Show me your truck camping setup!

Shower related:

 

Uh. I guess I’m not the risk-taker I might be: I’ll drive the truck fast off-road in remote places, but messing with how it runs to create hot water for a shower is not something I’ll likely try.

I like my well-packed portable propane water heater all day long.

Edit: that said, if I can check out someone else’s truck that does this, of course I’ll want to do it!

 

This is really well documented in the landcruiser world. If you forgot to winterize it I could see it getting kind of ugly. Either loosing, most likely small amounts of coolant and or water mixing in with the coolant. It is definitely a potential failure point. I don't think it is likely to ever cause the trip to fail though. I am trying to figure out a clean bypass setup so that the heat exchanger can be taken out of the loop completely. I have more research to do.

 

I use a 2.5 gallon solar shower bag, a few hours in the sun and the water is sometimes too hot and I have to add cold water. Not an instant hot shower, but doesn't require anything but the sun and a flat surface, like the hood of the truck. I guess it wouldn't be good for cold WX camping, but I don't go anywhere near cold weather. Mostly SoCal desert and SoCal beach areas.

 

six-pac mini 6.0 camper.

 

How much does it weigh? What's your suspension setup? How fast do you drive? Any elevation?

 

I have Dobinsons and I drive fast.

 

7400+ Lbs In expedition mode. Did 15 nights in a row dispersed camping 4K+ mi SC to AZ. 2 showers. Loves truck stop showers are a luxury!

 

And sorry See first gen... but FWC still awesome. You can get a narrow Tacoma camper for them and build up the floor with a drawer to fit the bedside height. Think model is fleet? I have a raven

 

900 lbs wet (water/propane).
I have a 2" leveling kit, bilsteins. Ride-rite airbags in the rear for leveling (swapping those out for sumo springs now).
I drive fast, no big deal.

 

I saw this thread happen years ago and it was the first time I really got excited about truck camping.
https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/latest-project-truck-drawers-sleeping-platform.47516/

 

This is what I stick to. I made a setup that uses two solar showers combined to a USB pump that goes to a shower handle. Solar showers work nice if your truck is black. I have also set the showers on the hood and idled the engine to radiate some heat and charge the truck battery but that's not ideal. If I need warm water to shower and I can't set filled bags out all day, I will use my propane stove to heat water in a pot and continuously cycle water in and out of the bags until it is warm enough for me. I will often start the water while I'm cooking or something.

 

I stop at truck stops every 5-7 days for a shower. They’re really nice and clean. I don’t mind being filthy when I’m solo, just have to stop when I can’t stand my own smell!

 

Can u talk about the set up a bit? Camper weight, helper springs, air bags? I would like something like that if the payload would allow. <thanks for sharing>

 

4 posts up

 

So, I'm getting more serious about a camper for the Tundra and am leaning towards a pop up style like this. It's an aluminum framed unit and has enough amenities to be a civilized camper, for me at least. I don't know the brand, I was looking at 4 wheel, but they are too pricey for me. These are quite a bit less. Light weight as well. Anybody have any experience with these, quality, customer service? Thanks.
https://outfittermfg.com/shop-campers/caribou-lite-6-5

 

Very nice.

Do you have access to the long drawer from the top?

If you are sleeping inside your rig and it's cold or raining, you might want to be able to get at stuff with out going outside.

Just a thought.

 

Long drawer is mainly for cooking stuff and recovery gear. Don’t really see myself putting anything in there that I need instant access to.

Plus I live in west Texas. What is this cold/rain you speak of?

 

So I think I’m going to call this done. Well... at least for the time being.

Added 3 dividers in the drawer and the false top at the back will slide to the front so that I can lift the stove up on top of it.

Driver wheel well has room for 4 18ah batteries beneath that shelf. Clearly I’ve already thought about doing this and a battery isolator. But like I said... for now, I’m done.

 

Looking good. How tall did your platform end up being? What do you plan to use for a mattress?

What is that little block of wood at the bottom of the cabinet on the left?

 

Overall height of the platform is about 1 1/2” taller than the wheel well humps. I’m still working on a mattress. The block has an identical one on the drawer side. That way I can pull out the “bike slide” and attach my fork to the fork mount without that piece wanting to teeter off the rear of the tailgate.

 

Started canopy camping this last summer. Threw together a sleeping platform pretty quickly that worked well. I will be starting my 2nd generation setup for my 1st gen in the next month or so. Learned some things on first build so going to start over with improvements. Can't wait to post my results when I'm done, but for now I'm lurking and gathering inspiration.

 

Like what?

 

Primarily that I built a platform for sleeping 2 people but I will often be alone at which point I'd like to have more storage. So need to have a single and double version.

Also I was a little overbuilt and I could lighten it up a bit.

 

looking into building a lighting set up for my camper any tips?

 

Honestly this thread is awesome, I now have a shit ton of examples to base my camping setup off of. The more pics and explanations the better!

 

Honestly I went with the cheapest $10 Amazon weatherproof 12v leds. They specifically said they weren’t dimmable but I had an extra dimmer and well... what do you know? Hindsight, I would have gone with a set that does RGB so that I could set it to red. That way it would attract less bugs and be easier on the eyes at night.

I peeled off 1” sections of the adhesive back and stuck little 1” sections of sticky back Velcro to it. Seems to be holding it pretty well but then again, that depends on if you have carpet or not.

I think I’ve mentioned it here before but I also have a cheapo 6 port fuse box behind the driver taillight. It’s powered from a single run of 8awg straight off of my starting battery. That way I can use the lights at anytime.

 

I drew each individual piece of my entire set up in CAD and even created an optimized cut sheet for a 4x8 sheet of plywood. I’m sure I could put a little more work into it and PDF it into a neat little instruction sheet if anyone that wants it would be willing to PayPal me whatever you think it’s worth.

 

I have ability to fully model and draft a setup if I'd like as well... However on my first build I threw it together after work the day before I needed it with very little thought. Hence the need for an improved second version. Once I get to it I'll be sure to share what I come up with. But it's still winter for 2 months so I'm in no hurry at the moment.

Threads like these are awesome for design inspiration and motivation!

 

It's the wrong truck but here is my old setup. The whole setup could be pulled out and hung on the wall in about 5 minutes. You can see the holes for hanging in the back, 2 on each part.