RTT and canopy turned camper

[chorky]

Chad, your batteries could be relocated under the step at your rear seat delete, and getting water in one of those 10 -19 gallon tanks that only take up a few inches at front of bed will help you make room in the bed, if it's going to be your living space make it as clear as you can.
I guess I'm going to throw it out there before you really get into the RTT and canopy cutout, is that the tent you want to use, it will be hard to change later, get the best you think will work, you can clean it up and sell , and put towards something different.....Jack

This did make me think a little more about the situation as lay awake at 0200. The tent - for sure. I probably will end up sticking with the one I have since they are supposedly sending a new mattress and new fabric. But I also like the 23zero copy. I have modified mine for the hinges to be on the outside of the fabric so opening and closing is mere seconds now. But, the hinges are exposed all the time in the elements. The 23zero copy has the hinges inside the aluminum with only the struts exposed. However, it is a smaller interior footprint and according to them, 270 pounds - which is literally 100 pounds heavier than my current tent. That sounds pretty insane to me. I am already heavy so I will probably stick with what I have knowing the issues, unless mold becomes a bigger issue after fabric replacement.

As for interior space. I had a thought that I could possibly re-locate the ARB compressor and air tank to under the truck on top of the spare. I think someone did this once before and I would have to double check clearances. That doesn't necessarily give me a lot of extra room. But, it would allow for relocating the batteries into the cab without as significant of a change to the electrical system. Although, I'm unsure on how far I want to go with that. The batteries are not really in a bad spot and they offer a good platform for the recovery gear to sit on.

I also recognize what you mean by the water tank situation. I could maybe get two of the bulkhead tanks (https://ironman4x4america.com/stora...torage-systems/50l-tapered-water-tank-13-gal/). One of these are an option. And I could actually put two back to back practically guaranteeing enough water. But finding a way to fill it up would be hard if I dont have a good place to connect a hose. Unlike the 5 gal cans I currently have they can't really be removed very easily. The first one sits a little too tall for my liking and would make the whole pass through pretty hard. The second one is kinda thick and I dont know that it really buys me much. I could probably come up with a valve system with the water pump and carry around a small 2 gal bucket to use as a pickup, I think that would take a lot of time though. Its an option I'm not throwing out but something to think about.

The fridge and kitchen setup is really the big ticket. Thats the difficult thing that I need to sort out. The best way I can see this working is finding a way to allow the kitchen table platform to quickly and easily detach from the slide, and somehow attach to a base that then is about the height, or a little lower, of the roof of the canopy. I would have to come up with something similar as well for accessing the cooking supplies.

One option also would be to have my recovery gear, ax, etc...all accessible from the driver side (outside) by using one of these if I can find a way to make one or find someone to custom fabricate one. Doing this could offer some free space. In fact, it could allow me to put all of my 'business' gear (recovery gear, ax, shovel, hand saw, chainsaw, safety PPE) in the side box and allow more foot space as well as storage alongside the existing @813 Fabrication & Design MOLLE panels on the driver side. Although it would protrude into the canopy some so I would have to make it pretty darn thin, and it also puts weight up higher. But it is an option to consider - then I could put a shelf system below it, attaching to the MOLLE panels, with a fold up table. Oooo. I like how this is sounding!

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[chorky]

Is there by any chance anyone out there with rendering/drawing skills willing to assist in visualizing a few ideas?

Here's an example of something Jeff did for me a long time ago.

 

[chorky]

I’d recommend mocking up the interior with plywood and cardboard boxes. This really helped me with my layout.

Hey Mike would you be willing to share with me the width of your bench seat (the part on the right side of the canopy) as well as the foot room or knee room between edge of seat and the face of the cabinets, and then the depth of the counter top? I just want to try and see space wise what your set up looks like and compare it with what I have in mind to see if I'm giving myself enough room.

 

[Mules]

Hey Mike would you be willing to share with me the width of your bench seat (the part on the right side of the canopy) as well as the foot room or knee room between edge of seat and the face of the cabinets, and then the depth of the counter top? I just want to try and see space wise what your set up looks like and compare it with what I have in mind to see if I'm giving myself enough room.

Here you go. 20" plywood, 22" Seat Cushion, 16" walk Isle, 12" bottom and 14" top of Counter cabinet. There's a couple inches open on both sides to allow for the clamps shown below.

 

[chorky]

I have a love/hate relationship with FB. But every so often I come across something cool. This seems like a nifty idea!

 

[chorky]

Just gonna go ahead and combine everything here.
flip-fold-table-top-for-side-of-canopy.80364

So I did a super quick test fit of the new water tanks and battery relocation today. I like it, a lot actually. It puts almost all the weight on or in front of the axles now, and equally distributed side to side. The only part that isn't is the fridge in the right rear, but that will be partially equalized by the cabinet/kitchen storage on the left.

As for layout, it's kinda funny @Mules I am going to be very close to what you have. Part of that is dictated by the fridge location and part of it is out of desire as the canopy opens on the drivers side now. I looked at my current slide, and will probably stick with the same width but a little longer. So it is looking at a 15X30 inch area. This will allow me to still use it under the fridge if for some reason I can't get things done in time for this summer.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to do the seating/sleeping area. I figure there will be a relatively permanent (removable for maintenance/access) platform over the top of the fridge, and the batteries/water tanks. But I need to come up with some type of folding/sliding way to flatten out the area opposite the fridge, and extending into the cab over where the rear seats normally go. This will provide for a nice full sized sleeping area, the same as the tent above.

I really like what was done here because it offers a backrest as well as a sleeping area. Posting again as the video above doesn't seem to be working. But it looks easy enough to replicate and the function is pretty nifty
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[chorky]

I will be continuing this on my build thread so it's all in one place.

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