Goal: simple day to day life, small(ish), offroad capable – a Jeep Gladiator build

[cug]

So far we have mounted the heater unit just to the Canopy Camper skin. Since this is fairly thin aluminium, we decided to support the heater with brackets mounted to the side extrusions:



This should be fine now even on corrugated roads.

Tomorrow we'll bring a whole bunch of parts to a local shop for powdercoating.

 

[cug]

Current set of custom designed parts in this build:

 

[cug]

And powdercoated:




We'll install most of them over the weekend, then the door and the heater will be DONE. ;-)

And a massive shout-out to our local powdercoater JIP Finishing!

They turned this around in 24h with amazing quality at a very reasonable price. If you are in the SF Bay Area and need something powdercoated, give them a call:

JIP Finishing

I have no relation to them other than being a very happy customer!

 

[cug]

Today we started installing some of the new parts. We wanted to move the Redvision Display to the door panel since it's hard to reach inside the camper, so that's what we started with.

Unfortunately, we had to take out the GP Factor panel and even take it apart to get to the ethernet cable for the display. Used the opportunity to also get some additional wiring in the camper done to get power to the passenger side which we'll need for the water pump, the UV water filter system, the Webasto heater, and the travel oven. So far, so good, but that's why the progress looks really small ...



Redvision display moved:



And the mounting spot in the GP Factor unit properly covered:

 

[cug]

So, door interior mostly sorted. Just a mounting an Element Fire extinguisher above the bag, and it's done:

 

[cug]

Heater installed:

 

[Dimitri_Raptis]

Heater installed:

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Very neat and professional job. Nice.

 

[cug]

Very neat and professional job. Nice.

Thank you, we work very hard to get to professional (or better) looking and working results. We've seen so many "professional" jobs that are totally whacky, it's really not fun anymore. Even reputable companies cut a lot of corners to meet reasonable price expectations, or charge insane amounts and then still deliver work that isn't up to standard.

Although it is kind of ridiculous that for most things we bought, we could have build better items or done a better job installing. It's frustrating sometimes.

 

[Dimitri_Raptis]

Very neat and professional job. Nice.

Thank you, we work very hard to get to professional (or better) looking and working results. We've seen so many "professional" jobs that are totally whacky, it's really not fun anymore. Even reputable companies cut a lot of corners to meet reasonable price expectations, or charge insane amounts and then still deliver work that isn't up to standard.

Although it is kind of ridiculous that for most things we bought, we could have build better items or done a better job installing. It's frustrating sometimes.

Fully agree. Most upgrades and project I do my self. Especially electrical.

 

[cug]

Not all that much happening right now, I'm out of commission with RSI and some back issues (slowly getting better) and my wife is busy sewing more mosquito netting for the side window – it's quite a patchwork there due to our high furniture piece which has outside usage.

On a separate note, we've been going back and forth on how to install the vent hose for our composting toilet since we didn't want to deal with this hose whenever we pull out the toilet from its storage location (where it can't be used).

Thought about various way building it with plywood, but just couldn't figure out a simple way to also then attach it somewhere. So, ended up with more metal design work:



This will create a "docking station" for the toilet, which we can then just pull out to use, push back into its storage space when done. Let's hope it works.

 

[cug]

So, the sprint to the finish line has begun - we've started taking out the furniture again to fix problems and mistakes, hook up the water system and then do final assembly in the next two weeks. That should give us about two more weeks for testing and last minute changes before an upcoming longer trip.

Wish me luck!

 

[cug]

The truck is empty and the house feels like we are building out a fifth wheel ...



Currently, the tank is out as well ... and we are pretty unhappy with what we found our installer (TinyRig in Southern California) has done to the mount of the bags seen above:



This is just plain incompentence. Maybe even beyond that, incompetence combined with absolutely not giving a shit ... we are seriously pissed.

Our whole house is a frigging mess:

 

[John Bishop]

I'm guessing they didn't use washers under the heads in addition to over-tightening.

 

[cug]

I'm guessing they didn't use washers under the heads in addition to over-tightening.

There were washers, but they were too small for the soft material. They were meant for the steal tank mounts underneath, certainly not the correct ones for thin and soft aluminum. Although I believe that is also partly an Alu-Cab problem since there don't seem to additional/different washers in the bag kit.

 

[TheBestCow]

Oooof on the bag mounts. It's always something....

 

[BAJA-X]

Nicely Done ! Your technical and craftsmanship are impressive.

 

[cug]

@BAJA - PRO - Thank you for the kind words! We do our best, had a resonably technical background, and plain took our time. It's been a long journey and it really needs to end soon or we are going crazy.

Current target deadline: this coming Sunday, 23:59:59 ... ;-)

 

[cug]

The truck is empty and the house feels like we are building out a fifth wheel ...

Getting it back together now. All bolts have loctite, everything is cleaned up, some mistakes fixed, getting there.

Electrics are also cleaned up:

 

[cug]

So, it's all back in.

Water pump and filter (towel since we were testing for leaks):



UV water treatment:



Electrical subpanel for pump, travel oven, heater:



Overview:





The backrest has storage space for two Frontrunner chairs:



It's a bit of a "hardware overload" in there, mainly because we don't have the skills and workshop to build a nice wood only box there. But okay, it is what it is.

 

[cug]

With all this in now:

The build is DONE!

We are optimizing some small things here and there while packing the truck for a trip, but other than that, it's done for now. We are going to use it for a while now and then optimize what needs to be optimized. But I'm done for the time being. Worn out as well by this build.