1 Bored Clerk's Garage Built Camper

The crux of the camper transfer. I hustled all day to get this done. Camper is on the truck and everything is hooked up. My aux battery is dead though so I'm trying to charge that now. We'll see how that goes.

 

How long did the actual transfer take minus hook ups? Was it as precarious as it looks?

 

Those camper jacks seem terribly unstable but they work pretty darn well. I had to do it twice. Once to locate the camper on the subframe and transfer the mounting holes. Then remove to drill all the holes and mount the body mounts. Then put the camper back on to bolt it down. It took several hours just to be careful, make sure everything is stable and positioned exactly where I wanted it and just generally try to be precise. If I were to pull the camper off and put it back on now that all of the mounts are in place, it'd take about an hour. That would be to remove and reinstall.

 

I never posted anything about my fuel filler.


Mount seems to work pretty well. Though I haven't filled up since the camper was mounted. It looks like it'll work well. Haha!


A little close up of the new mount
And a shot of the preformed 90 degree bend hoses I bought. So much cleaner than it used to be. The new backflow valve has been working perfectly so far. And it's easily serviceable without removing the camper or fuel pump or dropping the tank. I hope my issues with overfilling are behind me for good.

 

Wow! I appreciate the amount of work that went into that! My filler is still zip tied. Amazing how something so little and simple can be such a pain.

 

For real. It's nice to have it solidly mounted.

 

Can only imagine. One day I’ll fix fix it….

 

The mount system I had on my ute was great. But it was a spendy bit to have machined. It was the same as the one I have now but this new one is just twice as wide.

 

I am trying to have a way for the nozzle to be covered from getting covered in mud while also not affecting the ability to fill up. My previous Jeep gas cap thing worked well for the mud but I couldn’t fill up without the nozzle clicking all the time.
I have to spend some time on it but it’s hard as it works essentially lol.

 

You're a true craftsman for sure. Very nice work and attention to detail! This set-up will give many many happy miles & days camping.

- An idea about attaching/installing some channel aluminum rails on the box front face... keep that thought and use them to mount your step ladder for roof top access. Just find a ladder to fit.
- You will have galvanic corrosion between the steel and the aluminum (even without the saltwater). The powdercoat will help, mylar sheeting will help, thick corrosion inhibiting compound (CIC) will help; but in the end it will still occur where the two metals touch (the bolt itself). Just stay ahead of it, remove it when found, and live an adventurous camping life.
- Do you think a foam can cozy will cover the filler nozzle? With just a tab of opposing velcro to keep it on there when trucking down the road? (I'm guessing as I don't know the diameter of the nozzle.)

 

Thanks! It's been a project and there is always more on the list.

I'm planning to put a wind deflector on the leading edge of the camper above the truck cab. I'm looking at building a simple enclosure that fills the space between the cab and camper and I'll build/install that at the same time. It's an awkward sized space. It's not enough to put rotopax in there. But its too much to just leave. I could probably slide the camper forward about an inch but that's about it because of fuel filler clearance. Don't want any contact off road. I have a very thin ladder that I'm eyeing for that space. I want it enclosed so it doesn't turn into a rusty corroded, dirty mess. We'll see.

As far as the corrosion goes, I only saw a noticeable amount of galvanic corrosion when I had threaded into aluminum with a steel bolt. All of the through bolts were pretty clean. The Ute flatbed was the same. My new subframe has no sorts where steel is threaded into aluminum. Only pass through. I think it'll last long enough. EVERYTHING will corrode/deteriorate over a long enough timeline. I think I'll have other issues before that's a big issue.

I've not had any issues with mud on my fuel filler. But my tires are relatively tucked in and my rock rails stick out a bit (new ones will stick out even further). And I don't typically find myself in massive amounts of mud. But, yeah, I think a can koozie is a great way to go. I bet it's fit pretty well.

 

Maybe put your max trax there? Or there are rear cab water tanks that are pretty thin.

 

I haven't seen any water tanks that would fit the space. I only have a couple of inches to work with. Still need room for everything to flex and move and not make contact with the cab. My skinny step ladder will probably fit pretty well. Just have to deal with making a sealed compartment for it so it doesn't corrode.

 

I did some looking around and Ironman 4x4 has a 10L (8gal) vertical flat tank that would likely fit perfectly between the cab. That may be the direction I go! Thanks for the post that kept me thinking about this.

 

I believe front runner also has a similar 8 or 10 gal unit.

 

That’s the kind of tank I was thinking of. Hope it works.

 

The other one I like fits over the hump but needs either twin outlets or a pump on the side without one. I like the “weight low” aspect though.

 

not sure I have seen that one but that makes sense. I like the idea of having it towards the middle since there is so much weight on the rear now. 10 gallons of water adds up.

 

Somewhere in the middle was always the plan. I was going to use a Jerry can but this flat container fills a nice void that's not useful for much else. I'll get it ordered today so I can start mocking up the mount system. I've got it fairly figured out in my head already but I need the tank to really dial it in.

 

nice looking forward to it. Always nice to use unwanted space. Make sure to take into account the frame flex. I have found that area moves quite a bit if its going to be in between the camper setup and cab.