How to: DIY Wedge Camper

Does anyone have any advice on cutting the the uprights for the space frame?

 

I just cut them close then used a grinder to get the final fit

 

Camper survived some fairly decent trail time last week in Tillamook State Forest. Cool how the MaxMetal (or whatever my generic stuff is) just deforms a bit. Was worried a few times that I was going to scrape the side latch and lifting strut right off sneaking through some off-camber sections with mandatory slider-on-tree-to-avoid-rolling bits. Ended up kissing a few trees despite my best efforts, these trails are tight for Jeeps...

Been a solid summer enjoying the fruits of early-quarantine’s labor. Snuck out for a few trips exploring the northwest and picking up trash. Hope everyone’s camper builds are going well or being enjoyed to the fullest.

 

Kinda the longer harder way but I modeled my spaceframe in solidworks and then unfolded each tube to make a cutting template and printed them out on the plotter at work. The notches came out perfect though!

 

I bet that was awesome! I made a pattern and then went to work with a band saw and grinder!

 

@Ripcord Huge thanks for the write up dude!
This is going to be my 3rd RTT setup (1 regular RTT, 1 hardshell RTT) and this should be the best version.
That BoM is absolute gold and such a time saver.
I'm just starting the CAD and still need to put in gussets and the rest.

Anyways just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration!

 

Very nice! excited to see your progress

 

ok just saw this thread and dude you suck. I am done...I am firing myself, selling my truck and just going to drive a scooter now. Thank you. Just kidding..That is the sickest thing I have seen. I have watch youtube and follow so many, but nothing compares to your build!!! Just amazing.

 

I did the same thing, bought the wiper seals but wasn’t super impressed so I sealed my roof and floor with butyl rubber RV sealant tape instead. Worked great and I have no worries about leaks. I can also take it apart if I ever need to.



Had a big couple days though. Finally got a break in the smoke (Portland had the worst air quality of any major city in the world for a week there) so I was able to get my mountain of parts out of the garage and Get my wedge together over the weekend and then mounted it to my spaceframe today!







I’m excited to finally be in the home stretch. My tent is done and I finished all the panel detail work while I was stuck inside from the smoke. I just need to seam seal the tent, trim my floating floor panels to size, and finish mounting everything up. Hopefully I’ll be camping in a week or so!

Also bedlined my bedrails today- the paint was super gouged up from almost 10 years with the plastic caps and a camper shell and shifted my bed back. My cab clearance was super tight the first time I test fit the spaceframe but it turns it my bed was slid all the way forward. I’m guessing getting rear ended last year didn’t help with that. I Shifted it back so my cab clearance should be better now.

 

Great weekend in the camper. Still need to get the side door struts on as seen lol. Only other issue is condensation inside, definitely will be adding a fan next spring.

 

Curious on your floating floor for the sleeping platform. That’s the modification I’d like to do as well

 

Do you have any more pictures of your RV sealant tape method? Currently doing some rebuilding (foam rubber gasket ain’t going to cut it in the northwest so I’m removing the wedge from the frame at the moment), overall she’s quite watertight, tent does fine I just have some issues with the side doors sealing perfecting and the wedge/frame interface.

 

Slowly chipping away!

 

What did you do for the door hinges? I did piano hinges and with the gasket between the frame and door panel nothing gets in. Not water or dust, it's air tight.

 

I went with the home depot three-hole hinges, piano hinges aren't a bad idea; did you rivet them on? I was also thinking of taking a risk with poly hinges.

 

I drilled and tapped the frame to Billy them on. I'll grab some pics and part then later.

 

My hinges are one piece all the way down each panel they are very strong and really squish the gaskets down.

 

Looks good. So did you use the bulb seals that affix to the edge of the door panels on the perimeter as well? If that makes sense.

 

I didn't. I used the regular bulb seal on the door panels and found the rubberized edge material online. I saw the seal plus edge material and think it would be a good way to go but it wouldn't work with the piano hinges

 

Basically I just added an opening to the floor panel and stitch welded 2.5” flat bar down the sides of my spaceframe to support it. I also have some self adhesive rubber strips I still need to add to the flat bar to pad it from metal on metal rattling.

I lucked out and got a deal on some aluminum honeycomb panels for the movable sections but my original plan was to just weld frames and skin with aluminum composite panels.

I used butyl RV window sealing tape. It was only a few bucks for a roll and from what I’ve read vagabond uses something very similar on the drifter. I just cut it in half lengthwise and put a strip on each side of the extrusion slot between the extrusion and floor/ceiling panels.





Today I pulled off some corner gussets to add tracknuts for my tent and it came apart easy enough. I resealed with alittle extra butyl.



I used the cork gasket between the wedge and spaceframe.

Got my camper on the truck today! Hoping to get the tent and side panels on tomorrow to take it for a test camp this weekend.

Really glad I slid my bed back, made it fit up much better against the back of my cab than my test fit.