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jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
41,215
13,349
Portland, OR
IMG_20190526_183631.jpg


I need to get the damn door so I can finish the framing on the passenger side. I found a 3 step fold up that goes under the door that should fit perfectly.

I got a cool 6 switch plate with USB and 12v socket. So I am redoing the harness to route to there. It will mount next to the light dimmer. The fan and fridge power are the big ones.
 
jdcamb

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,840
8,441
Nowhere Man!
In order to get a decent camper. I would have to commit to a pretty sizable expense. If I sold my condo I could easily afford one. However I just don't have it in me to live in a camper.
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
41,215
13,349
Portland, OR
Nick said:
I know right? If I had a business with that much backlog I'd be hiring like crazy to not lose orders.
Still, they look like a solid option for the pickup crowd.
Click to expand...
@eric strt6 will attest, truck campers in general are a solid option. I had considered it, but the wife wanted more living room and I needed more head room. I like the idea of being able to dump it and have my truck.
 
Adventurous

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,345
8,903
Crawlorado
jimmydean said:
@eric strt6 will attest, truck campers in general are a solid option. I had considered it, but the wife wanted more living room and I needed more head room. I like the idea of being able to dump it and have my truck.
Click to expand...
How tall are you? Our friend is 6'4" and he fit in our TC with a few inches to spare. It does get a bit cramped with three dogs in here, but we have enjoyed the freedom it affords us.
 
eric strt6

eric strt6

Resident Curmudgeon
Sep 8, 2001
23,323
13,613
directly above the center of the earth
And Ask FT too about his. I have had my Truck Camper for 8 years now. It has been trouble free with two exceptions , a bad kitchen sink faucet and a leaky pipe elbow under the sink. Both of which took a few minutes to fix, I did change out all the lights to LEDs, added 200 watts of solar, threw out the OEM mattress and added a sealy posturepedic. Once a year I redo all the roof seams with Dicor. I love the fact that with a truck camper all you need is just enough space to park the truck and you are camped. Did I mention how much I hate towing a fucking trailer? with my rig I don't have to.
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
41,215
13,349
Portland, OR
Adventurous said:
How tall are you? Our friend is 6'4" and he fit in our TC with a few inches to spare. It does get a bit cramped with three dogs in here, but we have enjoyed the freedom it affords us.
Click to expand...
Frita is 7' high and it feels good. I am 6'4" and I hit the damn fan in my buddies truck camper. His is pretty big with a slide out. But with the bed up, I have so much more room for activities. And while Abbey isn't huge, she takes up a lot of space.

I might do a skylight in the shower, but I can stand on the wheel well and they are 10" high. The shower should be only about 4", so I hope it's ok

I played with a 4x4 conversion idea, but that is later. :rofl:
 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
10,553
7,646
Exit, CO
eric strt6 said:
And Ask FT too about his.
Click to expand...
I dig it, is the short answer. There are things that I kinda don't dig, but we're figuring those out. Mainly taking it on and off, and when it's on the truck and we're not camping in it, it's my daily so that's kind of a PITA. But since I work from home, it's not too terrible. And now that I figured out storage for my (non-camper) truck topper, it's way better.

My ladyfriend and I have started the "remodel" of our little pop-up TC. We're mainly ripping out things we don't absolutely need (water heater, giant water tank to be replaced by a smaller one, stupid 110 Volt AC fridge the previous owner had in there, etc.) to save weight and make moar room. I have pictures, I probably mentioned earlier in this thread or somewhere on RM, that I'll post eventually. We've only done a few things, but it's already more functional for us, and we're looking forward to several trips this summer including a week and a half in Montana.

Not sure what else to report here... I like it. It's great for the puppers as a home base when we're on the road and we go for a ride. It's awesome to be able to cook meals inside. Plenty of headroom in ours, I'm 6/2" and there's several inches above me. Having a bed is killer, as opposed to sleeping on the ground. It's smallish, so it can go pretty much anywheres. Yeah... it's rad.





