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:

I did a quick CAD drawing of what a steel frame might look like for our dimensions. I used 1x1 and 1x2 steel tube (with a little bit of cnc work on the curve section and a little bit of pipe). I have arranged things such that 2 inch R5 foam can be installed everywhere and there will be no place inside where there is not at least 1 inch of foam between the steel and the inner wall. This should help with thermal isolation. Most of the steel is 0.065 gauge but I used 0.120 for the corner vertical 1x2 The total weight as drawn is 580.8 lbs 3749" of 1x1 1/16" 258.3 lbs 2067" of 1x2 1/16" 218.7 lbs 426" of 1x2 1/8" 80 lbs 197.25" of 1" round 1/8" 18.5 lbs 75" of 2" wide 1/8" plate 5.3 lbs

Picked up a Miller 211 MVP 110/220 volt MIG welder and some 1x2 in 11 and 16 gauge.Practiced for a few days (have a tig/stick welder, so not totally new, but the MIG is hot glue gun easy!) and have started producing *ok* welds....good enough for government work (at least at the state level).(Ignore the silicon in the weld, that is evidently normal for MIG)

This past weekend the wife and I cut out the 1x2 sections for the base on a 7x12 bandsaw (glad I had that!). I decided to make the outer perimeter 11 gauge and the inner cross members 16 gauge. Always keeping an eye on weight, but a lot will be welded to the outer perimeter base. The wall design is going to change a lot this week from the initial lion cage design I did for a weight estimate. There will be doors, windows, hatches, and some triangulation for strength. It was nice to get started on the floor though.Oh, and I bought 8 camper jacks at Camping World, then welded supports to four of them. These greatly aided in getting the base frame dead nuts level..and we cut the members to 1/64" accuracy...insane...the temperature of the garage probably makes it contract more than that on a cold day.

Neat concept. I'm hitting "subscribe" so I can watch this thread and follow your progress.Just keep adding to this thread so its easy to track. Randu

Our custom true flatbed truck camper build thread

wnjj
Explorer II
Mar 02, 2018
Jfet wrote:
We bought some property and unloaded the pods on it for awhile. We then got a new toy!

Can YOUR truck/camper carry this with no trailer? ;)

Nope, but my camper hauler tows a flatbed trailer with my toy which is your toy’s baby brother (U17). Nice machine you got there!
Kevinwa
Explorer
Mar 02, 2018
It has been a while. Any updates on your adventures? That toy looks awesome, I don’t think my camper could haul it...
recycler
Explorer
May 07, 2017
Jfet wrote:
We bought some property and unloaded the pods on it for awhile. We then got a new toy!

Can YOUR truck/camper carry this with no trailer? ;)

Looks like a fun toy. :C
Jfet
Explorer
Apr 27, 2017
We bought some property and unloaded the pods on it for awhile. We then got a new toy!

Can YOUR truck/camper carry this with no trailer? ;)
noteven
Explorer III
Feb 20, 2017
Thanks for the update.

Depodding is still a handy feature.
Camper_Jeff___K
Nomad III
Feb 20, 2017
That is an awesome setup!
Jfet
Explorer
Feb 20, 2017
We are back in Washington state now, having done a full loop 9 month, 11,000 miles from the west coast to the east coast, sailing in the Atlantic and the gulf on the 17 foot sailboat we tow behind the camper.

Everything has really done great on the trip. The pods don't move or shift on bumps, all of the seams and roof are still tight, no leaks at all.

We had a tiny bit more trouble with the truck it self in LA (lower Alabama). Seems a squirrel in Georgia ate through the turbo boost pressure sensor and the truck went into weak mode and threw a code. Instead of taking the pods off and taking it to a repair center, we just raised the front pod up about 15 inches with the jacks and tilted the cab forward. Worked like a treat and allowed me access to the engine to solder and heat shrink the wires back together. Pic of that below, looks funny with the cab tilted and the camper still on the truck.

Solar is still working well even though I have not cleaned the panels in months. They still give about 700 to 900 watts in the south west and about 200 watts when raining here in Seattle. I think we used the generator twice in the 9 months of travel, although we did sometimes stay at army corp parks with electric hookups.

States we camped in on this trip were: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon.

Not sure where to next...flipping a coin on Alaska or Maine.
noteven
Explorer III
Sep 15, 2016
Thanks for the update.

Depodding is handy feature.
Explorer1016
Explorer
Sep 15, 2016
We have just been missing each other by a few miles and a few days. I am fairly close to Carlyle and also just left Nashville Saturday to head back to Missouri. Maybe if you get into Eastern Missouri we will eventually run into each other. Happy trails!
cewillis
Explorer
Sep 14, 2016
braindead0 wrote:

Very nice, looks as good as anything commercial and I'd bet it's built waay better....

Absolutely right. Glad you're enjoying your travels.