Our Camper

2015 revamp at the end of this post........

We had very specific needs for a camper so the only cost effective way was to build our own.

We call it 'Tassie Tough Camper' LOL

It is built and designed to tackle any off road tracks or harsh touring it may see during its life. Its design is a mix of key features that you will see on several top line Aussie built campers and some of our own clever ideas thrown into the mix.

Here are some pics of its build and most of the information about it.

TRAILER FEATURES:

• 100mm x 50mm Integrated Draw Bar and Chassis
• 1.6 tonne Independent swing arm coil suspension 
• Ironman Shock Absorbers
• Internal Fridge and Pantry slide outs
• Comprehensive power pack 
• 2 x 105 ah deep cycle batteries 
• 2 interior map reading lights 
• Internal LED strip light
• Kids Night Light 
• Annexe Interior LED strip light 
• 7 stage AC battery charger 
• 1000w Pure Sine Inverter
• Internal and External 12v Sockets
• Heavy Duty Anderson Plug Tug-Batteries
• AMP Meter and Volt Meter
• Solar Regulator 
• Heavy Duty fridge sockets
• USB Chargers
• Heavy Duty Mini Anderson Sockets 
• Designated solar input socket 
• Slide out kitchen with full sink, drawers and 4 burner cooker
• Tailgate 4 burner cooker and Pantry draws 
• Fold out bench and lift up splash back
• Mains Water Inlet
• 12 Volt water pump  
• 2 x 80 Litre water tanks with water level gauge 
• Gas Regulator and Bayonet Fittings
• Instant Gas hot water system
• Twin 4kg gas bottle holders 
• 4 stabiliser legs & heavy duty Jockey wheel 
• 2 Jerry-can holders 
• Internal pole carrier 
• Carpet lined interior 
• Mchitch off road Hitch 
• 10 inch electric off-road brakes with handbrake 
• 2 tonne bearing stub axles 
• Rear recovery mount 
• 16" x 8" inch alloy wheels with BFG all terrain tyres 
• Hard mounted stone-guard 
• 8 external lockable side storage compartments with Ventilated doors
• Spare wheel mount with alloy wheel 
• Automotive EPDM rubber seals 
• 2 Pack Poly Urathane finish 
• LED tail Lights 
• Front and rear mudflaps 
• Kayak Tie Down Points
• 'Roof' Rack on front storage Box
• Gas-strut assisted heavy duty tent frame 
• Heavy Duty Offset Tent Base Locks
• Galvanized heavy duty poles   
• Complete enclosed annexe 
• Queen size inner-spring mattress 
• External shower 
• Heavy duty sealed 
• Torneau travel cover 
• Removable annexe roof 
• Heavy duty PVC draft skirt 
• Heavy duty floor for annexe 
• Diesel Heater

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Overall width - 1850mm 
• Overall length - 4100mm 
• Tare weight - 800kg 
• Ball weight - 80kg 
• Carrying capacity - 770kg 
• Gross trailer mass - 1650kg
• 9 Foot Tent on gas struts 
• 18 foot Main tent - overall size 2300mm x 7000mm 
• Main tent floor size - 2300mm x 1750mm and 2300mm x 3500mm
• Mattress size - 2030mm x 1530mm (Queen) 
• Annexe Size - 2400mm x 4000mm 

Old Photos during its build

Design Stage

Being Built

Even my beautiful wife chipped in :)

 Once almost finished, everything was fitted up and we took it away a few times to test that it all worked! Nothing is too tidy in the following pics but may as well document the before and after pics.

 Once we were happy that everything worked we took it all apart, painted it and started fitting everything back in nice and neatly! And made any modifications that were needed.

 After it was painted and fitted back up we took it on a few more trips to double check everything.

 And even after it was all said and done we are still adding things, changing colours, improving anything that hasnt stacked up to how we like it and ironing out any little teething problems.

I managed to take some more photos today of the insides of the boxes. xmas 2012

The vented Battery compartment house 2 x 105ah deep cycle batteries, circuit breakers, solar controller, gauge shunt and inverter switch/breaker.

The other electrical compartment holds the 240v smart charger, isolation switch, fuse box and some water elbows.

Vented Gas compartment is pretty self explanatory it has the gas bottles and gas reg.

This is the large slide out pantry that takes up half the large front box. It generally holds things like leads, hoses, pegs, guy ropes and various larger pantry items such as spare drink bottles etc with plenty of room to spare.

This is the little control hatch that is easily accessible inside the tent and where I used to spend a lot of my time keeping an eye on everything when I first built the camper! It has the charger remote head unit which gives me all sorts of info when the charger is plugged in, a volt meter which obviously tells me the batteries volts at any given time, water pump isolation switch and an amp meter which allows me to see how may amps we are dragging from the battery when ever any power is being used.

Not really a hatch but it is an area that gets used a lot when the tent is up. It is the hot and cold water quick release fittings, a 12v cig style plug, a 12v merit style plug and a bank of small anderson style plugs that all our LED strip lights and portable stereo plug into.

This is the hot water unit and water pump area. It really is a work of art how it all works! It allows town water in, hot water out to a shower, water from the onboard tanks which have the ability to isolate one at a time and of course hot and cold water to the sink.

My favourite thing, the fridge slide compartment :) The fridge stays in here unless we are staying for 2 or more days then we put it inside the tent in the kitchen. It is a 110 litre 12v or 240v fridge/freezer.

The 'roof rack' for carrying the wet tarp we use under the camper tent and any fire wood we pick up on our travels. It was made using an old swing set and trolley so its cut and shut and a bit didgy but works well!

All packed ready for a top end adventure

Being used for its intended purpose :)

During winter of 2015 we decided to do a few things to our camper.

The main thing was we sold our huge tent and put a much smaller tent on it. We painted it white, moved the spare wheel to the rear, added a diesel heater and put a whole new kitchen in it to suit the new tents layout.