How to: DIY Wedge Camper

Lake Superior gives you a lot of nice Little places to boondock at the beach completely for yourself. Lake Michigan on the other side was kind of downer

 

Back east after a few months out west.

If you wanna pay someone to weld your frame - Randy Duff's Mobile Welding is who I used

For the AluPanel there is a a lot shops that stock it but only a few can CNC cut it. Use https://signsofmontana.com/. They didn't have a big enough machine when I was there but they do now. They were super interested in the project and super helpful.

I used Beartooth signs and it was not a pleasant experience.

 

I’m having a problem when closing my wedge. It doesn’t close and line up and I’m about to lose my ever loving crap

what gives.


I feel like I will need to shim the front hinges?

 

have photo of the front hinges? Mine lined up easily.

 

I took the hinges off to see if I could get it to lay properly in the gasket. So not at this time.

man, so frustrated. I’ve made it this far and now it’s flipping cocked. I just want to sell it and move on with my life. Camping sucks in FL anyways

 

Thanks so much for the response! Super appreciate the insights. Do you remember how much you paid for the frame? On the fence between getting it done for me and teaching myself to weld for the project.

 

I’ll give you $100 for it.

 

$100 and it will be another $4900 to have me open my garage door for you.

 

ha I feel the same way, it was a bit more undertaking then i thought. Hopefully I’ll be done in a few weeks. I plan to use it for a year or two and then possibly get a van. But it’s tempting selling the truck when I can sell it fire more than I paid and get into something a little bigger.

 

For those who asked how open the latches from the inside of the camper here you go. At the very top of my latch there is a small flat that I drilled a 5/64 hole then put a 1/16 stainless cable through. When you pull on the cable it pulls the lock and unlacthes the latch. Now my latches are not the legit south co latch so those might be a little different.

 

Which latches you ended up getting? I'm debating to either get SouthCo knockoffs (and which ones) or to bite the bullet and get the real deal...

 

I just got in my genuine south co latches and since they are sealed the backs are 100% solid. But that's if you order the sealed latches from SouthCo and specify sealed. SouthCo will sell you the non sealed latches but at that point why bother and just get the cheap chinese latches.

 

Guess who just figured out how out of square their 5x10. Me… I had assumed that the vendor had squared and trammed the CNC as part of their “white glove this thing cost $25k” service and trained our point of contact on it.

Nope

Crap is out of square by 7/16” over 66” (longest factory edge of plywood I had)

bob saget

 

I'd make them cut another one if that's the case.

 

Yeah so like...I did the cutting on our CNC at the makerspace


Self: you done screwed up A-Aron....

 

Oh I see! That's unfortunate, but at least you learned something in the process.

 

Yeah,

pay a shop to cut your panels because if they screw up it’s on them.

the more you know.gif

 

For the rear door lock/access I came up with an idea I hope will work long term. Used some spring loaded slide latches from McMaster. The southcos grab these instead of the frame. I welded some custom gussets on my frame, so I couldn’t latch to that down low anyway.

The idea is that I can close and lock the latches if needed when inside and then get out by pulling the slide bolts.

 

Been awhile since I posted progress. It's all wrapped up!

FYI super pacific uses a fabric called "Top Gun 9". We picked it up locally in Utah on a seconds roll for $15 / yard.

We also imitated their style, large cover flap and curved mesh windows underneath. Gotta adjust the struts to pull it tighter, but it's good enough for now!

My girlfriend took the lead and totally killed it on the tent. But, it's alot of fabric and the big stitches are definitely a 2 person job.

Feel free to ask any questions.