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Shelter/van body mounting options

Guruman

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It’s too bad you cannot find an expand-O van body that you could fit up. Those ‘slide outs’ dang near double the interior space!
I would love that, but all of the one's I've found weigh in at something like 9500 pounds.

I'm thinking of cutting one of the walls out of the lighter box and fabricating a slide out of Unistrut. To make my own slide out that does not add 7000 pounds of dead weight to the back of my truck.

Or.... In my search for something I found a 7x11 insulated container near me. It would be too small for me on it's own, but I might be able to cut the rear wall out of the 14 foot shelter, and slide this 7x11 box inside like a Russian nesting doll, and have my 14 foot box expand out the back and turn into a 20+ foot box once it's at camp, and still keep the weight down to a reasonable level.
 

INFChief

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I would love that, but all of the one's I've found weigh in at something like 9500 pounds.

I'm thinking of cutting one of the walls out of the lighter box and fabricating a slide out of Unistrut. To make my own slide out that does not add 7000 pounds of dead weight to the back of my truck.

Or.... In my search for something I found a 7x11 insulated container near me. It would be too small for me on it's own, but I might be able to cut the rear wall out of the 14 foot shelter, and slide this 7x11 box inside like a Russian nesting doll, and have my 14 foot box expand out the back and turn into a 20+ foot box once it's at camp, and still keep the weight down to a reasonable level.
I swear; someone could make big money if they could design a (fairly) light weight expandable van body with universal mounts (like a truck tractor with moveable 5th wheel plate). I can envision this being designed in a way that external power & utility connections route to an auxiliary generator (power source) so when removed from the truck it could still be fully functional as a living space.
 

Guruman

Not so new member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
I swear; someone could make big money if they could design a (fairly) light weight expandable van body with universal mounts (like a truck tractor with moveable 5th wheel plate). I can envision this being designed in a way that external power & utility connections route to an auxiliary generator (power source) so when removed from the truck it could still be fully functional as a living space.
Yeah, I'm surprised there are not more options for a camper box that would just slap down on a flatbed truck or trailer. I've seen folks drop a truck slide in camper onto the front of a big gooseneck trailer and load ATVs or SXSs behind it. But all of those slide in camper units are designed to fit in an 8 foot (maximum) bed. I'd like more space than that, especially for extended stays.

As for power... I'm hoping to line the roof of the box and the slide with solar panels and have enough battery to limit running a generator. I'm also looking at having a 24v dc generator rather than an AC one, and making everything run off the batteries through a solar style inverter, and just have the solar panels in conjunction with the (auto-start) generator keep the batteries charged. Bought a few batteries to test this out last week.
 

Third From Texas

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I swear; someone could make big money if they could design a (fairly) light weight expandable van body with universal mounts (like a truck tractor with moveable 5th wheel plate). I can envision this being designed in a way that external power & utility connections route to an auxiliary generator (power source) so when removed from the truck it could still be fully functional as a living space.
The problem is they become sooooooooo expensive that they price themselves right out to the the range of the average persons with sights on an overland build. And material costs, shipping, etc have driven up components.. So what was a $10k empty box four years ago is now a $15K+ box (just a regular composite or aluminum construct box).

That said, adding slides isn't some magical feat of engineering. There are really only about a half dozen variations of the same and all have examples out there of how to build them. Keep in mind that most off-road camper builds will scoff at the idea of slides (leaks, increased structural weaknesses, structural failures, more leaks, etc).

I'm not opposed to doing small slides, personal. But the bigger they get the larger the hole, the more you take away from the boxes' structural integrity and introduce more flex/twist, and other ugliness into the equation (unless you incorporate lots of big steel frame bits which bring us back to weight).

If someone wanted to really make money they'd sell a completely finished camper box in a couple sizes that could be slapped on any flatbed truck and sell them for the same cost as the same sized little camper trailer. I've only seen one company attempt this but they missed the price point buy three times over (and I'm pretty sure their product is Chinese made so good luck getting down the trail in one piece if so). This guy advertises on social media all the time but he's UK based (selling what I *suspect* is made-in-China camper). And he want's $60K USD plus shipping for something every US camper manufacturer rolls out for $20K with wheels under it). He has a "factory" but it appears that they only mount these onto trucks. I never contacted them. No slides, byt...

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chucky

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Hmmm. I looked at a custom 15 foot Conex box, and I think it weighed 5k or so. I guess the 10 footer might be less, but I was looking for something to maximize the space I have and 10 foot just didn't seem big enough.
Its all about how you start the build and on what ! I kept the original floor on the 1083 and cut the bottom 18 inches off the bottom of the 20 ft container plus dovetailing the backend cuts off alot of original weight . And for slide outs all you gain is floor space but lose furniture space and make the sidewall integrity weak as feathers and add alot of weight ! If you have a big fabricating shop you can build your walls around the slideout supper stout and put 2 locking pins up top and 2 locking pins down low to lock into the slideout once its slid in to have any wall strength. And thats doing everything in thick aluminum structure on the slide out itself so now you have a place to put a couch at best cause you cant put alot of weight in the slide out itself ! So now your slid out at the camping spot so unless your planning on square dancing in the center you didnt gain anything but weight and LOL a bunch of cost !
 

chucky

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Hmmm. I looked at a custom 15 foot Conex box, and I think it weighed 5k or so. I guess the 10 footer might be less, but I was looking for something to maximize the space I have and 10 foot just didn't seem big enough.
Now the 2800 is just the metal box welded to the 1083 floor then its a task of using the lightest building components to build your interior !
 

