Home Menu

Site Navigation


View Single Post
Old 11-17-2020, 01:53 PM
Jetboy's Avatar
Jetboy Jetboy is offline
Elite Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Utah
Posts: 5,020
Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute
Jetboy Jetboy is offline
Elite Member
Jetboy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Utah
Posts: 5,020
Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute Jetboy has a reputation beyond repute
I've posted mine before. But it's a DIY teardrop. Been through a few iterations. I would not built a teardrop shape again. It's not aerodynamic. And the rear hatch is a PITA to form steel and also not very useful. A side opening rear door or barn doors would be better.

Overall - I've been everywhere from the California coast to the Canadian border with it and we've spent probably 100? nights in it over the past couple years. Not sure how many days we've spent. But it's been quite a few. I've re-done a lot of parts on it after owning it and finding out what needs to change.

I have no heater. It is fully insulated - walls are foam/wood sandwich construction and the roof is all insulated as well. So it stays warm enough with body heat. I did build in an A/C unit and an inverter large enough to run the A/C unit off battery/solar power for a few hours. This was pretty critical for us - not for the people, but for our dog. When we travel with our dog to places like southern Utah - it's really nice to be able to leave her in the camper for an hour or two and have it say cool. It also of course works on shore power if we're somewhere that has electricity, but I rarely need to do that. I do not use a generator and try as often as possible to stay in campgrounds that do not allow them. Also - it has no hot water. I'd love to have hot water! It has a 24ish gallon fresh water tank with a pump and sink in the kitchen and only about a 12 gallon gray water tank. Since it's only dish water or face washing - I often drain it at the camp site if it's allowed. It has a two burner propane stove and a 12v fridge/freezer on a pull out drawer in the rear kitchen.
No interior bathroom or shower. It does have a pull out porta potty setup on the driver's side.

It has a matching track as the 4Runner and uses FJ Cruiser wheels with some lower profile tires. Still has about the same ground clearance as the vehicle because no differential down there. And can share spare tires etc. I also built the chassis and it's made to handle moderate off-road use. The gray water tank is the only tank underneath and it has a steel skid plate. But it's usually the rear bumper or the hitch that drags the most. The way I adapted the axle for FJ Cruiser wheels was to use a wheel spacer with the correct pattern for a Toyota. The spacer bolts on and then has the correct Toyota 12mm lugs to use OEM lugnuts that fit correctly with Toyota wheels. It has your typical 3500lb axle with electric drum brakes. I think it weighs around 1500-2000lbs, but I've never put it on a scale, so I don't know.

In the next year or two I think we're going to probably buy a bigger camper. We have a 1year old and it was great with 2. It's tight with 3 when one of them kinda needs a crib of some sort to sleep in. The interior area is roughly 8' long and a bit under 6' wide.

I built chassis and everything from there up to a CAD design I made before I started. Overall I think the total cost is probably in the range of $3000 in materials. If I remember correctly - I think that it took about 5 or 6 weekends to build from start to my original finishing point. I did "cheat" in some sense in that I have a CNC router that I could cut all of the panels and parts on so that really helps speed up the build. I also have a plasma setup on the same CNC machine so the metal brackets and other parts are also very fast and easy to cut to size/shape.








Last edited by Jetboy; 11-17-2020 at 02:22 PM.
Jetboy is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
 
Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.2

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:25 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
***This site is an unofficial Toyota site, and is not officially endorsed, supported, authorized by or affiliated with Toyota. All company, product, or service names references in this web site are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Toyota name, marks, designs and logos, as well as Toyota model names, are registered trademarks of Toyota Motor Corporation***Ad Management plugin by RedTyger
 
Copyright © 2020