2oldman wrote:
Jfet wrote:
My wife calls it the Sidrat (see if any of you can figure that out).
Backwards Tardis.My wife calls it the Sidrat (see if any of you can figure that out).
![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/doh.gif "doh")
smaller on inside than the outside instead of bigger on inside than the outside... you have one funny lady there.. ![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/biggrin.gif "biggrin")
1999 F550 truck conversion
*2011 F350 SRW CC/LB/PSD - Mods: Custom overload springs with custom early engagement blocks~Firestone Airbags~Hellwig Big Wig Rear Sway~Rancho RS9000XL~Bilstein Steering Damper~19.5" Hankook DH01'a on steel wheels.
*2012 Chalet Ascent S95R Camper
kereams wrote:
I am so impressed with your project! I would love to do this on a 4x4 Fuso. I am very jealous of your abilities and having the shop space to pull this off. Best of luck to you!
I am so impressed with your project! I would love to do this on a 4x4 Fuso. I am very jealous of your abilities and having the shop space to pull this off. Best of luck to you!
Thanks for the nice words kereams!
We thought about getting a 4x4 Fuso, but they just started making them for the US market and they all have that blue toilet water requirement that our lovely government requires for new diesels. Also, the Fuso didn't come in a 19,000 GVW extended wheelbase which would have made it hard to fit our garage pod behind this camper pod.
Then of course there was that $50,000 vs $14,000...
I am not sure what the regular camper manufacturers use for 12V wiring, but I decided to lean on my experience with sailboats and go with Ancor marine grade flat two conductor 14 AWG wire for most of the 12V runs. This is some good stuff, tinned and meant for harsh environments (like boating!). The conductors are red and yellow. In the marine world, people use yellow for 12VDC ground so as to not accidentally mix with AC hot or neutral. I will follow this "standard" for our camper.
14AWG is fairly beefy for some of the runs, but it seems simpler to just standardize on a wire gauge than to try and size everything for the expected current draw and allowable voltage drop. The 3 way fridge recommends 10 AWG for runs of less than 20 feet, so I am getting a little bit of that too.
I guess for the AC I will just use Romex? Opinions?
Keith
kereams wrote:
I personally would stay away from Romex or any solid core wire as it might be difficult to keep tidy and route where you need. I would follow the manufacturers recommended awg and use THHN.
Keith
I personally would stay away from Romex or any solid core wire as it might be difficult to keep tidy and route where you need. I would follow the manufacturers recommended awg and use THHN.
Keith
I agree. I would use stranded THHN and if room allows I would pull it through some of that flexible plastic conduit.
Ford F-350 4x4 Diesel
1988 Avion Triple Axle Trailer
1969 Avion C-11 Camper
69 Avion wrote:
I agree. I would use stranded THHN and if room allows I would pull it through some of that flexible plastic conduit.
kereams wrote:
I personally would stay away from Romex or any solid core wire as it might be difficult to keep tidy and route where you need. I would follow the manufacturers recommended awg and use THHN.
Keith
I personally would stay away from Romex or any solid core wire as it might be difficult to keep tidy and route where you need. I would follow the manufacturers recommended awg and use THHN.
Keith
I agree. I would use stranded THHN and if room allows I would pull it through some of that flexible plastic conduit.
hmmm would rather not have to put conduit in the walls...is that standard practice in truck campers?
Ancor does make some ultra flex stranded flat 14-3 120V cable (black white green) http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|328|49758|316477&id=105919
![[image]](http://www.fourwheelcampers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/history_img16.jpg)
zman-az wrote:
This is an awesome build. I wish I would have seen it earlier. One thing that concerns me on your build is the overhead bunk. Don't know if it is strong enough in the long haul. I have a 4 wheel truck camper, granted its a popup but I like the way they placed that large alum bar for the bed way back into the camper. You may want to consider doing something similar if you still can. Maybe you can fit some 6" x 1/8" flat bar on the inside for some added strength. BTW, your welds are awesome.
This is an awesome build. I wish I would have seen it earlier. One thing that concerns me on your build is the overhead bunk. Don't know if it is strong enough in the long haul. I have a 4 wheel truck camper, granted its a popup but I like the way they placed that large alum bar for the bed way back into the camper. You may want to consider doing something similar if you still can. Maybe you can fit some 6" x 1/8" flat bar on the inside for some added strength. BTW, your welds are awesome.
Thanks zman. We did run the two bottom beams of the overhead bunk into the 2nd stud of the main cabin and we have triangle bracing. You can see some of this in the earlier pictures and CAD drawings. There is also some rigidity provided by the aluminum skin plus the internal 5mm plywood skin. I can hang by the outside end of the overhead bunk and not cause any sag. Will this be enough when on the road? Not 100% sure. We have considered adding some form of dampener support between the Isuzu cab and the overhead bunk if needed. What I may do is mount a force/distance sensor on the cabover and log some data on a few drives. If I see that the cabover is bouncing up and down 3 inches, then seriously think about adding a dampener/support somewhere.