How to: DIY Wedge Camper

Here's my RTT on my '15 Wrangler Rubicon. MUCH respect for y'all that built up the whole camper. Sewing the tent was the hardest part of this project.

 

nice work. what is your all-in cost?

 

Going though all the pictures of finished projects, I see that the majority installed their mosquito nets on the inside of the tent and I was wondering why.
I personally installed mine on the outside of the tent, so that I can open the sides without having mosquitoes flying in.
So I am basically wondering if I have overseen a good reason, why the net should be installed on the inside.

 

It's completely personal preference. I did mine on the outside so I could unzip the door from the bed without the mosquitos being able to come in. It's also how CVT does their tents. It also makes sense when you close the tent, the delicate mosquito netting doesn't potentially contact anything in the bed (Keder rails, etc) and snag.

 

I did mine on the outside as well. I wanted to open the windows and have the mesh. But I also installed two zippers so I can open the mesh as well if I want

 

Outside as well but I have zippers on them too so I can open everything if needed.

 

Including the professional special projects division that worked on the tent itself just over 5k

 

I had mine installed on the inside just because the majority of time here it's raining and i do lots of snow camping/freezing temperatures. If the netting was on the outside it would create a bottom seam/pocket that could potentially fill with water and sit there unless you also put a exterior cover over the netting. For snow especially it creates this perfect little grid of reinforcement for ice to latch on to and it's hard to get it off at that point. I've had problems with past rooftop tents that had netting on the outside without any exterior flap/rain cover.

 

Dangit, I live in WA too and I didn't think of that.

 

Finished my build recently, and wanted to share some changes and experiences.

I went with 1.5" 0.125" wall aluminum tubing. This was not only to save weight, but also to save money as currently where I live (WA) aluminum is a lot cheaper than steel. This was possible since I had an AC/DC TIG welder, but one could get a spool gun for their MIG welder with great results. A lot of places use spool guns building truck boxes and bumpers, and they come out very strong.







I also elected to go with the flip up bed like @jjnicolas and others, but I took it a step further and made a second flip up platform that can be used as a standing desk inside the tent for cooking or anything else when weather is bad. It also sections off the top area of the tent from the bed of the truck.




The piano hinge route is also a huge plus. The hinges are stainless 72" long pieces from Home Depot, and the fabric was excess strips I cut to 2" wide. This is how @Taco Camper did his, and while they ultimately will require the replacement of the fabric, it won't be for years to come. The fabric ends up getting silicone on both sides.



I ended up having access to a mill and end mill bits, so instead of stacking the smaller corner pieces I have single pieces. When you order the raw stock from 80/20, get 19" instead of the 18" as listed in @Ripcord material list. This lets you use a chop saw with a metal cutting blade to cut it super straight, and the extra inch will mostly be absorbed by the kerf of the blade taking away material when you make your cut.



I used the same 3mm paneling as most people did, getting it from @howied who is a local PNW member. It was also great to meet another guy who had completed his build and bounce an obsessive amount of questions off of. I do wish I went with 6mm for the floor, but the roof is fine with 3mm. I made a jig that holds my router along a straight piece of aluminum tubing, and clamped it to the ACM.




I did the upside down method as well, and yes it is a pain. It's even more of a pain when you strip out a few of the economy T-nuts. Next time I would order something that is spring loaded for when you bolt the extrusions to the frame. Going this route would prevent them from moving out of alignment and would ensure that the bolts don't start crooked and get stripped.



Once you get everything bolted together, it gets really exciting as the project finally takes shape and your hours of hard work seem like they are coming to an end.



For the doors, I didn't do much differently outside of one big mistake. Since I don't have a Tacoma (gasp) I didn't purchase all the files and therefore didn't realize that the bottom alumimum piece is where the seal for the top of the tailgate goes. I ended up buying a roll of rubber trim seal with top bulb on it to seal off the tailgate.


I mentioned a few weeks prior that I also 3D printed a cap and plug for the different corner pieces. The 1.5" corner pieces are 1.313" tall, so there is a gap that will appear between the roof and floors, and other places if you stack the corner pieces. I'm happy to say these have worked extremely well.



