Oyster Taco's Build Thread: No Special Skills, Budget, Problem Solver Camper Build

Never thought I'd be this guy....but here's ANOTHER build thread.

I remember walking into the truck world the same way I did with dirt bikes a handful of years ago....knowing almost nothing. TW was a lot of information at once, and as with many of you probably, it took me a few years to learn the ins and outs of the truck, and I still am. Thought I could share my ups and downs as I continue to dick around with it as someone who did not grow up working on cars but am pretty mechanically inclined and like to risk it for a biscuit to save some money.

Brief history- I had a 3rd gen 4runner I loved, that was lifted on a plain old bilstein lift, stick, decent shape. Loved it, but just needed something for the city when I was working at a newspaper in Seattle. Got a subaru forester, we hated it, almost sent it off the cliff while camping, sold it because we missed having something more capable and less....bad at everything, so we got the tacoma.


The Truck:

2012 Tacoma DCLB TRD Sport. Bought at 124k in Seattle in 2019. 1 owner. Paid the PNW Tacoma tax but wasn't as bad as many. Here she is with one of our pups shortly after I got the truck. The only mods the truck had were a kind of poorly color matched cap, some very simple drawers in back, and some Renegade 9" wheels that had some weird backspacing.




Me:

I'm a constant tinkerer, but try and control that urge a bit. I want to rebuild my truck from the bottom up....but I don't make that sort of money, have that sort of space, or have that sort of time. So I've kind of learned that as much as I drool over full skid, a HC swing out with dual jerry cans, an aluminum bumper, 37's, gears and a SC....that's not going to be me....UNLESS, I find some killer deals on all those things and something has broken and can be replaced with something better.

Which leads me into the build.

Modding:

The truck is not that tinkered with yet. I've combed craigslist and forums here and slowly collected a good start, which got us through a great summer of adventuring in 2020 while setting myself up for future build plans and fixing somethings that needed maintenance.

So far, the truck has some used King's extended travel coil overs up front with #600 coils. They needed to be rebuilt so took them to Auburn Offroad and supplied all the parts to them.

Also found a deal on some Total Chaos heim UCA's. Needed a rebuild, have a weird pointless zerk fitting. Whatever.

After trying some other options Dakar HD leafs worked best for me. I had a larger cap on the truck, drawers, two bike racks, awning and when the truck had camp gear in it, it was off the stops with a progressive AAL.

Rear shocks are some Old Man Emu Sports I got from a user on here. Pretty beat up, look ugly, but worked fine.

Prinsu Knock Off

Rago Bed Stiffeners - CL

3rd Gen 16" OR wheels with skinnies

Here she was in summer form for a road trip we did around the West to get some mountain biking in. I think we camped 30+ nights in the truck in 2020.



The Plan.

So COVID-19 came and kinda made my partner and I realize a few things. 1. traveling is a no go for awhile. We always tried to squirrel some money away for an international trip a year. I think that's gone for a bit for us. 2. We'd always talked about the idea of buying a cabin to retreat to as much as possible, get outside and escape the city. We realized that's just not in the cards sometime soon, but we can make the truck into our mobile cabin. We can make it a home base for extended road trips and adventures, get us outside more, and fill that desire for a fraction of the cost.

As much as I'd love to do gnarly trails and really see what the truck is capable of, we want this rig to be more of a problem-solver, not a problem-maker. Dumped rain or snow overnight? Fine, we can get through it. Tree fell in trail, winch it out. New wash out? climb through it. Etc etc.

We also want it to be affordable. I'd love a $1400 CBI bumper, but if I can get ahold of a $700 ARB, you know it's going on the truck.

The Camper.

And this goes for our main project at the moment, a camper. I'd spent tons of time reading home built camper threads. Including the wedge designs here by @Ripcord. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-diy-wedge-camper.604686/

My partner wanted something a it more akin to a full slide in camper that could be cozy and more livable, and I was fine with anything that just let my 6'5" frame sleep comfortably, without weighing 900 lbs.

I spent this winter kind of combining some of our favorite aspects of a lot of these campers and have come up with a kind of GFC/Ripcord/OVRLND/Project M mashup. I hope to share how we did it, what it cost, and make something that's accessible for those people without special skills or workshops and make things as easy as possible to take on and learn those skills, or to hire out for.

The camper looks to be begin assembly in the next two weeks, but as of now, our house is filled with extra long 8020 extrusions, fabric, mcmaster carr boxes and camper parts.



The Other Plans.

