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Thread: Our new popup camper

  1. #21

    Re: Our new popup camper

    Put it in the driveway.
    If someone told me what I could and could not have on my property. I'd move...

    ...Or kill them.
    -Chris
    2004 DoubleCab Tacoma PreRunner: 3.4 V6-Auto, DD/Tow Rig
    1997 Lexus LX450: 4.5 I6-Auto, DD
    1984 4Runner: 22R-5 speed, 14 inch bob, 5.29's, lincoln locked rear, lockright front, Armored and Caged by Mossyrocks Fabrication, total disregard for body damage.
    1997 4Runner: GONE
    1996 FZJ80 Land Cruiser: GONE

  2. #22

    Re: Our new popup camper

    Alright, it has been several months now, is that puppy decked out in LEDs yet?




  3. #23

    Re: Our new popup camper

    Sorry for the late reply Ken, I saw your post the first day but have been super busy lately.

    No lights yet and not too many other mods either. With my limited free time and the impending summer approaching in just a few months, I've had to pick and choose my projects and priorities. The first thing that had to be done was figure out the toilet situation for the wife. Thetford makes a toilet that fits perfectly in the little storage area by the door.


    But me being me, I couldn't leave well enough alone and had to have the bigger one so I wouldn't have to worry as much about extended camping. So in order to fit the bigger portipotty in the same space, the plan was to make the whole cupboard removable.

    Well, the flimsy wood and particle board structure wouldn't repeated removal so I had to beef it up some. I welded up a steel frame and bolted everything together with (54) 6-32 screws.


    It fits perfectly.






    This baby is so strong, you could almost use it for a stand alone chair!

    I'm not sure what the next mod will be, but I need to install a Wave heater, which is like a mister buddy, but much bigger. I also have an idea to fit a shower in there too. Before that, I think the priority will be to add an electric water pump, real sink faucets, and a water heater.

    Water storage tanks are expensive though, both fresh water and grey water tanks.

    I know, not the sexy mods you were thinking of, but first things first.
    -------------------------
    Steve
    1993 4runner, SAS, 3.0L, Auto Tranny
    2007 4runner, stock. For now.

  4. #24

    Re: Our new popup camper

    Good stuff Steve! My favorite threads on these forums is watching progress; whether its on a truck, house, RV, whatever. I look forward to reading about your summer travels, hopefully it involves another get-together in Mammoth.


  5. #25

    Re: Our new popup camper

    Ok, after a couple camping trips under my belt now, I've started the journey. The first priority was new tires because I think the old ones were the original tires. Since everybody on the internet says trailer tires suck and they all blow out, I was bound and determined to get some LT tires under there. Here's what it would have looked like with my 30" stock tires off the 4th gen.





    That would have taken a lot of work to get those things under there. The smallest LT tire I could find were 26" tires and even those would have been a stretch. Not impossible, but there was a strong possibility of needing to cut into the frame and outer skin for clearance. Reluctantly, I went with plan B, which was a set of Maxxis tires, which have a relatively good reputation for a trailer tire. This is where the second problem came in. The smallest tire they make is a 24" tire. Well, this would require larger wheels and about 1" more lift. What pushed me over the edge, was looking at the spring hanger welds. It must have been training day when they made my trailer because my little miniature schnauzer could have done better welds than whoever put mine together.



    So I decided I would upgrade the suspension and use 1" taller hangers and shackles. Oh, and I found out my axle is actually a 2200lb axle, instead of the sticker that said 1750 lbs. It turns out the sticker was probably put there by Coleman because either the springs, wheels, or tires weren't rated for 2200 lbs.

    The surgery started yesterday.

    Here's one of the hangers cutoff. Like I said, the welder must have been new, or something.


    Here's another hanger. They even blew a hole through the frame!


    Another reason it was a good idea to re-do the suspension was because the previous owner simply flipped the axle under the springs, but turned the axle upside down. This axle has camber to it, meaning that when it's loaded, it's supposed to flex flat. Well, the shop that did it, reused the ubolts and even stripped one of the nuts. The axle was being held on by 3 out of the 4 U-bolts and they were all bent to hell.

    That's as far as I got with the suspension, so on to the new wheels and tires. Those came in sooner than expected and because I had some left over wheel spray paint from the miata wheels that I never painted, I decided to go blingy. I painted the trailer wheels a metallic silver/gray, kinda like teflon color.




    Here's a comparison of the size:



    And here's what it'll look like when it's done:


    Here's a teaser of phase 2:


    http://www.amazon.com/Light-Heavy-Of...=A7RNQ92KM0URZ
    -------------------------
    Steve
    1993 4runner, SAS, 3.0L, Auto Tranny
    2007 4runner, stock. For now.

  6. #26

    Re: Our new popup camper

    Mmmm, lights.

    I've never been impressed with trailer welds or construction. Even big trailers that have large capacities. I tend to give them a little more room on the road.

    I have a small utility trailer and I've gone through checking everything out. The welds look good but some things just look under sized. The springs, u bolts and perches are all very small. I don't use it much and it's only rated at 2,200 pounds but it gets the job done.

    I'm excited to see your progress on your upgrades.

  7. #27

    Re: Our new popup camper

    Phase 1 was fun, looking forward to Phase 2.

    It's nice to see some quality LED stuff hitting the market now. I don't have time to build everything myself.

