Something followed me home today!

[Bish1309]

Nice wheels. Beefy!

[JEBar]

we've camped (literally) from ocean to ocean and this country is blessed with many, many beautiful areas .... the Outer Banks (OBX) of NC have to make the list .... a few pictures from Ocean Waves Campground ===> http://www.oceanwavescampground.com/ ....

[daytime dave]

I'm not a big ocean fan, but those oysters and that seafood look delicious.

The scenery at the beach is nice, don't get me wrong, but I get bored at beaches.

[JEBar]

I was raised in the mountains of western NC and do find the mountains to be beautiful .... that said, I have no desire to retire there .... for me, I prefer the ocean .... if I'd of been raised at the ocean, I'd probably feel very differently

[Tape]

nice job Squatch, can you give us some inside shots of your camper?

[Bish1309]

Very cool, J!!

[Squatch]

nice job Squatch, can you give us some inside shots of your camper?

These were taken when we 1st got it. The version I have is a stripped Eagle shell model with a couple of options. The Eagle is designed for small mid sized trucks like a Tacoma.

Pullout queen sized bed over the cab. Rollover couch that turns into a full twin bed.


This box has Propane tanks from outside, Battery and solar charge stuff, furnace, stove. Other than that the options are 2 roof vents and an opening window into the cab.






Truck fridge portable compressor fridge.


Coffee on a couple of weeks ago!


Bed with sleeping bags.


JEBar it looks like you have a nice rig. But those RV parks are NOT my thing. My truck camper is not really an RV in my book. No plumbing and no hook ups. I prefer back country camping and break down and use campgrounds occasionally. Normally just for group events and such. Or off season when they are empty.

[Squatch]

I spent the last few days doing the 50k service on the truck. Along with this I installed a new Curt front receiver hitch. There seems to be 2 available for this truck. The Curt allows the front skid plate to be retained with a little trimming.


This flange needs to be slightly trimmed on both sides. I did it with a cutoff wheel in a Dremel.




The hitch uses the Tow hook mounting locations along with the drilling of one 1/2" hole on each side. The nutted bolt is the drilled one.


End result is a new hitch with tow loops built in.


Great place to mount my Superwinch 9,500lb Tigershark on a Bull Dog mount.


The winch has cables that are long enough to reach the battery along with a circuit breaker.


The problem is that I need an AGM battery preferably with dual marine posts on top. Unfortunately Toyota specs a Backwards terminal battery in it's trucks. It's not a group 27. It's a group 27F with flipped terminals. No one makes the battery I need in this configuration. And the cables wont reach a normal battery. So I'll either have to extend or replace the factory cables.

Next up is to install a 7 pin round pin commercial trailer wiring connector in the rear bumper and to install the Daystar cradles for my airbags.

[daytime dave]

Very nice work!

[BigAl52]

I'm not a big ocean fan, but those oysters and that seafood look delicious.

The scenery at the beach is nice, don't get me wrong, but I get bored at beaches.

Somehow Im not thinkin this is true Dave. You just aint goin to the right beaches.

[Squatch]

I now have the Daystar airbag cradles installed. Normally the airbags are secured at both top and bottom. But the airbags don't have near the travel as the rear suspension. If the axle droops it can tear the bags or bend mounts.

With the truck frame on blocks I lowered the axle enough to do the work. Clearly shows the gap and the axle is NOT at full droop. Spring side bracket removed in this pic.


The cradles catch and hold the airbag in a cup.


Contact!. I raised the axle a little and added a little air to the bags to get everything touching and lined up before tightening up the lower mount.


I took it for a test ride with an empty truck and my normal empty setting of 6psi in the bags. Everything seemed fine and quiet. Today the camper goes back in the truck!

[bandit1250]

Very nice Tundra and a really nice camper to go with it. Your Tundra has two more doors than mine but mine has one more pedal than yours on the left side of the brake. That truck will last you for years. Mine is 14 years old now and has been a fantastic truck for dependability.