As I said, we just want the truck to be reliable, safe, and get us out of some problems. I also want any noobies to have a place to find some of this info, so I'll do some explainers or link to the one's I used.

I plan on adjusting/tinkering/upgrading:

front bumper
winch
rear swingout on bike rack
light output
electrical
rear seat storage
rear travel
brake performance
standard, preventative maintenance
No more silver wheels!
Light rust
Stance



I'm a photographer by trade and take far few photos of my truck and getting outside, so hoping this is also some inspiration to share those adventures. Here's a few I had handy.












Cheers,

Oyster Taco

 

Great looking truck! What canopy is on it now?

 

Right now, we have none! I recently sold the silver one, which I believe was an ARE. It came uncarpeted, and we carpeted it....which I would not suggest.

Truck has an open bed right now, which is a nice change of pace, but feels like shit with HD dakars in back.

 

Little update from the week:

Ordered the rest of our 8020 extrusions for our camper and finalized files for the CNC shop for our panelling. Ground down some of the welds, some almost past flush. Have almost everything in line for the start of assembly next week.

Also scored a new-in-box ARB bumper for the truck nearby last night. Hyped to get the build really moving. Such a long list of things to do.

First order of business is to get the camper out of my house and onto the truck, and then tackle some maintenance items. I have a squeak in my front end that is driving me crazy so will be hunting that down with a fresh LCA, new hardware and tie rod ends. Hope that's the end of it.

 

I was wondering myself (about the white camper top.) I love the tops that have a swept up front to an elevated section.

 

First pic...that's a happy dog!

 

I liked mine a lot too! they are tough to find and atrociously expensive new. I believe mine was an A.R.E MX series one.

 

Alright, I need to do an update here!

Here's the current state of the truck:


Camper:


The truck stuff is quick, so I'll run over it, then do a second post on the camper.

ARB 2012-2015 Bumper

I am one of the select few that thinks the ARB looks really good. I know it's clunky, I know it's heavy as hell, but I had to remember my M/O for this build: solve problems not create them, and on a budget. This bumper was local CL, in box, $700. Fit my truck with no welding, no wait time. I also am a sucker that it's been "crash tested." I got precious cargo, and I mainly want it to keep elk out of my face and deer from totaling my truck!

It was...a surprising PITA to install. Came with a big-ass bag of unlabeled hardware, instruction booklet for ants with muddy pictures that may or may not apply to your model, and you needed to drill holes to get it to mount, but there's a plethora of holes to use as alignment, so who knows exactly which ones they meant.

As far as the mounting holes and centering it, I used a piece of wood as a spacer to help me keep it flush with the fenders but the 20mm or so away from the fenders. My buddy said you really want out there as there's a more flex than you'd anticipate. He also had a precut piece from his old 2+ gen and we color match - rattle canned it and that saved a ton of time. We used one of the two mounting holes ARB said to drill for now, as it looks kind of like we might be able to pull it back another inch or so to where the 2005-2011 version sits. Leverage is king, so the bumper will track better a bit closer. TBD.

Also, remote reservoir mounts are all different, and will probably not like the tensioning bracket of the ARB. Get ready to chop something. We ran out of steam to do it super cleanly, and didn't think of it until it was on the truck. I have old style mounting brackets on my Kings, so we sawzalled the middle, and bent out the front of the bracket. It's not pretty, but I kind of don't care! Picture below.

700# springs
Got some eibach springs for $50 or so from another user here to put on my rebuilt Kings I got on CL last year. Turns out normal spring compressors that work on most other coil overs will absolutely not work on kings. They'll interfere with the body of the CO and you wont get any leverage. We figured this out after getting them off, with confidence. His experience was with Radflo's and Icons, IIRC. So....we tried all sorts of things, and ended up doing it very redneck and I would not suggest it, and will not write about it or repeat it. I will tell you, to go get some SPC spring compressors, and see if you can get the plates that fit on the spring, though the hooks should work.

Also, buy the kings meat hook tool, cut off the biggeset allen key you have that fits in the adjustment holes, and buy a 5/16th (I think) steel punch. You'll need all three to adjust your kings if the preload is all the way off or up pretty high. My adjustment holes look like shit (and did when I got them) but it's an ugly process. Attempt to do 90% of your adjusting before placing them. Go too far, then back off on the truck.


