Thanks! I will give that a shot and see if I can make it behave a bit better. 80% is a heck of a lot better than what I am batting right now.
"So I found this thing on Craigslist..." Tacoma Camper Build [djmase]
- Thread starter djmase
- Start date
Thanks! I will give that a shot and see if I can make it behave a bit better. 80% is a heck of a lot better than what I am batting right now.
andrewwheatley
New member
Good stuff dude! You can thank me later for making you write a build thread. Keep the stuff coming and I still expect the pics to be sent to my phone first haha
Bit of hard to find Sun-Lite info for fellow owners or those considering.
My model is the Sun-Lite Hawk and is reported by MFG to weigh 920lb loaded with standard equipment of fridge, 20lb propane bottle full and 10 gallons of water on board. Back of the napkin math has me dumping 37lb for the propane and 83.4lb for the water in the tank putting you 799.6lb for the unit dry with no bottle on board. All in all, I was pretty surprised to find out how light it actually is.
My model is the Sun-Lite Hawk and is reported by MFG to weigh 920lb loaded with standard equipment of fridge, 20lb propane bottle full and 10 gallons of water on board. Back of the napkin math has me dumping 37lb for the propane and 83.4lb for the water in the tank putting you 799.6lb for the unit dry with no bottle on board. All in all, I was pretty surprised to find out how light it actually is.
Dave Bennett
Adventurist
Great build thread!!!
Moving along...
Woke up Saturday to a busy neighborhood, apparently there was a huge coordinated yard sale effort going on all over the neighborhood and I has slept through the early part of it due to a 4 week old's maladjusted sleeping schedule. Anyhow, I threw him into the ergo carrier grabbed all the cash I could find and hit the bricks. Ended up with a USMC jerry can for $20 and two 5 gallon water carriers for free 99.
When I got back from walking the beat I found my Amazon delivery....a new heater for the rig since it doesn't have a factory one and my research pointed toward Mr. Heat as the best option.
While building a few tables with my brother in law I leafed in a few other projects, new trim, new sink, and a new porch light because the rotary switch on the original had seen better days.
Per PO, the sink was in 'good working order'. After 10 minutes of pumping I determined that that may have been less than an accurate assessment. I pulled the unit out and found cracking in the casing that would be sufficient to break the vacuum, I bought a new 2-way unit. I replace the waterline while I was in there and reset the faucet.
New Trim
New Porch Light
Then my button fell off.
Woke up Saturday to a busy neighborhood, apparently there was a huge coordinated yard sale effort going on all over the neighborhood and I has slept through the early part of it due to a 4 week old's maladjusted sleeping schedule. Anyhow, I threw him into the ergo carrier grabbed all the cash I could find and hit the bricks. Ended up with a USMC jerry can for $20 and two 5 gallon water carriers for free 99.
When I got back from walking the beat I found my Amazon delivery....a new heater for the rig since it doesn't have a factory one and my research pointed toward Mr. Heat as the best option.
While building a few tables with my brother in law I leafed in a few other projects, new trim, new sink, and a new porch light because the rotary switch on the original had seen better days.
Per PO, the sink was in 'good working order'. After 10 minutes of pumping I determined that that may have been less than an accurate assessment. I pulled the unit out and found cracking in the casing that would be sufficient to break the vacuum, I bought a new 2-way unit. I replace the waterline while I was in there and reset the faucet.
New Trim
New Porch Light
Then my button fell off.
I have been chasing electrical gremlins since I picked up the Sun-Lite...pulling my hair out, googling, and asking around here...probably a bit too much.
After looking at a boat load of diagrams I pieced together a system that I thought would work and went out to give it a whirl. Naturally, it was late Saturday night so I had to wear a headlamp and look like a major chump.
Here is the harness that the PO furnished:
Whole system
Camper connection
Deep cell connection
Truck starting battery connection
Anyhow, I decided to break all connection with the truck and simply close the loop on the battery to run the house stuff off the battery, period, end of story. The plan worked swimmingly, let there be light! Since I am only running three lights, all of them LED, my draw is next to nothing. I am looking at 5 days of full run on the current battery I have. Still not having any luck with the running lights on the camper top...seem to be losing that battle...