When you seal the corners, use more silicone than you think you'll need. I went nuts. The extrusions just need a thin line that is continous to make sure it's water tight. I had 2 of the tnutz economy nuts strip out here, luckily they were both at the ends. This is another good place to use the spring loaded nuts for a little more cost.




The sewing definitely is daunting at first, but after a few lines there's no sweat. There isn't a wrong way to do this, and there are already great posts that helped my by @NotTaco and others. I went with the PVC backed Ottertex from farbricwholesaledirect. The thread is the same as what is listed in the material list, just in orange. I would also get a roll of black to sew the zippers and and velcro if you chose to do so. A machine with a walking foot is a big advantage, especially when the rubberized zippers stacked on each other and multiple layers of fabric come into play. I used a 80/20 sized quilting needle. You'll end up cleaning adhesive off regularly if you use basting tape. The DIY binding that @NotTaco uses is also a must, and really cleans up the appearance.



Practice, practice, and practice with the scraps you have leftover from cutting the material. Watch youtube videos on sewing, as well as the sailrite videos for zipper layouts. I haven't used a sewing machine prior to this project, and after learning that you simply line the edge of the fabric up with a landmark on the foot your lines will come out very straight. Any exposed edge of the fabric needs to be hemmed (rolled over), so basting tape helps tremendously. I used 2 rolls. Go backwards over your sewing at the beginning and end of your lines to ensure they don't pull out later on.



I also elected to use triangle shape zippers, with 4 pieces of zipper material for each window. If you go this route, purchase zipper stops to ensure your zippers don't come all the way off the end when you zip the windows and zippers shut. The triangle pieces are there to cover the little gaps where the zipper ends meet.


The ACM paneling used on these builds is extremely condensation prone, and with the already large cost of all the materials I was hesistant to buy the mat discussed here off Amazon for another $100. Instead, @howied suggested bug mesh, and I can tell you it absolutely works. Get the thickest stuff available at home depot/lowes. It was ~$20 for a 4x8' roll. It's also WAY lighter and flexible for the lifting platform.




Another pro-tip is to get elastic nets off of amazon. https://amzn.to/3DSdK7h These are held onto the lifting platform, or your frame, by little eyelets that are riveted on. The nets are then clipped onto the eyelets. These little nets are great for blankets, sleeping bags, coats, pillows, etc. Pelican case lid organizers also fit nicely on the smaller lifting floor, but there are smaller nets that would work there instead.




This brings me to wiring. I love lights while I'm camping, and running the wires on the outside for scene lights was an area not covered. I saw in the walkaround video that Jim drilled through his extrusion and ran the wires on the inside. I wasn't willing to do this, so I purchased the plastic filler strips from 80/20 and ran the wires underneath that. It hides all the wires very nicely. Just make sure you solder and use adhesive lined heat shrink to really seal off the connections from any water that may stay behind the plastic filler strips.




I wanted levels that were a little more subtle too. I bought bubble levels and holders from McMaster (2148A69 and 2148A77). After a bit of filing, they fit nice and tight into the extrusions. You could skip the holders and just a bit of silicone instead to keep them from bouncing out.



Lighting on the inside is also a must. I bought a set of four LED light strips with individual switches off amazon. They are from Mictuning and were $10 for the set. They put out just the right amount of light. One will be installed up top on the inside of the roof for lighting in the sleeping area. https://amzn.to/30E1V6u


Solar was also up on my list, and after a quick bracket design and three 53" pieces of 1.5" extrusion, a rack was made. I drilled the ends of the panels and used 1/2" bolts and t-nuts to attach the panels to the extrusions. This keeps the panels somewhat protected by the extrusions.



Thanks to everyone who has posted their experiences and suggestions. I've taken as many as I could into account.

Now, I'm onto building a DIY cabinet/drawer system for the back.

 

I keep coming back to this thread, even though I picked up a used fiberglass shell for my RC. I’m still considering tackling this project, even to the point of recycling the windows out of the fiberglass shell. I’m on the fence about the flip up sides, but I would imagine that installing windows would go a long way towards adding stiffness to the panels. Thoughts?

 

@nanserb excellent build buddy!

 

well done!

 

Realized that some of the photos from last post didn't show up. Should be fixed.

 

Looks rad, man - great work. We have very similar custom spaceframe corner gussets.

