I don’t know what qualifies as an expedition but my set up is going to fall short of that, I’m certain. What I will have is a modest camping arrangement for our current 4Runner.
We found this vehicle locally this spring after looking high and low for the right one. It’s far from the vehicle I had set out for, but it was too cheap to pass up. It was on Craigslist for $1000 and needed some work to get inspected. So I put a windshield in it, a new oxygen sensor, a rear axle seal and new parking brake. Aside from the rusted frame and hole in the rear hatch, it’s a solid rig.
We needed a vehicle to haul furniture as well as take camping. The furniture hauling part is good, now we need to improve on the camping side.
After tenting it in Acadia National Park a couple of summers ago, we learned that my girlfriend is much too nervous to sleep in a tent outside where there are noises. After a life of growing up sleeping outside, I’m told that there are things constantly trying to kill me (there’s not) but I did that thing that we do to keep our partners happy.
Long story short, we are sleeping in our car now. It works for her and I’m making improvements to make it work for me. We have a nice Nemo Cosmo sleeping mat that sleeps 2 (and a dog) but after 4 nights with it stuffed between the wheel wells I started to lust for a flatter, wider sleeping platform. I started researching platforms and drawer systems which were big money and would need time to ship. I wanted it now. I had taken Friday off and we were hoping to be at a campsite by Friday night. When the idea came to me I had to get out of bed and draw it up.
Here’s what i’m Working with.
I’m a little obsessed with using scrap material, so despite better, more fitting solutions, I built the supports from 4” pvc conduit. The platform itself is new MDF plywood. In an effort to copy the MFT (multi function table) design often used by woodworkers, I built a simple platform.
I cut the plywood down to 6’ and used my router and a Milescraft circle guide kit to fit the conduit. And cleaned all edges with a round over bit. The mat measures 50x76 but fits nicely on the 48x72 platform.
Next I cut the conduit into 9” pieces in order to get over the wheel wells with it. Then I cut the flanges off and glued them on as stoppers so the top of the pipe would be flush with the platform.
This leaves me with about 8” of height in the cargo area. I pulled the rear seats so there’s about 16” of height in the front half. It took me an afternoon to build and cost about $50 for plywood and miscellaneous. I sacrificed some height but I feel that I’ve gained 10 times the storage.
It fits well, it transfers to a Tacoma bed like a boss too.
Getting above the wheel wells and having a real solid surface is pretty tantamount it seems.
We found this vehicle locally this spring after looking high and low for the right one. It’s far from the vehicle I had set out for, but it was too cheap to pass up. It was on Craigslist for $1000 and needed some work to get inspected. So I put a windshield in it, a new oxygen sensor, a rear axle seal and new parking brake. Aside from the rusted frame and hole in the rear hatch, it’s a solid rig.
We needed a vehicle to haul furniture as well as take camping. The furniture hauling part is good, now we need to improve on the camping side.
After tenting it in Acadia National Park a couple of summers ago, we learned that my girlfriend is much too nervous to sleep in a tent outside where there are noises. After a life of growing up sleeping outside, I’m told that there are things constantly trying to kill me (there’s not) but I did that thing that we do to keep our partners happy.
Long story short, we are sleeping in our car now. It works for her and I’m making improvements to make it work for me. We have a nice Nemo Cosmo sleeping mat that sleeps 2 (and a dog) but after 4 nights with it stuffed between the wheel wells I started to lust for a flatter, wider sleeping platform. I started researching platforms and drawer systems which were big money and would need time to ship. I wanted it now. I had taken Friday off and we were hoping to be at a campsite by Friday night. When the idea came to me I had to get out of bed and draw it up.
Here’s what i’m Working with.
I’m a little obsessed with using scrap material, so despite better, more fitting solutions, I built the supports from 4” pvc conduit. The platform itself is new MDF plywood. In an effort to copy the MFT (multi function table) design often used by woodworkers, I built a simple platform.
I cut the plywood down to 6’ and used my router and a Milescraft circle guide kit to fit the conduit. And cleaned all edges with a round over bit. The mat measures 50x76 but fits nicely on the 48x72 platform.
Next I cut the conduit into 9” pieces in order to get over the wheel wells with it. Then I cut the flanges off and glued them on as stoppers so the top of the pipe would be flush with the platform.
This leaves me with about 8” of height in the cargo area. I pulled the rear seats so there’s about 16” of height in the front half. It took me an afternoon to build and cost about $50 for plywood and miscellaneous. I sacrificed some height but I feel that I’ve gained 10 times the storage.
It fits well, it transfers to a Tacoma bed like a boss too.
Getting above the wheel wells and having a real solid surface is pretty tantamount it seems.
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