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4500 Camper/Jeep Hauler Build

Well well well, look what's home a day early.

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They did a really nice job.

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At this point I should have everything on hand to get this assembled, it's just a matter of getting it all together. It's drying out now after being out in the rain, and I'll get started on it all tomorrow. Home stretch I hope.
 
Great White North Eh said:
Hey if that Comanche is always in your way I could help you out with that. Just looking out for ya. ;)
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Sure I appreciate that. :) In the spring I plan to get that on the road and sort out the paperwork.. Then I’ll figure out a plan from there. I’ve started collecting little bits and pieces for it like a new set of tail lights. Still need to find a sliding rear window, those are unobtainium in decent condition.
 
On with the reassembly. I started with a quick job, reinstalling the bike rack.

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That’s done, ready to use. Next I need to make a splash shield and a heat shield in the spare tire carrier area. I broke out my press brake and bent up some extra 1/8” aluminum left over from the cabinet.

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Here’s the splash shield in place looking up inside the wheel well.

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And here is the heat shield to give the spare tires some protection from the tail pipe.

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The sealant needs cleaning up once it dries but I’m pretty happy with the result.

Last up I bolted the fifth wheel rails in.

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20 grade 8 half inch bolts should be sufficient I hope. :D

That’s it for the bed, it’s ready to go back on. Now I need to get the truck frame cleaned up and some of the air lines run a bit better, get the longer fuel fillneck hoses on, etc. Won’t be long.
 
Didn't have a ton of time to work on the truck today but I put a few 3D printed parts on. Mostly little caps made from TPU to put on bolts near hoses, and a small cap to seal off the back side of the DEF cap tether since I am getting a little leak there. But I did have this one bigger issue to solve in the tire carrier.

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This pocket is going to collect crap. If I drill drains in it, the drains will probably make it worse as the tires will spray water in through the drains, and then the drains will clog up anyway. Ideally I would have put some sheet metal in here prior to powder coating but it's too late for that.

So instead, I printed a wedge out of ASA plastic with chamfered corners to account for the welds.

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A generous amount of black sikaflex to seal it in place..

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And the water will now run off of it instead of pool there. Once the sealant dries I'll clean up the edges and the textured surface even reasonably matches the powder coat.

Rear fuel filler tomorrow, and then it'll be getting the deck ready to go on.
 
gprguy said:
Hoses are all mounted and bundled up.

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While doing so I needed to disconnect the rear air lines to shorten them up. So to support the truck, I put down the hydraulic legs.

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That's probably never going to get old. :D

Few more odds and ends to get done and then it'll be time to get the deck on.
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Built in jack for changing tires.:cool:
 
Last couple of odds and ends before the deck goes on - first, the rear fuel filler - this will get cut a little shorter once the fill neck mount is on.

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The other last bit was making temporary brackets for the tail lights and temporary mud flaps. It's starting to look like a truck again.

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I threw some paint on those and they are drying, they'll be ready to go back on once the deck is installed.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll start on that.
 
Quick side project to finish up, I need to mount the stock rear camera. Eventually this will get mounted on the tailboard but for now I just wanted it temporarily mounted and make sure I have the positioning and angle the way I want. I designed the camera mount and printed it out of PLA. Now that I'm happy with it I will reprint it in ASA-CF.

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Since I don't have a tailboard yet, I hacked up a piece of angle iron to bolt to a couple extra holes in the chassis crossmember.

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And there we go. I think this is roughly where it will go when I make the tailboard - maybe up a little higher, maybe not. It'll never be high enough to get a good view of the hitch ball but it should be good enough for what is needed.

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Oh, and sneak peak of the bed clamped down in place.. I should be able to start bolting it down tomorrow once some last bits of hardware arrive.

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