Guruman

Not so new member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
We have a 34 foot RV with 2 slides. One is a living room area with a dinette and a small love seat, the other is the bed.

The bed slide really only goes out a couple of feet and provides just enough room to keep a king size mattress and allow you to walk around. Without the slide you'd either have to climb over, or have a smaller bed. Without that slide, the bedroom would be pretty unusable.

The living room slide is larger maybe 10 feet in length and slide out close to 3 feet. That extra space appears in the main walkway. With 2 or 3 people and 2 dogs that space is pretty nice to have. this is what the slide in my overland would give us, basically just enough room to actually move around in case the weather outside has driven us indoors, and have enough room for our dogs to lie down. Without it, even the 14 foot box will be super tight (but doable) by the time I get some seating and bedding in there.

My current thinking would be to do an entire wall, wither the passenger side or the rear, depending on the box design. Just drill a hole 6 inches in from each corner, snap a chalk line and cut out a rectangle. Line the cut edge of both with come channel aluminum bolted through the edge and probably welded in the corners to gain some of the strength back without adding too much weight. then taking the cutout part and fastening it to either 4 Unistrut homemade/manual slides or maybe 4 industrial powered linear slides. I'd then just need to fabricate some simple panels to make the roof/walls/floor of the slide. the floor would probably need the most weight, and the total added weight would be the floor/wall/roof panels plus the aluminum framing and the slides. Shouldn't exceed a few hundred pounds if I'm lucky.

Now cutting the giant hole might make the box so walk that it just falls apart. But in my head, with this closed and the slide's aluminum frame locking inside the boxes frame and pulling it tight, should be OK. Better than a pre-fab camper box sitting in my bed. Maybe.
 

Guruman

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I am considering swapping my 2.5 ton for a 5 ton, then weight becomes less of an issue, but I think it will limit the places I would be willing to take it. For being a giant truck the lmtv does fit in some pretty tight places. I'm not sure how much of that I'd lose to the extra axles and length of a 5 ton truck.
 

coachgeo

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for box removing.... buy a used roll back wrecker (or just the bed and hydraulics). renew bed/hydraulics. Mount to your truck. build/refab your box to lock onto it. Rear of box hanging down lower and longer than roll on bed. Put with wheels or steel rollers on back edge??. why?

With trucks these tall.. by the time you hydraulic tilt and move back a roll on bed' it's end will still be 2 feet? off the ground..... so that is why build box with its arse siting lower..... when tilting bed the arse end of your camper box hits the ground..... drive forward..... front end you can lower with winch??? or have wheels or legs that slide into place orrr? the drive off...... hydraulic your bed back in place.

granted that takes engineering and MONEY.... and the box roof would be way the hell high... oops..... hmmm... would be cool though.
 

Guruman

Not so new member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
for box removing.... buy a used roll back wrecker (or just the bed and hydraulics). renew bed/hydraulics. Mount to your truck. build/refab your box to lock onto it. Rear of box hanging down lower and longer than roll on bed. Put with wheels or steel rollers on back edge??. why?

With trucks these tall.. by the time you hydraulic tilt and move back a roll on bed' it's end will still be 2 feet? off the ground..... so that is why build box with its arse siting lower..... when tilting bed the arse end of your camper box hits the ground..... drive forward..... front end you can lower with winch??? or have wheels or legs that slide into place orrr? the drive off...... hydraulic your bed back in place.

granted that takes engineering and MONEY.... and the box roof would be way the hell high... oops..... hmmm... would be cool though.
This has crossed my mind as well as replacing the stock bed with one from a rollback wrecker. But engineering and money again. Keeping the bed stock and removing the box with some legs or an overhead gantry (or in my case, maybe a couple of chain hoists hanging from trees) seems easier and cheaper.
 

coachgeo

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This has crossed my mind as well as replacing the stock bed with one from a rollback wrecker. But engineering and money again. Keeping the bed stock and removing the box with some legs or an overhead gantry (or in my case, maybe a couple of chain hoists hanging from trees) seems easier and cheaper.
assume you have seen Neal's leg version. Military shelter maker built a version also
 
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GeneralDisorder

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I considered a lot of different options and came to the conclusion that buying a 1079 or 1087 was the most economically viable and solid engineering option.

For cargo handling I'll be looking for a 1084. Gives you all the space, all the weight, and the crane to get things in and out of the excessively tall bed without having a fork lift at every load/unload site.

You can start with a 1078 or a 1083, etc. But it WILL cost more (roughly 2x by my calculations - even more if you consider your labor or pay for someone to do it) by the time you figure the habitat and the subframe required to not turn said habitat into kindling. Sure you get to choose where the doors go, and where the windows go, etc. But it's not impossible to add doors or larger windows to the 1079/1087 enclosure either.

That's just how the math works out. Cargo containers and s280's and all the other options don't include a subframe, and typically no windows, etc. The 1079 already has stairs, windows, double back door, and 24v lighting including marker lights around the top edge, interior lights, and a zero-torsion subframe to ensure you don't twist and buckle the habitat into a pretzel.
 
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