C5500 TopKick 4x4 Crew Cab Build

[DzlToy]

http://www.superior4x4.com/diexpopum47d.html

http://performancetruckproducts.com/...x-04-5-up.html

[Dgurley2000]

The cab can seat 6, which is our immediate family head count, with a ton of leg room. I've held off on upgrading the cab interior, as well as cutting the "crawl through" until I've convinced myself to stick with the Topkick. I didn't put any seatbelts in the camper body. The only mechanical connections of the camper body to the subframe are the 6 safety latches. Maybe I'm reckless, but I've never required passengers to buckle-up in a motorhome for all sorts of reasons. It's inconsistent of me, since I'm Mr. AGATT when it comes to motorcycles.

Appreciate the response. I have five in my family so I'm curious about seating arrangements.

Curious - I noticed your post that you're not an engineer or architect by profession. Sounds like you might run data centers? Just curious what your vocation is and how it adds to your obvious ability to architect/engineer an incredible camper?

[LukeH]

Hi,
Reacting late to the "bearings on a stick" solution because I've only just started looking at slides for mine.
Have you thought about using the little rollers you find on the fork end of pallet trucks? They have phenomenal load ratings and are smooth rolling with some kind of hard ploymer coating to not damage floors.
My version of your rear slide out is going to use them but with the beams underneath the box rather than on top.
The slide will also only contain a sideways bed, so much smaller.
HTH
Luke

[NeverEnough]

Appreciate the response. I have five in my family so I'm curious about seating arrangements.

Curious - I noticed your post that you're not an engineer or architect by profession. Sounds like you might run data centers? Just curious what your vocation is and how it adds to your obvious ability to architect/engineer an incredible camper?

I ended up in IT, but I made a lot of tree houses and forts when I was a kid. I like building stuff, for better or worse. This one has been a challenge, however- too many moving parts on a moving platform!

Hi,
Reacting late to the "bearings on a stick" solution because I've only just started looking at slides for mine.
Have you thought about using the little rollers you find on the fork end of pallet trucks? They have phenomenal load ratings and are smooth rolling with some kind of hard ploymer coating to not damage floors.
My version of your rear slide out is going to use them but with the beams underneath the box rather than on top.
The slide will also only contain a sideways bed, so much smaller.

The roller bearings under the slide (PCB) actually work just fine, as the load is distributed over five assemblies. The beams that support the cantilever were far more challenging. The original design used two pairs of beams, lower and upper, to support the 102" extension, but it proved too difficult to to without binding issues. Beams underneath are a better solution for many reasons, but it would've required me to either reconfigure all of my "basement" components (tanks, plumbing, storage bays), or mount them on the truck chassis rails (which would eliminate the ability to deploy the slide-room unless it was on the truck). If I were to do it over again, I would've stuck with another of my first designs, which was a simple fold-down support frame with legs to deploy the slide on. I'll probably tweek the rig this fall to add that on as I work on the back platform.

If your slide is moving less than 50" and weighs less than 1500lbs, I would highly recommend using LCI/Schwintek's slide hardware. It is what I used for my side slides. Fast, light, and easy to install. PM me if you need more info. I only did custom for the big slide because nobody had an engineered solution for 102" travel stroke that would work easily or cost effectively in a camper.

[NeverEnough]

It's been a while since I posted. The rig has been out on several trips to Flaming Gorge on the Utah/Wyoming border. We do 5-6 outings there every summer, and is the type of camping that I designed the rig for. So far, so good. Next week we'll start heading down to the Swell for fall riding and canyoneering. It is a very, very comfortable and functional setup for a large family and friends. I haven't made time to get the Topkick in for more diagnostics, however. As long as I don't push the hills at highway speeds, it does just fine. I still want to see if the situation can be improved before I cut the crawl-through.

