1 Bored Clerk's Garage Built Camper

Nice turn of events!! Looking to see what this UTE bed will look like!

 

With any luck, I can kick the jelly factor up a notch for you tomorrow. Haha!

 

Well, My back is giving me fits from crawling all over and under the truck yesterday. No amount of stretching was going to save me! Haha. So, I put some undercoat on my gas tank in an area where it was rubbing on the bottom of the factory bed. I also bought new bolts to mount the flatbed to the frame. The fastener kit supplied is for a Chevy Colorado/canyon which, apparently, is a bolt and nut combo for the bed. The Toyota has captive (welded) threaded nuts on the frame and M12 1.25 thread bolts that drop down from the top. The factory Toyota bed bolts are too long and not threaded all the way to the bottom of the head so they won't work. So I bought new, shorter, full-thread bolts.

I'm sure I'll be in better shape tomorrow. I really want the truck up and running before the end of the week. I love riding my motorcycle to work but I also like having my truck look like a truck rather than a ghetto relic darkening my driveway.

 

My back was feeling decent so I recruited my dad for some work. There were several steps that are not photographed because sometimes I have to actually get something done! Plus I was really excited.


Here's a shot after we got the cross braces roughly in place then set the basic tray on top. Gotta get the braces adjusted just right side to side so the tray is square to the chassis and at the correct attitude front to rear. I had to add 1/2" worth of spacers to the rear mounts to get everything the way I wanted it. It took some time for sure!


Fully mounted, squared, leveled, tweaked, spaced, drilled, bolted and locked the F down, son! With headboard.

Still have all the detail stuff left to do such as the fuel filler, fenders, taillights, Fold down sides/tailgate and license plate. I'll get after that tomorrow.



More angles because it's rad.

 

Just FYI, I bet the factory bed is quite a few pounds lighter than this...once complete. It's shockingly light without a tailgate. +1 for plastic!

 

Awesome. What are the dimensions?

 

6' wide x 6'5" long.

 

You're gonna be able to build a palace on that thing!

 

I'm still building a pretty simple box but our sleeping space got huge in comparison to my last design. It's going to be much more livable, that's for sure. So much room for activities! Or hauling hogs off to market. Haha.

 

Not sure you'll want to sleep in it after that...

 

I sleep with them now. I don't see the problem.

 

Welcome aboard! Feel free to stop by my house next time and help me lift something heavy. It'll keep me from throwing my back out. Haha.

 

Looks killer man! Can I ask your height of your head rack? Looks like my tray will sit slightly higher so I am hoping my canopy wont sit too high

 

Yeah, I can get you that info. I think it's supposed to be 41"ish from deck to top of head rack.

 

Did some work tonight but didn't get very far.


That's it. A fender and mudflap. I did one on each side. Sad progress but it's something! The front fenders should go much quicker now that I know what's going on.

I need to get the taillights and license plate done so I can drive this sucker!

 

Okay, I pulled some dimensions to answer your question as well as several other questions I've gotten:

Tray floor height over the stock bed floor = 7.5" (can be made higher with spacers but can't be made lower)
Headboard height above tray floor = 36.5"
Overall usable floor width = 70"
Overall usable floor length = 77.75"

This is for the UTE designed for midsize trucks. The full size UTE tray will have all different dimensions.

 

Got a bit more done today.


Front fenders are on both sides.


Fuel filler has been reluctantly jimmied into place. We'll see how the fueling actually goes. I'm not super pumped on this location but there doesn't appear to be an alternative. I'm really hoping that it cures some of the filling issues with my LRA tank since some of the angles on the vent lines are much more favorable now. We'll see as soon as I get the lights and plate up and running.


Spare tire is all jammed up in there. This is a 255/85 R16 and it barely fits. I didn't modify anything but it did take some pushing and pulling while cranking it into place to get it to seat well. No biggie. I will like add a tip to my dumped exhaust so the heat exits the pipe below the tire. Again, no biggie.


Wiring on taillights now. I plugged a stock light back in and verified all functions just to make sure. Labeled with tape and everything. High tech around here!


Here's the wiring on the back of the stock light. I want to use the factory plug and the wiring to the light bulbs because I HATE cutting into the main harness of the truck!


Here are the lights that come in the UTE kit. They're fine. Nothing fancy or special but they'll do. I opened it up here so you can see how they are wired internally. I need to adapt my stock wiring to this. I am confident (sometimes over confident) about a lot of things. Wiring is NOT one of those things. This should be simple but I'm terrified of it.

 

I'm so excited for this rig! What are you doing for your bumper and recovery points? Welding a crossmember to the back of the frame?

 

It won't be welded on but, yeah, I've got a plan for the rear bumper with tow hitch and recovery points. Now it's just a question of how high, how far back and how it all will integrate with the taillights.