Budget Skamper Fix/Build
Hey All!
So Ive been cruising this forum for a bit now, and I gotta say, Great Info! Thanks everyone.
I've always enjoyed the outdoors weather it be riding, car camping, climbing, backpacking etc. Living here on the central coast of CA, I am able to keep plenty busy.
After going on a 3 week mountain biking trip through Utah doing the tent thing I finally realized it was time to upgrade. Of course my buddy had a nice Dodge Van with the Roadtrek 210 package. I would wake up with frost on my tent to him yelling at me that the heater was on, and coffee was hot. It was then I was sold!
The first time I saw a pop ur truck camper, I knew that was my ticket since I already owned a 99 Superduty with the good ole 7.3 in it.
Due to tough times I decided to go with a used pop-up. I spent 6 months waiting patiently on craiglist to fine a shortbed pop-up, but was getting pretty frustrated because everything was out of my price range, or a long bed (8ft) camper. Because I do go off-road quite often, and wanted to throw the bike hitch on I didnt want an 8ft camper.
I ended up running across this camper about 4 hours south of me in the LA area. It is a 1989 Skamper 060S. The nice people who were selling it had never used it and acquired it years before. I was skeptical, but really wanted a camper, and the price $700 sounded like a good deal. I drove down one Friday night for a pickup Sat morn. When I got there, I was surprised because it was much smaller than I had envisioned. But besides being filthy, it was in very good condition.
It was quite a feat getting it on the truck, and luckily we didnt damage it, but with some 4x6's, and tie downs, she was on there for the journey home. Dont even ask, I know......
Finally home safe in my driveway, it was time to go to the drawing board. I was feeling good about the purchase, and was ready to get it working.
In the next few weekends, I gutted it and cleaned, fixed up, patched, and fiddled with just about everything. I built lcoking boxes to shim it up, and fit nicely over the cab. The boxes bolt to the original mounting points, and then tie down to my bed. It is actually a nice system, Ill try to get more picts. In order to jack it up, I made a bracket to extend the width of the jacks, as well as a sleeve to help me get it up higher on the truck.
I finished the list of things to do to get it securely up there, and it is nice and clean so I decided to take it out for its first run this weekend. My Girlfriend and I just headed about 15 miles out to Montana De Oro State park for the night. I must say it worked great. Truck barely feels like its on there, and the "shim boxes" are sweet! Attached are some picts of the test run. Ill post more close ups of "lil" customization as I go.
Boxes in the sun Drying:
Camper on the truck, and Parked. Ready to "pop" up!
Pop'n the Top! Notice how it sits short in the bed. It allows me to close the tailgate. A feature I actually found to be nice. Also since it sits up, and I had to make shims for the bottom to sit on, I have a TON of storage room. It was easy to throw the rug, firewood, tools, bbq (everything you dont really want in the camper) under the camper in the bed.
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I like what you did for side storage too.
Originally Posted by tanglefoot
