Another Truck?! Third Time's the Charm TURBOCHARGED

30 is just a couple of gallons more than what we typically carry now. As we found this year that isn't quite enough for some situations.

The real issue is where that weight will be. 42 gallons is over 250 lbs. But since he's gonna redo everything in back, maybe there is a work around to deal with that too.

 

I intend to stay as aggressive or get more aggressive in my wheeling style. I'm not at the point in life where I'm chasing boredom yet. Every consideration is being made to keep it doing what I like doing. Ignoring the fuel difference (I ignored it in my truck's current weigh in as well) my goal is not to gain over 200# over the old setup, which was deceptively heavy for what it was. But with this camper design there's so many things that I carry now that can be cut out entirely. I will gain a little width at the axle but none body wise, so as wide as frank, that's it. One thing I can do with that big fuel tank is raise it up four more inches then Brett since the flatbed allows that room.

 

I don't doubt that you'll manage the overall weight just fine, but I just started wondering about sloshing. Does the Suburban tank have good baffles in it? I can imaging 200lbs of fuel sloshing around doing unpleasant things to handling has you bounce over rocks.

 

Thankfully it's not a secondary tank, It's a primary tank for the suburban so it is internally baffled and has a surge box in it. It's a regular EFI tank.

 

airbags?

 

I'd rather not, I don't think I'm going to have problems with the weight carrying capacity, I've got leafs from a 3/4t truck, I've got two leaves I can put back in my current pack if necessary. Though I'm hopeful I'll only need one

 

And because I've hated the way this V6 sounds I bought two things to hopefully quiet it down a bit more.

 

This will be the 4th(?) exhaust on this truck since I've owned it and the 5th overall haha. And it will get changed again I'm sure when the camper is ready because the large gas tank will be in the way of its exit path again, but hopefully when that time comes these parts can be reused and the exit can just be rerouted. As for the flatbed frame, that should be together by the end of this week so I can put the truck back together and build everything on the frame in the shop still leaving a bay open for the drag truck project and any other broken thing that find its way here from the fleet of shitboxes.

 

If I were to do the tank again I would look for the early 90s Ford truck rear tank. Pretty sure it was the same dimensions but a lot thinner. Be tucked up better and not have all the weight back there. Could keep the stock tank and just have a "reserve".

 

Flatbed is on my list as well, just need to find the time

 

Consolidation is kind of the name of the game right now for me. I won't have a bed really anymore to store Jerry cans in and I'm not trying gain a ton more weight (an aux tank is kinda just weight gain here). The 30 gal is currently what my truck and 2 Jerry's holds, that and I get better overall mileage than most is probably fine that's why I am still on the fence about it. But the appeal of another 12g on top of that is pretty great, either way I want the space the stock tank occupies (plus it hangs low too already and I'm not a fan of the gas tank lift thing I've seen cooked up). Would the 42g tank have been less of a clearance concern to you if you could have mounted it 4" higher than you did?

 

1. What is this other thread of yours?

2. What's the overall design of the camper and how is it only +200lbs? (I suppose that begs the question of what you currently tip the scales at; I thought you were reasonably light, but maybe the bedslide was deceiving...)

 

Just the lunchtable thread.

Well wouldn't you like to know I have a rough design in solidworks that I will tweak to the final dimensions of the flatbed (designing that sort of on the fly since I have to incorporate shocks mounts and some other features into it and had trouble plotting them in software). My current rear setup is heavier than you'd think, the bedslide alone is 250lbs (came from a fullsize truck). I am comparing this camper setup to a fully loaded for camping truck setup because essentially it is going to be that always from now on since the camper eliminates the need for a lot of the gear I carry now.

 

Yeah, I mean, comparing it to fully loaded is obviously the only thing to compare it to. Can't wait to see this.

 

I reached a fork in the road where I needed to decide what it was going be used for and the only thing stopping me from the camper idea this long has been "what if I need a truck"... but I'm past that now and I don't need a truck really, I have an SUV I barely use that can pull a trailer if need be. This will take me a while to cook up since I've never built anything like the camper portion before, but I'll document everything. Building the flatbed first allows me to build the whole thing in the shop over some time and still use the truck this coming season as it has been.

 

Ahh, I read your previous post too quickly about shop space. I thought you were building on the Taco in the second bay, but it's just the platform. Awesome, that's a great idea. You going to mockup the cab at all, so you can get a nice tight fit around the back curve? That'd be a nice touch, though depending on overall height, perhaps completely unnecessary.

 

Oooo right. You can lift it up. Cool. Problem solved!

I still want that bed slide I think.

 

Yeah, I think it would be perfect if you gained more up top

 

Hmm, I hadn't given much thought to meeting that curve, I think I'm going to build parallel to the flat portion of the lower back wall but maybe I'll cope the sides of the camper to meet that curve for the window portion up top rather than curve the whole back wall.

 

Frame boxing coming along, one side down...