How to: DIY Wedge Camper

I also agree that there is pretty minimal amounts of stress and a rivnut would be acceptable.

 

Alright, I know it isn’t a Taco and I know I deviated a million miles from the original plan but it was all inspired by @Ripcord.

I couldn’t go above the cab due to my 7’ garage door. That led to many modifications.

I did mount the panels inside the frame and made mounts for Rotopax on the rear.



it isn’t done. Will be painted to match the Jeep top paint.

 

Well done dude. I like it a lot.

 

@SloW8 looks great! I like how the tent extends for more room.

 

That looks rad! I dig the originality. Any pictures of the interior? Curious how the sleeping platform works.

 

I like how the it sits flush please post more of the interior and how it works

 

Here are pics of the bare frame. Hopefully you can see the frames for the fold out piece, the removable panels in the middle and the larger flip up platform that can match the roof angle to open up the bed of the truck.





I am 5' 11" and 235 pounds. So not small but I am okay to climb into the sleeping platform through the small hatch. On this trip I just left it out and slept on the side with the larger panel in place.

Here you can see the panels inside. Sorry they are dirty and some still have the protective film in place. Ha.





Still lots to do to finish. I need to seal everything, install the gas struts for the side doors, and paint the outside.

 

I used Rivnuts, no issues.

 

Are those cabinet hinges on your side panels - did you use alupanel for those as well? I like the way those look.

 

Yes, I used the surface mount hinges so I could recess the door panels into the frame.

Yes, ACM/M-Panel/E-Panel stuff. I used the 6mm on the side doors. I would not recommend it. I would do the 3mm with stiffeners per plan. The 6mm is too heavy and still flexes too much so it will need some stiffener anyway.

Cheers.

 

Alright, I pick my base frame up from the welder later this week and extrusion is on order. Looking ahead, the one thing that seems tricky / the most potentially frustrating to me is the blind bolting into the extrusion (frame to extrusion and and roof to extrusion). What worked well for people lining up the nuts in the extrusion? I think I saw some suggestions somewhere in here, but cannot find it now.

 

So I bolted my wedge to frame in the upright position. I shimmed up each corner of the wedge about 1/2” and lined up the slot nuts with my pre drilled holes in the frame, double checking that I could see the nuts up through the holes. Then I laid down a bead of silicone at the interface and carefully pulled the shims. No issues, got it all bolted pretty quickly. I expected it to be tedious, but it was pretty simple.

The more expensive roll-in spring nuts would have made it even easier. No risk of them sliding.

 

The tear down begins to convert this A.R.E DCU into a wedge camper.

 

looking forward to seeing the progress!

what height cap are you starting out with?

 

23”.

 

Out of curiosity, what height is everyone making the frame?

 

Tear down complete. Next step, cut it to bits. Then rebuild it.

based on my measurements, I’ll only have 1-1/4” of clearance between the overhang and the cab. I might make the frame 1/2” taller than it is now just to be safe.

 

I have yet to tear mine down, how difficult was breaking it down?

 

Not terrible. Find all the rivets and drill them out first. Dealing with the sticky butyl sealing tape between all the joint is a pain. But otherwise it’s not in my top 10 of worst things to take apart.

 

Wow I'm interested to see how it comes out keep posting updates