Building my own truck camper

[Rebic]

Hello, I am new here and would like to introduce myself. My name is Ante and I would like to build a truck camper. I am a college student and have never built anything of these proportions, but I have a good knowledge of physics, some free time and determination. I am also willing to learn.

I am an honors student and in order to finish the program I need to do a project that stretches over 2 semesters. So I decided to build something that could last for travels after college. I got tired of tent camping.

Facts:

The program gives me $3000 and I am willing to invest some of my money. I have an option of buying things for almost a year before building it and I am will be attending a lot of garage sales and going to junkyards. Of course Ebay is also an option.

I have available my girlfriends 2013 F150 XLT 5.5' bed SuperCrew with the OEM towing package, aftermarket stiffer shocks and airbags. The camper should be within 1500 lbs.

Dimensions I have so far are 6.5ft long (in the bed), 8ft wide, 8 ft tall, with the overhang (over the cab) of 6ft.

I'm planing on making it out of lumber (2x4's primarily), and plywood walls on the inside (that give more support to the frame), insulation in the walls, and some kind of plastic on the exterior with a sealant. Jacks and tiedowns to the truck are a must! I would also like to have 3 outside storage compartments and a door.

I would like to have some solar panels, a 12V 100Ah deep cycle battery, led lighting, small refrigerator (already have), small microwave (already have), vents, power controller, wiring, 3-4 outlets, outside receptacle, and if money permits a small tv and an ac unit (those could be added in later years).

For water I only want a sink with a 15 gal tank and an electrical or manual water pump.

Also, I would like a propane cooking stove and a propane heater.

Other than those, I want some windows and an escape sunroof.

As for the interior goes, I want some cabinets, countertops, a bed, a seating area and a table. Other small things I might already have and are not necessities.

Questions:

Can you think of something that I am missing but is a necessity in a truck camper?

Do you think $3000 would be enough to build only the necessities and then later as money comes add other things?

Should I use pressure treated wood or not? As I understand those are not dry and I would have to wait for them to dry and they might not end up straight.

What is a good inexpensive way to cover the outside of the camper and protect the wood from moisture?

I have more questions that I cannot think of now. I will appreciate any kind of help! If you plan on telling me that the truck is small and that it will not be enough space in the camper I understand, but currently that's my best shot.

[youngm357]

A lot of the strength of the cabover comes from the outer skin allowing it to sort of hang.

[wyocowboy00]

I built a camper many years ago, and the one thing I wished I had done differently was to make the door frame sturdier. Don't skimp on the door frame. Another area to pay close attention to is where the jacks will be mounted. I agree with the suggestion about not putting a front window on the cabover.

[niftypkg]

Bought a $2000 used Sun Lite pop up with nothing good about it. After tremendous typical cranking roof repairs it is now camping ready. It did have a good frig, heater and a real toilet. Could use a new canvass. OK for this married solo traveler. Consider that when taking on your project. Building the camper is part of the job tying it own is another. Consider a large cap instead and modify that for basic camping. Caps have good resale value. Tip: Get expert help either way. Good Luck.

[burningman]

I think you might want to do a little triangulating with your overhead bed area framing.
Some diagonal bracing would add a lot of strength and rigidity.

[Joe417]

If you are looking for light weight, you might want to look at Nidacore material. The boat building industry builds with the fiberglass version and it is very strong without a frame.

You could also laminate your own material. An '03 Palomino TC I rebuilt had framing only around the windows and corners. It was very easy to replicate with 2" foam and 1/8" plywood.

Good luck.

[MKish]

A fun site to browse is http://tnttt.com/. They're building tiny trailers but a lot of it is relevant to tiny truck campers in how to use limited space and reduce weight.

[Jfet]

It will work with wood. There are plenty of commercial campers that were (still are?) designed and built with wood frames. They might use a bit tighter grain higher quality wood that what you might be thinking of using. I am not sure that wood is that much lighter than steel and I am not sure it is cheaper. I was amazed at how cheap the 20 foot sections of 0.062 1x1 and 1x2 were. We went to a local steel yard (Everett Steel in Washington). Less than a buck a pound, so even with waste you could build a 500 pound steel frame for under $600. We spent about $1300 on steel but our camper is huge and we used 0.125 wall thickness for certain members which I have come to believe was overkill.

