a lot. I think they’re really good. I’ve bought a lot of switches from them and I’ll buy more.
And they’re local.

 

Did you stay on the east side of the park? 9000’ mark area?
I did Mt Dana a few years ago, Pretty on the top!