***Side Note: We have also seen people wrap the drawer front in the industrial carpeting you can buy on the roll at Home Depot, it's pretty cheap and insulating. When we purchased Lando I was excited to see that the inside of the camper shell was felted because I knew right away … From there all that was left was to cut and screw the bed platform into place. With the bed/drawer structure complete we moved onto making a little shelf to sit on top of the wheel well on the driver side. The velcro was also leftover from Amelia and my dad’s office. It won't take long because this was the least amount of work we've ever needed to do to ready a rig for life on the road. The Shelter Blog has been inactive since May, 2019. *** Our rivets and our pop rivet tool were left over from the Amelia build, so we were fortunate to not have to purchase those tools again! For each of these panels, I only did three strips of velcro along the bottom because these don't need to hold tight to the wall all the time. To be honest I'm not entirely sure how much we ended up using to make these curtains but we're lucky to have exactly as much was needed to make a curtain for each of the 4 windows in the bed camper. For the time being though, we'll sit back and enjoy our hard work. These campers are also known as a slide-in or cab-over. We install everything we sell and offer a wide range of quality accessories to build your work truck to suit. Side note: we still needed to do small pilot holes into the metal. (And believe it or not, it weighs less than most commercial campers!) If you don’t know a lot about the truck camper, it’s pretty much a tent on wheels. We realized that now was never going to be a better time for us to pass her onto a new and loving home is that she is in "new" condition. The good news however, is that, you can still custom design your own DIY camper trailer. Ingenious Camper Shell This little rig was home built from a salvaged fiberglass pickup topper because my wife and I did not care for what was commercially available. Do For the overall construction was super simple three of the panels were simple rectangles with a higher concentration of velcro along the top of the curtain. I feel like we should make mention of the few truck specific things that we did to prepare Lando for the road before we wrap up this post. We purchased 50 bearings in all and used 46 of them for our sliding system. Each piece of the shell is pre-sealed with waterproof polyurethane, then I add dual access doors, plexiglass windows, hinges, bolts, and locks. Tyler Thompson and Erin Sofinowski decided to take a year off work to do some traveling. Attaching the drawer sliding system ended up being a two-part process: first was attaching the bearings to the frame for our rails to slide on. Cut off four pieces of PVC with the same length as that of the bed. This post may contain affiliate links. The cuts were easy using a metal cutting blade in a jigsaw! 3.8K likes. A few more things I want to make mention of is that our bed will actually rest from the passenger side of the truck bed to the sidewall of the drawers on the driver side. Take a look at Chase’s build: Resources: Check out some of Chase’s services here; Photos via Zaarly. These bolts are there to hold the bed liner into place are very robust with plenty of extra threading. The measurements that matter are the interior length and width of the bed. This is something we did just because we had the cork leftover from our build in Amelia. Installing drawer stops was imperative to be sure that our drawers didn't come sliding out completely if we ever opened them on a slant. So I decided to build a cab-over camper for my pickup instead. At this rate all we wanted to do is get on the road, this build just needed to be functional so we could live out the year with the gear we need. Once the bolt was tightened down into place we cut down the excess bolt so it wouldn't stick out preventing the frame to fit inside of the wheel wells. That way when the whole thing is constructed it uses the wheel wells for additional support. My Own Homemade DIY Truck Camper – Day 1 It’s based on the popular Four Wheel Camper design, but instead of expensive welded aluminum, the main box is framed with just $75 of cheap sturdy 2x4s and plywood. After a quick internet search, we decided that we wanted to look for a Toyota Tacoma with a bed camper shell. Here is a picture of a standard truck camper: There are two main types of truck campers: stationary and removable. A day and a half later Owen and I became the proud new owners of the 2008 Tacoma you see above! Well, this is mostly the finished product, minus our comforter and and a few other things that now live in the back of the truck full time. In Lando we're going to need to sleep with the windows