Yup, another 5th gen 4Runner...but pulling a DIY expedition camper

[WYWander]

There is likely not a single thing I plan on doing to my vehicle build that you can't find in multiple UToob videos, but I'll lump my concurrent camper build in with it too. Hoping y'all can help me with answers to my questions too.

***Insert stock picture of a white Fer'ner here.***

It will be the "white with flat black accents" version... Parts are just now starting to arrive but eventually, it will have a 3" lift and 33" tires on Method Bead Grip wheels. I'm hoping I can leave the spare underneath, but just in case, are there any recommendations for rear tire-carrying bumpers that play nice with trailers?

And the old camper build...



This is not the expedition camper but is my first attempt at building my own camper. Let's just say there was a lot learned. And it did not survive 6+ years of WY winters outside.



This is the current state of things. Destroyed the old camper and widened the frame to 5'.

Can you point me toward any custom roof rack threads or other info? I'm looking for ideas of materials used and configurations. You can see the half rack on top of the old camper, but I need something wider and longer. Not finding much out there that isn't vehicle specific. Can anyone help?

Thank you!

 

[eagle_A40]

Hi, Ken.
If you do end up locating the spare tire on the rear, I see the maker of the Gen IV trailer utilizes a "Plane Jane" swing away carrier, mounter to the frame/bumper combo.


From the pic you posted above, looks to me that you have the ability to fabricate one.

 

[WYWander]

Crud! Sorry Micheal, I meant on the truck. I'll be putting a dirt bike carrier on the back of the trailer. So I'll end up with a tire on the front of the trailer, and then possibly the 4R tire on the back of the truck.

That's a cool tire carrier though. Nice and simple.

 

[WYWander]

Put in an Ironman lift this evening. Just over 4 hours, with a little help from the wife to align the UCA bolts. (Perfect opportunity to exercise those innuendoes...) Doing it all in one evening wore me out!

I removed the front sway bar and didn't put it back in. Might see if I can get my hands on a set of those new disconnects before I put it back in. Tinkerer's Adventure makes a compelling argument.

If you're considering the Ironman lift, it was about as easy as the video makes it seem, but a few things to note:

- I did not need to remove the battery like he did in the install video.
- There was a hose bracket on the passenger side that needed one bolt removed for the UCA bolt to clear that the video didn't mention. No biggie.
- I did bend the body flange just a tick to get the drivers UCA bold past. Just a tiny bit in the way.
- The rear sway bar is different but maybe mine was easier to deal with. I just disconnected the end of the bar from the link. One nut to deal with there.
- Putting the bushings on the top of the rear shocks was a pain.
- The sequence of tasks in the video is mostly set up for you to complete one thing at a time. Probably good for them to assume installers are novices. But it's not really conducive to speed. As long as you can remember where you kept your nuts, it's easier to remove the UCA, remove the strut, then install the new strut, and then the new UCA.

Wheels and tires go on tomorrow, hopefully.

Before:



During:



After:

 

[WYWander]

The tires were catching on the front of the fender. The only other rub spot so far will need a small body mount chop. Might even get away without welding on any kind of gusset. It's already an open-ended mount. I think I'm making a decent argument that if you're ok with the high clearance cut and shaving a little off the body mounts, 285/75/R17's will just fit. I don't think I'll need to trim the fender or pull the plastic liner. It's damn close though. I couldn't get it to flex to the bumpstop but it was just a little further to the fender liner than it was to the bumpstop.

I modeled the cut from this T4R Garage's example.

 

[reaver]

Can you point me toward any custom roof rack threads or other info? I'm looking for ideas of materials used and configurations. You can see the half rack on top of the old camper, but I need something wider and longer. Not finding much out there that isn't vehicle specific. Can anyone help?

Thank you!

It's possible to mount rack crossbars to the trim. Check out the following link.


This is how I plan to mount my crossbars as well.

 

[WYWander]

Making some headway on the camper. Got all the wall and roof panels, the front bulkhead, and some joint bracing cut and roughed in. Next steps are:

Need to drop the axles/raise the frame 3". I watched a Lifestyle Overland video that made me want to get my entire frame higher, to be more in line with the 4R hitch. (I was encouraged that his 4R didn't seem to struggle too much with pulling a 4K lb trailer over moderate obstacles. It had to work sometimes but that's ok. His truck squatted a bit when putting the trailer on, so I'm glad I got the beefed up rear lift springs.) (Also glad I'm doing this instead of considering a $52K camper to drag through the brush...)

Will be beefing up the tongue with a triangular gusset and building the spare mount to be at the front.

Pre-fabbed fenders should arrive this week so I can start working on incorporating those into side steps.

Roof vent/fan should be here soon too.

I'm going to attempt to epoxy all of the panel joints. Epoxy + silica thickener. ("Attempt" as it will be my first time dealing with epoxy.)

Decided to build my own doors. Already have the latches, windows, and piano hinges for the main cabin doors. Just couldn't justify the $1,300 price tag for the pre-made ones I would want. (There are cheaper options but I don't want a screen door, and do want a screened window.)

Also decided to foam insulate the inside of the cabin and run wires through that, with paneling to finish. The walls are getting thicker than I originally intended but I think the weight/cost vs benefits will justify it.

I'm on the fence but leaning towards recreating my previous faucet/sink design. Kinda hokey looking but It worked well and had almost no moving parts. The only thing different I might do is put in a real sink with a drain and a gray water tank below. The other consideration so far is to put the fresh water tank somewhere else and use a 12v faucet. I could put the fresh tank up front and have more available kitchen storage space. I dunno....what do y'all think?

