FortyWater12 - Wedge Camper Build

[ReigleCM]

Its .065” wall, so it is really light. I also sized down to 1/8” plate on the bed rails. I went steel for ease of fabrication and cost.

The total camper will weigh around 300lbs fully built. My model says the frame itself accounts for 90lbs of that. That was with the 3/16 plate in the design, so it’s likely closer to 85.

For reference, GFC V2 weighs 275lbs.

Pretty good weight for steel! Especially considering it's only 25lbs more than a GFC!

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[Colo_Ranger]

Bed rail test fit:

These mount like my Billie Bars but flatten the top for a tonneau cover. These would be awesome adapted for Billie Bars. Great work!

 

[fortywater12]

Pretty good weight for steel! Especially considering it's only 25lbs more than a GFC!

I was very pleasantly surprised! I will get a final weight for everyone once the build is completed.

 

[fortywater12]

These mount like my Billie Bars but flatten the top for a tonneau cover. These would be awesome adapted for Billie Bars. Great work!

Thank you!

 

[myothercarizahearse]

ne

For reference, GFC V2 weighs 275lbs.

305 for a scab. are you including the mattress and tent too?

 

[fortywater12]

ne

305 for a scab. are you including the mattress and tent too?

Makes sense since that’s a 6 foot bed. I haven’t seen exact numbers for the super crew 5’ bed so I grabbed numbers from someone who owned one for a taco.

Yes, that includes canvas and the exped duo mattress.

We will see the final numbers. It’s hard to get everything estimated to an exact weight in a model. Even if I am at 310-320lbs, i think it’s still a big win, especially since I’ll have less than half the money into it that I would have spent for a comparable GFC.

 

[OFC Ranger]

another excellent thread. lots of hand-crafted stuff recently on the forum.

 

[fortywater12]

another excellent thread. lots of hand-crafted stuff recently on the forum.

Thank you! I’ve been following your build for a bit now and admire your work; means a lot!

 

[fortywater12]

Got 4 out of 6 of the vertical posts welded in last Wednesday. The rear vertical posts were cut improperly and the angles did not match up unfortunately - so those need to be re-done.

Was able to get enough welded in to test fit it free standing on my bed which was cool.

As it sits, the space frame is about 2" too tall, so I adjusted my model and will be cutting it apart and shortening the overall height 2" tonight.

I used a 2x4 to simulate what the extrusion will look like over the cab of my truck and quickly realized the gap was too large. GFC only has about a 1/4" - 1/2" of gap between a stubby antenna and the bottom sleeping platform. With my 2" reduction, I should be right in that ballpark and have a much cleaner and aerodynamic build.

 

[myothercarizahearse]

GFC only has about a 1/4" - 1/2" of gap between a stubby antenna and the bottom sleeping platform.

my stubby rubs hard all the time. it creaks and squeaks when I roll around at night. very annoying. I will remove it next time the camper comes off.

do you plan on that far of an overhang? how about some kind of windscreen on the front to kill some of the wind noise?

 

[fortywater12]

my stubby rubs hard all the time. it creaks and squeaks when I roll around at night. very annoying. I will remove it next time the camper comes off.

do you plan on that far of an overhang? how about some kind of windscreen on the front to kill some of the wind noise?

Good to know - thanks for the heads up! I might just remove my stubby then and throw in a block off plate/screw. How much room is there between your stubby and your floor panel do you think?

No, I do not plan to have it overhang that much, just slid the board forward some distance. I took a much better measurement yesterday evening but didn't stop to snap pics as I told wifey "It will only be 5 minutes" haha.

I would really like to run a slim rack and throw a fairing up front to kill the wind noise. I know a lot of people have modified prinsu racks or other slim racks to be sort of a half roof rack - that is my ideal scenario.

 

[Colo_Ranger]

my stubby rubs hard all the time.

There is a joke there...

