"So I found this thing on Craigslist..." Tacoma Camper Build [djmase]

djmase

Adventurer
I dig on those baller rigs we all see rolling across our digital dashboards as much as the next guy, truly. I also have no idea how being $100k deep in a truck camper works for the majority of folks.
Enter quick and dirty Craigslist. It is the Mos Eisley of the internet: ever shifting, full of scams and scamps, and ridiculously intoxicating.

After 18 months of digging around on CL I finally found a rig that scratched the itch I had been reaching for the past few decades. Sadly, it was on the other coast. Happily, my parents were close enough to give me the green light on its condition and I bought it sight unseen.

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Pretty standard truck with low miles and a good price…bought it, had a new set of tires put on it, front brakes, and the water pump/timing belt routine done then hit the road for the 2,500 mile drive home...got out of the truck 42 hours later, but none the worse for wear.

Tried tent camping with the rig...pretty much of a wreck, aside from the location.
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Started digging on CL for a shell for Mr. White…surfboards, tools, materials, and the rest of your junk never has legs until you leave it in the bed of your truck while you pop into Cuernevaca for a taco. I wanted a hightop because the end-ish game involved a bed platform with drawers beneath and a side bar for light duty kitchen and living.

After a month of frustration I found a cat selling his single cab pre runner with an ill fitting access cab top on it. I asked him if he would sell just the shell and he said, “Sure, it has yakima bars on it…how about $200?” which is a smoking deal in SoCal. I told him to sit tight, I’d be there in 45 minutes.
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Once I had a new hat in place, the guts started to come together in my mind.
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We did another short hop with just the topper and we were convinced we needed to get the bed sorted out.
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A few days later it materialized in a few hours.
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At that point, expo told me I could only put up ten photos in a post so I quit.
 

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djmase

Adventurer
Moving along...

There were a few more items in the bed to work out after the bulk build day. In the weeks that followed I ticked them off the list.
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We had a bun in the oven at this point so my brother bummed me his bean to do some fitment checks. Everything came together swimmingly.
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By this point I as fully committed to Mr. White so Sven hit the CL block.
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Before I sold the bus I salvaged some parts, the ARB moved over to Mr. White.
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Then I got a bottle open.
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Started doing more "How does it actually work" testing in Big Sur.
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Needed some deeper storage...plus it was wasted space which is never acceptable.
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djmase

Adventurer
On a trip to middle lion with my brother's family we started testing. "What does this look like when the Bean arrives, really". The findings began to alarm me...24sf is not terribly workable for a family of three.
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At that point I started hitting CL for a pop-up slide in with renewed effort. In the meanwhile, we went to Pine Mountain.
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Naturally, I got sidetracked by a pair of Badlands bumpers (on Craigslist).
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TC called and wanted to do lunch on Saturday.
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Shortly after that we had a baby, which allowed for even more CL time, particularly in the middle of the night.
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There was huge debate in my mind over which direction to go with a pop-up. Do you bite it off and go with a FWC or ATC and pay the premium or do you get creative...I opted for the second option and got ghetto. I only went this route because the drought out here has killed my money tree and spending more than $2.5k seemed incomprehensible. Moreover, the due to the growing family, the Taco is only a fit for another year or two, so dropping a crap ton of cash on a camper for a truck that we will outgrow seems counterintuitive. SO...I set out to find a tacoma sized footprint camper for under $2k, come hell or high water.
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djmase

Adventurer
(No idea how to make the photo orientation behave. IT recommends you lock your ipad rotation button for easier viewing)

Having dialogued with two members at length regarding pop-ups, needs, functionality, cost, availability, and all the other usual pop-up fodder, I felt like I had a workable plan of action for my current generation of need. As noted above, cost and the ability to fit a gen 1 Tacoma were the motivating factors. A few Roamin' Chariots popped up way, way up north, and a 80's Fleet model popped up about 8 hours away for $2500 and after considering it, listing to sage advice and looking into its history, I decided to save the fuel and accept that an aluminum body may have to wait for pop-up 2.0. Eventually, when I grow up, a bed off, 5-6 seater Tundra will be the end game, but that is a few generations out. The current generation needed to be sub $2.5k, fit a Tacoma gen 1 and not look ridiculous on a Tundra Gen 1 AC or DC when I make the switch.

