Camper Design Process

We bought a big pickup truck with a 14-foot flatbed.  With time to kill during the Covid-19 shutdown, we decided that instead of purchasing a slide-in truck camper, we would build a custom back for our truck.  This idea appealed to us for a few reasons.  First, the endless planning required to get us results we would be happy with for the long term gave us plenty to talk about when not much else was going on around here.  Second, we could get exactly what we wanted and not have to compromise on size or features.  Third, with a little research, we realized that we could get exactly what we wanted for far less money than if we custom ordered a camper from a recognized manufacturer.  We just had to figure out WHAT we wanted, and HOW to get it done here in Belize...so, back to our first reason of having lots of time to think and plan and research.

What did we decide we wanted?  Fortunately for us, we both had careers in software design where requirements analysis was a required skill, and something at which we both excel.  It took us a while, but our bullet list of high level primary requirements looks something like this:

• Must fit on the 14’ flatbed
• Must be light enough to be safely carried by the Ford F-350 Super Duty diesel dually pickup
• The whole rig must remain agile enough that we can get into remote locations
• Must have enough space for us, our dogs, and what we consider required cargo
• Must be able to boondock/be completely off grid with options for shore hookups
• Must have features so we can live in it for indefinite period of time, possibly years
• Must have systems (gas/water/electricity) that will work throughout North America, Central America, and South America in a wide variety of environments

We also have a couple secondary requirements where we are allowing ourselves some wiggle room, including:

• Systems and appliances can be reused/converted when we come home to build a more permanent house
• The camper unit should be removable from the truck (in case of a catastrophic failure of the F-350, or just to become a stand-alone non-mobile guest cabin)

We will go into detail on how we are planning to meet all of these requirements in future MRF-OTRA blog posts, but before we could even think about that, we had to think about how we could possibly get what we wanted.

Fortunately, we live in a place where while technology may sometimes be lacking, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and the willingness to give things a try are definitely not.  I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but with a little research we quickly decided that the safety and weight requirements could be met with an aluminum shell, so we started talking to people about where we could get such a thing fabricated.  We talked to a few welding shops, and thought we might be running into a wall since the shops willing to do this size job (firmly medium sized) didn’t all want to deal with aluminum.  But, one day Tom hit paydirt when he walked into Koop’s Tinsmiths in Spanish Lookout, and, as he was describing to one of their front desk marketing design guys what we wanted, the guy immediately pulled up a CAD program and started building it.  Tom was excited to see what we’d been talking about suddenly appearing in 3D, and Justin was excited to help with the design and plan to eventually really build it.  

After lots of conversations with Justin, we now have a pretty good idea of what they can do, how much it will cost, what we can build or have produced here in Belize, and what we are going to have to order.  In fact, we’ve already ordered some of the things we know we can’t get here, and are just waiting for their arrival so we can start the build.  We’ve also talked to producers of other components we can get here, and know how much lead time they need to get what we want.    And — and this is really exciting for us — we dropped the truck at Koop’s this past week to start some of the necessary preliminary work, so we are getting closer and closer to getting On The Road Again!

That’s our truck sitting in front of Koop’s Tinsmith, ready to be pulled in for work!