 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
10,553
7,646
Exit, CO
Okay, question for the group:

Is there any collective knowledge any of you can share about fresh water tanks? Good brands, bad brands, what material they should be made out of, cheap places to buy one, blah blah blah?

I would search through the 100+ posts in this thread to see if it's been mentioned, but there's no fucking "search a specific thread" function here. Sunofa!

Our little camper has a 32 gallon fresh water tank in it... that's friggin' huge for us. At 1 gallon of water per person per day, a 15 gallon tank would last my gal and I a week... and what we really need in the camper is space and stowage/storage. So... looking for some advice. I also kind of assume that anything food grade is gonna work just fine. Seems like polyethylene is the material du jour... though I thought I had read somewhere that other materials could be used? Used to be used? No se.

Hoping some of you have some insight, maybe @jimmydean since he's building out Frita? Whatyagotferme, monkeymind?
 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
10,553
7,646
Exit, CO
canadmos said:


:busted:
Click to expand...
I maintain that when a guy who does some UI/UX design for living can't find a checkbox to do the thing he wants to do, that it's in a shitty place. I would likely not have found on my own, had you not shown me it exists. It doesn't exist on the "Search forums" page, and I totally missed the little gear icon when I clicked the magnifying glass icon in the green navbar.

Thank you. Apparently, I am (not) good at the internet.
 
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Adventurous

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,345
8,903
Crawlorado
Full Trucker said:
Okay, question for the group:

Is there any collective knowledge any of you can share about fresh water tanks? Good brands, bad brands, what material they should be made out of, cheap places to buy one, blah blah blah?

I would search through the 100+ posts in this thread to see if it's been mentioned, but there's no fucking "search a specific thread" function here. Sunofa!

Our little camper has a 32 gallon fresh water tank in it... that's friggin' huge for us. At 1 gallon of water per person per day, a 15 gallon tank would last my gal and I a week... and what we really need in the camper is space and stowage/storage. So... looking for some advice. I also kind of assume that anything food grade is gonna work just fine. Seems like polyethylene is the material du jour... though I thought I had read somewhere that other materials could be used? Used to be used? No se.

Hoping some of you have some insight, maybe @jimmydean since he's building out Frita? Whatyagotferme, monkeymind?
Click to expand...
We had to replace the fresh water tank in ours as it was cracked (thanks for letting us know PO :rolleyes:). Lance designed it like a moron and had a recessed section for the electrical panel which necessitated getting their custom designed Inca Plastics replacement tank which was $300+ dollars and 4 weeks to ship.

Instead I relocated the electrical panel and put in a 40 gallon polyethylene tank I bought off of Amazon for $100. Try Amazon, they have tanks of all sizes, shapes, and capacities.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,322
7,744
Full Trucker said:
I maintain that when a guy who does some UI/UX design for living can't find a checkbox to do the thing he wants to do, that it's in a shitty place. I would likely not have found on my own, had you not shown me it exists. It doesn't exist on the "Search forums" page, and I totally missed the little gear icon when I clicked the magnifying glass icon in the green navbar.

Thank you. Apparently, I am (not) good at the internet.
Click to expand...
I agree that it’s hidden nefariously. But still, search n00b
 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
10,553
7,646
Exit, CO
Adventurous said:
Instead I relocated the electrical panel and put in a 40 gallon polyethylene tank I bought off of Amazon for $100. Try Amazon, they have tanks of all sizes, shapes, and capacities.
Click to expand...
Polyethylene is the thing, then? That's what I am gathering. I looking in the following places for a specific size:

https://www.ntotank.com/rv-fresh-water-tanks
https://www.plasticwatertanks.com/c/rnv1r/rv-water-tanks-for-sale
https://www.plastic-mart.com/category/33/rv-water-tanks

They all seem to be $120-140 + fittings for a tank that's the size I want. Looking for something that fits in the space, which is about 20" wide by some number of inches (17" from memory) tall. The kicker is the tank is a price, but the fittings are extra. It's probably "easy" to drill your own holes for fittings, right? Did you do that, or did you buy the tank with fittings installated?