and even the back hatch open for circulation, so we thought that it would be a good idea to have the netting. Now for the bug netting. There are lots of creative and handy men and women who construct homemade campers. How to build a truck camper from start to finish. American Camper Shells is an Authorized Distributor of LEER and SNUGTOP Truck Caps, Tonneau Covers, Camper Shells & Toppers. We're excited to share the process of building out a truck bed because of how accessible it is to so many people who are interested in hitting the road for the weekend, a month or even a year. Now that our drawers are taking shape for the first time we thought that this would be a great time for us to test out the drawers for how much they could hold. When the curtains aren't in use we just stick the bottom of the curtains to the ceiling so they're out of the way...and it makes it look real homey in there! Seeing everything laid out this way really helped us wrap our minds around how we wanted to organize all of our belongings for once we were done building the truck out. I also wanted to be able to haul my kayaks in it as needed without hav… When the entire slider system was in place we installed the drawers into place to check our work! Bel-Air Camper Shell. Not only is this airy living space adjustable, but their step-by-step guide is also available online.. Their Adventure Truck 2.0 has a handmade camper shell. Be sure to ***SUBSCRIBE*** to see our … When the mattress arrived it was a bit big for the space, using a large kitchen knife it was really easy to cut it down to size. We decided to install the bed platform once the drawer frame was fully installed. In this post we’ll walk you through the process of adding a camper shell liner to your truck cap or canopy. The A.R.E. Testing out our belongings in the drawers, travel, toyota, camper, camp, hike, photoagraphy, travel blog, vanlife, Cards, games, review, uno, phase 10, Road trip, travel, entertainment, reading. There are a number of extra items you’ll be able to add to a homemade camper. Truck campers are popular due to how easy they are to transport and park. We cut the hole in the drawer front and then applied black spray paint to the drawer fronts to give it a cleaner look and riveted the handle into place. Post your items for free. For this little project we used two packs of bug netting, one entire package went to building the back hatch netting, and the second package made the side vent window covers. These guys allow you to create threading in wood without ruining the threading if you ever need to remove the screw. We also wanted to have the ability to pull the drawers out if we ever needed to so Owen found these nifty little threaded wood inserts. See more ideas about truck camper, truck camper shells, camper shells. 100 17K Anything Goes Contest. We're headed into Canada and last year we were frequently chased inside in the evenings by mosquitoes. In the end, we only needed to cut off 3-4 inches of excess tubing to make them work with our drawers. Low and behold this 'Lil Taco was for sale an hour and a half south on the border of Georgia and North Carolina. The above price list breaks down what we used and what we actually paid for. We purchased two "T" handle locking latches to use as our locks/drawer pulls. So let’s get started, we have work to do! This of course is just the shell and not the peripheral components such as … Cabover Campers Acapulco a compact 8' camper with toilet room Bayou a compact 8' cabover camper with toilet room Cascade a 9' cab over camper with toilet room Dixie a 9' rear dinette camper Everglade a side entry 11' cabover camper Fairhaven an 11' compartmented camper Grandview an 11' front kitchen/rear dinette camper Importer a compact camper … From this point on, Lloyd’s Blog will have the buildings, vehicles, and home-related posts such as what has previously appeared here. Owen behind the wheel of Amelia and me at the helm of Lando (the new Tacoma) we completed the drive south. In reality, building your own camper can be very a satisfying experience. The first thing we did was cleaned out the truck bed because it was the last time we would have access to a lot of these parts of the truck bed. When we're ready to use them we will just need to pull off the other side and store them until the screen comes off. See that wasn't so bad?! Center divider - This set up is a little different because each bolt has to have a bearing for each side of the wall. 353 62K Restoring a 1967 Airstream by dcolemans in Camping. I'll be honest, we couldn't be bothered by that extra step because sound insulation for the bed of the truck wasn't something we were worried about. Once we had the bearings in we slide the drawers into place to determine where the metal rails needed to be