Kimbo Camper BS and Mods

I don’t know how this will figure in, but I run my E rated tires in the front at 50psi and my rear around 56-57psi. With my load and a chalk tests there are riding flat. This would be above max psi for yours. E rated max out at 80psi due to stiffer sidewalls I believe. If your worried about strain on your drivetrain, I actually shaved about 6lbs per tire switching from a SL 265 Wildpeak to a E Rated Toyo AT3 245. I also kept the same clearance with both being about 31in. There is probably an added benefit when it comes to tire wear too especially when the camper is off. 245’s are in the skinny range but help in the snow out here. Tested the shit out of them a couple weeks ago on the Million Dollar Highway at 2am breaking trail. It’s nice having that extra buffer with the psi and some added puncture protection too. Just something to think about.

 

hmm… i’m not an engineer, but i’m not sure you can assume a static weight for each corner (tire) like that.

the vehicle weight is sprung and therefore dynamic; it shifts and transfers constantly while driving. plus with a (relatively) heavy camper, your cg is much higher off the ground and will exaggerate weight transfer in all conditions.

certainly this is true off road, though not exclusive to it – for example just going down a steep grade and braking – you’ll get a lot more weight on the front axle. say your truck is 6000lbs, and under the above condition your weight split (completely speculative) might be 70/30. well now you’re potentially maxing out those tires up front at 4200lbs.

lastly, for context: stock oem tires have a max load limit of 2469lb. stock gvwr is 5600lb. so under max conditions, the tires are set up for close to double the weight when sitting square.

like i said, i’m not an expert. maybe check with an engineer or other smart person to be sure if you’re in the clear or not on the premise of sprung weight to load limits. hope that makes sense.

 

Given how close to max payload a Kimbo puts a Tacoma I have to say I’m happy to hear that E tires enlarge the window for payload more than just a little. I plan to be on the road for long periods of time and I’d like to do this safely. I feel better about carrying 20gallons of water now or more even. Now to just find a place to put it.

 

Those Toyos look great and have pretty high ratings. Definitely something I'll consider!

 

Picked up #177 two weeks ago! The pick up process took about two hours. Lots of information and the user manual is good to keep handy on the first trip - make sure the truck rear bed rail is removed or the tailgate will not close. From the advice from this page, the truck handled surprisingly well as in not really noticing the camper while driving the entire coast of Oregon in the rain on the way home. Gas mileage took about a 4mpg hit though. 2021 Tacoma off road, BP-51 suspension (slowed down rebound and compression), firestone air bags (45psi) with daystar cradles, 275/70R17 KO2 E rated tires 48psi.
I cannot recall seeing in this thread what people have done to mount awning like the Arb awning. Any advice? A little shade for a trip to the Utah desert this spring will be nice.

 

Do you do much off roading with this setup? I'm just wondering how the airbags fare? Also, was your lift all that was necessary to get 275/70r17's to fit without rubbing?

 

So far just moderate off road with out the camper. We will be doing some moderate rough stuff in the moab area in a month or so to get to some better camping spots. The air bags with the cradles pretty much a non issue with five or less psi in them on rough stuff and will have to see what works best with the camper. I dont see doing anything extreme at all with the camper. Maybe the gemini bridges road in moab for example. The lift came in about 2.5 with the BP-51 set up - had to remove the front mud flaps and will be increasing spring tension up front as with the camper on the tires do occasionally rub when turning going downhill. Although next set will most likely be 265 tires.

 

I REALLY will be all ears to hear how this works out for you in Moab, because that's exactly where I'm going when I retire in a couple of years. Next month the Tacoma arrives, and next year the Kimbo. I'm getting a DCLB OR myself, so as you can imagine there's no way you can say too much when it comes to how you do in Moab. Especially the airbags. Kimbo recommended them, along with e rated tires and when I looked them up there's basically two narratives: best thing ever on road and hugely vulnerable off and I plan to be off road on BLM land a lot. If they really are an asset off road I would like to hear about it. Are yours hooked to a compressor or do you manually inflate them when needed?

 

Mine are inflated separately and I use a bike pump. They do not have a lot volume and pump up quick. From what I read here and elsewhere using the daystar cradles allow the suspension to function normally when the bags are not inflated. I did not want to go with beefier leaf springs and then get to deal with them with the camper off of the truck. My hope in Moab is to figure out the pressure to use with the camper off road so the truck feels solid but not harsh. With being able to adjust compression and rebound it should be pretty easy to get the feel I want and maintain the unloaded lift of the truck.

 

That's also my concern, I don't want to so bias the truck toward bearing the burden of a camper that it drives like a 1-ton with the Kimbo off. Please come back to this forum and share whatever you learn in Moab, I would be grateful to know.

 

Congratulations man! Looking forward to seeing that setup out there. @spacerhover on IG bolted one to the side.

 

Which sliders are you using?

 

Any Kimbo folk going to do Descend on Bend this year?! Tickets drop in 2 hours!