I neglected to post shots of the bathroom and cabover, so here's a few. Sorry about the iPhone shots; I really need a wide-angle lens to do a decent job. It's a much larger bathroom than most, but it makes for a happy wife, so it's well worth the space! This is looking straight in the door:



Over the years, I learned that my family rarely uses the shower- except my wife loves to use it for extra luggage storage. So I built the shower to hold to snap-in cargo shelves. The lower one is in place for this shot. They're held in using simple ball-catches and are easily popped out if someone wants to take a shower.





The shower floor had to be about 7 inches above the main floor to accommodate the trap-less valve, as well as provide maintenance access, so I used the rest of the space for large drawer that holds all of the central vac accessories. The black bag on the shower floor holds 4 folding chairs for the dining area.



Central vac, by the way, has been awesome. It makes keeping the rig clean a snap.

There's a ton of storage in the bathroom vanity. It also provides access to the water heater and propane furnace for maintenance/service.



The upper cabinets are also very spacious and provide lots of extra storage.



The pop-up cabover has become a favorite feature. It makes for a very comfortable, quiet bedroom, and makes accessing the roof deck a snap. There are inside and outside brush seals on all moving surfaces, and they do their job very well. The cabover is accessed with a swing-up, removable aluminum step assembly. It swings up to allow access to all of the storage cubbies, as well as to allow for the crawl-through to the cab (when it gets installed).



The cabover can be closed off with it's own little door.





Not a great shot, but you might be able to get a feel for the head-room, which is about 6'8" at the peak. I still need to cover the folding-wall hinge in nylon fabric, and the door isn't shut tight (it also needs to be painted). The console in the corner has the radiant floor thermostat, 120VAC and 12VDC outlets, ceiling fan controls, and light controls. The upper duct is for the A/C and the lower duct is for the propane furnace. Both work surprisingly well, even with single ducts. The step ladder is the current solution for roof access. I'll eventually fab up a more elegant solution, probably this winter.



This shot is taken standing in the rear passenger corner of the room. There are two cushions stacked on top of each other, which are unstacked when you need a queen-size bed.



And from the driver's side. The gas shocks make raising the roof easy. The red De Staco clamps on each side secure the roof in drive position.



I also got to work, finally, on my combination motorcycle lift/carrier and slide-out support. This was part of the original design, and I've decided to give it a try. The frame is raised and lowered by two 2000lb. winches, which will also be the mechanisms for raising and lowering the motorcycle platform. The whole assembly bolts onto the camper body (not the chassis) and can be removed in about 20 minutes.



The rear jacks, which are normally mounted on the back of the slide-out room, slip into "cuffs" that pivot 90 degrees. V-groove wheels mount where the jacks normally mount on the back of the slide room, and roll on the angle welded on top of the double Unistrut beams on each side of the frame.





Now that I know the cable/winch assembly works just fine, the jacks rotate, slide, and support as intended, and the room moves in and out nice and smooth (way better than when it cantilevers), I can run the wiring, weld the corners and gussets, and fab up the motorcycle platform. Then another trip to the powder coating shop!

[GregB_00XJ]

Wow... amazing work on this rig...amazing and HUGE.

[Every Miles A Memory]

I'm always impressed with this rig and how well it turned out

[Ford Prefect]

I'm always impressed with this rig and how well it turned out

Ditto

I think that the cab over, and the steps are an excellent design.

I noticed on the top rear of the cab over roof there is a lot of light seeping in. Is there a way to seal that off? Do you expect wind to come in, IE cold wind and snow in the winter months?

Looks like a great room, and I think that your choice of the steps is a wonderful way to work it, perhaps the best I have seen as they can also add to the ability to seal the back of the truck off from the cab when you ship the truck, or even just have it into the shop for work.

That bath is amazing! I love the shower ideas, no one really uses that thing unless they are gone for a while anyhow. Plus the drawer under, wow, why doesn't everyone do that!!! It was a stroke of genius. People on here always talk about budgeting space and that you can never have enough. That is great.