attached. This DIY fridge slide alternative will free up valuable space in your truck shell camper, van build, or overland 4x4 vehicle! When we built the rig we didn’t want a major investment in a larger outfit since we could not travel enough to justify the expense. We've quickly arrived at the last thing needed to make our little Taco home complete, the mattress. Shipping and local meetup options available. The reason being we wanted this whole thing to be bolted to the truck bed using the bolts in the far back of the truck bed. The assembly is bolt-bearing-nut-washer-wood wall-washer-nut-bearing-nut with loctite. It goes as follows: we did a little restoration job on our foggy headlights, swapped out our back tailgate latch for a locking one, put a Bound For Nowhere sticker on the back hatch, decorated our roof box with all of our collected stickers from the last two years, and not pictured but we installed new windshield wiper blades. We attached the drawer fronts during a different step in the process, we will loop back to that shortly. Learn how to ditch the traditional camping fridge slide and take back that precious interior space with this DIY solution. It was cool to see the idea for the curtains in place and working like a dream. For the rails, we used 72"x1"x1" Square Tubing. Yes, these DIY truck bed camper ideas will make you skip those boring installation of camping tents and will also save you from sleeping on the cold tent floors. Homemade camper trailer by skiedra in Camping. Once the holes were drilled it was as simple as dropping the bolts back into place and tightened them down. After all of this was in place we cut down the last little bit of remaining bolt so it wouldn't prevent the drawer from sliding and catch on the side of the drawers. Cab-over Camper for Pickup: I wanted to build a Teardrop camper but I just don't have a place to park another vehicle\trailer in my driveway. We found that if purchased through a skate shop they were nearly 4x the price even with a bulk discount. Once we saw that everything looked right we went back and installed the drawer faces with latches. We screwed the metal rails to the drawers from the inside using self-tapping metal screws. Log in I built this truck camper in 10 days. Once we had the exterior pieces for the drawers cutdown we cut the slider rails for the sides of the drawers to match. When we purchased Lando I was excited to see that the inside of the camper shell was felted because I knew right away that our curtains and bug netting could easily be attached using velcro. When you carry nearly everything you own it feels important to do what you can to protect it. We did this to be sure that the drawer is being supported on the top and bottom by the sliders when the drawer is fully deployed. Jun 11, 2020 - Explore sam banks's board "Truck camper shells" on Pinterest. Window and door openings can be cut per your specifications. We bought four lengths of tubing in all, two for each drawer. For our sliders, we decided to use skateboard wheel bearings that we purchased, again, off of Amazon. Let us start with the curtains. Take your fishing, hunting, and camping game to the next level with these 15 best DIY truck bed camper designs that will help transform your trucks into big camping luxuries. The hight of the overall drawer system was determined by the height of our wheel wells because we wanted the top of our bed platform to rest on the top of the wheel wells. For about three months the couple spent building one of the best DIY truck bed campers you will ever see. Do You Need A Permit For Boondocking In Arizona? We also painted the visible portions of the drawer system to show we care...a little. With the velcro as the means of attaching these curtains, they went up in 2.5 seconds. First things first, the standard camper shell is light—about 300 pounds—making it ideal for payload-challenged half-ton and mid-size trucks. The following is a list of things that we used, some we bought specifically for this build, some are leftovers from Amelia. If you have some basic construction and carpentry skills, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn just how easy and totally inexpensive it can be to slap together your own simple pickup truck camper … A lot has changed for us recently, as I'm sure you've gathered. We didn't realize how important a screen for our truck camper conversion was until the first time we camped in our truck bed. Using 1/2" plywood we started framing out the bed platform/drawers. Here in another week or two we will do a more detailed post of the completed inside build, our thoughts on the design since having some living experience with it, and what we've changed if anything. Once the overall frame was constructed, the measurements for the drawers were easy to