My First Camper Build
My first camper was in the back of a 1973, Ford F250 Pickup 2 wheel drive single cab. We lived in an apartment at the time in the City and parked in an underground parkade. I had very limited room to work and had to make sure that I cleaned up my work area around the truck every time I worked on my truck.
The reason for building this camper was to be able to travel to and camp in areas off the main roads. And away from organized Camp Grounds if we wanted to.
The first thing I did was to buy a Ford fibreglass canopy for the truck. The canopy fit perfectly and complimented the colour of the truck. The truck was blue and the canopy was white. To turn the canopy into a place to sleep, I first had it sprayed with expanding closed cell foam. This made the canopy much warmer and eliminated the condensation problem in canopy. Next I built a floor on the floor of the truck and added storage boxes all around the sides and front of the pickup box. I built the boxes and floor out of 3/4 inch utility plywood and framed it with 2×2 framing. Between the framing, I added 1 1/2 closed cell styrofoam.
The only tools I used were a Black and Decker sabre saw, a tape measure, a chalk line and a block plane. All of the work had to be done in the space of the pickup and the only support I had for the plywood when cutting was the pickup box. So I would have to cut a piece and install it. All of the installation was done with drywall screws. I had to drive the screws with a corded Black and Decker drill. This was before the invention of cordless drills. I used my jackknife to cut the foam to size and shape.
We found that this arrangement was very warm and used it for several years. We hung the curtains by attaching velcro to the expanded foam above the windows using a product called Stix-a-foam and sewing the other side of the velcro to the curtains. This was a great way to attach the curtains and they stayed place to cover the windows and they could be adjusted to let in light.
The first time we slept in it we got invited into the mountains for the weekend. On the coast it was sunny and warm and had been for several days. So my wife decided that since we were going to the lake she would pack her bikini and shorts. So off we went to the pickup point on the opposite of the lake to where our friends cabin was. We got into the pickup spot late at night and in the rain. We made a quick dinner in our truck and settled down for the night. The next morning we woke up to the singing of birds and 2 inches of fresh snow. We were perfectly warm inside our canopy without any heater being turned on. When we did need to heat this camper we used a Coleman Catalytic heater. This little heater produced more than enough heat for this small space and used very little fuel.
So much for bikini weather.
We used our converted canopy for many trips around the country and found that it was very convenient for camping at the end of the day when we were travelling. All we had to do was find a campground or a turnout beside a river or lake and setup camp. We used this arrangement for hunting trips, fishing trips, looking for gold and finding new lakes and trails to explore.
We even used this arrangement after we had our first child. We used a bassinet for him to sleep in at the front of the canopy. We were quite comfortable with this arrangement and then our son started to grow and out grew the space.
This is the perfect way to build a basic camper for an individual or a couple. All you need is a truck, hopefully one with at least a 6 foot 6 inch bed, a canopy, a couple sheets of plywood and a couple sheets of high density foam. And hopefully some place to work.