out with the old in with the new

hdemetrious said:

Are those under body tool boxes mounted to the truck frame or the camper body? I mounted mine with L shaped brackets to the truck frame and the top of the boxes are screwed to the camper body. There is no gap between the boxes and the camper. I question whether mine is a proper mount since the camper body rides on rubber allowing movement. I would appreciate your knowledge on the matter.

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I agree with LowTech, mount only onto one, and preferably to the truck frame.

Thanks guys. Westyss how much space do you place between the bottom of the camper to the top of the tool box?

I am looking forward to seeing your interior.

Great build. Where did you find the box to frame springs? Do you know what rating is? I haven't been able to locate any that that I have thought would be stiff enough.

I'm curious about your linear actuators. Your lift weight seems like its fairly balances, have you ever loaded anything on one part of the roof to see how they react speed wise? Based on your slides I assume you have 1/2" gap between your walls, if you've ever had and actuation speed differences have you ever started to bind up the roof lift?

I'm planning a similar overlapping hard wall pop-up truck camper. However my lift points would be in the 4 corners of the main camper base so the front set would have more roof weight on the from the portion in the cab over. Due to that I've sorta written off linear actuators since I'd have actuation speed differences and didn't want to have to jockey them a bunch during the lift. I'm curious on your thoughts since you have a rig in action.

Right now I'm leaning towards sync. hydraulics but that is more cost than the linear actuators, and running some wiring is easier to install as well...

westyss said:

I am still trying to find a way of getting a SMEV cook top and sink with lids, but am failing miserably as most come up only for sale to a manufacturer.

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FYI: Panther RV down in Vancouver, WA has started carrying the 2 burner hob model.

hdemetrious said:

Thanks guys. Westyss how much space do you place between the bottom of the camper to the top of the tool box?

I am looking forward to seeing your interior.

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The boxes are mounted onto the flat deck, so really no space, but, these frames flex alot with some variables like weight and suspension, so, if you are mounting your boxes off the frame, plan on enough room to allow the system to move. Before the camper unit was mounted onto the flat deck the frame flexed so much the deck lifted off the frame about 4"-5". I would go with at minumum 3" away from the deck.

Here's a shot showing the frame flex, its mostly frame because the suspension did very little compression.

justduck said:

Great build. Where did you find the box to frame springs? Do you know what rating is? I haven't been able to locate any that that I have thought would be stiff enough.

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look for " Lee Spring" they have all sorts of stiffness, rate compressions, and lengths available.

pods8 said:

I'm curious about your linear actuators. Your lift weight seems like its fairly balances, have you ever loaded anything on one part of the roof to see how they react speed wise? Based on your slides I assume you have 1/2" gap between your walls, if you've ever had and actuation speed differences have you ever started to bind up the roof lift?

I'm planning a similar overlapping hard wall pop-up truck camper. However my lift points would be in the 4 corners of the main camper base so the front set would have more roof weight on the from the portion in the cab over. Due to that I've sorta written off linear actuators since I'd have actuation speed differences and didn't want to have to jockey them a bunch during the lift. I'm curious on your thoughts since you have a rig in action.

Right now I'm leaning towards sync. hydraulics but that is more cost than the linear actuators, and running some wiring is easier to install as well...



FYI: Panther RV down in Vancouver, WA has started carrying the 2 burner hob model.

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Pods8, the actuators dont rise at the same rate, I have around half an inch gap and never had a binding problem, but if you are trying to have them move at the same speed, there are speed controllers available. Another ghetto way of adjusting the speed is with longer wire runs for the faster actuators, wire length changes the speed alot. These actuators are now about $100 each, and am very happy with the set up, but I like to be able to tilt the roof structure the way I want so water run off flows away from the door. There is a thread on expo some where about actuator speed control, maybe the trailer site??

oh, and thanks for that Smev info Pods8, but I am going with a Force 10 cook top with broiler.

Good info. Earlier I was thinking a rheostat (which would cause voltage drop) could be used to slow the fast ones down but would likely reduce lift strength. I see there are some PWM controllers that slow it but keep all the voltage. Interesting stuff. I'll look around for the thread you mentioned for further info.

Price point on them is good...

Oh decisions, decisions.

This is an utterly fascinating build!

The inspiration, skills and enthusiasm are remarkable.

Thanks for sharing.

thanks for the compliments.