  8. #28

    Re: Our new popup camper

    I think I have a total of 5 of those lights now and 2 with more LEDs so they're even brighter! You're definitely going to know which camp is mine! The two brighter ones are going to go on the back of the 4runner for backup lights.

    When I bought those lights last week, they were $22 each, now they're $17! There's no way I could have made those for that price and that quality.

    This weekend I'll finish up the axle, then move on to the light installation or maybe work on getting the Wave 6 catalytic heater plumbed in. Or maybe both since I'll have a 4 day weekend. This is all in preparation for snow camping at the grand canyon some time next year. Now that we have this camper, the wife is more agreeable to cold weather camping.

    -------------------------
    Steve
    1993 4runner, SAS, 3.0L, Auto Tranny
    2007 4runner, stock. For now.

  9. #29

    Re: Our new popup camper

    I made a little more progress this 4 day weekend, but not as much as I thought I would. I had to help my brother work on his FJ-60, which is still sitting in my garage. By the way, changing motor mounts on that thing sucks.

    In the last episode, we left off with the axle removed and the hangers shaved off. On saturday, I started welding on the new perches to the correct side of the axle for a flip, but as I got further into the welds the welder started acting up and giving me really porous beads, as if it weren't getting any gas. It was also not feeding the wire very smoothly. Finally, I figured out that the liner was bad which was causing too much friction which caused the wire at the feed to buckle and make spaghetti. One of the strands of spaghetti must have hit the knob which keeps the gun attached to the welder which in turn allowed the gun/hose to come loose, preventing the gas from reaching the end of the gun.

    So on Monday, I headed to the welding store and got a new liner. It feeds much better now, better than it has in a few years. I no longer have to keep the hose perfectly straight and the beads are perfect once again (at least within my abilities).

    Today, after measuring 3 times and welding once, I got the new hangers tacked to the frame. I think I have the axle to within 1/16" square, whereas I'm pretty sure it was originally off by about 1/4" from the factory. For the next few days I'm just going to keep it tacked while I mull over everything I did and make sure everything is correct, before welding it up completely. Oh, and Coleman did not weld up the original hangers like the instructions from Dexter say to. They welded only the sides of the hangers, while dexter says to weld around the front and back too.



    Again I'm going blingy by painting the axle silver.


    Here's the new perch welded on.


    Stay tuned for the next episode.
    -------------------------
    Steve
    1993 4runner, SAS, 3.0L, Auto Tranny
    2007 4runner, stock. For now.

  10. #30

    Re: Our new popup camper

    Sometimes I hate the fact that I have to do everything right, otherwise I could have had this done a long time ago. Here you can see where I beefed up the new U-bolt plates. They were originally flat like the old rusty ones, but as you can see, the old ones were all bent to hell. Well I couldn't have that, so I welded on some stiffeners. On top of that, I couldn't have rusty stuff under my camper so I also painted everything I could (you'll see this theme).


    Before I welded the spring perches to the frame, I realized I had to pull out the wiring from the frame otherwise they'd get burnt to a crisp. That was a big pain the butt because some of the wires were kinda big and didn't want to be fished out. Plus, there was a plethora of those stupid crimp on wire splicers that had to be pulled out too. Did I mention I hate those things? No wiring of mine will have those because all they do is cut the strands of wire and introduce a spot for moisture to get in and cause corrosion. Those things went into the trash and out came the soldering iron. Every connection was soldered together, then 3-4 coats of liquid electrical tape were applied, then heat shrink tubing or electrical tape was used to cover it. Here's a shot of the axle under the trailer and some of the wiring hanging down for the brakes.


    Fast forward to today, where I finally got to hook it up and take it for a spin! Here's how it sits:






    It's a little nose low which is surprising because I even flipped over the ball on the hitch to raise it up some. Oh well, nothing a little lift won't fix. Here's what it looks like underneath:







    In that last picture, it looks like I got a little too generous with the brake control. I was testing them out because before one of them wasn't working, so after this rewire, I wanted to heat them up a little to see if they were both working now. Looks like they are. By the way, these little 7" brakes don't do a whole lot. I can feel them slowing the truck a little, but they don't come anywhere close to locking up. The bigger tires don't help any either.

    You can also see my wiring job. No exposed wires hanging down from crimp splices anymore. Everything zip tied, protected and strain relieved properly.

    Here's my blingy wheels:


    The step in height is now 25" so one of the next projects will be steps (the previous owner ripped the off before he did the axle flip).


    Here's the tire clearance. Now that I look at it, I think I could have gotten the 26" LT tires to fit! Dammit. Oh well, if these things blow, off to craigslist they go.



    Up next will be figuring out a way to mount the now larger spare tire under the tongue area since it won't fit in the normal spot and also extend the corner stabilizers. I'll make a run to the steel place tomorrow, hopefully.


    So final stats:

    24" Maxxis load range C tires
    Suspension lift of 1.25"
    Tire lift of 1.13"
    Total lift about 2.4"
    Distance from the ground to the bottom of the frame is 21.5"

    Backing this thing up to my house tonight reminded me I really need backup lights. Anyway, this is only the beginning, lots more to come.
    -------------------------
    Steve
    1993 4runner, SAS, 3.0L, Auto Tranny
    2007 4runner, stock. For now.

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