Ernest, tan 2020 DCLB OR - camping & adventure

Welp I'm a total noob compared to the people who seem to be able to rebuild and customize every gidget, sprocket and flugelhorn on their rigs. But here will be a "build" thread for a normal joe. I don't even have a garage to work in, since it has a climbing wall in it.

Ernest is a 2020 DCLB OR. More or less stock right no



Ernest's predecessor, Ingrid, after being nuked by a stag going 60 at dusk. I decided it was finally time to get that truck I had been thinking about. Glad we were OK. Subarus are awesome. Insurance paid for it and now someone else will get a couple hundred k more miles out of her. But this thread isn't about a Subaru..




Day 2 with Ernest we went bouldering. And .. she? got her first look at the Cascades. I guess Ernest is a she. It feels weird to call my truck a he. Ernest named after Shackleton, a personal hero. Anyway, this will mostly be a climbing / camping build. Emphasis on simple and functional, nothing super crazy. I do make it to the "fun" states here in the west sometimes, and I want to be able to go to any area that has something resembling a road to it without worrying about getting stuck. And it would be nice to have a comfy camp when I get there.

Got a bunch of accessories, mostly easy stuff and some investment protection. Viofo dash cam, phone holder, pet cover for the backseat. Recovery boards.

Originally thought I was going to go bed rack. Went for the Leitner because it looked modular and well made. Since then have decided to go canopy, but the bed rack went on in the meantime so here it is. Will be trying to sell the ACS rack when I get my canopy in a month or so.




Ernest @ Disaster Peak Wilderness Study Area in August, first big way-off-road & camping trip. It was hot.

 

And nowadays, with a big ass CVT on top. I'm not sure if I'll hang on to it. Its kinda convenient but also a drag, literally. It's awesome space-wise for me, gf & dog. But if I'm solo it's totally excessive. We'll see whether I keep it after I get the canopy.



After I get the canopy will come the deck, battery & fridge setup, and all that jazz. Some of that stuff I actually even know how to do. The rest should be fun..

 

Finally got rid of the tent and got a canopy. May eventually get another tent, so I went with a small canopy + rack. It limits space on the inside, but it's less grievous looking and supports more weight up top. Need to build a low-effort sleeping platform with storage so that's coming next.

 

What a nice thread. Look forward to following along in your adventures.

Can you elaborate on the camping / sleeping situation? Were there things about the roof top tent that you didn't like? Are you guys now sleeping in a ground tent or sleeping in the bed with the canopy?

Good luck to you ... looks like you are having fun!

 

I had one of the bigger / more deluxe tents you can get, with a huge footprint. My biggest gripe is just took too long to set up and I wasn't happy with how some of the parts were machined. When folded open, the two "floors" met with a tongue and groove situation. Instead of flipping open and inserting, every time we used it my girlfriend & I had to manually lift the open side, overhead press style, and insert it. That might have been a specific fault of that tent and not a problem with all of that model. One of the other steps also involved inserting a pipe into a fitting which I felt was a hair too tight and arduous every time. I also found adjusting the ladder to support the weight of the open side tedious, although I got used to that.

We go do stuff during the day and come back to camp, so that long setup time was just too much. Setting it up with the guy at the showroom everything goes perfectly, but it rarely does when you're out and about. I do long days of climbing & hiking and the last thing I want to do after that is build a heavy piece of Ikea furniture.

Second gripe is you can't move the truck when a folding tent is open, at all. I knew about this of course, but in practice I found it more annoying than expected. Not a problem with tents that don't fold out over the adjacent space. Obviously you can't go on the freeway with those, but you can change spots in a bivy lot, pull on to a wheel chock to balance the bed, stuff like that. So if you go hardshell, you get that, plus you don't need as much width. Some camping areas expect a narrow vehicle.

The main thing I wanted with the tent was sleeping space and to have my bed available for cargo. Both of those were excellent, and I will miss those things.

On the plus side, the market was good and I turned the tent around to a family who will get more use out of it than we did. I think we wound up paying $30 a night or something for the time we spent in it. Not too bad.

 

Oh and as far as sleeping, building a platform to sleep in the canopy right now. Have spent a few nights in there just on my camping pad which is fine. I got the Sportmans windows with the ARE canopy, so I get good air flow in there. Which is good because it's hot as the devil's anus right now

 

Built out an extremely basic shelf and drawer setup for the back, mostly to figure out if the height is right. Got a nice memory foam mattress in theere.e Spent a few nights at the coast, near the Redwoods, and a night camping near Fisher Creek. Enjoying it. The final build needs to accommodate crash pads without them laying on top of the bed, so I am planning a system like the 3rd picture. Then the mattress will roll up out of the way. We'll see how it comes out, but right now I can't do much more on it because lumber is still ludicrously expensive...

 

Forgot photos.



New (temporary) drawer/shelf system.



Camping for a night at Fisher Creek.



Not my photo, but similar to what I will turn this build into... as soon as sande ply prices come down.

 

Caught a nice sunset in Idaho, on the way to Utah. Spot was amazing! Free, good cell service and not far from the freeway. An unusually good boondock

*sun RISE

 

Absolutely love what you’ve done with truck! Great build thread

 

Thanks, I guess, although I really haven't done shit haha. Used to have a sweet camper van and I have dreams of getting this thing up to par with that... just too busy taking it places to actually make it comfortable

 

Yeah, I know the feeling. Sometimes I think that can be good though because you figure out what stuff you really need vs. want when you use the truck a lot

 

Totally, that's a good point. Usually I just have to commit to something to find out I don't like it. Case in point the bed rack and RTT I bought and took off..