SpiderTrax 1.25 spacers
easy. Use red loctite. Think about what you are doing every step of the way. Don't loctite the studs on your spacers, then question it, so you have to take a wheel off again to double check. 90 ft lbs for the spacer, 83 for your wheel. check at 50 miles (Which I am due for today)

I have 255r80r16 cooper discoverers, on 3rd gen OR wheels, and with the spacers I am still clear of the cab mount. Look is way better, way less skinny, but just the tiniest bit past the fenders. I debated this forever, but can't justify new wheels at the moment, and this made the truck feel more planted and looks 100% better.

 

The Camper!

Progress has been slow, but honestly feels like all I've been doing.

We have all the panelling done, the extrusion on the space frame, beta-test lift mechanisms, roof, rear hatch nearly completed, sealed the truck bed rails and more.

I've been less than stellar at taking pictures each step of the way, but here are some notes:

Space Frame:

I purchased plans from @Ripcord, and used the length, height and width measurements, and then just made a box. My buddy welded it up for a few hundred bucks + steel. He made a few last minute decisions on bracing, particularly one a symmetrical brace on the front that irks my perfectionism, but that's being tested throughout the whole build and I'm very grateful for his time and energy after another welder bailed.

Panels:

I ordered mine from Multigard, which has a bunch of locations out west, at least in PDX and Seattle. did mostly black, and had them do all square cuts besides the two side panels where we will have a hatch and RV windows. We also neglected to have them drill holes for the rivets, as that would require every panel to be CNC'd, which added up quickly.

Also of note, by making our frame a box, it made my roof a difficult size. It was 62" wide, which meant two panels. I sealed them on a support bar.

Panels use cork gasket, and black silicone, and 3/16 rivets to seal. I clamped each panel and drilled holes through it and the frame to get my rivets to line up. There's a definite art to riveting, and some of ours sit flatter than others. We tried some shorter and some longer rivets. The shorter were a nightmare to drill out when we added some rubber trim to our panels, because they weren't long enough and would just spin.

Also, it's TBD if all aluminum composite panels are of the same quality. Ours scratch super, super easy.

I'd also suggest a 6mm panel for your cabover portion. The 3mm is too thin if you're going to have some dogs up there.

8020/Tnutz/Hardware:

This has been death by a thousand cuts. I tried so hard to order just once and think about all the hardware I needed. Wrong. So many little orders from Mcmaster and Tnutz as things change. Runs to the hardware store etc. This is where the money gets burnt on a homemade camper. Stainless steel hardware. @Ripcord's build is very cost effective and straightforward in this manner, mad respect for it. I didn't realize how much more expensive making my camper square and a vertical pop up would be as far as hardware, and just making it a little longer.

I went with the individual corner pieces, some silver, we painted them. They don't look as great as I'd like, but there's always next time.

Our 8020 section is 62" wide by 116" long, with a the 4.5inch bottom and 3" top. I was worried it'd look too tall, and time will tell, but I liked the extra storage area and probably needed it with my lift mechanism.

Lift Mechanism:

This was totally something I overlooked while planning the build. I saw lots of pictures online and was like "cool, three fulcrums, should be easy to mount to the 8020, and then you're done! I'll think about it later"

I was wrong. This shit is hard. It makes me realize that companies like OVRLND have engineered the shit out of these mechanisms. They work in such a way that you can't lower the roof wrong, it snaps into place and is rigid! Fuck, sounds nice!

Picture dump with some explainers:


Adding side panels^

Blew up our living room for awhile (extrusions not connected yet, just test fit) ^


(Attachment from 8020-space frame. Bolts are on the inside of the the tube. Some have lock washers, but the hole had to be pretty big, to get anything in there, add some lack of precision, and it was just tough. This might have been the most difficult part so far. Making sure the the bolt heads are turned the right way was a pain. I had a hard time drilling straight holes in every capacity. 6-7 holes over 6 feet is a lot of room for error when 1/16th of an inch counts with stiff AF aluminum extrusion. Also, keeping the second hole where I'd access the bolt square was super difficult. I now own a 90 degree drill block which I think would have helped, but I would've need some long bits. Mag drill would've been best. Also of note, I have a moveable floor and wider bed area than Ripcord's design, so I could not do one sheet that went around the whole camper, so I decided to utilize ACM sheets to keep it uniform. Next time, I'd avoid this, but it would make my cabover portion a bit more complex.


(foam for roof sealing was not needed, and made the top panels look pillowy. Just use silicone. Make a mess. Clean it up. Save money.
Also, lining this all up, with t nuts and holes was a nightmare. I later learned to slide all your panels onto your extrusion or vice versa. ITS WAY EASIER.

Lift mechanism post to follow later today!