Did you put in floor accessed cubbyholes? I have seen lots of those on trucks, between the frame rails, to have a few six inch deep boxes all along the truck to store more stuff and I do not recall if you did that or not.

Anyhow, brilliant work, and thanks again for sharing.

[NeverEnough]

Ditto

I think that the cab over, and the steps are an excellent design.

I noticed on the top rear of the cab over roof there is a lot of light seeping in. Is there a way to seal that off? Do you expect wind to come in, IE cold wind and snow in the winter months?

Looks like a great room, and I think that your choice of the steps is a wonderful way to work it, perhaps the best I have seen as they can also add to the ability to seal the back of the truck off from the cab when you ship the truck, or even just have it into the shop for work.

That bath is amazing! I love the shower ideas, no one really uses that thing unless they are gone for a while anyhow. Plus the drawer under, wow, why doesn't everyone do that!!! It was a stroke of genius. People on here always talk about budgeting space and that you can never have enough. That is great.

Did you put in floor accessed cubbyholes? I have seen lots of those on trucks, between the frame rails, to have a few six inch deep boxes all along the truck to store more stuff and I do not recall if you did that or not.

Anyhow, brilliant work, and thanks again for sharing.

Thanks for the compliments, gents. Glad you like it. And it is big- way too big for international travel, narrow tracks, or low bridges, but that wasn't the design spec. I'll save that for when the boys are out of the house!

As I mentioned above, I've yet to install a nylon fabric "baffle" on top of the continous hinge of the cabover's fold-down wall. However, it doesn't allow water or even much air to enter even without the baffle, because of the overhang on the outside. The roof of the camper is white, as is the inside of the overhang where the wall is mounted, so there's not nearly as much gap as the photo's light bleed would suggest. The room is not drafty at all, and that has been field tested in some pretty crazy micro-burst situations this summer. But the baffle will make it even better.

I am very happy with the fold-up stairs. I messed around with several prototypes before going this route. And it takes seconds to unfasten it for removal, if needed. Most important, it is super-strong (tested by a friend that pushes 280lbs, zero flex, creaks, etc.).

I wish that I could've purchased a prefab shower insert with integrated removable shelves, because it seems like a no-brainer, but they don't exist. Having a separate shower space occupies a huge volume, which almost always goes to waste, but we didn't want a "toilet in the middle of the shower floor" setup for this rig. Personally, I like that approach, but the architectural revue committee (guess who) insisted on a different direction. So building the enclosure from scratch was a pain, but worth the final result.

All "under floor" storage is accessed from outside. I thought about inside access early in the design phase, but that would've made radiant floor heat much more difficult, if not impossible. The space between the chassis rails forward of the axle is mostly eaten up by the batteries, and the space behind will end up holding extra propane bottles, if I ever get around to it. So far, the inside storage capacity has been more than sufficient. There are six roll-a-board sized cubbies in the hall, as seen above, a closet that can accommodate hangers with full-length slacks, the two cargo shelves in the shower, all of the floor space of the cabover, the cabover's closet, and the eight large "tote" sized storage bays under the side-slide beds. When you combine that with the built-in cabinets, there's a lot of room for luggage, food, bedding, guitars, fishing gear, climbing gear, etc. For the first time in years of RV'ing, we leave home with everything stowed securely and out of sight, with plenty of left over storage sitting empty. In hind sight, I should've put in a washer/dryer stack in place of some of the hall cubbies, but that would be an easy mod if I ever need to do it.

In conclusion, after having used the rig on several occassions, I know I could've made it a bit smaller and not given up much, if any comfort or convenience. I think I could've trimmed 8" off the height, and 12" to 18" off the length. I don't think I could've made it skinnier without impacting the functional design, however. And once you're much over 90" wide, you may as well go full-width.

[Ford Prefect]

Thank you very much for your thoughts and response.

I still need to head up your way and see if I can't grab a look in person. Love the truck, truly well done, and it is great to hear your family is enjoying it as well!