figure out! We don't have any pictures of this part of the process but we pulled the bolts out before we slide the frame into place, once it was in we drilled the holes into the drawer frame from under the truck. We're willing to pay the $93 for the mattress. Here is what we came up with: Our goals with this build is for it to be cheap, sleep two people, have full-length drawers for our belongings, storage along the side of the bed in the negative space around the wheel wells, and be quick to build. Oct 2, 2014 - homemade camper shell designs - Google Search Nomadic Homes » Vehicles » Pickups with Campers » Homemade Wooden Pickup Truck Camper Shell. Talk to us about customization options for your model. Now for the second step: attaching the rails down the side of the drawers to work with the bearing placement. Pickup Bed Camper Diy Camper Trailer Camper Beds Trailer Interior Camper Van Camping Cheap Camping Outdoors Truck Camper Shells Homemade Camper 15 Homemade DIY Truck Bed Camper Designs Take your fishing, hunting, and camping game to the next level with these 15 best DIY truck bed camper designs that will … Too much to do! A world-wide club for those who want to build their own truck campers. In our experience bugs in the summer can really put a damper on a sweet spot. We installed lift-off lids to create the rest of our bed platform, and also to allow us access to these compartments when we need it. We installed 12 bearings per drawer slide in an alternating pattern that can be seen in the above images. In the meantime, why not build yourself a simple bed cover with PVC pipe and fittings? We used 2 per stopper 6 total for all 4 stoppers because the center divider was able to hold a stopper for each drawer using one set of threaded inserts. We cut the sides of the drawers with regularly spaced out dados (slots cut into the surface of a piece of wood) so we could add dividers to the drawers later once the whole thing was constructed. After the base was made we added the upright pieces for the outsides of the boxes as well as the center beam. To be honest I'm not entirely sure how much we ended up using to make these curtains but we're lucky to have exactly as much was needed to make a curtain for each of the 4 windows in the bed camper. But, without the rip-away screen we wouldn't be able to sit comfortably in our truck camper with the access door open. For people that don’t like to set up the tent, a truck camper would be a … The homemade truck camper … We made the tough decision to turn around and sell Amelia on the side of the road somewhere near the Tail of the Dragon in western North Carolina. Why spend thousands on an RV or #vanlife Van Conversion, when you can learn to Build Your Own Homemade Truck Camper!. All of the pieces were put together using a Craig Tool and screws. The cork we stapled down as protection to the mattress once we got it in here. 5 Ways To Cut Down On Your RV Generator Usage, One Of America’s Top Luxury RV Resorts – StoneRidge Motor Coach Village, 10 Signs That Full Time RV Living Is Right For You, How To Protect Your RV Flooring From Pet Damage. By waiting until this step in the process we were able to be sure that the drawer faces were lining up perfectly with each other and the drawer frame. Once we slid it into position it wasn't going anywhere. We just wanted to be sure we included the gear we used to help you on your quest if you needed it to. Fancy isn't it?! When we decided to sell Amelia I suggested that we pick up a cheap car and continue to travel until we could figure out what was next for us. Jason offers one the industry’s most complete selection of truck camper shells with seven exceptional styles that fit most trucks. DCU utility truck cap access doors provide amazing panoramic views. To help you get an idea of how best you can design your very own camper trailer, we highlight for you some of the coolest DIY camper trailer ideas that will help you create a good camping trailer for your family below: Is Backing Up A Trailer Harder Than It Looks. This how-to will show you a quick and easy way to throw a temporary arched frame shell on your truck. Find great deals on Camper shells in your area on OfferUp. For those who're on a very tight budget, you don't have to buy a memory foam mattress. Finding a good camper shell or cab-over camper can be a challenge especially if you're on a tight budget. Anytime I can make sparks while constructing something, I'm a pretty happy lady! It's such a snug fit that we didn't need to attach the shelf in any way. For the bottom of the drawers, we also cut a dado that ran along the bottom of all the drawer sides and end caps. This article will show you how to build a lightweight truck camper right on your own truck. 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