I have put my foot down and finally got approval to buy a camper.  I am tired of packing for camping.  I am tired of loading random bins into the truck to go camping, but mostly I am sick of tents, I am sick of sticky small tents haha. 

 

I have been looking into used Truck bed campers of the Popup variety.   We do a lot of off the beaten road camping so a large camper isn't going to happen.  We also have goals of getting a horse trailer at some point and going places to ride for a weekend. 

 

So that leaves me with the popup slide in style.  Am I off base here?   We have ~$2000-$3000 budget for this.  I have been looking on Craigslist for a few weeks now and spotted a few that would work, anywhere from $700-$5000.   Most have good roofs and canvas, but beyond that I am not sure what I am looking for.  Anything I should be looking for?  Any brands that I should be avoiding?

14 hours ago, Me78569 said:

Just ordered a 6000 btu blue-flame heater, the old heater in the camper needed 12v to run which doesn't fit our needs at all.

 

This will open up a bunch of storage space.  we don't need to have the camper at 65*f, more so it is for keeping it liveable regardless of the temp outside.

them vent free heaters work well if you can deal with the smell, that's why I prefer the onboard furnace, even if it does take a good battery charge for them to operate.

One of the best investments I made for dry camping is my Honda generator, unlike a cheap Harbor Freight imitation, the Honda will start every time and last a lifetime.

The other good investment is when my wife comes and she has to get up early in the morning to go out and take care of business, I have the generator conveniently located so when she walks by she just has to pull the handle.   

For the typical type of camping we do a power-less heater is what we need.  Maybe a few years down the road we can pick up a honda generator, but right now my camping budget has been blown to pieces haha

10 minutes ago, 01cummins4ever said:

The other good investment is when my wife comes and she has to get up early in the morning to go out and take care of business, I have the generator conveniently located so when she walks by she just has to pull the handle.   

 That's called remote start.  I need one of those!

for as heaters go i have yet to find a better one then http://planarheaters.com/diesel-air-heaters-planar  

they seem to be great heaters. had on in my old 28' 5er with 10gal tank and it was amazing compared to propane on usage.

soon as i get the gumption to swap one into my new 5er i'm all over it.

this guy has some very useful info as well. http://globalcamper.blogspot.ca/p/4x4-dodge-ram-camper.html

I have a Mr Buddy heater that I use in my trailer and Ice tent and they are great.  They would work really well in a camper.

 

 

3 hours ago, Me78569 said:

Next I am looking at the fridge,  need to look into how much propane it uses and decide if I will ever use it.

LOL. Fridge uses so little. Even in my old 1976 Dodge Jamboree the old Dometic Fridge would go nearly 2 months on a single 20# propane bottle. I know my Jayco with the Norcold electronic fridge will go over 7-10 days on a single battery charge Well over 2 months on a single 30# propane bottle.

They dont use much at all thats for sure.

The flame looks like a strong bic lighter. About 1-2 inch tall flame from a small burner.

Basically consumption wise from lightest to heaviest.

LIGHTEST Fridge -> Cook Stove / Oven -> Water Heater -> Furnace HEAVIEST

I typically will fire up the fridge and not even worry about running it on AC power. The water heater I will selectively turn off and on when needed don't need to waste fuel for heating water through the day. Furnace I installed a programmable digital thermostat. Very handy in getting the most from the heater use. Have it cut back during the night and burst heat in the morning then level off or lower during the day. Propane typically isn't an issue till you say furnace...

Power wise... Forced air furnace is the heavy power user typically. My fridge has 6A fuse if that gives a clue also the water heater is the same as well. So power wise...

HEAVIEST Furnace, Lights, Water pump, Fridge, Water heater LIGHTEST

Even in rv parks where I have to pay a power bill, electric heaters are cheaper than buying propane. If I am seeing lows of 20 and highs in the 30's even 40 I can empty a 30# cylinder in 3 maybe 4 days. The furnace at least the two I have owned are and were gas sucking pigs. 

