Kimbo Camper BS and Mods

Colorado folks with the Dickenson fireplace, how has it performed in super high altitudes? Doing a two week IKON pass trip through SLC and Colorado and I’m worried about the air being too thin for the propane. Has it worked fine up there?

PS, SCL and Colorado aren’t too friendly to folks like us. Super hard to find over night parking and even the National forests don’t allow it which is very weird coming from the PNW. Crackle barrel it is

 

I’m going to stick an apple AirTag on mine but having a second unit is also a great idea. Thanks Craig!

 

Holiday Trip Report!

From December 15th to January 8th, I took the rig from Seattle down through Eastern Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona — I stuck around Phoenix and met up with the family for Xmas week, then zipped over to Joshua Tree, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara before shooting back up to Seattle.

I was hoping to put together a functioning sink system between picking up the Kimbo in October and leaving in December, but couldn't resist doing trips every weekend instead

From the snowy, windy night at Deadman pass, to nights in the high desert near Joshua Tree, to getting kicked out of my friend's guest parking lot in Marina del Rey, to getting caught in a flash flood in a canyon near Malibu, to spending a day working in the Venice Beach Pier parking lot — I can't praise this camper enough.


Deadman Pass, OR


Trying to find a peeling left point break near Kanab, UT — no success.


Joshua Tree NP was incredible!


Not the worst spot to take meetings — solid wifi here, too!


Leo Carrillo State Park — I narrowly escaped my spot at 4AM, when I awoke to 1.5ft of fast-moving water surrounding the truck. An angel (dressed as a fellow camper in a rain suit and walking staff) told me where to head to higher ground. I ended up being trapped with quite a few other campers for a day and a half until they could get heavy equipment to clear the washed-out road entrance of river rock and sediment. I got out with an escort from an excavator, but not sure how long everyone else ended up being stuck for. Quite a few ruined vehicles and trailers, including a Tesla that had presumably been parked overnight to charge ... Everyone that opted to stay instead of evacuate had food and supplies, and most got to higher ground without any vehicle damage. Many were in good spirits — there are definitely worse places to be stuck than a campground in Malibu. Thanks, 4WD!

For those curious: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/weath...-state-beach-pch-flooding-rain-storm/2788287/

Onward!

 

I know this conversation is somewhere in these 53 pages but I can’t find it - what PSI are people running in their airbags when fully loaded? I think I’m at about 50 and honestly I can’t tell if it’s enough or not (there’s no obvious sag so I think I’m good where I’m at).

 

Hi Marc....35 psi was what someone posted a while back....I just set a level on the truck bed and put in what is close to level which was near 35 psi. I just have manual inflation on mine and find that I have to adjust daily due to temperature fluculations .....I may upgrade to an automatic systems if anyone has any recommendations. Just got back from a nice boondocking site on the east shore of Hills creek lake near Oakridge OR to get out of the snow for a change......not a sole in sight with great views of the lake....found it on Ioverlander app.......cheers

 

Airbag pressure - I run mine between 35-40 typically. That gets me level with some support and also keeps it firm enough on turns and in the wind. Might bump it up a bit if I’m running heavy, but IMHO 35-40 is the sweet spot for my rig

 

Sounds like an amazing trip - hoping to get down to AZ and visit fam in a couple months before the heat hits.

It’ll be interesting to see what you come up with for a sink…lots of great ideas here, so you have your work cut out for you

 

Nice adventure! That flooded river moment sounded intense. Great to hear the taco made it out with a bath. Looking forward to seeing what you do too.

 

Do these shells feel ‘tippy’? I was told by a company out here in Los Angeles that makes camper shells that they cant make them higher than 40” for the tacoma because theyll “tip over”. Cool campers.

 

You know its back there, but I've never felt or worried about it tipping over in any conditions I've been in. When off-roading it will definitely rock but that depends on how fast you're going. Same thing on the road going around sharp turns. If you're going over the speed limit you'll feel it. For it to tip over you would be making some serious mistakes and not paying attention to a lot.

Also, the way this camper is designed, there isn't a lot of weight up high due to the design. Looks are deceiving. It uses no internal framing and gets its strength from the design. It's just the aluminum on the outside and 1in foam on the inside. This camper was originally designed around a Tacoma and was extensively tested with different prototypes, not to mention all of the current models that have been sold over the past few years. Now if you're going to be in hurricane force winds, I would start to worry while driving, same as if I was pulling a camper trailer. I did hit some cross winds while on E470 here in Denver that gusted up to 70-80mph while moving. It was interesting but didn't tip over like a couple of the 18wheelers on the side of the road.

 

I personally went with the AirLift Wireless Air Gen 1 system. I like that the airbags are plumbed with separate lines (Dual Path). The newer version can be found here




Here's a pic:

 

Really impressed with some of the setups here

 

Now that’s fancy. A little jealous.

 

Got started on a little shelf and USB charger for the far side of the bed. Designing it as I go.

 

Trip Report: The Kimbo works in Canada eh. I hit some strong headwinds up in Northern Montana, I just adjusted my speed down to about 50 so as to not over stress the system. Hit black ice 2 times on the trip and started to shift sideways a bit. In the 4 Runner days this was less of a worry, but with the truck and kimbo it was a bit more of a white knuckle experience. Everything worked great. The hand pump sink has gone through several freeze thaw cycles and still works great with no leaks. The only thing I would like to address is some corrosion on the black camper jack braces attached to the kimbo. There is some paint/enamel that has chipped or rubbed off and I can see some corrosion. I would like to address it, maybe buy some black enamel paint and give it some touchups. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this or what they used to fix it. Someone asked about the dickenson propane heater at high elevation. It works fine in my experience, the hardest part was just getting the lighter to light the heater, bring extra lighters/matches. Also, I now crack every window at night and this has solved any condensation issues. All the best!

 

Nelsonator brought up the Whale sink hand pump.....I have issues with leaking out the top shaft....probably the cup seal inside is rolled. water was getting all over the wood top. Jim is sending out a new one to me...not sure if he had other complaints or not. RyanDCLB, thanks for the lift information for the airbags....keep the trip reports coming.

 

Thanks @Profloundering and Craig for the PSI airbag recs. I just checked and I’m riding at 40. I think I’m going bump up to 45 since I have a 100lb 1up bike rack on the back.

thanks for the heads up @nelsonator! I do keep an extra set of large matches around so I think I’ll be fine. Stoked for this IKON trip (leave next Tuesday). I think the plan is to see how we feel after two weeks on the road and if we feel up to it, wel keep traveling!

 

For the gear junkies out there, I got a few purchases to consider.

1. The giant loop 5 gallon gas bag. Got this massive guy to avoid mounting on the sidewall. I also had a Rotopax explode on me so didn’t want to go that route. It’s going to live on the outside of the kimbo. $199, local company based out of Bend.

2. For extra storage for gear + foot rest that fits perfectly under the AC. Got this $30 foot rest on Amazon to store dog food, canned goods, etc. it also helps keep the 7 gallon water jug from sliding around!

3. went to the local Home Depot and got some turf for the tailgate! No more ice skating getting out of the camper at the ski resort!

 

Photos below

 

Hi Voltron4x4
can you elaborate on this - is this due to the battery chemistry type? I know that different types have different states of charge at specific voltage... I apologize if this question was already addressed elsewhere - I'm reading the thread post by post. Great photo's by the way!