1 Bored Clerk's Garage Built Camper

Aaaaaaah! Are you kidding me right now?!?

How you can do all that work and not open it right away and take seventy-eleven photos is beyond me... but great job!

 

Haha, I'm tired and it's getting late in the day. I got something in my eye, I definitely scratched my hand and I had a rock in my shoe. Opening an awning was impossible.

 

hiker trailers look nice, but like 3 times the cost of an enclosed if you want the offroad package.

 

awesome. makes it way easier to visualize the entire setup now. very cool.

 

Excellent. I've had this rough cad model since I started. It's a nice way to visualize potential changes and additions. I'll detail out the kitchen box eventually so I can get that build done.

 

Deploys pretty easily. When I lower the camper, I may not need a step stool but that will only apply to flat ground. I'll need a step stool to put anything on the roof rack anyway so I better find a place for it. I did make a critical error though. I may need to remove the awning and slot all of the holes to slide the awning back .25". Swung all the way open, the last arm hits the awning mount brace...I totally didn't check that. It works okay now but it would be nice to be able to get it a little tighter.

I'll save that for some other time though. I'm going to go for a run then putt around on my new bike. We'll see how I feel about it tomorrow. It's going to bother me and we have three days of no rain currently in the forecast. Ugh...we'll see. I also need to dial in the retention system on the last arm. I have a plan but I need to actually make it happen. The option it comes with doesn't work for my application and it don't like it anyway.

 

where do you get your truck cleaned?

 

Somewhere...the dude comes to my house, drops his truck off and takes my truck. When it comes back, it's all sparkly clean. I work with his mom and he does detailing as a business/side business.

 

Well, I elongated the holes and moved the awning back as much as I could with the room I had. Not as much as I wanted though. I have a plan to gain more clearance if needed but it'll have to wait until I do the big camper overhaul this year as it requires the removal and modification of the awning mount. I just don't want to deal with that with the unpredictable weather. Itll be better than it was.

 

Went out for a quick overnighter last night.


Not much to show. Got to camp in the dark, left in the dark. But I did go check out a road during one of my "wonder where that goes" moments. Which left me with some thoughts.

The added width up high on the camper with the awning and rack cross bars required A LOT of attention on this overgrown trail. I'm used to driving through trails more suitable to the width of, say, a motorcycle but I didn't realize how much I was able to slide by without the awning and roof rack. This track had a lot of trees leaning into the road and a lot of road leaning into trees. I clipped a few trees with the roof rack bar ends and leaned into and drug across quite a few trees with the awning. Everything is fine and the rack and awning took it like a champ. I'm REALLY looking forward to lowering the camper now. That flatbed has to go! 3-4+" would have made all the difference today! (That's what she said!) I may add a UHMWPE slider that spans between all three roof rack bars. It was like braille when I'd hit a tree/branch when it would proceed to smash all three bars. Closing off the opening between them with some slippery plastic may help.

Also, heater in the camper needs to happen. It was fine and I had fun but it was 25 degrees...would have been more awesomer with a warmer camper.

In-camper entertainment also needs to happen. I need to make sure to leave some books/magazines/sketchbook in there.

Still super pumped on everything and surprised how much of a beating this camper can take. It's so nice to use the camper and really figure out how to improve the experience of driving and using it. Can't wait to get it more dialed in this year!

 

The best part about building stuff is using it!

 

Truth.

 

Super pumped I used paint I can touch up in my driveway and have it look "nice enough". This paint is really pretty tough and is holding up well. Those front corners are taking a bit of a beating. Luckily, I'll have plenty of opportunity to touch up/repaint this year.

 

I always wondered about the extra width of this awnings, and am glad we were able to attach ours on the teardrop using keder welts and awning rails....

our teardrop maintains about 15
Degree higher inside in cold weather with body heat alone, but we don't have space for a heater. How cold was it in the camper at 25?

Could you possibly use some aluminum diamond plate and build corner bash guards?

 

I have no idea what the temp was in the camper. It wasn't 25 but it wasn't warm either. Volume wise, my camper is decently large. I typically run my vent fan on low all the time to keep condensation to a minimum. A heater is really the solution here, though. And, luckily, I have room for one...I think.

As far as clearance is concerned, I just didn't notice how much I relied on the camper tilting in that last 6" in height. It makes a difference! Lowering the camper when I ditch the flatbed should buy back most of that which is good. I can always trim my crossbars back on the driver's side if necessary too. I'm not going to do that for a while though. I want to see how much rail I need should I get a kayak. A kayak is really the only reason I put a roof rack on it, actually.

And I'm planning to put corner guards on when I do the front nose aero...whatever that may be.

 

Could you seperate the front plate from the uprights and put a hinge on it? Then you could fold it onto the roof when it's not in use, then latch it up when it is. I mean it's a marginal amount of clearance gain for a lot of work.

 

I like the idea! I hadn't thought of that. Where were you like two months ago, Mr Ideas Toolate? Not worth the work at this point but you know me...there's always the possibility of another rev just over the horizon. I'm curious how much I'll actually use the awning. We'll see!

 

Sometimes the ideas don't come until the issues show up! Can't fix a problem you don't know you have! Food for thought!

 

Got a little package from Van Cafe today


This is the "Stealth Kit" for a propex hs2000 heater. I don't have the heater yet. It's on backorder. I missed a small window several weeks back to pick one up when it was in stock but I was slow to purchase. Hopefully I'll get another shot in the next couple of months.

This kit comes with special lined accoustic ducting, an exhaust muffler with extended tubing, an intake baffle and a cookie. figured I'd pick this up while it's in stock. Ill probably buy a 90degree elbow for the 65mm ducting for my purposes and I may buy an extra length of accoustic ducting as well. Just to make sure I have enough of what I need when it's time to install. I'll figure out all the propane plumbing, regulator, tanks and all that after the heater is installed in it's spot.

 

decide where its going yet?