The TARDIS - A Four Wheel Camper Build

[Overland Hadley]

Looks like Finch will need the swing out to clear the rear wheel fender.

Well damn!

The swing outs brackets from FWC are an additional $260, there must be a cheaper option, even if it is a home made bracket extension.

That puts the four corner jacks at just under one grand. Not going to happen at that cost. I will deal with the tripod jacks , or think about a home grown option. (A home grown jacking option is scary, I know.)

[SuperCal]

Are you sure you need the swingouts? If you can run a straight edge down the side of your camper and not hit the body you should be fine, the jacks stick out an inch or so past the side of the camper once mounted...


Ps, a Finch is 69" wide according to FWCs website...

[Overland Hadley]

I will try and get ahold of Stan at FWC tomorrow and see what the options are.

But every photo I could find of a Gen 2 Tacoma with a Finch/Eagle with the jacks on also has the swing out brackets.

It is possible that if the plan is to take the jacks off after loading there are other options.

[Stan@FourWheel]

If you have a 2005 - 2010 toyota tacoma, and you are putting the finch or eagle models on the truck, you will need swing-out brackets, or you can make some small aluminum extension plates.

I will try and post pics when I have time.

It will be easy.




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I will try and get ahold of Stan at FWC tomorrow and see what the options are.

But every photo I could find of a Gen 2 Tacoma with a Finch/Eagle with the jacks on also has the swing out brackets.

It is possible that if the plan is to take the jacks off after loading there are other options.

.



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[Overland Hadley]

If you have a 2005 - 2010 toyota tacoma, and you are putting the finch or eagle models on the truck, you will need swing-out brackets, or you can make some small aluminum extension plates.

I will try and post pics when I have time.

It will be easy.


.

Does FWC offer a bracket extension? Or is it something I need to figure out before I get the camper?

If I need to have it made beforehand, do you have a PDF of the size and bolt placement it will need to be?

[pods8]

I had a thought for you. Bearing in mind I've not seen this product in person, if you have a harbor freight near by it might be worth checking on the quality of the jack below. Assuming this is only for the occasional on/off of the camper and not traveling with them on, for the cost it might be a decent option.

You need to get a bracket for the camper made up, maybe just mimic the kind that already come on the camper or order just the brackets with the camper if that's an option. If you are having one made then I'd see about aluminum or stainless steel so you don't have peeling paint issues like we all have. Then you'd just need a flat plate drilled to match the camper bracket welded onto these jacks (could be built with whatever extension you need). If you know someone with a welder it would be a cake walk job and if you needed something built I can't imagine it costing too much. (Depending on how high you think you'll need to jack you might need to make the jack mount lower on a bracket, I'm not sure where they measure the heights from to get the 48" height, again go check one out if interested).

Just a thought, research/proceed at your own risk. I'll probably be checking something like this out if I go forward with my build.

$36.99 Jack

[Overland Hadley]

Just a thought, research/proceed at your own risk. I'll probably be checking something like this out if I go forward with my build.

$36.99 Jack

Thanks for the link!

That might be a doable option. Looks better than a bottle jack and a 2x4.

[Overland Hadley]

SMEV glass top sink with drainer, model number 8306. Link



I went with the glass top units for the utility, not for the looks, although the clean look is a good byproduct. With the glass tops I will have a large flat surface to work on when loading film and looking at maps. A chart table of sorts.

The drainer part of the sink will be in the corner of the countertop, while I will be losing countertop space with the drainer design, I feel the drainer will be more useful when cooking, and when not cooking the glass top makes it a moot point.

This was bought from Ebay when the former American distributor was clearing out stock. At this point I can not find a source for them in N.A., this is too bad because they are high quality units. There are a few places in Europe that have them available, best place I have found is LeisureshopDirect.com. I have ordered some SMEV parts from them and they are good to work with on shipping an order to North America.

I ordered an angled drain fitting for the sink. Best place I could find is noted above.

My sink does not have a faucet, future post will cover those plans.

[pods8]

By the way I picked up one of those jacks at my local harbor freight to check out. When fully extended its 52" from bottom plate to the very top of the main body tube. So it might not be too useful for a normal slide in the bed truck camper (since the jacks usually bolt onto the camper higher than that) without either rigging up a drop bracket or using a longer extension tube (I'd shoot for a longer extension tube personally). Pretty basic design but it seems like it'd work fine for the occasional on/off. However it only has ~14" of travel so if you'd want to really lower the camper down you'd need to block it and then readjust the screw/drop let position before lowering farther which could get annoying. However considering you can get a set of 4 for the price of 1 actual camper jack it just depends on where your priorities are.

[freedomofthehills]

Here is my Thule hitch mounted bike rack. It might sit far enough out to work with an Eagle on a Gen 2 Tacoma. But I would need to do some measurements.

It has been a few years since I have made a trip with the bikes, but I would like to keep my options open.

My experience with a hitch mounted bike rack, mounted on an extension to clear the tailgate in a down position, is that it makes entry to the camper nearly impossible. I went with a dual hitch extension, one space for the rack the other for a 3rd brake light (for safety of course). So anyway, the system that I plan to use next is to go with a front bumper hitch mount for bikes when I need to get in/out of the camper. Ideally, if I'm driving a distance and don't want the bikes to get hammered b bugs and dirt etc on the front, then I'll leave them mounted on the rear hitch rack, and then move the whole assembly to the front when camping. Of course if you are driving everyday then this is not very feasible. Thanks for this thread it's informative...and sorry I didn't read all posts yet so someone else probably voiced this same idea...