My camper ideas, thoughts, and plans...

[oonimog]

Metcalf,
Roll on! Like most people, I like seeing and reading about other's camper ideas, even if they're not yet ready for launch.

The idea of keeping the roof height low will naturally help off road clearance and CG, and will certainly keep things lighter and less complex (less costly as well) - all good things. This is how my Mog is currently set up. This may work out well for you but after living with this arrangement for several years, I think I want to be able to stand properly in the camper. The Quasimodo deal gets old after a few weeks on the road. If you'll spend most of your time in warmer weather, you could also build a large roof hatch. Still simple and light.

My plan was to build a new camper with an articulating roof but I've decided to build down instead of up. I believe I can build a trough into the floor that will provide at least 6' of headroom with a very minimal increase to my current overall outside height. The trough will drop into the empty space between the torsion-free mounts and should add ~8" of interior height. With the front and sides of the roof tapered (smaller but similar to Mog ambulance boxes), off road capability should be maintained. It will be far less complex and without the added bulk up high (from the moving roof), the CG may even slightly improve.

Regards,
Pete

[DiploStrat]

So before anyone goes ballistic, check out M. Stewart's thoughts on the subject. http://www.xor.org.uk/silkroute/equipment/choosevan.htm

And yes, he has the creds. And, at last report he bought a used Bimobil rather than try to do it himself again.

On my guitar forum there is a warning that working inside tube amps can be dangerous as there are fatal voltages present. The same is true of home brew campers/cross country vehicles - break something, run out of fuel/water, etc. and you could have a very bad, or at least very expensive, day.

With that caveat - dream on!

[Metcalf]

I wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't build and modify it myself.....that would be tragic!

I've read that article before....lots of good stuff. I was looking for it just a few days ago and couldn't find it. I noticed he bought a used BiMoibil camper too. Thanks for posting the link...I'm gonna read it again.

[4x4 explorer]

This forum and others like it can provide a wealth of information, and that depends on sharing. Is everything usable..NO. Some information comes from dreamers who have never built anything and some from professionals who have designed, built and driven expedition campers. They all can politely give their opinions and respect others pro's/con's without getting "puckered up". Most of us are smart enough that we don't need a disclaimer to measure or validate an opinion I have yet to see a blueprint for the "perfect" expedition camper, so anyone wanting to build their own relies on gathering and sorting out what makes sense to them and what skill set they have to fabricate it once they have designed it. Guys like J. Suave probably don't belong on this forum. He's not a sharer, he's an engineer/designer/builder or so he has indicated in other posts who expects to get paid for his thoughts. I don't particularly have a problem with that, until he jumps in and goes off on someone in this thread. At some "past point" I would have loved to hear his thought's, but since he's made it so abundantly clear "that's what he gets paid for", isn't there some forum protocol regarding advertising ones services? There are others out there who have as much and maybe more knowledge and although they have credentials too, they are willing to share what they have learned. If it weren't for them I know it would have been more difficult to get my camper designed and built without a UNICAT budget. Sorry I'm not the type that can let "sleeping dogs lie".

[Metcalf]

I engineer, design, and build things for a living....just not expedition campers.

[Ford Prefect]

I have not read this entire thing yet, but I am really enjoying it so far, and thank you, Metcalf, for posting it up for us to read!

Hey, just a question for you, are you planning on having any windows, or even better windows and sky lights in this thing? I realize that a traditional sky light might be an entry point for a would-be theif, but if you made them small and locate them strategically I think you would find it benificial, and too small for a person to get through.

None of the plans I have seen, so far, seem to have windows, so, I guess I could be asking a stupid question, but without it sure would get teedious running the power all the time for light.

Anyhow, GREAT ideas. I personally want to do a top that the full thing raises up, rather than a hinge idea like yours.

Any thoughts on using a tortion bar (like on the flip pac toppers) for your hinge point? It would seem to take some of the load off of the air rams when in the up position.

GOOD LUCK! and THANKS for all the ideas!

[Metcalf]

I will write more detail later, stuck at work and all.

Yes, the water has to be pumped back up out of the shower pan to the grey water tank. The grey water tank was indented to be in the wasted space to the front of the wheel-well. All the sinks can gravity feed it, but the shower need to be pumped. I was going to hide a little sump pump in one of the steps in the later designs.

The downside to having the gray water tank outside the insulated space is winter time use. The tank can freeze.

The goal of this design was to be as compact as possible.

The triangle pop up was intended to be hard sided to keep down wind noise. Most soft sided campers are too noisy in the wind IMOO.

I would not use a torsion bar to help lift the top. Its just too big and heavy. I would just use a pair of balanced air lift cylinders.

A downside to the triangle pop up is windows. There just isn't a clean and simple way to install windows so they clear the moving sides. One solution is to have a skylight system for interior light. As you mentioned this opens up the camper to someone breaking in the top. Be it windows or skylights, if they are big enough for someone to get through, with enough determination they will. Most people would not notice the skylights because they would be on top of the truck and not really too visible with the top down. They could also be grated if you are really worried about it.

[Ford Prefect]

I personally like the lift top a lot. I have been pondering the idea myself. Personally I really like the Unicat version, but I doubt I would ever be able to afford that. If it is not obvious already, I am considering a much larger vehicle for my personal needs. Further I am not looking for an off road vehicle, so I think I will likely go with a Volvo myself, and that large of a truck has a lot less in the way of weight restrictions.

If you check out the windows in the campers where the tops go up and down, like the Alcan, and there was another linked early on, as well as that of the Unicats, (the few that have windows) you can see that the windows are fairly dramatically set in (looks about three or four inches) I presume this is done for the clearance you mentioned.

Gray water... My first thought on that would be could you use a battery heating pad? My wife and I are thinking seriously of moving up to Alaska, and one of the things that you have to do to winterize the vehicles is install a heating pad around the battery. Could you, perhaps, put something like that on, or even a tranny heat pad glued to the bottom? This would keep it liquid enough to drain, and of course it would be switched so that you do not need to run it all the time, if the tank is gravity fed you could even let it freeze and simply thaw it out when ready to dump. I do not know if that is possible or if that will all work out, but it seems logical in my mind. (Pardon me for not being an expert Joaquin. None of my vehicles have ever been on the discovery channel after all.)

Now, with the roof, someone posted up a lift intended to raise and lower a bed in the back of a toy hauler camper. Have you considered using something like that to simply raise the entire roof? If you are going to lift part of it, I would think that such a lift as the earlier link might be a great way to simply lift the entire roof. Folks have told me lifting the entire roof would be more difficult than doing what your original plan called for, but I personally do not see it. It seems far less complicated.

The solution to your first problem (the door) would be to add a two piece door, of which you can open the bottom alone, or open both. This way you can open up while the top is still down.

Last thought for you, I wanted to second a previously mentioned thought of using the roof rack to hold the Mt. Bikes. Fold in half or not, if you put those things in the hall way of the camper when shipping, and then out on the roof while driving, it will a lot a greater amount of space for things that need to be indoors while traveling, even more space for clothing.

Well, none the less, I have learned a lot from my conversations and speculations, and likewise I have learned a lot from reading about your ideas.

Good luck!
Brian

[sherwood]

Metcalf, great thread, keep the ideas coming.
Cheers

[Metcalf]

Thank you.

Someday I will pick this project back up. Stupid work gets in the way of fun!