How to: DIY Wedge Camper

I bought a vent cap that mounts to the ducting from Amazon. I have a cord with a hook on the vent cap that allows me to hang it to the roof of the tent and take the weight off the end on the vent and i just zip it into the tent and the vent cap allows me to direct the air.

 

Really pretty easy. I just used left over alupanel and some piano hinges from Home Depot.

 

Wow that's amazing! Really like the design you made there for loading in dirt bikes, thanks for sharing

 

Can you show us some more photos of the hinge setup? I'm considering redoing my fabric and making it pop straight up instead of the wedge.

 

I too did the pelican case diesel heater. I welded up an aluminum tank too in order to fit the case better, but you can fit the plastic ones in no problem.

I used 3" valterra RV waste connectors for connections with 3" bathroom ducting from HD.

 

Great idea on the qd attachments. I’m using those on my heater too

 

Hey fellow DIY GFC builders!!! This forum has been invaluable to me in building my camper. Thanks everyone, and ripcord, for the shared knowledge!

As a way to give back— anyone in the PDX, OR area need seal material? Free of charge!
I have:
- full bag of adhesive D seal, 5/8” x 30ft at least
- edge trim for side panels/doors (enough for trimming two side doors and the back, per ripcords design)
- edge trim plus bed seal (7ft, see pic for profile)
- press in seal for the 8020 (~6ft)

Shoot me a text at seven O four six four one nine O six eight and I’ll gladly pass this stuff off! My name is Landon.

Stoked to share my first picture of the build out in the wild, on here too!

 

This is a really awesome design, good work on the build man!!! Happy riding, and camping too haha

 

How did you manage to secure the off angle connections of extrusion, I see that the bulkhead has some perpendicular support, but how did you do all the other non 45/90 degree connections?

 

Anyone by chance selling a complete fabric for the 50x100 footprint tent?

 

Spotted a fellow DIYer on the road today. Milpitas,CA area. Whoever this is, build looks great lol

 

Went for a quick outing last weekend, still enjoying this setup!

 

Longtime listener, firstime caller here.... Many Thanks to Jim and all the TW members who have contributed such a great resource of info! I have read this thread end-to-end twice, and gearing up to review it again as I am launching my build in the next few weeks.

Similar to this design, but mine is going on a RAM 2500 - so I'm scaling everything up a bit. My use case is decidedly NOT overlanding, so build out will be minimal to retain as much "daily driver functionality" as possible. My usage will be mostly single night campouts at trailheads, river put-ins, etc. I have young kids, and we try to get out for adventures of all shapes and sizes. Plus I do a fair amount of mountaineering, backcountry skiing, etc - and "hotel on wheels" has a lot of appeal.

I'm going to build my own design for a hybrid between a "full pop" and a "wedge." I want more footroom/sleeping room, but still want SOME slope to the roof when deployed. Still working out the details, but mostly have it figured out already. Other than the upscaled dimensions and the one-off wedge/pop concept, I plan to borrow a lot of ideas/plans from the Ripcord design.

1. I'm contemplating aluminum (square tubing) for my spaceframe. I have a multi-process welder already, and some experience with aluminum DIY/fab projects already - so I'm not at all intimidated about those tools or skills. But I AM concerned about making sure I don't "shoot myself in the foot" with structural integrity/etc by building with aluminum. Motivations to use aluminum are mostly about corrosion resistance and easy maintenanace. If I use mild steel, I know I need to do a great job with metal prep and paint - which I certainly could! This truck won't care about camper weight nearly as much as a Tacoma, but an overall lightweight construction certainly has appeal.

3. If you were me, and had tools/skills/confidence to fabricate any/all of this, would you consider NOT building the wedge portion out of 8020? I'm going back and forth on this - kind of like the idea of more sophisticated structural shapes to "hide" some of the mechanicals/electrical/etc. There are lots of guys with a bigger repertoire of welding/fab skills than me, but this isn't my first project, and a lot of what I've done has been "Chapter 2" and beyond, and has turned out great. So if I could compel myself to fab the wedge out of tube/sheet/formed/etc, I would. Right now, I sort of feel like the T-slots of 8020 are probably more benefit than any reason I could come up with to not use it. I also feel like those T-slots help these things look a little more professional, less homemade.

4. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use electric actuators instead of gas shocks for the wedge. Reasons for that are basically: Consistency in cold, ability to life a loaded roof (canoe/SUP's/snow/etc), and it would be RAD to flip a motorized switch and unfurl the tent!!! Anyone been down this road? If I do it, I have to deal with running the wiring to power those, and sealing up the penetrations into the cap/bed/cab/etc to connect to power and switching. Realistically, those aren't insurmountable issues by any stretch.

Brian
Syracuse, NY

 

Welcome!

Here's some answers (opinions) that are based on my experiences in building mine.

1. I made mine out of 1.5" 0.120" wall square tubing. I would do it the same way if I had to do it over again. No regrets. I left mine bare as well and love the look and ability to add stuff later on without having to remove paint and reapply later.

2. You don't have a #2 so I'll skip to #3 like you did

3. I would not do the 80/20 if you have the skillset to do it yourself. Maybe. If you can find 1.5"x3" square tubing with radius corners locally, that would make an excellent bottom of your space frame, I have some ideas for attaching the fabric to that as well. If you're not willing to make the wedge frame yourself, then yeah 80/20. I'm happy enough with mine, but I have been one of several that have been chasing leaks in the wet season here in the PNW.

4. DO IT! The wiring is the only potential pain, but you'll figure that out. I used the 80/20 trim/filler that covers the wires nicely.

See some of the older posts I've made in this thread for pictures on these topics.

 

For those of you that used hurricane hinges, can you post a close up of how you mounted them to the space frame/side doors. Much appreciated, thanks!

Got all the welding done

 

Is that a notchback foxbody back there?

 

@nanserb Yup yup, 89 Notch. Tube front and fiberglass. Old pic, its on beadlocks and a 275 now. Still a big project! Also family has a 84 camaro 434 sbc on alcohol ~ 800hp N/A

 

Hot damn

 

@Taco Camper
Thanks for doing this test. I'm thinking about tucking a roof rack under the overhang. According to your test, do you think the corners would have more movement? The rack I'm getting has a 1/2in clearance from overhang to rack. I'm afraid the rack will hit on flex.

 

I would suggest 1.0 min and .5 inch is probably pushing it, plus, as the truck gets older it is not likely to get stiffer.