Micro camper from Ranger service body

[holyford86]

A Jenson box, that’s high class! I just got a new helmet on closeout from them.

I used them to buy parts to upgrade my Walmart Mongoose last year, great company to deal with and quite reasonable prices

 

[sgtsandman]

This project is a similar situation, it's over 7 feet tall and 5.5 x 7. Once it's done (real soon) I'm going to weigh it out of curiosity.

Definitely a good idea. I was surprised how heavy my trailer weighed the last time I checked it. It will also help with weight distribution and getting a proper 10% - 15% tongue weight. I thought I was tongue heavy but it turned out I was pretty spot on and it helped a lot with getting the loaded weight distribution right.

 

[holyford86]

Definitely a good idea. I was surprised how heavy my trailer weighed the last time I checked it. It will also help with weight distribution and getting a proper 10% - 15% tongue weight. I thought I was tongue heavy but it turned out I was pretty spot on and it helped a lot with getting the loaded weight distribution right.

Before we replaced the tongue on it, it had zero tongue weight (Yes, actual zero, could balance the trailer on the axle with no jack touching the ground) and now it has about 50 or 60 pounds of weight with the box and batteries there. Once I stick the mounts for the cans there it should add 20 pounds more without cans and whatever water/fuel weighs when they're full.

 

[holyford86]

Well, time for a long overdue update on progress, I got a chance to use the camper twice and discovered a few things I need to add or change, nothing too crazy though. I sleep better on the cheap mattress in this thing than in my house, haha. Life has been changing a little bit and I haven't had as much time to spend in it as I would like but I hope to spend a couple more nights in it before snow falls.

I ended up making a couple screen panels that are attached to the inside of the door frames with magnets as the windows weren't enough and I'm not sticking a roof vent in. I will be adding a couple more windows, one in each rear door, I'll pick them up on a black Friday deal like last year.

It needs more storage, the tongue box is nice for big things like my batteries, grill, stove, and propane tank. I'm going to construct a roof basket that goes inside the unused space on the roof for things like folding furniture and additional tents and such if necessary. Inside I'm going to add a couple of shelves, one on each side going the full length for things like books, phones, cards, etc. I may see about utilizing the massive amount of dead space underneath for storage as well, I could do an 8 to 10 inch tall compartment running almost the full length of the frame if I wanted to.

I also need to enlarge the wheel openings and add a sway bar (ranger rear bar is too small) but that's not a big deal, I think I'll check out some chassis cab stuff at the junkyard for a bar sometime soon as well as the frame width should be similar.

 

[holyford86]

Another update before much action on the other update, I decided I didn't want to carry around a table to do things on and there's some dead space between the floor support cross members. I found a good deal on some 60 inch drawer slides rated at 500 pounds for the pair. I'll cut an access hole and install them to the floor supports so I can just slide out a 60x14 table whenever I feel like it.
Did I mention these things look ridiculous when fully extended?

And I also picked up another pair of windows for the rear doors as well, should brighten up the interior and add some more much needed ventilation.