 

[WYWander]

I think I'm done adding heavy stuff to the rig. (Besides connecting a trailer to it. And carrying people...) Very glad I chose the heavy duty Ironman4x4 rear lift option to compensate. I would have only had ~550 lbs of payload left otherwise. The lift specs tell me it brings it back up to 1,200. I'm still going to need to be very careful about tongue weight on the trailer. The payload will be close to maxed out. Just the people in the vehicle will take up ~800 lbs of that. (Yes, there will be a 3rd row...)

**EDIT: come to find out Ironman's additional payload info on their product page may be incomplete. The additional payload just from that kit may be 1,870 and not 990.... Trying to confirm.)

I plan on getting a cheap high-capacity bathroom scale (700 lbs) and see if I can't get good weight measurements on the trailer tires and tongue. Instead of going to the local CAT scale to fine tune it. Also need to pull out the engineer in me and figure out a "sliding" axle on the trailer. The wife doesn't think I'll be able to tandem tow our trailers to bring the dirt bikes with us. (Anyone else hear banjos? Ha!) Or just my dirt bike on a carrier if we ditch the kids.

Thought this shovel storage thing was pretty neat.

 

[WYWander]

I think I’m finally done welding on this frankestinian monster. Put in the pieces to lift it 3” and reinforced the tongue today. Hadn’t touched it for a few weeks, but now it’s ready to paint once the weather warms up enough. Hopefully in a couple weekends.

 

[irish44j]

This

I think I'm done adding heavy stuff to the rig. (Besides connecting a trailer to it. And carrying people...) Very glad I chose the heavy duty Ironman4x4 rear lift option to compensate. I would have only had ~550 lbs of payload left otherwise. The lift specs tell me it brings it back up to 1,200. I'm still going to need to be very careful about tongue weight on the trailer. The payload will be close to maxed out. Just the people in the vehicle will take up ~800 lbs of that. (Yes, there will be a 3rd row...)

**EDIT: come to find out Ironman's additional payload info on their product page may be incomplete. The additional payload just from that kit may be 1,870 and not 990.... Trying to confirm.)

I plan on getting a cheap high-capacity bathroom scale (700 lbs) and see if I can't get good weight measurements on the trailer tires and tongue. Instead of going to the local CAT scale to fine tune it. Also need to pull out the engineer in me and figure out a "sliding" axle on the trailer. The wife doesn't think I'll be able to tandem tow our trailers to bring the dirt bikes with us. (Anyone else hear banjos? Ha!) Or just my dirt bike on a carrier if we ditch the kids.

Thought this shovel storage thing was pretty neat.

same place I put my shovel :)

Also the trailer build is coming along nicely. I built a similar frame a few years back

 

[WYWander]

Very nice @irish44j! Thanks. I actually need to move my shovel mount. Can’t open the hatch with it there. It will likely fit right behind the spare though.

 

[WYWander]

Struggling with the motivation these days. And maybe my brain isn't working as well as it used to. I knew I'd have to fit every piece, as the old frame is wonky, but I swear something has gone wrong with just about every step on this thing. Mostly me mis-measuring but I'm forgetting stuff too. And I don't feel I'm rushing either. Don't really want to be building this one anymore. It's a grind.

I'll keep grinding though... Got the major galley pieces in. Look closely and you'll see how one is not like the other. Ugh.

There will be a shelf/cabinets in the top left and a sink in the center. The top right will be for a large food tote. Before I spend much effort on drawers and the like, we're going to try shelves to carry dividable totes first. We'll see how annoying it is to strap the totes down and deal with the totes in general. If too annoying, I'll build drawers with dividers.

 

[WYWander]

Found some motivation to get some stuff done.

Next up is epoxy, tung oil, wiring, filon, and interior paneling

 

[WYWander]

Got the fenders built (mostly)

 

[reaver]

Fenders look good.

I can't remember.... What are you planning for finishing the trailer? I will say, the pmf process is shockingly easy, and relatively quick. We had mine completely skinned in two days.

 

[WYWander]

Fenders look good.

I can't remember.... What are you planning for finishing the trailer? I will say, the pmf process is shockingly easy, and relatively quick. We had mine completely skinned in two days.

It'll be Filon. My friend did that and it looks really sharp. I should be able to do it in a day with some help. Haven't found corner trim yet though.

 

[reaver]

It'll be Filon. My friend did that and it looks really sharp. I should be able to do it in a day with some help. Haven't found corner trim yet though.

Nice. I was originally going to go with either ACM panels, or something like Filon, but the cost was rather prohibitive. I could always put that on later, if I desire. I'll bet it'll look really nice.

I ordered my trim from vintage technologies. I'll probably add some aluminum angle along the back to help finish it off. Looking forward to seeing more progress on yours. If you're ever in the southwest ID area, hit me up. :D

EDIT - Aluminum Trim - Vintage Technologies

 

[WYWander]

Thanks reaver. I used that t-molding on my last camper doors and it worked well, but I was hoping to find a black rubber or plastic. Any ideas on that?

**edit - maybe that black aluminum and vinyl insert...interesting...

 

[reaver]

Thanks reaver. I used that t-molding on my last camper doors and it worked well, but I was hoping to find a black rubber or plastic. Any ideas on that?

**edit - maybe that black aluminum and vinyl insert...interesting...

I used the black on mine. The version with the 3/4 leg. I skipped the vinyl insert though, as I'm using mine to mount my crossbars.

 

[WYWander]

I roughed in the awning, just to see how it would work. Seems to be pretty good but need to figure out a gutter above the galley. There doesn't seem to be much for premade options out there, but some tarp and velcro would likely suffice.