Well, some updates, and work for me at the computer today.
Over the weekend, I discussed the plans with my wife. Let me lay out the scenario.
Currently, we are tent campers, in our 50s, overweight, and at least with me, some medical problems that are related to the weight (a car wreck injduries and the associated meds sped up weight gain, and have made losing the weight difficult). There are places we don't camp that we want to with the tents due to climate in those locations. Specifically Texas beaches. After sundown, there is a constant Gulf breeze, beautiful for cooling off, horrible because it blows sand throught he no see um netting of the tent. I have to use more fabric, and office binder clips to close off the netting, which makes the inside of the tent hot, and humid, this gets alleviated via a small window AC unit jammed into the back door of the tent and run off a cheap generator. We have succesfully camped in the bed of the truck using PVC pipe and a tarp as a makeshift tent. That is MUCH better, but still not entirely what we want / need.
My wife dreams of a HUGE fifth wheel. Our F150 4x4, which is long ago paid for can't handle a huge trailer, nor can the places we want to go. After our weekend trips to one of the beach sites we like to go, and her and I helping a couple that was dumb enough to drag a 40' fifth wheel onto the beach get unstuck, she finally agrees, not a good plan for that environment...
Not every time, but a few of the times we have been camping, we were driven into the truck by sudden overnight severe storms.
I want to minimize setup / teardown time, improve the environmental protection our shelter provides us, and create a singular place for us to retreat to in comfort should the weather turn foul on us.
It has been agreed by my wife, that we are going to do a truck camper, and that with our combined weight, we are NOT going to do a cab over sleeper. I CAN design one sturdy enough, but that would add a considerable amount of weight, and complexity to the topper as it would require steel framing. The cantilever of a cab over sleeper is a bit of tricky engineering you know.
So with that in mind, and trying to maximize the available floor space, we are going with a Futon type folding bed transverse along the truck bed and the width of the camper set to accomodate that.
After dropping the tailgate and measuring from front of the cab to the top lip of the tailgate, I have ~102" floor length to deal with, so just about 8.5 feet.
I am still working on how to design the futon, really the hinge and back support are where I am iffy. Not impossible, just not immediately obvious. We already have a Memory Foam futon in queen that was given to us that the mattress will be used.
So with the futon in bed position, that takes up 5' of the truck bed, meaning we have 3.5' used. The port o potty gets a dedicated spot, and a flip down table for cooking should the need arise inside.
There will be an overcab, but its purpose is solely for light stuff storage such as clothing and bedding, and of course aerodynamics.
I apologize for not remembering the users name, but the guy with white tacoma that built his using the truck bed floor as the inside floor of the camper provided a LOT of inspiration for this design approach. Lower weight, MUCH less complex to build.
I still need to address the gap between the tailgate and truck bed, and I am thinking about simply jamming a hunk of foam pipe insulation in that gap on the road, and some sort of heavy duty, like a pet proof window screening over the gap while camping for fresh air intake. It would certainly help with the Coleman heater.
Our carry over camping gear is very old school, for good reason. I can't state strongly enough how opposed I am to the disposable 1lb propane cylinders. I am not the tree hugger type, but I also am not the let's strip mine the planet type. The fact that these cylinders when ostensibly empty still contain enough fuel to have enough explosive force to take out a machine gun nest, and they are NOT recycleable, I have asked our recycling folks and they are considered hazardous waste, yay fun. So I will not be using 1lb cylinders.
My stove(s) are both Coleman, a 424 Dual Fuel, and a 425 white gas 2 burner stoves. The 425 is a secondary for backup, and use when doing say coffee, in drip pot, biscuits in the folding oven, and sausage gravy and eggs on a couple of skillets.
AC will be via an Arctic King 5K BTU window unit AC mounted in the back wall over the location of the toilet. A 27 gallon tote will be slid into place along with a ceiling mounted shower curtain to enable indoor showering should the need arise.
I need to figure out a safe place for it, but heat will be provided on the few / rare occasions needed, by a Coleman 518B catalytic white gas heater.
Lighting in the camper will be 100% LED. On 12V, Looking at options there. Outdoor lighting is 2 Coleman dual fuel lanterns.
Water system / capacities are as follows.
Fresh 4 @ Reliance 7 gallon Aqua Tainers.
https://amzn.to/2Lio6oy. I am working on a plan to have a common pickup for these so I can pump from all 4 without moving the pickup.
Toilet fresh tank holds 3.2 gal I believe. Specs not listed, but I seem to recall that is about what I was able to put into the tank when I tested. Mine is the Jaxpety 5 gallon flushing portable toilet.
https://amzn.to/2ZODdhOGray 2 @ Reliance 5 gallon Fold A Carrier water carriers.
https://amzn.to/2Li2lW1.
"Sink" is a pair of Sterilite 12QT dish pans from Walmart. I will give the Amazon link, but recommend buying at Walmart as they are, or at least were under $1.00 at Walmart.
https://amzn.to/2LsvvADShower currently is via a Zodi shower pump and shower head, heat is provided via a home made stove top heat exchanger. Depending on the starting temp of the water, and the flame level of the stove, unlike the actual Zodi shower, there is no need to recirculate the water to get it to temp. This goes back to the figuring out how to be able to draw from all 4 AquaTainers at once. A submersible pump like the Zodi isn't really going to cut it long term. The tote captures gray water, which gets poured into the gray tanks via a funnel once the shower is done..
I need to figure out storage, particularly for the kitchen stuff as it tends to be the heaviest as I am using cast iron cookware. All of the heavy stuff except for the toilet, are planned to be stored on the truck bed floor, in front of the axle. Water jugs, cookware etc... Light weight stuff, bedding, clothes, tarps etc... in the overcab. Need to figure out food storage, for now it is a 50 qt Coleman Extreme cooler that has been spray foam lid filled and is pending epoxying the holes. This stuff willl likely need its own space away from the sleeping area should we decide to venture into bear country...