 

[myothercarizahearse]

There is a joke there...

this wasn't good enough for ya?

my stubby rubs hard all the time. it creaks and squeaks when I roll around at night

Good to know - thanks for the heads up! I might just remove my stubby then and throw in a block off plate/screw. How much room is there between your stubby and your floor panel do you think?

my stubby rubs all the time. the space between the fin and floor is about the thickness of the antenna

if you are going through with all the troubles with building your own, why not attach it to the camper instead of having all that extra junk hanging out on your roof? I priced out the thule rack and it was $750. I'd rather deal with the wind noise than have all that extra snow catcher up there and $750 less in my pocket. it shouldn't be too hard to bend a sheet of aluminium, contour it to follow the roof and attach it to the front of your setup- not so easy on a GFC. the T-slots on the front are on the upper half so it would move with when the camper is open. $40 sheet of aluminum, bend, cut to fit shape of roof or not. just spit balling here

 

[fortywater12]

my stubby rubs all the time. the space between the fin and floor is about the thickness of the antenna.

if you are going through with all the troubles with building your own, why not attach it to the camper instead of having all that extra junk hanging out on your roof? I priced out the thule rack and it was $750. I'd rather deal with the wind noise than have all that extra snow catcher up there and $750 less in my pocket. it shouldn't be too hard to bend a sheet of aluminium, contour it to follow the roof and attach it to the front of your setup- not so easy on a GFC. the T-slots on the front are on the upper half so it would move with when the camper is open. $40 sheet of aluminum, bend, cut to fit shape of roof or not. just spit balling here

I've though about re-routing it and putting an antenna on the side of the camper that flips up, but I think I will reserve that idea for a CB antenna or satellite antenna if I ever do that. I think I will have about a 1/2" of space between the tip of my antenna and my floor. If it rubs, I will remove it and cap it. I never listen to the radio in my truck - always playing music off of the phone.

Good idea about the fairing up front for wind noise. I will definitely get something going.

 

[fortywater12]

Put in a bunch of work this weekend after taking almost a week off from working on this build. As many of you know, life and work gets in the way sometimes!

Wifey and I assembled the extrusion this weekend and began sheeting the top and bottom halves of the wedge. I also was able to get most of the mounting holes drilled on the space frame - I would say 80% of the holes are drilled.

As of right now, the top wedge (pop portion) is completely done and ready to be mated to the bottom extrusion. The bottom extrusion floor pieces have been cut to size and I plan on laminating them together with some liquid nail tonight. Once it dries for a whole day, I will begin drilling all of the holes to fasten it permanently to the extrusion. On to the pics!

First and foremost, we test fit the frame with the assembled extrusion on top. I am stoked with how it came out and I am extremely happy I cut it down 2". The fitment is perfect.

Next, I clamped the 5x10 sheet of the alupanel to the extrusion and traced along the bottom edge to get my cut lines.

After that I got busy with the jigsaw with fine tooth metal blade (diablo brand). This worked great and left a very nice finish. I was pleasantly surprised and didn't have to debur at all really.

Finally, I drilled the holes for my mounting locations, placed my slot nuts, and filled the gaps in the extrusion slot with rubber gasket. I then applied Loctite Polyurethane Flashing sealant to the extrusion and set the sheet on top. I torqued all of the bolts down and then cleaned up the excess sealant. This stuff works great, but takes 7 days to fully cure - so it is sitting the garage waiting to dry before I put it together with the gas struts.

I repeated the cut process for the lower half of the extrusion as well. Currently, this sits in my garage waiting to be laminated together since I am doing a double sheet of the 5x10 alupanel on the bottom for my floor. I wanted the extra thickness to help prevent deflection when the wife and I are sleeping on it.

One thing I will say when building something like this, there are many points of no return (without having to do a lot of re-work) when laying down sealant etc. Check and double check your measurements - work slowly and make sure all of your holes line up! Position your slot nuts carefully and install your sheets with a helper to avoid shifting alignment around.

Also, leave your external gussets off until the very end! Or at the very least, do not seal them. This will give you flexibility to add slot nuts for accessories on your railing.

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