OutbackHack's Build, solving problems with metal

Aluminum, my best friend / worst enemy... new camper roof 25% more aero, ~40lbs lighter, 100% less leaks (hopefully)

 

Are you using a spool gun or tig for the aluminum?

 

Spoolgun. Finally figured out a technique for getting some decent welds in aluminum, but only for flat/horizontal joints, so I had to keep rotating the frame around so that whatever I was welding was flat on the floor. It's really hard to control the heat input with the spoolgun, so the aluminum goes from solid to flowing like water and melting away very quickly. Unlike steel which is much more forgiving and easier to keep the molten puddle where I want it.
Someday I'll get my hands on a Tig machine and improve my aluminum game, in the meantime I'll stick to working with steel whenever possible.

 

awesome rig and sweet fab skills!

 

Awe, the ol' frisky braces!

 

In

I’ll break out my hi-lift to level my truck and helps stabilize it.
The hi-lift is heavy and kind of a pain. This looks much better.

 

Done the hi-lift thing too. I've since modified those legs with adjustable feet cause they ended up being too short on uneven ground, not great but they kinda work.

Awesome camper build you got there, I really wanted a full box camper instead of a cap, but couldn't bring myself to part with the original bed. Maybe if I ever built a new one, but honestly we'll probably go the van route eventually.

 

Needed to bend a bunch of sheet metal for the camper and other projects, so I made a thing.

 

Subbed awesome build

 

Overhauled and reinstalled. Just need to finish the tent fabric 2.0 which is gonna take another few weeks since the fabric store keeps delaying my shipments and I’m back to working full time. Hopefully be back to camping in it before June.

 

tried a little flying while driving for the first time.

 

Fabric is the biggest pain in the ass

 

Mike really awesome build thread. Your fab skills are outstanding. I'm building a cap for mine as well and your right...lots of holes to drill, thousands. Lol
Zim

 

Yup, here’s how many rivets I’ve put into the camper during this overhaul.

 

Lol, I've got a few dust pans of those too, and I'm not done.
Zim

 

Here's mine. I need to update it.
Zim
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/north-american-sojourner-build.665632/

 

$150 worth of sewing later and we’ve got windows. Just about ready to go camping again, finishing a new custom mattress and some misc other things inside.


Big improvement over the first tent I hacked together from an old CVT tent, but it also cost about 3x as much.

 

I forgot your camper didn't originally come with the fabric wall/windows.
Nice work on the upgrades. Liking the new camper colors.
My camper is still on order hoping for completion in August but more realistic would be October.

 

finishing some foam & fabric work that had to be done, can’t wait to get back to working with metal on some other projects.

Ceiling (fleece covered 1.5” rigid foam) and mattress (cordura covered 3” polyurethane foam) done. Color selection chosen by “whatever fabric was available during the pandemic”

mattress feels like it’ll be much nicer than just the thermarest sleeping pads we’ve been using. A bit heavier than I’d like, but what’s another 10lbs on a already 1000lbs overweight truck...

finally got the camper into a state where we can actually camp in it again, heading out tomorrow for a quick overnighter.

 

Got out there this weekend.