Ok, I am going to collect random thoughts and progress pictures and put them here in a thread.
Goal: Construct a true flatbed camper with cabover, no slideouts but full 8 foot floor width inside. This will mount on a 2006 Isuzu NRR truck with a GVWR of 19,500 pounds and a current dry weight of 8700 pounds. The truck has a 20 foot flatbed that is 8 feet wide. The camper will take up 11 feet of the flatbed and the remaining area will be home to a future garage for our toys. We will install a hitch so we can pull our 17 foot Montgomery sailboat (trailer + boat is about 2200 pounds). The camper and garage will be removeable so the flatbed can be used for other purposes, or in case the truck needs extensive shop repairs down the road. Or if we are in Alaska and want to go pick up 3 cords of firewood or something 🙂
Here is a picture of the truck with some important dimensions:
Goal: Construct a true flatbed camper with cabover, no slideouts but full 8 foot floor width inside. This will mount on a 2006 Isuzu NRR truck with a GVWR of 19,500 pounds and a current dry weight of 8700 pounds. The truck has a 20 foot flatbed that is 8 feet wide. The camper will take up 11 feet of the flatbed and the remaining area will be home to a future garage for our toys. We will install a hitch so we can pull our 17 foot Montgomery sailboat (trailer + boat is about 2200 pounds). The camper and garage will be removeable so the flatbed can be used for other purposes, or in case the truck needs extensive shop repairs down the road. Or if we are in Alaska and want to go pick up 3 cords of firewood or something 🙂
Here is a picture of the truck with some important dimensions:
This Labor day weekend we labored. The goal was to install the 24" deep, 18" high, 48" long aluminum truck boxes purchased from Protech and we got er done. I have determined that crawling under trucks and drilling up through steel cross members while having hot chips fall all over you is not one of the odd jobs I want to do while driving around the country.
These boxes have added a vast amount of storage with a very low CoG. We made some prototype plywood holders for the four camper jacks to allow them to stow in one of the boxes without getting banged up. I will remake them on my cnc mill out of 3/4" UHMW plastic at some near future date. Still quite a bit of room above the jackstands in that box for other gear (they take up about 6 inches of the 18 inch height.
These boxes have added a vast amount of storage with a very low CoG. We made some prototype plywood holders for the four camper jacks to allow them to stow in one of the boxes without getting banged up. I will remake them on my cnc mill out of 3/4" UHMW plastic at some near future date. Still quite a bit of room above the jackstands in that box for other gear (they take up about 6 inches of the 18 inch height.
We took our first overnight trip in the camper. We had a early Monday morning appointment to get a VIN assigned and decided to spend Sunday night at Belfair park (a state park on the Hood canal that is very close to the Tahuya ORV park).
The camper/truck is a lot easier to drive than I thought it would be and does not sway or rock really at all. The cabover design and rear camera make it very easy maneuver and I can almost fit it in a long single parking spot. This is pretty incredible for something of this size which can carry two 600 pound snowmobiles plus two 300 pound dual sport bikes and still be well under GVWR.
Fuel mileage wasn't great but was about as expected. You would think the sleek aerodynamic styling of the cabover would get us in the neighborhood of a Prius but alas it was quite a bit less than that. We got 9.5mpg with the camper and the two motorcycles on the flatbed. This is opposed to about 11 to 13mpg with just the empty flatbed. If I adjust these numbers using TC camper forum GAAP fuel reporting, we technically got 19mpg doing 65mph (woo hoo!)
I took a picture at night to see what the clearance lights and outdoor floods (only turned up to 25% power) looked like. All you can really see is the bright spots of the floods.
Next step is to get the aluminum storage boxes installed under the flatbed.
The camper/truck is a lot easier to drive than I thought it would be and does not sway or rock really at all. The cabover design and rear camera make it very easy maneuver and I can almost fit it in a long single parking spot. This is pretty incredible for something of this size which can carry two 600 pound snowmobiles plus two 300 pound dual sport bikes and still be well under GVWR.
Fuel mileage wasn't great but was about as expected. You would think the sleek aerodynamic styling of the cabover would get us in the neighborhood of a Prius but alas it was quite a bit less than that. We got 9.5mpg with the camper and the two motorcycles on the flatbed. This is opposed to about 11 to 13mpg with just the empty flatbed. If I adjust these numbers using TC camper forum GAAP fuel reporting, we technically got 19mpg doing 65mph (woo hoo!)
I took a picture at night to see what the clearance lights and outdoor floods (only turned up to 25% power) looked like. All you can really see is the bright spots of the floods.
Next step is to get the aluminum storage boxes installed under the flatbed.
We still have some work to do on the interior, might be delayed a bit while we use the camper this summer. I will get some pics soon when we put the overhead cabinets in.
On the ramp ideas. We had an idea just now of making a simple attachment point on our short ramp for the four Rieco Titan 2000 pound camper jacks we currently lift the camper with (and thus carry with us). You could then roll the motorcycle on the ramp while it is level and raise it up to the height of the flatbed using the four camper jacks.
This has some advantages.
1) Easy to build
2) Don't have to buy anything or carry much extra stuff (already carry the jack stands with us)
3) Probably one of the most stable, safest ways to get a bike loaded solo.
4) Doesn't matter if the bike is disabled, as long as it can be pushed on a level surface
If we are in an area where there happens to be a small dune or slope we can back up near, we can just use the 6 foot ramp as a ramp and quickly load/unload.
I do admit it would be pretty slow to load the bikes in this manner, but it is a pretty temporary solution.
On the ramp ideas. We had an idea just now of making a simple attachment point on our short ramp for the four Rieco Titan 2000 pound camper jacks we currently lift the camper with (and thus carry with us). You could then roll the motorcycle on the ramp while it is level and raise it up to the height of the flatbed using the four camper jacks.
This has some advantages.
1) Easy to build
2) Don't have to buy anything or carry much extra stuff (already carry the jack stands with us)
3) Probably one of the most stable, safest ways to get a bike loaded solo.
4) Doesn't matter if the bike is disabled, as long as it can be pushed on a level surface
If we are in an area where there happens to be a small dune or slope we can back up near, we can just use the 6 foot ramp as a ramp and quickly load/unload.
I do admit it would be pretty slow to load the bikes in this manner, but it is a pretty temporary solution.
Jfet wrote:
NSFW (it may make you want to leave early)
So sexy it hurts.
Very nice! My Mrs. is dying to see the interior and I'm interested in your loading ramp system for the bikes. Pictures would be nice,that is, whenever you're not out having fun with the new rig!