Yea the fridge is going to stay, the forced air heater is in the trash.

 

I rebuilt the back corners of the camper as they were rotted.  I am resealing the back joints also.  

 

Making progress, 

 

Group 31 is sitting my office, harness made for the plug to the truck.  Waiting for the battery box.

Pictures wanted...

of what?  

 

All the rotting is removed and patched so not much to see there.  

 

I will take some good interior pictures in a few.

Left side

 

Right side

 

 

 

Right rear section

 

left rear section

The furnace proved helpful..used the skin for more reinforcement

 

 

Edited February 6, 20169 yr by Me78569

Nice find !

BTW way mine has not heater

 

The camper now runs on Battery power, as it seems typical the old owner either never used it or didn't wire it correctly as the ground and tail light connection were reversed. I pulled apart the connect and rewired with, stripping the old wire any making sure all the connections where clean.

 nice to be able to flip a switch inside and go from AC to DC input.  

Battery is contained in a battery box, with a harness that plugs into the 7pin on the truck to allow you to charge on the way to where you are going, then the box will have a large cutoff switch do you can isolate the camper battery from the starting batteries.  

I am not sure if I want to wire in my Smart charger to the system or just charge the 31 in the box when I get back to the house.   Dunno we will see.

 

LED lights came in, but they were none regulated so they about started a fire due to the 15v the camper has when you run on 120v.  Ordered some new regulated LED's today.

 

I am still waiting on this

Should be nice to be able to charge usb stuff, have a cig outlet for people and be able to see volts.   in the space we removed the furnace from we are mounting this on a piece of plywood on hinges to allow easy access behind.  I might put a shelf in or something behind the door.  

 

Tested the fridge and stove today.  rewired the connection for the water pump with a new lighted switch.

 

Jen is sewing away recovering all the cushions.   things are coming together. 

This is great! You get a used camper, pull everything apart and then put back together they way YOU want it.  You'll go out on the road with the comforting thought, 'I know everything works the way I want it to'.  There's no beer cans lying around in the pics so you know the work is done right.

57 minutes ago, Me78569 said:

due to the 15v the camper has when you run on 120v.

Seriously need to find a good 3 stage converter. Those old 15V charger will cook a good battery in no time flat. My old 1976 Dodge Jamboree was known to cooking the house battery in a short time if you left it plugged into city power.

I tested that, with the switch set to 120v input my multimeter shows 12.61 at the battery.  It will not try and charge the battery when in 120v mode.  

 

I will retest tomorrow, but I am pretty sure there is a disconnect between the 2 systems.

23 minutes ago, IBMobile said:

This is great! You get a used camper, pull everything apart and then put back together they way YOU want it.  You'll go out on the road with the comforting thought, 'I know everything works the way I want it to'.  There's no beer cans lying around in the pics so you know the work is done right.

Exactly,

it pays off to go through everything, I hate hate hate being somewhere and "trusting" that someone else did it right.

Ummm... I leave my RV plugged in all winter and let the converter keep the battery charged all winter no issues. Like I said you might want to look at a quality converter. It nice to keep the battery charged while it stored. Also if you happen to use a RV park it nice to have power for the 12V system and not cook the battery doing it.

Yeah I know you plan on camping or boondocking more so. Still you got to consider the storage angle and possible RV park usage.

I have a VERY nice  Genius Smart battery charger that I am going to bring with me.  

 

Thing when when I put the camper up to store the battery will not stay with the camper as there is no place to put it.  I am sudo mounting the battery box into the bed of the truck rather that building a mounting place for the battery.

 

And again I tested what the camper does when you are plugged into 120v.  If you plug into 120v the battery ISN'T being charged,  The voltage at the battery stays 12.6 ish while everything internal is 14-15v there is no backflow of power from the current old school power converter, so there is no risk of cooking the battery when plugged into 120v.

Seems weird. It should be charging the battery when you are plugged in.