S&S campers are all wood though, aren't they guys?

[Rebic]

I am planning on sandwiching the walls as suggested. I just looked into the XPS foam and I will definitely try it as that could save a lot of weight. The outermost horizontal members of the overhead sections will most likely be supported by the 2x4 x12.5ft and they will stretch the whole length of the camper (just like your red ones on the bottom of the overhead are stretching a little to the back). I just noticed that it's not that easy to find the 2x3 x16ft. That will probably go for the roof long pieces as well. So the stronger ones would probably be at the same places yours are.

I have been looking at metal prices online, but the total would end up several times the amount of lumber. It's not that I don't want to use metal, I just don't have the resources to make it work. If someone has a suggestion on how to make it work financially I am open to the idea!

[Jfet]

We are the 0.1 percent 🙂

If you can't use steel (I would really recommend you use thin wall steel tubing...it is light, strong, cheap and very easy to MIG weld) then at least you should make the horizontal members for the overcab section extend preferably the length of the camper. These members will be under tension while the vertical members will be under compression and can be sectional.

Our steel frame, aluminum roof/sides build has been over 11,000 miles of sometimes bumpy roads and the whole camper is in the exact condition as when it rolled out of our garage new. No sag, leaks, gaps. It is a bit dirty because we have not washed it in about 6 months.

See here in the initial CAD frame we did and then the welded up steel frame which fairly closely followed it. Even in steel we used full length members at the roof to support the overhang and triangle sections for additional strength.

[rexlion]

I'm no engineer, but I remember something my father talked about years ago. If you sandwich your entire side of 2x pieces with plywood on both surfaces (inside and outside), screwed and glued, it will form a truss and be very strong. Not sure what that will do to the weight, of course. There might be lighter materials that would work similarly.

Search a bit for foam camper builds. XPS foam is pretty rigid and some folks have built entire trailers, walls and all, out of the stuff. The Teardrops-n-TinyTravelTrailers forum has an entire thread on "foamies". Interesting reading, if nothing else, and you might get some ideas. Interior cabinets of foam would be very lightweight. foam cabinets

[Photomike]

Looking at the rear view of the cad's you need to bring the vertical on the right side of the door to the floor. Also you need some support over top of the door (your door will most likely not being going from floor to ceiling). This will give you a lot more side to side stability at the back.

[Kayteg1]

The long pieces supporting floor of cabover will need to be stronger.
I love aluminium frame on my camper, even it is just a skeleton and filled up with lumber.
Lumber, especially on cantilevers and especially when it get moist will bend under the load, so if you want camper to last, you have to anticipate the process.
There is very good reason why 50 years old Avon campers hold their value and gets remodeled over and over again.

[Rebic]

Thank you everyone for your help and offers. Today I talked to some of my faculty and it seems like the project has a green light! I have checked out the links and they are impressive and will be useful! I would love to do have an aluminum or steel frame but I don't know how to work with it and I don't have the tools needed (also, they're more expensive).

I agree that the 2x4s will be too much weight so I redesigned the frame and these are some CAD drawings I made (brown are 2x3s and blue are 2x2s).







I would like to hear some opinions on the design. Will it be able to hold its own weight and is it still to heavy? As for the plywood I will stick to your suggestions about the floor and the ceiling at 1/2-3/4 and sidewalls at 1/4.

Eh1133 I have dropped you a PM and I will definitely take you up on that offer!

I am very happy that this many people took interest.

[Kayteg1]

Bare in mind that 99.9 percent of such projects never get complete and usually you can buy 50 percent of somebody's else project just for couple hundreds bucks as usually after a year or 2 of such mess, DW or girlfriend plays hardball.
That said, I don't think you are going be happy with camper without at least wet bath.
I am spoiled, but I would not go for less than the 11-foot single slide, 5000lb camper I have.
That said, new 3-4 slides look tempting.