M105 Camper

[parlusk]

good start

 

[jesusgatos]

That's got to be the heaviest two-man tent ever.

 

[DUG]

That's got to be the heaviest two-man tent ever.

Probably, but with all the stuff crawling around in the dez I like being off the ground. I also like the near zero set up time and the fact it can hold a lot of beer coolers and spare parts.

It also has a higher cool factor than a tent at Dirtbag.

 

[DUG]

Made nine more of the extentions and installed them. Only mods to make it work were replacing the bolts holding the top board to the sides and drilling a hole through the bows to attach it to the extention.

I think wood will be fine in the application since it's only holding up the top and bows.

Raining too much for pics, but I'll get some updated ones of the world's heavist two man tent soon.

We were able to get the top on just as it started pouring so we will have a dry place to work still. DryISH anyways.

 

[Brentzilla]

Here are the pictures, one of mine was solid wood cut longer, I bed you'll be fine.

 

[DUG]

Thanks for the pics. We finished the bow extentions and installed the bottom bunk frame. It's simply a 2 x 4 box bolted to the bed on the inside. Next I'll sheet it in with plywood. Seems pretty strong. The next one will be a 2 x 4 box bolted to the sides at the top rail and sheeted with plywood. I'll probably install some legs as well. Honestly though, for it to come down a lot would have to break or give way.

Still raining, so no pics.

 

[number9]

I used my M105A3 as a camper at Haspin this year. Worked out pretty good - and there were FOUR of us in there (wife and two toddlers). I made a bed frame from 2x4 and 3/4" plywood. I put a leg on each rear corner, then one in the middle and let the front of the bed rest on the fender wells. Didn't bolt it to the trailer at all, just the weight of it kept it in place. Had to remove one of the side panels to get it in the trailer though. Put an old fullsize bed mattress on it, I like a firm bed so it worked out good.

I thought about the carpet situation and ended up going with a real thick carpet rug from Walmart. It's easily thick enough that the humps in the bed floor didn't hurt my sock feet. It is big enough to walk around on but still has some bare floor exposed so there is room to take wet / muddy shoes off under the protection of the tarp in the rain - this was real world tested at Haspin TOO MUCH

I really like what you've done with the roof extensions - I may try that myself.

I also wonder if doing it like you did at first and bolting some 3/4" plywood around the exposed rail sides would have resolved the flimsy-ness issues and kept you from having to lengthen the tarp. But then you'd have had to address the gap over the tailgate I guess.

......

 

[DUG]

I used my M105A3 as a camper at Haspin this year. Worked out pretty good - and there were FOUR of us in there (wife and two toddlers). I made a bed frame from 2x4 and 3/4" plywood. I put a leg on each rear corner, then one in the middle and let the front of the bed rest on the fender wells. Didn't bolt it to the trailer at all, just the weight of it kept it in place. Had to remove one of the side panels to get it in the trailer though. Put an old fullsize bed mattress on it, I like a firm bed so it worked out good.

I thought about the carpet situation and ended up going with a real thick carpet rug from Walmart. It's easily thick enough that the humps in the bed floor didn't hurt my sock feet. It is big enough to walk around on but still has some bare floor exposed so there is room to take wet / muddy shoes off under the protection of the tarp in the rain - this was real world tested at Haspin TOO MUCH

I really like what you've done with the roof extensions - I may try that myself.

I also wonder if doing it like you did at first and bolting some 3/4" plywood around the exposed rail sides would have resolved the flimsy-ness issues and kept you from having to lengthen the tarp. But then you'd have had to address the gap over the tailgate I guess.

......

I thought about raising the sides and sheeting in the gap but -

1. It seemed pretty ghetto
2. I would have had to drill a lot of holes in the stake pockets to pin the sides
3. Only 5 inches were left in the pocket

So I ended up fabbing up some bow extentions and it looks like I have a trade for a longer cover.

My bed frame is 2 x 4 bolted to the bed and sides and sheeted with 7/16 plywood.

The whole thing will get a fresh coat of tan paint. My wife is making a curtain to hang from the middle bow to wall off the sleeping area.

I'm looking for cabinets/etc to put in there. I have a mini fridge, but I would need to run my generator all the time. I'm going to do a test with a deep cycle battery and my power invertor to see how long it lasts.