The longish term plan for the lid will be to put thule/yakima crossbars (2, 4, or 4) on it for mounting my rocket box and surfboard racks. Additionally, I am leaning toward setting up a 100w solar system hung from the bars that can connect to my house battery to keep things tip top. When this happens, I will shift down to a smaller battery to keep the truck on as much of a diet as possible. Since the panel and CA sun are pretty energy rich, with a 35AH battery and a 100w panel, my calcs point towards me being in good shape to run all my lights as well as a small inverter for computer, camera, and phone charging needs.
After looking at a boat load of diagrams I pieced together a system that I thought would work and went out to give it a whirl. Naturally, it was late Saturday night so I had to wear a headlamp and look like a major chump.
Here is the harness that the PO furnished:
Whole system
Camper connection
Deep cell connection
Truck starting battery connection
Anyhow, I decided to break all connection with the truck and simply close the loop on the battery to run the house stuff off the battery, period, end of story. The plan worked swimmingly, let there be light! Since I am only running three lights, all of them LED, my draw is next to nothing. I am looking at 5 days of full run on the current battery I have. Still not having any luck with the running lights on the camper top...seem to be losing that battle...
The longish term plan for the lid will be to put thule/yakima crossbars (2, 4, or 4) on it for mounting my rocket box and surfboard racks. Additionally, I am leaning toward setting up a 100w solar system hung from the bars that can connect to my house battery to keep things tip top. When this happens, I will shift down to a smaller battery to keep the truck on as much of a diet as possible. Since the panel and CA sun are pretty energy rich, with a 35AH battery and a 100w panel, my calcs point towards me being in good shape to run all my lights as well as a small inverter for computer, camera, and phone charging needs.
tanglefoot
ExPoseur
You can probably scale back on the panel for those needs. I use a 10W panel for similar use as you described and it keeps up nicely. With a solar charger, I find there's no need for a truck connection.
Can you tell me what battery and what draws you run?
I want to have a bit of expandability in the event that I want to set up a bit more of an inverter for other ac stuff or may be an arb fridge, but I also don't want to go major overkill if my needs don't grow too much. Seems like the 50w to 100w jump isn't a ton more dough. It would be great to keep the roof real estate to a minimum though. I was on the fence about the 50 vs 100, if you think I am way over my needs with a 100, I'll gladly save the cash!!!!
What have you decided about tie down mounts? I have the exact same camper and can't seem to bring myself to buy torklifts as they cost almost as much as my camper. I have been using ratchet straps tied down to the d rings in my bed and it definitely leaves a bit to be desired.
Paul Kemp
Observer
Great build! I'm really digging your ideas. The arb awning is already on my Tramper (or at least in my imagination)...do you like that awning? Complaints? Better product out there you'd suggest? I'm about 1000 miles north of you up in OR so it would be more for rain versus shade...I'd love your opinion before dropping the cash and your install seemed straight-forward enough.
Potterjon had a question about tie downs too? I snagged some Happijack stuff out of a junkyard dirt cheap (20% of what camping world wanted...) See attached cut sheet...I've been holding off drilling holes on my truck until I saw others opinions. Sitting back and will continue to watch your build!
Potterjon had a question about tie downs too? I snagged some Happijack stuff out of a junkyard dirt cheap (20% of what camping world wanted...) See attached cut sheet...I've been holding off drilling holes on my truck until I saw others opinions. Sitting back and will continue to watch your build!
PotterJon...
Still doing some testing on that front. I am in tight spaces often and DID NOT like the rig the PO was running. He had a class three receiver welded to each side of his frame and ran bar stock out with chains down on the front corners. The also had little eyelets bolted to his rear bumper ends and had the back chained to those. All in all, it was really bulky and seemed pretty sketchy.
My box sits inside of a drop in bed liner and the main issue I had was the box sliding really easily on the liner because the wood and plastic are slick. I pulled the box up and ran thick foam tape along the bottom of all of the floor studs so that it would not slide on the drop in bed liner; that helped a ton.
Next, I located the structure on the vertical knee walls of the unit, bought some heavy duty U Bolts and fabbed up an additional flat plate for each bolt. I put the U bolts through the knee wall at the structure points and in a location that is above and inside of the front and back truck bed corner tie downs so that when you crank it down it is pulling it down and towards all four corners. I have small sections of chain, clips and turn buckles to get it incredibly tight. I have run it about 1500 miles with everything from town to highway to mountain to washboard dirt and so far it is doing great. Again, not 'by the book' but if you are on a budget, it seems to do the trick.
Thanks!