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

I haven't been posting here in a while. I've gone on a handful of trips this year and have been back to building the camper in the mean time.

I bought myself a portable band saw.


Then put it on a harbor freight horizontal/vertical band saw stand. I'm please at how well this works.


Then I cut out a bunch of new trim pieces for the camper out of 2"x.12" mild steel angle. The previous pieces were 2"x .063 aluminum angle. They were pretty beat up from smashing them on rocks.

First remove the old ones. I had to cut the double sided tape with a multipurpose oscillating tool.


Then using the original pieces as a template I made the same cuts on the steel angle using the band saw.


Next I angle grindered them to clean them up, wiped them with alcohol, painted the insides with PO15, let it cure for a few days and applied new double sided tape.


I put a bead of sealant/adhesive to the inside corner and applied the new pieces to the camper.




This should be much much more impact resistant than the thin aluminum that was on there before.

 

One thing I've always want to improve was how much stuff you can leave on the bed when you close the lid.
I've also wanted to replace my home made mattress with something thicker and nicer.

I could make the lid taller but then I'd have to remake the camper tent. It took me 6 months to make the current tent and about $500 in material. I'd rather not repeat that. So, I decide to make the bottom half of the camper taller by 3 inches.

I ordered 3 each pieces of 1"x3"x3/16"x10 feet long rectangle aluminum tube from Metals Supermarket in San Jose and picked them up with the truck.

The camper is 10 feet long on the outside so I hung the tube out the lid and ratchet strapped the whole camper


Next I unscrewed the hinges that hold the lid on and moved the lid around while I double sided taped the 3" aluminum tube in place.
Moving the lid around by myself was kind of a pain in the ass. It's not super heavy but it's big and awkward and we have this stupid sloping driveway.


Once the roof was back in place I removed all the doors and prepped for paint.


A few days of work later and it's 3" taller. I can close the lid with all kinds of stuff in the bed and my mattress is way more comfortable and the camper has a fresh coat of Total Boat Aluminum Boat Paint


I still have to redo the bed liner along the bottom of the camper trim but for now I'm going camping!

 

I started making a removable insulation layer for the tent portion of the camper.
I noticed last winter when it was around 25F outside the interior would only get to 60F with the diesel heater on full blast.

I made a prototype out of harbor freight moving blanket first.

Once I decided this would work I ordered 10 yards of quilted insulated fabric through alibaba.

The closest stuff I could find here was one sided so I'd need to attach a backing and the cost would be around $30 a yard or $300 just for the fabric body plus cost for velcro, snaps and binding tape would be close to $400.
The alibaba stuff is double sided and with shipping was $70 and arguably better for my needs.

So far I've gotten one side done.

I made this one side ambidextrous so during the summer I can put it up on whatever side is facing the sun .

I've gotten to use it a few times in full sun when it's been hot and it works amazingly well.

It's on the left in this picture.
I'm going to make the other two sections in the fall.

 

Very nice!

I may need to do something like that for my rig, it gets pretty hot in there.

 

It works really well and was very easy to make.
My sewing machine has binding tape attachment that makes adding binding tape to the edges of fabric a breeze.


For $7/yard including shipping the fabric is pretty good. You can see pinholes of light through it where the quilt stitching goes through in spots but it still works well.
It's lightweight and I can leave it in place and close the camper lid. Another benefit of adding those 3 inches of height to the camper.

It was in the high 80's a few weeks ago when I was out camping and I put my hand between the tent and the insulation fabric and it was pretty hot compared to the inside of the fabric.

 

I bought a welder and made a rear bumper.
I used Overland Underbudget’s cut files for the brackets.
Its first recovery went well.

 

I get this horrendous bang with my front wheels would drop off something from the shock topping out.
I added some limit straps.
Banging is gone.

 

I picked up some BMW F35 seats.
I'll have to create a bracket to get them to ift. That should be easy enough.

The tricky part is going to be getting the electronics to work.
Basically without the canbus signal to the seats they shut off after about 10 seconds. Then need to disconnected for a while before they'll work again.
Or, adding a 5 volt power source to pulse every 5 seconds to trick the seats.

There's an Australian company that makes an emulator that if it's not too expensive and they ship to the US I might go that route.

This thread is useful
https://www.e46fanatics.com/threads/diy-f32-f30-front-electric-seats-install-in-e46-coupe.1231324/

I was able to add power to the driver seat and adjust it to the point where it's more comfortable watching TV in the living room.
So far it's vastly more comfortable than the truck's stock seats that are coming up on 300,000 miles.



I don't think I'll ever be able to get the memory functions to work but that's okay.
So many buttons.

 

I sent an email to these guys.
https://carsystems.com.ua/product/bmw-seat-retrofit-adapter-evo/

I think it would pretty sweet to control the seat heat from apple car play

 

Now you're just getting fancy!

 

That would be sweet to be able to preheat your seats from your phone. All that's missing at that point would be a heated steering wheel

 

Ah, yes, that would be sweet. I can power it off the camper battery so it won't kill my starter batter.

 

Damn the aluminum tubing is only held by 3m double sided tape? Love the new rear bumper btw.

 

I made a backpack out of Challenge Ultra 200x, Venom UL stretch and the shoulder straps and hip belt from an old GoLite Speed backpack that had fallen apart.

 

I doubt I could get it to work but a matching BMW F32 heated steering wheel....

 

This thing is $425 with shipping. That's more than I'd like to spend so DIY it is.

 

Seats are in but not done.

 

Nice. Look comfortable.

 

As someone with an E46 and who's had an E82... BMW sport seats are some of the best seats in any vehicle I've ever sat in.

 

For sure. These are very nice.
I haven't driven in them yet but i did have the drivers seat in my living room for watching TV for while.
I might have to get a set for my car. Lol.
They're from a 2015 BMW 435i.