1 Bored Clerk's Garage Built Camper

That's why there's so much space now! I should still have about 2" of space with the water tank and mount. My camper moves independent of the chassis on body mounts so I need more space than the factory bed needed.

Also, just ordered the tank. Hopefully it's well made.

Just ordered a Baja Designs dome light for my kitchen box too. I'll be able to turn that on when the kitchen box is opened.

 

This arrived much faster than I thought it would





Seems well made enough. The molding and finish is a little rough but not terrible. I did not expect the extra bulge at the outlet barb. It seems a little extra wide around the fill nozzle too. It won't affect me too much but I'd prefer if it were actually flat. This could be a deal breaker depending on where you were planning to install it.


I also bought a second cap to experiment with. I may put a one way bleeder valve on it so it let's air pressure out when climbing altitude. I'm sure I can deal with sucking itself closed when going down in altitude but swelling may be stressful to the mount system I plan to design and employ.

Next step is to cap the barb and fill it with water for an extended leak test.

 

I set up a leak test this morning. Made a janky and slightly leaky block off for the hose barb with stuff I had laying around. It just barely drips which is fine. It's also good to get all of the weight of the water in there to push the tank out to it's full dimensions. I'll dump it out later today.

 

You should probably agitate the container a bit - just to be sure.

 

Good call. It's pretty heavy to agitate! I'll probably drop it and break it.

 

Where are you planning to mount? between cab and camper or in the frame rails?

 

Right here between the cab and camper. It's a really good fit. The only issue is getting it low enough so it's fillable with my future wind deflector on the top edge of this wall. It's about getting tools in where I need them to make robust mounting points for something that weighs 100lbs.

The same company sells a version of this that mounts flat too. I thought about mounting one under the camper when I was ditching the flatbed but decided against it for some reason. My ideas about how I want to do stuff change so rapidly that it's hard to plan it all into the development of different elements.

 

This little lovely item showed up today.


Baja Designs led dome light. Built in switch. Will install...someday.

 

Broke through a procrastination wall tonight.


Started the install process for my ProPex HS2000 heater! Trimmed the template and positioned it.


The side to side placement is easy. Center it on the box. The front to back requires slightly more thought. The heater is upside down in this image so those stubs will stick down through the box. These are the intake and exhaust for the combustion side of the heater.


Made sure there was enough clearance, taped the template down, marked the holes with a punch and started drilling.




And there it is in position. And this is where you find out the template supplied with the heater is trash. Well, it's not terrible but it will require fender washers on the underside.

Tape over the holes until I can get a 1" uni bit to finish the larger holes.

 

Nifty unit.
Why I usually take my own measurements and forgo using templates unless they are of my own making.

 

They checked out on all the dimensions I could reasonably make. But the one dimension I couldn't accurately measure was the one that was off. Of course.

 

Way it goes sometimes. Not as bad as mirroring your measurement though.

 

Just a suggestion with the HS2000 I had one in my FWC and the jet/nozzle would clog up easily at below freezing temps and they are very delicate little things. Had mine fail on me in Alaska during October seemed to me that metric threaded jet/nozzles are not stocked anywhere in the 49th state. Recommended to carry a spare jet.

 

That's disappointing. I chose this heater particularly because the reviews I could find were much more favorable to elevation and temp vs gas and diesel versions.

 

Maybe I just pushed it harder than it was built for? or it was a fluke.

I bought mine through Sure Marine Services in Ballard and they stock parts for them.

 

I'll certainly be out when it's cold and at higher altitudes but my camper is a much smaller volume and I won't be trying to hit 80 degrees or anything drastic so I'm hoping it'll be good to go. We'll certainly find out!

 

With the addition of a heater, I now need to carry more propane than usual. So, how do I do that? My thought is to create new sliders that would allow me to mount 2 5lb propane bottles (maybe more?) In front of the rear wheels. I was thinking about just doing that on the driver's side. More propane would be better but I don't know if I have the room. I could add two 5lb tanks on each side for a total of 20lbs, I think. Anyway, to save on the timeline, I'm considering keeping my current slider frame plates and cutting off the actual slider and building a new set on the existing frame plates. This way I don't have to wait for or pay for new frame plates. I could sell my current sliders as-is but it would have to be a local pickup because they are far too big and HEAVY to ship. Thoughts?

 

10lbs of propane is a good place to start -- that's what I'm doing for long-term travel. It's tough to say how much you'll really need because it varies so much on weather and other factors. You also have to take into consideration where you'll be traveling and the availability of refilling your supply.

Sounds like you have the right idea about being able to upgrade to 20lbs if you need to.

 

MUST READ LATER

 

Whipped out the short stubby and bored out some holes.




Hit these with a giant countersink bit to deburr the holes.

Then I marked the small mounting holes to see how far off they were on the template.





Off by a lot but not more than a fender washer so we're good. My guess is the template is ideal and the reality of the sheet metal production process is why these are so far off. Or in process changes to the design that were never captured for the template.


Quick hit with the round file and we're good to go!

Now I just need to bolt it in place! I need to buy some high heat sealant first. Need to seal up around the inlet and exhaust that poke through the box floor. Goop some on the pipes, drop it into place, bolt it down then finish gooping the exterior where the pipes protrude through. Then a ton of other work to make it actually run.