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Can’t say I know exactly, I think I got it at Walmart in the scratch and dent section. I will take a look and see if I can get you a make & model for the 12V one. I actually have two heaters, the 12v and a 115VAC one that I use when shore or generator power is available. I have a AC power “through-hull” that has a 18” pigtail cord on the inside. I plugged in a every day power strip into that and the battery charger into the power strip. Then if I need 115v for something, such as the heater, I just plug it into the power strip. The power strip is just tucked under the camper mattress but I probably should Velcro it to the underside of the galley deck.
I was talking to a guy today who has an interesting idea. He wants to take the bed off of a pickup and mount the camper onto the truck frame. Might work!
Oh, and I have discovered a serious downside to the CLC camper. I get the “did you build that”question over and over and over and over. I am seriously thinking of making up a one sheet handout page and print off like 50 copies. It’s fun at first but after a while it gets annoying.
Ok, one year (give or take) since completing the camper. Just finished a 2500 mile road trip from Maryland to Oshkosh, WI. Ten days on the road, including three days in a Walmart parking lot.
Overall it’s getting comfortable to use the camper, definitely some learning curves. I have pretty much solved the galley water intrusion problems with additional weatherstripping. I added two 5” x 24” ceramic tiles in the galley go run the Colman propane single burner stove on, to protect the galley deck (see pic above). Big problem on the road through! With road bumps and vibration the tiles won’t stay in place! I’m about to go ballistic over this (after trying at least 4 different fixes) and drill holes in the tiles and just bolt them down. I have glued 1/8” rubber on the bottom of the tiles.
The pickup and camper combo is working well. Having the hard tonneau bed cover on the truck gives me the needed road trip storage volume I need for cooler, water, all sorts of stuff.
The basic camper is holding up really really well. The time spent sealing and fiberglassing is paying off.
I will post more later..
don
Consider the simple fix. Make a “restriction plate”and Velcro it up in the fan.
My my problem is that the vents are not passing enough airflow even with the fan on low. The cabin is pretty air tight! I have to prop open the door a little to get full flow out the fan.
Super nice day at Okumefest yesterday, albeit quite warm. I pulled the galley forward a bit, as far as it would go without disconnecting the battery, to show folks the electrical system. Hopefully gave some folks an idea of what to think about with regards to electrics. Met several fellow TD builders, all of whom had a gazillion questions; I hope I helped some of them. Sort of provided the music for the BBQ. I was sure hoping to see some other TD builds there, however I was the only one! Shame, shame! Next year I want to see at LEAST a half dozen! I figure if we have a bunch, John will judge us and give us swag! 🙂
I just towed my camper mounted on a Trailex with 8″ wheels on it’s first trip. Highway speeds up to 75mph, no problems. Towed it on some fairly seriously rutted and washed out dirt roads — did not need 4WD though — but enough that it bounced the trailer around pretty good. No problems other than discovering that I need a better system of securing things in the galley. Tires threw an impressive amount of mud though, the fenders did their job well. Even for “normal” highway towing, you *will* want fenders.
I chose 8″ wheels specifically to *lower* the sitting height and the ergonomics of the door sill height as well as the functional galley flat height. On 12″ tires I think I would want a little step to comfortably use the galley , in fact CLC has just such a step they use with their demo TD. On 15″ tires the galley would be almost up to my chin!
Another creature comfort item that is turning out to be a big hit is a 12″ foam wedge pillow. See:
Without it you are awkwardly flat on the cabin floor. It folds so one can stash it out of the way pretty easily.
First “big trip” done about a week ago. Found out that it leaks a little around the galley hatch, working on fixing that. I installed a pair of 6″ x 24″ ceramic tiles (Lowe’s) to act as an insulator underneath the Coleman propane stove. Used the 24″ length tiles so as to have a place to set a hot pan down and not damage the wood surface. This works well. I found out, however, that just “fiddles” are not enough to hold them in place. I have since added some small plywood catches (overhanging attached with screws) to prevent them from coming loose. Installed battery operated LED lights on the inside of the galley hatch. Could have used 12V LED lights but then I would have had wires to deal with.
I went down some pretty rough roads – yup, got it muddy.
Installed a little 12V heater, too. Draws 20 amps so it would drain the battery very fast if left on. Learned that this is quite nice .. 50F is clammy to sit and read, inside the camper, but I can go from 50F to 75F in about 5 minutes of heater run time as the cabin volume is quite small. With the headliner insulation it drops to 65F in about 30 minutes at 50F outside temp. Another 2-3 minutes running the heater, repeat as needed. Was on battery for two days and while fairly low, still had plenty of juice to run the lights, radio, fans, and computer/monitor, drawing from the 75 amp/hour battery.
I’m thinking roughly $12k. My direct costs were right at $5500 all in, and 300 hours labor at $10 an hour is $3000, so call it $9k – $10k production cost. $15k would not be outrageous though.
I’m looking at the same thing. Thinking using Velcro “dots” on the corners and then use a piece of terry cloth or other material to cover the window. Sometimes I *don’t* want to wake up when the sun comes up!
Installing the stereo and the heater today. Yup, heater. Found a 300 watt 12V ceramic heater. Did a test, it draws right at 20 amps, so with a 75 amp/hour battery I should get 3 hours out of it, give or take. Not great but will be nice for knocking the chill off, and I suspect the small cabin volume will mean I won’t have to run it for more than maybe 20 minutes at a time, maybe less.
So, cutting big ol’ holes for the speakers and generating mounts for the head unit. Looked hard at the round gauge style radios and went with a single-DIN conventional unit. Mounting isn’t that hard and mucho better features. Doing Polk Audio 6 1/2″ cabin speakers and 4″ galley speakers. I’ll use the front/rear fader controls to route sound inside or outside as needed.