 

Just returned from the first trip with my new Kimbo. Very impressed with how it performed with the temperature swings. First night was in the 80's so we were running the AC and it worked very well. Subsequent nights were in the 40's and 30's so we were running the heater quite a bit. Keeping it on low with the fan on medium kept it between 60 and 70 inside while keeping the roof vent and windows cracked to manage moisture. After 5 cold nights we only used 1.5 lbs of propane! Very efficient. Looking at adding a splitter so we can also use the propane for cooking with a single burner stove and maybe leaving the canister powered stove that came with the shower module at home. Did try a shower in the Kimbo to test it out and it worked well. Was able to prop the water canister up on the AC cabinet and run the house through one of the clips to keep the nozzle overhead. Used the extra water to rinse the soap off the shower curtain and basin then left everything to dry before packing it up.

 

Nice man, glad that the Kimbo held up in the different elements. I’m sure that’s why everyone here went this route! Here is the splitter system I have for my stove top / Dickenson heater.

 

We have a bunch of old sailboard sails we picked up for free at a garage sale years ago and we've been looking at making a loop that will attach at each of the rear outrigger mounts (just a quick attachment point) for sunny days that are not windy. Still in the napkin mode but ideally it'll provide some shade at the back of the Kimbo (we're using a popup for the primary cooking/bug free zone). The frame is going to be used from discarded boat awning pieces that can be easily disassembled and stored away on those windy days...that's the plan, but we'll see how that shakes out. The ARB item is very nice but if you do any off road with tree branches, it is a catch point. Then there is the wind issue - read a lot of posts from people who have purchased awnings (from all sorts of manufacturers) and have regretted it either because it got torn off in a wind event or didn't end up using it as much considering the cost. Pop-ups have made more sense for us because they allow for solid sides in the winter or bug screens in the summer, can be moved around to best shade the sun/wind.

 

Looks like we’ll have a WeBoost going in this weekend. Testing it out at the end of the month. Thinking about using a telescopic pole outside the side window to get maximum height. Any other ideas?

Excited to get back out. Looking like a multi-sport week, skiing and biking.

 

For anyone purchasing a Kimbo in the June time frame: I'll be picking mine up in Portland in the first half of the month. Dates are flexible. Delivery fees are cut drastically if they deliver more than one Kimbo...so if you see this and don't want to make the drive all the way up to essentially Canada, hit me up. There are also other pros to purchasing in Oregon vice Washington

 

stoked for you! I have the Winegard internet system and it’s pretty inconsistent with AT&T. Some spots are amazing, some spots my upload / download is faster using my phone’s hotspot. Talked with fellow Kimbo owner and they’ve had better success with Verizon.

looking forward to the wii boost pics!

 

I haven't been on this thread for a while, but thought I'd share what I've done so far in the Kimbo.
Priority #1 was building a low tech kitchen, since we ordered our Kimbo with nothing but the fireplace and a few baskets.





We opted for a cooler because the majority of our trips are weekend excursions, and even when they are longer, we're on the move a lot and inevitably driving by places where we can get ice if we need it — but rarely do. We're not typically packing much meat, so the temperature is rarely a concern anyways. So far it's worked great. It's a little on the small side, but hasn't been an issue, and is pretty much the largest I could fit into the kitchen design I wanted.

Countertop is entirely bamboo, and anything else visible is 1/2" baltic birth covered in adhesive backed black wallpaper.

Backsplash is aluminum panels cut to size and drilled to utilize some of the existing standoffs. I found the tiles on Amazon and those are peel-and-stick.

Fresh water is fed from an easily removable Rotopax container. I used an extremely convenient, after market vent cap that just threaded in, which helps prevent a vacuum. On benefit of how I'm utilizing the Rotopax is that if functions exactly like a toe-kick in a regular kitchen; since it's mounted a few inches off the ground, your foot can comfortably slide under it. Practically speaking, it doesn't get in the way at all, so it feels like zero space is lost even though it visually consumes that space.



Faucet is just one of those cheap battery powered water pumps. I made a little donut-shaped receiver for it. The faucet tension-fits onto that and stays put, but is extremely easy to remove.



Finding something for the grey water was a bigger challenge. I ended up using a collapsable water container from REI, and so far it's working just fine. There's absolutely nothing else I could find that fit the space very well. Since it's collapsable, it's really easy to finagle in and out of the space. Took a while to figure out how to retrofit it into the drain, but I got it to work and haven't had any issues.



For attachment points, I wanted something that'd give me flexibility in the future. Rather than attaching any part of the kitchen directly to the Kimbo shell, I opted to attach 1" 80/20 directly instead. The 80/20 is bolted to the shell, with a 1/4" layer of rubber between it and the Kimbo. Conveniently, this combination (1" 80/20 + 1/4" rubber) is nearly perfectly flush with the existing aluminum trim pieces, so the only modification that was required was cutting away the insulation foam. It certainly would've been easier to just slap things in with some self tapping screws, but I'm very happy with how this is working out for me.

The last thing for the kitchen will be figuring a little more storage and baskets and whatnot.

I'm nearly done with some bench storage on the other side of the Kimbo. Just need to find some upholstery fabric that I like, but otherwise that's done too. I'll probably give a little follow up once that's totally wrapped up. After that will be the table, which is also bamboo, and a better toilet situation