I actually just finished my camper and mounted it last night. I'll post some process photos in the next few days. I made a handful of changes from the original Ripcord version, and have some tips and ideas that might be helpful to others that haven't started yet.

 

Awesome job man!

 

So I started my build in May, and just completed this week and mounted it on my truck last night. I had the spaceframe portion and the tent canvas completed by early July, and was waiting on the 8020 extrusions which were delivered a couple weeks back. As soon as I saw this thread, I knew I could take it on, and I'm happy with how smoothly it went for me. So, thank you SO much @Ripcord for the detailed guide.

I made several changes to the original design.

• Because I have a double cab long bed, I made my wedge 120" long, and wanted a slightly wider sleeping area, so bumped it up to 57" (54" x 80" sleeping area, a true full XL). It has a 42" cabover cantilever - AT Summit is 51", so well under that.
• The sides and rear taper about half the amount as the original. I was hoping it wouldn't look too boxy, and in the end I'm happy with how it looks. I do think the slacker taper looks better though, but I didn't want to sacrifice sleeping width.
• I made a completely separate sleeping platform, that pivots up and out of the way on gas struts exactly like the AT Summit
• I substituted the hinges for some nice geared hinges, similar to GFC, however these are not watertight because of the bearing spaced every couple inches. I'm confident the bulb seal underneath will work well. The flanges of these hinges are almost exactly the same thickness as the 3mm ACM, so the gap between the wedge and spaceframe was perfect.
• For my rear door, I used some spring loaded latches that the Southcos grab, for easy egress if locked.
• I didn't use any gasket - 100% silicone to me is the way to go. Not only is it waterproof, it'll fill any gap discrepancies, and it acts as an adhesive as well.
• I used VHB tape for the stiffeners, and added a rivet at the top and bottom of the vertical stiffeners that the gas struts attach to. I didn't like the look of all the rivets. I think the VHB alone will suffice for the horizontal stiffeners, but the force of the gas struts was too much for the verticals, hence the rivets. Just one on each end is enough to hold against the shear of that.
• I bent the edges of my side panels in a bit to close the gap. I kerfed the backside and bent it, filling the kerf with epoxy.

Some tips:

• I mounted the wedge to the spaceframe right-side-up. I used about 1/2" of shims in each corner to hold the wedge above the frame while I aligned the slot nuts with the holes, then slowly pulled the shims. Was able to get all of the bolts in pretty quickly.
• I sewed the canvas based on the dimensions of the open wedge, rather than holding the fabric up and making marks. The measurements don't lie, and I'm happy with how taut the tent ended up. The radius of the windows was the worst part, and there is some shitty bunching on my fabric at those spots, but not a big deal.
• Not sure if this is how most people are doing it, but I found that mounting the roof panel AFTER the keder rail made it WAYYY easier than I thought it'd be to install the canvas. I closed the wedge, attached the top of the tent, then opened the wedge and attached the bottom. That way I wasn't trying to hold any slot nuts in place on an incline.
• I didn't use the interior corner braces in the 1-1/2" extrusions. I mitered my keder rails tight to the corners. I found that using two beads of silicone between the extrusions and roof panel (one on either side of the T-slot, prevented any twist at the corners. I loosened the exterior corner gussets a little bit, tightened the roof bolts, then retightened the gusset bolts. Again, the silicone acts as an adhesive. Obviously not as stiff as the brackets, but no noticeable twist.
• Internal wire routing for the brake light/rear camera can be done cleanly with some rubber grommets.
• I'd recommend 1/8" thick aluminum angle for the stiffeners. It's noticeably stiffer than 1/16" which I used originally. I had about 1/2" of sag on the long panels, and now it's maybe 1/8"

• Edge detail of one of the side panels. Kerfed and bent

• The spring loaded latches that the Southcos hold on to. Just pull down and then can open the door from the inside

• Close up of the thickness of the ACM and hinges

• Some angle brackets to hold the cantilevered end of the sleeping platform

 

@salixeng Did you find a welding jig? I'm in Denver and ordering steel now, will need a fixture soon.

 

Did you ever get these to a point where you could share them? My slow AF build is just now getting to the tent portion.

 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5027806