A Teardrop Moterhome?

[mikeschn]

How about something like this, a winter warrior camper...



Mike...

[angib]

Here's some with a pickup bed still in place.











The problem is to reconcile the rear entry door with the longitudinal bed (unless the bed goes above the pickup walls) - a galley at the back has to allow a pass-through to the bed.

Andrew

[TyCobb]

How about something like this, a winter warrior camper...



Mike...

Good thing my wifes Ford Ranger is not 4WD or I would see a new car for her and a new project for me!!!

[mikeschn]

Remember this one?



Mike...

[mikeschn]

the inside could be fashioned a little bit like this one...





Mike...

[brian_bp]

The LeSharo was the Renault-based motorhome that I was talking about, and the same idea could be done in a teardrop shape. The issue with the LeSharo was that it just wasn't enough chassis for the size of RV. That was also a problem with some excessively large coaches mounted on the Toyota and Nissan trucks. Even the later VW-based Winnebago - which is van hardware, not passenger car - is marginal by some standards. The Sprinter-based class C's are another thing entirely - those have a truck chassis with an almost 6-ton GVWR.

So the relevant point here is that light-duty hardware will only work for a very modestly sized motorhome, teardrop-shaped or not. Those old COE trucks, of course, could handle a lot of camper.

The S-10 idea can work, but as the posted ideas show, if it is not much longer than the original box (especially the short box of an extended cab) it's really short for a camper. I think it would need a wheelbase extension (meaning likely a frame stretch) to work well in this role, and I'm not sure that's worthwhile (although it would be cool).

Among newer small pickups to possibly carry a teardrop body, there is an uncommon variation of the Toyota Tacoma which has longer 140" wheelbase (instead of the usual 127") so it fits a 6' box ("long", by small truck standards) despite also having a four-door cab (Double Cab in Toyota-speak)... just in case someone wants that much cab. With a lot of work, one might be able to put the shorter extended cab (Access Cab in Toyota-speak) on the 140" wheelbase, to get more camper mounting space.

I would only want the stock pickup box kept if the camper was a slide-in which was normally not carried... the box adds a bunch of weight and just gets in the way in camper service. I think that the Australian approach would be a flat deck (a utility tray or "ute" in their terms) with a camper placed on top and using the full width (rather than jammed between fender wells) when needed.

[brian_bp]

I was looking at a GM commercial trucks brochure yesterday, and realized that while the old S-10 probably came in only one wheelbase, the current Canyon is sort of like the Tacoma - two wheelbases so the extended cab can have a 6' box. The nice thing is that GM will sell the long (127" in their case) wheelbase with a regular cab as a cab-and-chassis. That's an extra foot of CA (cab-to-axle) space for the camper, and no custom conversion required.

Trucks with the normal 6' boxes have a CA of about 3', the Canyon cab-and-chassis has 4', a full-sized pickup with long box usually has about 4'8", and a full-size cab-and-chassis has 5' or more (e.g. 5' or 7' with GM). If you can stand the regular cab and like the Canyon style, that cab-and-chassis looks like a convenient basis for a little motorhome.

The soon-to-be-discontinued Ford Ranger has a similar configuration to the little GMs, with about the same wheelbases (only 112" and 126"), no cab-and-chassis option, and no regular cab pickup with the long wheelbase.

[Gage]

[Ron Dickey]

That was the origanal direction of mine before I found old boat trailers would work.

you might looks at these sites

http://www.oldwoodies.com/gallery-rv.htm

http://www.mrsharkey.com/busbarn/busbarn.htm

http://www.housetrucks.com/

living in California I see all types of house trucks come through.
There was a truck that had a slide on slide off sleeping quarters that had side slide outs giving them even more room.

[grant whipp]

Remember this one?

Uhhmmmm ... ... yeah ... ... maybe ... O.K., sure ... ... that shell does look kinda familiar ... ... ...!

Nice bit o' photoshopping, there ... but I think I would have raised the tear-box up about 6" and then lowered the window(s) about 8" (so you could actually see outta them from the cab).

Ya know ... I used to build camper shells and bed-conversion kits for pickups, and I've had a couple of my own that I camped in and out of for a number of years, but IMHO, there's just no comparing them with a full-on teardrop trailer! Pretty nice & secure place for the kids, though, while Mom & Pop take the TD (or for Gramps & the dog when Gram & the grand-daughter lay claim to the 'Drop ... ...!)

Always did like the lines of that particular series of S-10/S-15s ... even though they are GM ... ...

CHEERS!

Grant

[caseydog]

That advantage to removing the bed on the pickup is that you can do a traditional side door (or two side doors).

Plus, you can do a very traditional teardrop shape.

My rough illustration uses a small extended-cab pickup, which means you would have a small camper due to the short frame behind the cab. However, an S-10 LWB would allow for a 5 X 8 TD, I would think. That would be a reasonable size.

CD

[brian_bp]

That advantage to removing the bed on the pickup is that you can do a traditional side door (or two side doors).

Plus, you can do a very traditional teardrop shape.

My rough illustration uses a small extended-cab pickup, which means you would have a small camper due to the short frame behind the cab. However, an S-10 LWB would allow for a 5 X 8 TD, I would think. That would be a reasonable size.

CD

I agree with the approach, but I don't think any S-10 would have enough cab-to-axle clearance. Even the new Canyon in the specialized regular cab and long wheelbase cab-and-chassis configuration only has about 4 ft from cab to axle, while an eight-foot teardrop would normally have the axle well behind the centre (and thus much more than 4 ft from the front of the body).

Without enough space between the cab and rear wheels, there isn't enough room for a door. Also, if it's the traditional teardrop layout the load is biased heavily towards the back (by the galley), which would be unfortunate if that's well behind the axle.

Was there ever a longer S-10 than the later ones, which had a wheelbase of 122" at most, and even shorter with the shorter cabs? I doubt any had more than 3 feet from cab to axle, and that extended cab was likely less.

[B-Bop]

Found this picture the other day and remembered this post from the spring. Here the easy way to do it.........

[Catoosa Grani]

That was the origanal direction of mine before I found old boat trailers would work.

you might looks at these sites

http://www.oldwoodies.com/gallery-rv.htm

http://www.mrsharkey.com/busbarn/busbarn.htm

http://www.housetrucks.com/

living in California I see all types of house trucks come through.
There was a truck that had a slide on slide off sleeping quarters that had side slide outs giving them even more room.

The Kampcar in the oldwoodies pictures from Austrailia is here in the U.S.
We talked to him friday night when he was in Ok. City and planning to be in Tulsa on Saturday. Gene had already made plans to run at the race track so we weren't able to meet with him. Any way he came through here on his way to Richmond, Ind. where he plans to leave the Kampcar in the Model T museum for a short period of time. He is camping in it on his way there. He seems to be having a lot of fun and doing a lot of visiting with Model T people. We were surprised to get his call. We directed him around Tulsa so he could stay off the interstate.

Grani

[nissan300z90]

Is this the kind of motorhome you were thinking of?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UCZF_UnG10