Toshi said:
I agree that it’s hidden nefariously. But still, search n00b
Click to expand...
Note my purposefully crossed out rant... :D
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
41,215
13,349
Portland, OR
I still haven't gotten to the tank situation yet, but it's next. A buddy of mine built a few food trucks for profit and has been a big help with info.

Most tanks have standard fitting locations, but you can also drill and fill as needed. I am still trying to decide if I will run one big fresh, two fresh, one big waste, 2 gray and a black, 1 gray and 1 black?
 
Adventurous

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,345
8,903
Crawlorado
Full Trucker said:
Polyethylene is the thing, then? That's what I am gathering. I looking in the following places for a specific size:

https://www.ntotank.com/rv-fresh-water-tanks
https://www.plasticwatertanks.com/c/rnv1r/rv-water-tanks-for-sale
https://www.plastic-mart.com/category/33/rv-water-tanks

They all seem to be $120-140 + fittings for a tank that's the size I want. Looking for something that fits in the space, which is about 20" wide by some number of inches (17" from memory) tall. The kicker is the tank is a price, but the fittings are extra. It's probably "easy" to drill your own holes for fittings, right? Did you do that, or did you buy the tank with fittings installated?

Note my purposefully crossed out rant... :D
Click to expand...
Could you drill your own fittings? Yes. Would I? No chance in hell.

The fittings from the factory are welded in place and leak tested. Polyethylene is very difficult to adhere to, you more or less end up using a torch and plastic filler rod to weld things in place. Most adhesives or glues you'll find specifically state that they are compatible with most plastics except polyethylene.

In short, you are much better off spending your time finding a tank that has fittings in the right spot than trying to add your own. :D
 
BadDNA

BadDNA

hophead
Mar 31, 2006
4,257
231
Living the dream.
I saw a genius solution to fresh water supply the other day, see the video below. This guy has 5 soda kegs (5 gallons each, with room for 5 more) hooked up in an air-over-water system to provide fresh water pressure without requiring a pump or a city connection.

 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
10,553
7,646
Exit, CO
Adventurous said:
Could you drill your own fittings? Yes. Would I? No chance in hell.

The fittings from the factory are welded in place and leak tested. Polyethylene is very difficult to adhere to, you more or less end up using a torch and plastic filler rod to weld things in place. Most adhesives or glues you'll find specifically state that they are compatible with most plastics except polyethylene.

In short, you are much better off spending your time finding a tank that has fittings in the right spot than trying to add your own. :D
Click to expand...
This is what I suspected, I also turned up info that PE is a PITA to bond together...

BadDNA said:
I saw a genius solution to fresh water supply the other day, see the video below. This guy has 5 soda kegs (5 gallons each, with room for 5 more) hooked up in an air-over-water system to provide fresh water pressure without requiring a pump or a city connection.

Click to expand...
Jesus, that thing is pretty rad.
 
Adventurous

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,345
8,903
Crawlorado
Full Trucker said:
This is what I suspected, I also turned up info that PE is a PITA to bond together...

Jesus, that thing is pretty rad.
Click to expand...
Fittings can be kinda a PITA to get if you cant reuse the ones in your old tank. If you need a 1.5" elbow fitting lemme know; I've got a spare and they had to be ordered through a specialty online place.
 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
10,553
7,646
Exit, CO
Adventurous said:
Fittings can be kinda a PITA to get if you cant reuse the ones in your old tank. If you need a 1.5" elbow fitting lemme know; I've got a spare and they had to be ordered through a specialty online place.
Click to expand...
I'm getting "custom fittings" i.e. fittings where I want them... so I got the same fittings I already have (1-1/4" and a couple of 1/2" female NPT fittings) in spots where I don't believe I'll need any adapters. But... I'll let you know.

