How to: DIY Wedge Camper

Welp guess I'll need to hop on the rubber trim train. Went camping this past weekend, opened up my wedge and found the mattress soaked

 

Why are so many having this issue now? Earlier in this thread it seemed like the bulb seal was enough to seal when the wedge was closed. @Ripcord, along with others, mentions that they had no water intrusion.

 

Yeah I haven’t had any water intrusion in the wedge portion either throughout the CO winter. I’ve opened it up many times to check and it’s been dry. Not sure exactly why some do and some don’t, I don’t think I did anything different.

 

My guess is just user error, I mean every one of these is going to be slightly different so things can be shifted or hinges can not be as tight as others.

 

It's hit and miss. Honestly couldn't tell you how it got it. It was fine the last 8 months lol

 

If you notice all three of us live up in Washington where it's wet 8 months out of the year, likely has something to do with it

 

Dang, so many of these are looking really refined!!!

 

What is everyone doing to finish the cut edge of the ACM roof and floor?

 

I want to share the camper design I've been working on. It is basically a slide in style Ripcord camper. It has a floor to it so it can be jacket up and taken off pretty easily. The lower section is also tall enough to have a bed platform down low and sit straight up with the top down. Most of the lower frame is 0.75" x 0.75" steel tube with plenty of reinforcement following the construction techniques used on Overland Underbudget's flatbed camper.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

Looks great but maybe go up on tube size?

When I built my camper I wanted it to be as light as possible. Heavy gauge is tempting (easy to weld) but turned out to be unnecessary. I knew that once I loaded water+people+gear+camper it would be a tank anyway (and it is).

Depending on what your panels are made from and if they open like a door or not (act like a shear panel or not) would drive your tube selection, gussets and any diagonal bracing. I settled on 1.5”x1.5” tubing 16GA (0.065”) which is 1.3lbs/ft. and it was nice and light but plenty stiff with a simple open frame (less welding and welding something like this means dimensional distortion!) Remember the key is stiffness not “strength” and I would suggest you estimate the weight before you begin to make sure you are ok with it.

Ok I just watched a couple Underbudget’s videos and couldn’t figure out how exactly he built the sides/doors/roof but that looks awesome.

 

How are you liking those hinges?

 

They’re great - really rigid, smooth, quiet. And I like the way they look. Water intrusion hasn’t been bad - the bulb seal keeps it dry, but water will run a bit if the doors are opened in the wet.

 

Do you have a link for those hurricane hinges?

 

Right on, thanks. Great build!

 

Got it mounted up! I used a 2" bulb seal along the bed and the bottom half of the SoftTopper mounts to mate to the bed rail.

 

Thanks man! I'm loving it. Never thought I'd want a topper, but I really dig it. Nice to have a dry bed in the winter. Have yet to use the actual wedge though - but soon!

Another thing with the hinges - I wish I'd staggered my rivets along it. I went linear for aesthetics, but the rivets don't grab a large area, so there is some flex when first opening and closing the doors. I can certainly add more rivets, but again, driven by aesthetics (maybe a bit too much haha).

 

for the floor and roof I left the edges raw. It doesn't matter.

I have seen others use Trim-Lok edging on the doors to jazz it up. But I also left mine raw



also I saw someone recently used hurricane hinges, going to need a link for those bad boys

 

Gotcha...thanks for the advice, I'll keep that in mind. I haven't started my build yet - I have most of the parts and just now starting to watch the sewing how-to videos.

 

These seem to be the best hurricane hinges for this application, in my opinion:

https://bigwoodycampers.com/teardrop-camper-parts-and-accessories/teardrop-camper-hinges

 

Are they aluminum or SS?