About a week ago I was cruising the usual CL stomps and ran across a potential rig a few hundred miles north. I read his write up, hit google for a half hour, looked at the photos as closely as I could then gave him a call. After a 20 minute phone call - he assured me it was right as rain - I told him I would see him in the morning and that I was bringing cash. I keep my truck loaded for camping all the time, so it was a scramble to pull out all of my gear, disassemble the platform and yank the glass top before heading out early the next morning.

Obviously, since it was a CL deal, I was not planning on paying asking price and it was not right as rain, so the deal had potential.
The unit was a 1986 Sun-Lite Hawk pop-up. Wood frame, sink, two way fridge, three burner, 20lb tank, and sleeps 4 due to bed length of 7'+. The interior was in pretty decent shape, albeit original, the tent was pretty solid with the exception of a few small screen rips and one large one where a foot escaped. He did tell me up front that the fridge was cooked, but otherwise he vouched for the systems. Two windows are sliders and two are awnings, the awnings function, but are not as they should be, exterior trim was in short supply and it appeared as though someone had caulked with painters caulk that has since began growing some new life form. On the plus side, I inspected the corners, cracks and crevices very closely and did not find any rot, water stains, or the like. The canvas was solid and much like the rest of the rig, filthy, but nothing that some honest scrubbing wouldn't bring back to life. And definitely no odors so common in these rigs.
After 45 minutes of 'kicking the tires' and verbally processing my mental check list with my brother, I made him an offer (well below what I had budgeted) and he took it. He was a really nice chap and threw in the saw horses he had it on, as well as the wiring harness from his truck, a deep cell (of questionable life), a small ladder for climbing in, as well as a variety of stickers that were already on the box that he said I could have for free; what a champ!
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We drove home without too much fanfare aside from it sliding around a bit due to my lack of mount points. He had welded two type 3 receivers to his frame and run chains from the front corner of the unit down to square stock that came out of his frame mounts, he also ran chains to eyelets on his bumpers. The aesthetic was not working for me so I started looking at ways to move the mountings inside the bed. I have mounted build 1 and I am headed up to Yosemite in two weeks to shake it down a bit and see how it runs, pictures to follow.

As soon as I got it home I pulled it off the truck and scrubbed...I mean scrubbed...the roof, walls, canvas, joints, etc. The entire exterior went from looking pretty sad to pretty decent within a few hours. I scrapped out the garbage caulk and reapplied in any suspicious areas. Washing it very thoroughly moved it from a camper that my wife was skeptical about to one that she was already starting to dig. The original intent had been to respray the exterior, but after cleaning it...I think I may run with the retro look.
Next, I moved to the interior and gave it a once over.
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Knowing that the unit is already way more weight than what I want to drag around on the daily, I set about slimming down...she will remain on an active diet. PO had a crusty engineered floor on top of the original linoleum, I dumped it.
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djmase