EDIT to add: all the companies seem to be the same, in that you place the order with them, send them a drawing, then they place the order with the manufacturer who makes your tank to order. I ended up going with Plastic-mart.com but I think they're all the same price. You pay a base price for the tank blank, then $10 per fitting to have the stick it exactly where it needs to be. If you can live with a "stock" configuration for fittings, then it's only $20 for 3 fittings. Shipping is ludicrous, and the manufacturer charges a $15 handling fee on top of the shipping, which is fucking robbery IMNSHO, but whatever.

https://www.ntotank.com/rv-fresh-water-tanks
https://www.plasticwatertanks.com/c/rnv1r/rv-water-tanks-for-sale
https://www.plastic-mart.com/category/33/rv-water-tanks

Amazon didn't have anything that would have even remotely worked for us, the closest thing would have been about $60 cheaper but didn't really get us the storage room we were looking for i.e. it was too big.

Also @Adventurous did you do anything for an inline filter? Thinking that would be good to have, something that filters out big chunks of stuff when filling the tank. Haven't done any research on what's available...
 
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eric strt6

eric strt6

Resident Curmudgeon
Sep 8, 2001
23,323
13,613
directly above the center of the earth
Full Trucker said:
Polyethylene is the thing, then? That's what I am gathering. I looking in the following places for a specific size:

https://www.ntotank.com/rv-fresh-water-tanks
https://www.plasticwatertanks.com/c/rnv1r/rv-water-tanks-for-sale
https://www.plastic-mart.com/category/33/rv-water-tanks

They all seem to be $120-140 + fittings for a tank that's the size I want. Looking for something that fits in the space, which is about 20" wide by some number of inches (17" from memory) tall. The kicker is the tank is a price, but the fittings are extra. It's probably "easy" to drill your own holes for fittings, right? Did you do that, or did you buy the tank with fittings installated?

Note my purposefully crossed out rant... :D
Click to expand...
try west marine
 
eric strt6

eric strt6

Resident Curmudgeon
Sep 8, 2001
23,323
13,613
directly above the center of the earth
filters. they have at wally world 2 for about $10 on sale

I use this one https://www.walmart.com/ip/Camco-40043-TastePURE-Inline-Water-Filter-with-Flexible-Hose-Protector-Greatly-Reduces-Bad-Taste-Odors-Chlorine-and-Sediment-in-Drinking-Water/14504321?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227010681759&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40839127952&wl4=pla-78652300112&wl5=9032017&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=14504321&wl13=&veh=sem&gclid=Cj0KCQjwov3nBRDFARIsANgsdoGrHpLNgFkW5VGXdUvdTRUEMwuMkJ27CnC2Xy1FUpD2yn4rXFuge6gaAsBUEALw_wcB
 
Adventurous

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,345
8,903
Crawlorado
eric strt6 said:
filters. they have at wally world 2 for about $10 on sale

I use this one https://www.walmart.com/ip/Camco-40043-TastePURE-Inline-Water-Filter-with-Flexible-Hose-Protector-Greatly-Reduces-Bad-Taste-Odors-Chlorine-and-Sediment-in-Drinking-Water/14504321?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227010681759&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40839127952&wl4=pla-78652300112&wl5=9032017&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=14504321&wl13=&veh=sem&gclid=Cj0KCQjwov3nBRDFARIsANgsdoGrHpLNgFkW5VGXdUvdTRUEMwuMkJ27CnC2Xy1FUpD2yn4rXFuge6gaAsBUEALw_wcB
Click to expand...
:stupid:

You can spend $500+ on water filtration systems if you are so inclined, but the reality is we have always been able to find potable water that needed little more than the basic filter.
 
jdcamb

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,840
8,441
Nowhere Man!
I found a Ford E-350 Camper Van. My mechanic is looking at it right now. It is basically a Duelly Van with a custom Pick up truck camper attached to it. It has 36K Miles.
 
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