Casper's "I did a bad thing" micro off road camper build

How're you doing Jeff? Did you ever get the stuff put on the truck?

 

Dude, I've been so busy at work. I just got them out of the acura last weekend. It may be a while before I can even start to clean up the headlights.

 

I just had a thought.

I wonder if one could install one of those ductless heat pump systems in an RV, mounting the exterior unit on the tongue? This would supply both heat and A/C, and the smallest units only need 15 amp 115 AC. You would need enough interior wall space for the interior unit, and I also wonder if they would stand up to the vibration of a moving vehicle. Hmmmm.

I know, based upon experience that we had at church in providing heat and cooling to a new bathroom that if I ever build a small cabin I am going to go that route.

 

that's actually not a dumb idea haha I'm trying to think of why it wouldn't work haha I install quite a bit of those units. the only downside is the head unit (the wall mounted portion inside) are pretty weak plastic. the bouncing on the road would probably cause the face plate to fall off or stop clipping in place but nothing that cant be fixed with a piece of tape lol

 

They make a stand alone unit that you can mount to the tounge or in a box and the ducts run to the camper. They do both heat and cool and you remove the ducts for transport. I don't remember the name but are supposed to be great and very efficient.

 

Climate-Rite

 

Yep that's it thanks James!

 

I saw a nice video on Overland Bound where that unit was in a lockable container on the front of a teardrop. It had enough room to store the ducting. Looked pretty smooth. Of course, I can't figure out which video it is now.

 

I may have seen the same one. I saw somewhere where they built a box that held a dual battery set up and the heater/ac unit

 

Headed out here shortly! Weekend getaway at the Westmoreland State Park have a great weekend!

 

Westmorland State Park:

Well my wife got off early on Friday, I had the camper pretty well loaded, so we finished up and took off! It was a pleasant 2 hour drive to get there and we arrived around 3:30, got our place marker and went in search of a good spot. Friday was a cluster as they also gave us a tag for friends who were coming Saturday. When we got to our area there was only 2 spots left so we tagged our spot and our friends to have somebody pull in about as soon as we walked away. I spoke with the guy, who was very nice about it, and we tried to sort it out. When we were setup I went to register where we were and told them of the issue and they said they had just opened another area and we could move. Of course we had pretty much everything alrady set up but we packed it all up and went and staked out 2 joining sites. The newly opened area was filling up fast. It was pretty dusty but a much prettier site all in the woods and we got 2 spots on the outside backing up to the woods.

The park was beautiful and full of activities. We hiked to the fossil beach Saturday and we went to the main beach today. It was a wonderful weekend full of great foods and great company.

Finally set up and ready:







Saturday hike to fossil beach we saw some cool trees but the water was too rough on the beach to find any sharks teeth:









Somebody parked his superwhite dcsb on the other side of me:


Saturday @Wild Crow arrives and the party begins! What a great couple we so appreciated them coming. They are a wealth of knowledge for us to learn from as they are very experienced in the type of overlanding camping we're trying to build up to and they are just plain fun to be around. Saturday night was a great steak dinner and Beth made us a wonderful apple crumb cobbler desert. There were plenty of laughs, good wine, and a great time:



Today we all packed up our rigs and drove down to the main beach which was fantastic. We walked along the beach and found a couple of sharks teeth, a piece of old pottery, and a bunch of sea/ river glass. We ended with a nice picnic lunch before we headed our seperate ways. What a beautiful weekend:









My new addition for this trip Old Glory


The little queen finally made it this trip! She was very well behaved even when around other dogs. She was a little scared and we had some shaking spells but she made it!

 

Thanks for the invitation. We had a great time! I won't clutter your thread with too much rambling, but I have a few photos that turned out decent.....





The ladies hunted for fossils as far as they could go


Here's the shark tooth Beth found

 

Thaks James great pics I can't wait until we can do it again

 

Kitchen Mods V 2.0:

I made my first mods to the cooking area to be more functional trying to emulate a feature with the newer models that looked handy and functional. After taking it camping a couple of times post mods I found the modification to work well except the hinged lid Id made was too small to comfortably hold the cook top with it's propane bottle. We were constantly trying to find a secure way to situate the stove and bottle. Having the lid fold over also left us lacking a food prep area and allowed food to spill over into the inside of the drawer which, obviously wasn't desireable.

The old modification. You can see the lid in this instance only covered the first/ main compartment. You may also see it's only big enough to hold the stove I hadn't considered the gas bottle when I made it:



I went off the same principal this time but I got a piece of the nice laminated plywood and only coated with polly no stain. This time I made it large enough to cover the first and middle comartment. I also relocated the cutting board to cover the third compartent as we have decided not to keep the water container in there and use it for storage instead.



I also decided to address the issue of no prep space for cooking. I cut and pollied another piece of board that would just fit in the space in the first compartment on top of the cook top for storage. When in use the cooktop is removed and placed on the folding lid which is now large enough to hold it and the gas bottle comfortably. The interior "shelf" is put back in place and the cutting board moved over beside it to create ample prep space.






The stove may also be rotated to cook from the back side if desired:


Now we need to go camping again to test this out but after finding the shortcomings of the initial modification I think this will do the trick

 

Nice mod Chris. Looks like you have good useable space with moving everything to get one thing out. Then, have to put everything back just to finish cooking dinner.

 

How's it going Jeff I hope all is well

 

Good, just got all new suspension on my truck. I when with Dobinson because of the payload of thier rear springs (615lbs.) and Mike is good to work with. He knows his stuff. Ended up with 2" of lift, so I can still work out of it everyday with ease.

How about you guys?

 

Oh just hanging in there. I'm just waiting to see what the doctor says next Friday but the way this shoulder isn't healing Idk how I'm going to do my job.

 

I'll keep you in my thoughts and pray for healing of your shoulder.

 

I am all caught up!

@Casper66 I am glad to know you are enjoying this trailer so much. Great pictures and awesome reads as always.