Slide on camper design advice

As you have already indicated, your single biggest problem will be weight ...... and weight distribution and centre of gravity.

I have heard some absolute horror stories direct and there have been plenty on here.

You will be wise to account for every single bit of weight before you even order materials.

There are some great composite materials out there ....... look into the marine and sail boat market.

Fiberglass its self is not very light ...... but combined with lightweight plywood core or things like foamed plastics or astroboard can be incredibly light and strong.

If you can lay your hands on 't have a read of "the Gudgeon Brothers on boat building" ...... these guys are the fathers of fiberglass/epoxy composites.

the reason for the hinged constructions is that they can be built very much lighter that full length and width pop tops that require heavier structure for stability.

It is possible to build a very strong front hinge structure with pretty much no metal above the chassis ...... or maybe only a rear frame ..... the rest fiberglass, epoxy, plywood composite.

cheers

While I don't think they make these any more the web site is still up and you might get some ideas from what was a unique slide on.
http://www.highrise.com.au/ute.html

Weight is an issue, but not as big an issue as is weight behind the rear axle. Specifically, you dont have much scope loading up a dual cab, without that weight being behind the rear axle. Look at all the pics of bent (mid sized) 4wd's, a very high percentage are dual cabs, and bend for the above reason, too much weight behind the rear axle. Especially if towing. There is only a foot or so of chassis between the cab and the rear axle.......

You could probably start with a single cab? Just sayin

We had one of these on our GU ute = excellent
http://www.cm-campers.com.au/ezi-up-camper/

Hi it may not be exactly what you want but have look at Tong's gear really well madehttp://www.tongbox.com.au/aluminium-slide-on-camper/

also if you want to build have a look at http://www.styromax.com.au/ .They have doors windows also moldings to make pop tops.

Peter

Not much to add, other than weight behind the axle is a killer. So with this in mind design it so that all the heavy stuff is up against the headboard and probably access via the rear. This will give a void (that therefore doesn't weigh much ) at the back.

Personally, I wouldn't think the dual cab tray will have enough of a foot print to store all your gear for an extended trip and have enough room to climb up there as well. Mine is a bit tight, but the slide on box isn't as tall and is all storage.

My Swag is a good resource, plenty of people have done it before, so it is probably worth seeing what worked and what didn't.
http://www.myswag.org

Have a read herehttps://www.4x4australia.com.au/drive/1504/bent-utes

And here with a lot of links including a thread on here

http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1018780

If you are going to put a camper body that is 1992 mm long on the back of a dual cab then you had better build it with balsa wood. No matter how light you make it, it is still going to have a lot of heavy material sitting well back behind the axle.

Whatever is back there is sitting on a lever i.e. the distance from the axle back to each piece of material. The forces generated as all of this material is constantly being lifted rapidly or stopped suddenly when it falls is what bends so many ute chassis. Axle housings have also been known to break although that is not as common as chassis.

First of all do you really need a dual cab or when travelling will there be any people in the back seats? If the back seat is empty then I would fit a cargo barrier behind the front seats then remove the back seat and store as many heavy items as possible in there. It is important to remember that those five seats have been designed to carry the weight of five heavy people which means a load of over 450 kg up to about 500kg must be in the cabin before you put anything in the back if you want to take the car up to maximum weight.

The chassis damage on these cars is usually caused by a combination of too little weight up front and too much out the back with a lot of it too far back behind the axle. The car can be a few hundred kilos under GVM yet the chassis is still at risk.

Don't think this problem can be solved by installing heavier springs or air bags. They can't move heavy items further forward so the back of the car will still be thumped down at the back on rough roads and the front will still be jerked up. The end of the chassis will still be flexing up and down like the end of a diving board.

Another tip is get rid of the tray or tub and build the camper directly on the chassis. I have done that with my single cab. My homemade camper weighs 220 kg empty. The aluminium tray that I removed weighed 130 kg so after removing it and bolting the camper on, the weight of the car increased by only 90kg.

If you do occasionally use the tub or tray to carry things around town then consider getting a little box trailer. I made a trailer out of my tray in order to solve that problem.

