Mini pick-up from Belgium - Europe

[angib]

The working out for the window fitting isn't in my league. Please bear in mind such windows are hard to get

Bart, do you think building a whole camper is going to be easier than this?

The 'window' part is not a problem - it's just a piece of flat plastic that you buy from a local plastics company and cut to shape yourself with woodworking tools.

Andrew

[racing green]

Bart, do you think building a whole camper is going to be easier than this?

I was hoping it would be. Build a box, put campinggear and seats and bed in it, put it on top of the pick-up, ready

[angib]

OK, so here is the really simple removeable rear cab window. A piece of polycarbonate sheet cut to size and held in with bolts and washers. Very easy to make, but quite a bit more work to take in and out, and needs a second person to do it.



Any better?

Andrew

[racing green]

Today I almost had time to do the measurements. Almost.

[S10CHEVY]

The first things that should be asked are very important for safety.

What is the legal hauling capacity of the truck; weight of truck full of fuel, weight of passengers, subtracted from max weight

Does it have a good suspension system, or will it need to be modified.

Maybe it isn't really feasible to do, and not enough motor to haul it. Maybe a trailor camper would be better. Just things to think about.

[S10CHEVY]

Here in the states, our tail gates drop down flat , inline with the bed. Your's do that too, don't they? My thought here, is not take the window out, but drop the gate and make the camper longer, to just over the end of the tail gate. This will also allow for you to have a hand hold on it when removing it from the truck.

I would also build a standing frame, with rollers on it, that you back up to, and pull on the camper, and ocne getting it onto the first roller, it would make somewhat easier to unload.

It took 4 of us, to move parivercats teardrop from one trailor to another, and it is built on a sheet of 1/2" plywood 4x8'. 1/2"= 12.70mm 4x8'= 1171.2x2342.4mm

Lots of slide in campers made in the states, were made longer than the bed of the truck.

[racing green]

Load capacity is only 360kg, and that includes the passenger and driver. Caunting 75kg each there’s only 210 kg. left for the camper+stuff. Fuel capacity is only like 20 litres.

Mini’s don’t have a comfortable suspension system (they’re hard) but they don’t lower that much under weight plus my pick-up is pretty high on its wheels. I’ll do some testing with heavy load to see what it does under pressure. The engine is a +- 42 bhp 1100cc engine at the moment, but if that won’t do the job, a 2nd hand 1300cc engine with 60+ bhp could do the job and wouldn’t be that expensive.

As for the trailer/caravan, that is not an option, as they are very commun in the mini-scéne and I'm really going for the camper idea, just to be different . Being in the posession of a pick-up, a camper is just THE way the job should be done in my eyes.

The tailgate folds down, not 90° but only like 80°, you can see that on the picture. But even then it’s still too short to lay down on an too narrow for 2 people, as the tailgate is only like 1.02 cm wide if I'm not mistaking, the space betwe the shock absorbers is even smaller.

[S10CHEVY]

Ok then, so take the tail gate off when using camper, but extend it say 555.6 off the back of the truck. Wasn't suggesting that the bed be on the floor though. Still do what the prints were showing before. You could then also add a pull out, drop down set of steps to get up into the camper. The window deal, might be more misery than pleasure, in the end.

[racing green]

Well last week I've bought this luton body, it's 229cm long above the roof and could be spacy enough to do the job.









I'll have to get it in England and see how it looks like on the pick-up, as I had never seen anything like it on a mini. To be continued..