Kimbo Camper BS and Mods

You can off road without any issues with the airbags as long as you have cradles instead of attaching both ends of the airbags. This allows full articulation of your suspension. As long as you don't plan on rock crawling with the Kimbo, you should be fine. If your concerned about having airbags on the trails you'll be traveling, you'll probably want to upgrade the stock suspension anyway. There are more than a couple of combinations to decide on. The airbags do give a good amount of adjustability depending on your own custom buildout and weight. You can always add more support if need it later.

 

Definitely not going rock crawling but I do see that 4x4 trails often suffer washouts which are left for long periods of time before repair so there will be short patches of crawling from time to time. I see from reading many posts that airbags are easy to tear off road otherwise I kind of like the idea of bags.

 

Got it. Check to see if they mean with or with out the Daystar cradles. I have about 2.75 of lift with OME medium duty leafs in the rear and extended length 5100's. I can go full droop and not worry about the airbags. Granted if Im in that situation with the Kimbo I'd be in trouble. I've taken it down some 4 low trails to the point of stretching the rear bed anchors, which I then reinforced. I believe those would give out first or you would roll the Tacoma before the airbags would beak. Below are the cradles in use. There are definitely other options. You could get the Sumo springs or heavy duty leafs. With my medium duty leafs I'm just below level in the rear. Any lift though, you'll probably want to change out the shocks. Hope that helps.

 

Is it common to use e-rated tires, as Kimbo recommends?

 

I thought after doing that math that I could get by with C-rated. Then right before I left to pick up the Kimbo I thought why am I trying to “get by” with a expensive camper in the back. I exchanged them for E rated and now have peace of mind. The pressure you’ll put on the sidewalls will be significant when traveling at speed around corners and then off road. You’ll want that extra assurance and safety.

 

Yes, Kimbo informed me that upgrading to E rated tires increases your payload by 700 LBs. I guess when the payload calculation is created, it goes by the stock C or D rated weight capacity.

I’m running e rated with stock off-road suspension + air bags. Haven’t done much off roading yet since I picked my Kimbo up in the start of winter (all our forest roads are snowed over) so not sure how good or bad it is. Regardless, I personally think you won’t need anything crazy suspension wise since you won’t be doing anything crazy off roading wise with a camper that’s 9 feet tall lol

 

How much effect has that had on your ride? I'm getting concerned that when it's all said and done, the truck will ride like a brick if the Kimbo isn't in it.

 

I really can’t tell the difference too much with the camper off. You’ll air down to about 35-40psi. It does corner real well with a stiffer tire. If you have heavy duty leafs it would probably be a different story. I’ve never had a smooth ride vehicle before either though. Had an 04 wrangler before this.

 

Honestly, my Tacoma road like a brick without the Kimbo on it lol. These things are the most reliable truck out there but she definitely don’t got the power that others have. I did buy mine used with 100K miles on it though.

I will say that it doesn’t feel much different having it on vs having it off other than when we hit strong winds head on. Even then it handles amazing. PS the fully loaded kimbo is 840LBs dry without the jacks.

 

Does anyone here boondock with the Kimbo for extended periods of time, like more than a week? I'm guessing water is the biggest limiter? This is my intention and I'm wondering how much propane and water will I need, generally speaking. I'd like to be able to harvest from clear streams to prolong the time.

 

ive boon-docked ish for a 2 week trip and carried about 19 gallons of water (5 gallons for the sink, 7 gallons stored in the closet, and another seven gallons in the Tacoma) that lasted about a week with 3 of us (me, the GF and the pup). You def have to get savvy with water. Dishes honestly use the most water.

Winter is tough to keep the water from freezing if you aren’t running the heater constantly. Other big issue is power during winter but I did just fine because I also have a 500X Goal zero I travel with. An option for charging will be to run an extension cord to the shore power on the Kimbo while you drive.

also, put the DC fridge at 4 in winter (that’s all you need) and keep the lights at like 50% as much as you can. Those things suck a lot of power.

I’m also going to cut a 6inch hose and keep a Grey water bag under the sink. Mine freezes constantly which is annoying. I also feel bad doing dishes and getting food water all over the place lol.

can’t wait for that Dometic automatic charging water faucet to drop this spring!

 

That's also something I've been wondering about, how the Kimbo does with water drainage in low temps. I'd definitely like to stay in southern Utah to visit some of the parks in winter, that's for sure, but it seems to me that the Kimbo does best if you follow the sun. I've read that the propane heater in the Kimbo does fairly well in the cold as long as the wind isn't too strong.

 

I think you’d be fine in southern Utah. My solar kicked butt when I was in Colorado. We didn’t have to stop and charge the entire time. Those dual Ecoflow batteries also charge to full in like 3 hours so worst case scenario you can just hang out at a coffee shop and plug em’ in lol.

Southern Utah also gets a lot of sun, i think you’ll be fine.

Yea that heater is awesome. We camped in -11 and -13 back to back nights and it stayed cozy in there at 50. It also sips
Propane. I only had an issue with starting the heater in super high winds. Once you get it going, it’s tough to blow out

 

Thank you....that's music to my ears. I've been thinking about all this stuff for two years already, and now it's all finally starting to come together. Next month my truck finally gets here, and next year the Kimbo. Thanks for the advice.

 

The propane heater is amazing, I've camped in Canada, Idaho and Montana in the dead of winter in subzero temps and was fine. I think that safety matches are a good idea because I have had trouble with lighters in the cold at high elevation. I also bring a winter sleeping bag as a backup in winter because freezing would be a bummer. I think that the the Kimbo's greatest strengths are the built to last design and its ability to winter camp like a champ.

 

Can you talk about how long that 30lb propane tank might last in situations like this?

 

You can find the specs (fuel consumption) of the heater here: http://dickinsonmarine.com/product/newport-p9000-propane-fireplace/

I passively tracked my consumption and I only burned 5 of the 7 gallons in two weeks running it about 10+ hours a day on my trip through Utah and Colorado.

 

That's pretty damn good. I'm really happy to hear this.

 

In response to the E rated tires concerns, here's some napkin math I did recently (I'm picking up my kimbo in a couple months so haven't actually applied this reasoning in reality, but I'll report back when I do...)

-I have Falken Wildpeak AT3/W (265/70/R17) tires which have a max load rating of 2,679lbs/tire (which is when they are fully pressurized to 51 psi) (these are not E rated)
-with the assumption that load rating is linearly correlated to PSI (which is probably close enough for these calculations), with these tires at 40 psi, that would equate to 2,143lbs/tire load capacity for a total of 8,572 lbs of load capacity across all 4 tires.
-My tacoma weighs roughly 4,500lbs
-this provides an extra 4,000lbs of load capacity to max out these tires

Add up the weight of the Kimbo, passengers, fuel, water, supplies, etc....you're looking at a couple thousand lbs to spare. I ran these numbers past Falken and they agreed with me that these should be sufficient. E rated tires will put added strain on a drivetrain and engine that's already underpowered (IMHO), so I figure I'll give this a shot and report back to the masses. Worst case, the truck feels sketchy on Tahoe mountain roads, and I do the E rated tire upgrade, but based on my calculations, I don't think it'll be an unsafe situation.

 

I like to think I’m knowledgeable about cars but until Kimbo recommended E rated tires to me, I have admit that I’d never heard of them.