I might check out this RV junk yard for a propane fridge.

 

[Nick]

I used my M105A3 as a camper at Haspin this year. Worked out pretty good - and there were FOUR of us in there (wife and two toddlers). I made a bed frame from 2x4 and 3/4" plywood. I put a leg on each rear corner, then one in the middle and let the front of the bed rest on the fender wells. Didn't bolt it to the trailer at all, just the weight of it kept it in place. Had to remove one of the side panels to get it in the trailer though. Put an old fullsize bed mattress on it, I like a firm bed so it worked out good.

I thought about the carpet situation and ended up going with a real thick carpet rug from Walmart. It's easily thick enough that the humps in the bed floor didn't hurt my sock feet. It is big enough to walk around on but still has some bare floor exposed so there is room to take wet / muddy shoes off under the protection of the tarp in the rain - this was real world tested at Haspin TOO MUCH

I really like what you've done with the roof extensions - I may try that myself.

I also wonder if doing it like you did at first and bolting some 3/4" plywood around the exposed rail sides would have resolved the flimsy-ness issues and kept you from having to lengthen the tarp. But then you'd have had to address the gap over the tailgate I guess.

......

I like that, storage underneath, yeah, I like that

Nick

 

[parlusk]

that is awesome.. thanks for sharing

 

[Nick]

In lookin at number9's photos, Im likin that more and more. Thinkin I may do that for mine.
My question is: how much bigger is the M105A3 bed than an M101 bed? Just wonderin if I were to do that, would I have extra room like you do?

Thanks
Nick

 

[tm america]

Wouldn't it be easier and faster to just put the slide in camper in pic #3 in the bed of the m105?I made a camper out of my m105 works nice for going to haspin...i have a 70 gal water tank mounted above the left wheelwell.The bed is on the right when you come in the back door.The hot water heater is mounted through the bed side toward the right front of the bed...The shower- toilet area is toward the left front..there is storage about the water heater and under the bed ....not quite a finished product yet but it was nice to be able to take a hot shower and go poop if i had to when the bathrooms were closed.If i get some more free time i will finish hooking up the power inverter and put a fridge and some power outlets to run my laptop .I did put some 12 volt lights to run off a battery and then i could use my booster pack it help out if i needed

 

[DUG]

It stopped raining so we finished the bunk bed frames. They are 2 x 4 boxes bolted on three sides to the bed walls and sides. On the aft cross bar is nailed to the box and the attached through the sides with two three inch lag bolts on each end.

It is very sturdy. My boy is about 150 and I'm 198. We both stood on the lower aft cross bar and sat together on the top one. Just for the heck of it we installed a leg on each side of the aft end with wood screws.

We could easily install legs on the outside of sides running down to the bed edge, but for now I dont think it's needed. Next we will sheet it in with 7/16th OSB plywood.

Then everything gets painted tan.

The boy in the photo is just over 6 feet tall. I'll get better pics later.

 

[Nick]

OK, now it makes sense. I was misunderstandin ya earlier. I like that too.

Jeeze, theres some great american enginuity here.

Nick

 

[DUG]

A little more progress. The inside is tan and the bottom bunk is in. It will look better with some tan sheets, but the kiddie stuff is fine for now. The other bunk goes on top of the 1st one even with the top of the cabinet.

It will have wall to wall removable carpet and a curtain hung from the middle bow to divide the sleeping area from the main area. A larger cabinet and a Army field desk will also go in.

For cooking I picked up the Coleman Road Trip grill with all sorts of attachments. I'm looking for a used 3 way RV fridge to stick in there.

 

[Nick]

So is that gonna be enough for a six ft tall person to be able to lay down without being close to a fetal position, since the bed is sideways in the trailer bed??

Just curious

Nick

 

[gimpyrobb]

The 105 is about 9ft long and almost 6.5ft wide in the box.

 

[DUG]

The mattress' are nearly 74 inches. I'll get more pics today if I get the other mattress in.

 

[nk14zp]

Nice.

 

[DUG]

Top on and second mattress in place.



Working on a divider curtain and some cabinets. Undecided if I will use the field desk at all. We might use the table top from a broken one as a table. I would hinge it to fold out of the way when not in use.