Here are some items to complete the battery box set up, a wrap around aluminum piece to protect the battery isolator from the storage area above the box, this area is a good size for some light items, it extends up into the deck frame area so is about 12' tall by the width and length of the box.



And to keep that stuff in there, I made up an aluminum door with a stainless steel hinge and lock with some door seal to keep it a bit dry.


With that out of the way, the next item on the agenda was to get the cassette toilet installed, these are designed for a wall thickness of no more than 2", and mine are 3" thick, so some creative work was in order, not hard just picky, I had to make up an extension on the water fill pipe( top door) which is a non standard size, I cut off a piece of the fill pipe, extended it with 2" ABS and siliconed it in place, used longer screws than supplied and was done.
The cassette door extended below the aluminum frame work and I had to trim a piece 3/8"th x 12" from the bottom so the door would sit flush, well here is a testament to the incredible strength of SIKA 251, that stuff will not let go, I cut between the fibre glass and aluminum with a box cutter (breaking two blades in the process) as much as I could, then started prying and hammering a chisel in there to separate it rendering the aluminum piece a useless chunk of bent metal. I officially recommend SIKA 251 as an adhesion product.


So the top door is the fresh water fill, and bottom is where the cassette stays(not there in this pic) and I noticed that I didnt get any pics of the actual toilet, so next time.


Unfortunately the build process will be slowed up from a planned trip, I was originally trying to make it to EXPO, but I couldnt get off work until the Friday when it starts, and since I live in British Columbia I wouldnt get there until it was over, so we opted to do a Death Valley trip instead, then spend a couple of days in Vegas for my B'day, so I will throw all the stuff back into the camper and start to get ready to go.


On another topic, some folk were asking about the weight of the Rhinocore, while the interior was empty, I had to get the truck weighed for re-registration (now officially an RV) and with the aluminum 1/4" corners all around, I estimate around 300-450 lb's of aluminum on there, and the actuators, it comes in at 1503 pounds. So probably a little over 1000 pounds of rhinocore product, camper size is approximately 13' x 6.5' x 3" thick at 5' tall, this includes 2" thick floor and roof, with 1/8"th fiberglass inside and outside.

Another quick question on those actuators. Do you see speed differences on the lowering as well or just the raising? I'd assume in the lowering phase the load is helping the motors to want to spill so they'd all just spool up to full speed but it doesn't hurt to ask.

pods8 said:

Another quick question on those actuators. Do you see speed differences on the lowering as well or just the raising? I'd assume in the lowering phase the load is helping the motors to want to spill so they'd all just spool up to full speed but it doesn't hurt to ask.

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Speed during lowering is also affected, its strictly an electric control issue, and length of wire is my main issue, I will be re-working my system a little to get better results from mine and will be re sizing the wire (larger guage) and running the same length, I thought that I did run the same length but then remebered that I didnt purchase enough wire so I ended up having different length's, I believe if the wiring is close to equal you can really just trim length of the wire to get a very close speed match between actuators. I used some 12/2 cab tire and am not sure that is the best choice for 12 volt usage? I will go with an automotive wire instead next time but will retain the ability of controlling each one individually.

westyss said:

Speed during lowering is also affected, its strictly an electric control issue, and length of wire is my main issue, I will be re-working my system a little to get better results from mine and will be re sizing the wire (larger guage) and running the same length, I thought that I did run the same length but then remebered that I didnt purchase enough wire so I ended up having different length's, I believe if the wiring is close to equal you can really just trim length of the wire to get a very close speed match between actuators. I used some 12/2 cab tire and am not sure that is the best choice for 12 volt usage? I will go with an automotive wire instead next time but will retain the ability of controlling each one individually.

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If you're undersized in terms of wiring and getting voltage drop I can understand the slower speeds while lowering and the basic manufacturing speed tolerance. But what I was inquiring about is will a given actuator lower at the same speed with and without load? I know that isn't the case while lifting since their speed drops off from .5"/sec unloaded to .4"/sec loaded, on a 24" lift actuator that has the potential to 4.8" difference based on loading all other things being equal in terms of voltage supply and normal operation speeds. I just wanted to make sure loading didn't affect lowering speeds.

Hmm, I want to say that the speed remains the same , load or not, with a canoe on the roof, I put it all the way to the drivers side as far as it will go and that hasnt affected the speed of that side, its still faster than the side that has longer wire runs, going up and down, no real noticable diff.