Adventurer
While I was doing the slim down, I also started replacing odds and ends that had long since failed and needed updating for ease of day to day use...simple reliability stuff like door closers, magnets on the screen door, bulbs, etc.
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For a sense of size when the top is down, this is a 7-6 mini gun with its nose stuck up in the bunk.
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Lots of sun and wear on items like the electrical cord access. Again, it is functional, but it is really ratty looking. My local supplier has trim and this common components for really good prices, I decided to dip into the "money I saved by shopping around" fund to slowly add back in some newer materials in areas where there will be a lot of day to day abuse. I also noticed that the faucet works with city water hooked up, but is a no go when pumped. I am going to take it apart and take a peek at it, but may end up with a new pump unit.
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Today, I picked up some new pop in trim for the windows and surrounds for the fridge, door, and propane access. They were a few sticks short so I only got to replace half of the stuff. Once I got into the project, I decided to deal with the fridge... The thought process had cut three ways: dump the mechanicals of the fridge and keep the box as an ice box, dump the whole deal and install an ice box, or dump the whole deal and reallocate the space. I was leaning toward option 1 or 3 since option two was an additional ~$160 based on my findings. I tested the unit on propane to be sure it was dead. The pilot fired up but it would not get cold on either electric or gas...seemed pretty dead to me so I yanked it out and put it on the bench for consideration.
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I cleaned out the fridge bay and then set to work on the fridge itself.
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It seemed easy enough to pull the mechanics off the fridge and reseal the back end with a bit of breathing room so that I can run dry ice. After I got it sealed, caulked and insulated, I sprayed it with a black rustoleum and reinstalled it.
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My back up stoves, lights, etc are all dual fuel so I run unleaded in everything...thus, I carry a lot of unleaded in various size containers. After running out of gas on my bike while on the Trans-Lab Hwy a few years ago, I am pretty careful about carrying a bit of extra gas. For now...I am leaving the propane stub in the panel. The Sun-Lite does not have an integral heat system and I am going to try out running a Mr. Heat portable buddy. After a long debate between running a line off the LP or using 1lb units, I went with the second option, but I have an adapter that can refill 1lb units from a 20lb tank. SO, if I can find the right adapters I plan to use that stub as a fill station for 1lb units while on the road. If I can't adapt it, I will cap it back at the main trunk line and fill a few 1lb units for each trip and store them with the rest of my cook/heat fuel, axes, hand saws saws, and shovel/pick in the newly liberated fridge coil space. The green bungie is not the final solution, but it'll work for now.
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PO had the fridge access door fall of on the hwy, and while he did manage to recover it, it was pretty cooked. I spent a bit of time with a flat face hammer, some wood blocking, and a few pliers pulling it back into reasonable shape and then riveting the hinge back on. It is workable, but on the replace at some point list.
 

tanglefoot

ExPoseur
Great read, and truck/camper combo! The truck campers really offer quite a bit of usable space for the truck bed size, don't they?
 

djmase

Adventurer
ARB Awning Migration

I have been running an ARB awning for about 18 months across two other platforms, and tonight it landed on the Sun-Lite.
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We split our travel time pretty evenly between the beach and the mountains, often times shade is a bit tough to come by and neither of us excel in the direct sun so our awning is a pretty important part of our rig. The ARB has been a trooper for us, and for the cost and flexibility of install, it can't be beat.

I have been cooking my install in my mind since I picked this rig up and finally decided to take a stab at it today, all in all I am pretty satisfied with how it came together.

I have the 2500 which is about 8', the largest one that ARB makes. There are two channels in the extruded aluminum frame that allow for just about any kind of install. In order to keep my roof operable, my awning windows operable and all of my tolerances happy, I had to use 1" square stock aluminum and through bolt it with stainless hardware to the cab. Here is a bench mock-up of the solution.
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While building my brackets, I located what little structure there is in the camper and located my mount points vertically and horizontally. The top of the awning has 1/2" clearance from the roof when closed and the two bracket locations go through "studs".
Here is the blank canvas.
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You can see a very faint pencil mark where my rear bracket would eventually land.
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I drilled two holes for the front and two for the rear brackets then set caulked the whole assembly carefully and set it in place. After I was satisfied with the front to back location - which is easily adjusted by sliding the unit around - I cranked it down from inside the cab.
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djmase

Adventurer
ARB cont.... (Any tips on how to get my iphone shots right side up would be splendid.)

Naturally, you want to install it level. You want to install it so that it doesn't impede the closing of the roof from the outside or the inside. You want to seal any holes you make. You want to use wide area washers. You want to measure twice and cut once. And, you want it to look as clean as possible.
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djmase

Adventurer
Thanks Squatchout! As long as the fly is solid and the lift mechanism is a go...I'd say, "Rock and roll!"
 

djmase

Adventurer
Great read, and truck/camper combo! The truck campers really offer quite a bit of usable space for the truck bed size, don't they?

Without a doubt! Sort of like being back in the Vanagon, except when I turn the key it starts and I can drive places...and I don't spend as much money on coolant and oil as I do on gas.
 

camper101

Observer
ARB cont.... (Any tips on how to get my iphone shots right side up would be splendid.)

I think the trick is to have the buttons on your phone down when you take the picture (whether you're doing a vertical or horizontal shot, keep the 2 volume buttons down lower). That should seem counterintuitive, like you're holding your camera upside-down, but it seems to work 80% of the time for me. Some say that Apple wanted photos to look goofy on anything except another Apple device...

I'm enjoying this thread. It's the kind of thing that makes me spend too much time on camper forums.
 

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