You're probably not real happy with the responses at this point sorry for that but I also tend to agree with the majority do yourself a favour and don't take the risk of possibly causing unwanted damage to your vehicle. Towing a camper would be a better option for your vehicle and fitting a canopy to the tray to store lighter gear in would be safer than trying to make a slide on for it. Other than that If you're not carrying passengers and still want the room behind the seats then a space cab may be a good option still baring in mind that if you keep most of the weight around or in front of the axle it would be fine but unfortunately now were talking about selling a vehicle that you purchased for a particular reason.
The other way to be able to carry a slide on and your water tank maybe a long range fuel tank and all your gear around without the worry of possibly having a breakdown is to get the wheelbase extended more money again sorry I can't help any more than that.

If you can have access from the side it will solve a few potential problems. Dust or mud on the steps as well as the possibility of seals allowing dust into the camper. Ask an Ultimate Camper owner about this nightmare. Side access eliminates this.
The fridge will need to be at the front for weight, so access from the back will mean that you need to crawl in to get to the fridge on short stops. Side access means the fridge can be within reach from outside once the steps are down.
Avoid air bags at all cost.

Good luck.

More bad news.......

As many others have said, dual cab utes and slide on campers are just dissapointment traps.

Let's start at the very beginning, because its a very nice place to start.

ALL the dual cab utes are a bad compromise from the very start ...... none of them are from the ground up designs ...... all of them are a single cab design that has a dual cab and a stumpy tray fitted as an after thaught with pretty much no further engineering.

Pretty much all the single cab utes are designed to carry the tray borne payload centrally over the axle ..... with a 8 foot tray that puts the axle pretty much in the centre of the tray ... so it's no major problem.

BUT even with a single cab and an 8 foot tray, it is wise to load the heavier things toward the front of the tray and realy heavy things either directly above or just infront of the axle.

If there is significant mass behind the axle and worse the further back it gets ...... even though it may be balanced and the rear axle is well within its ratings ..... it presents a stability problem.

Large masses at the extremities of vehicles act as pendulums .... significantly exagerating oversteer on flat ground and tending to make the front lift and the tail wag in off road conditions ..... this is why rear wheel carriers are a very bad idea on utes.

all this is before you attach a trailer and all this is before you have a short stumpy tray on a dual cab that stops just in front of the rear wheels.

I have a pair of single cab utes, I drive them every day, often by the time they get tools, materials and ladders loaded they are pretty close to the money .... I also drive them far and fast doing country work, sometimes towing a trailer.

Pretty much every day I see dual cab utes, dragging their @$$#$ around town .... it's not that they are carrying a lot it is because it is all in the tray and mostly behind the axle.

When I have the 4wd loaded not for work but for travel ...... its is much lighter loaded, probably carrying about half a tonne all up ..... with the heavy items all low and in front of the axle it balances up pretty well 50/50 front and rear.
I travel light, my kitchen is a butane stove & a plastic bowl and I sleep in a swag.

IF I was to put the same fairly modest amount of gear in the tray of a dual cab I'd be A/ crammed tight and B/ running pretty close to the money on the rear axle rating ......... AND I'd have this half tonne pendulum outside the wheelbase.

ALL this is without a camper body, big water tanks and heavy built in kitchens.

I have no doubt that it would be possible to build a workable on tray camper for a dualcab ....... but hell you would be punching the maths and using very clever construction methods ....... AND traveling very light.

Remember too that any slide on camper you still have the extra weight of the tray.

The other thing that terrifies me is how unstable slide on campers look on 4wds ...... I've seen em around town and they look bad enough leaning and body rolling on the corners ..... I would not want to drive one off road. ...... the high centre of gravity is a real issue.

the slide on camper was probably a great idea back in the 70's and 80's when they where carried mostly on road and mostly on full length utes and light trucks.

I think they are pretty much a bad idea on 4wds and a realy bad idea on 4wd dual cab utes.

cheers

Hi
This is how we do the rear step.
And kitchen
Feel free to contact me if you need some advice on vehicle or camper.