Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for the last minute hunting trip out in the middle of nowhere, throw on the fridge, (snags, pork chops and beer within). Swag, towel, 30-30 and quadbike. Sleep on the ground, shower in the dam. Quick, easy and messy, brilliant.
But when the missus gets involved, the thought of luxury mixed with a sprinkle of creativity gives me the urge to build up a camper that will make those weekend trips a breeze, without lugging around a monster load or show stopping sand wedge of a trailer.
The thought at the start of this is basically a solid canopy, for daily use but easily removable (*legs*), with inbuilt power for running charge and solar independence when wanted. Although as I write this I realize how much of an overkill this will be, but a ball of fun none the less, I'm all about tinkering.
The Ute has had a few setups run through it already as I have tried, changed, tested and picked my ideal setup, which (power wise) involves an under tray battery (homemade stainless steel battery tray), for the basic trips, powered through a Redarc SBI12. I have used this mostly on it's own and it does the job well, as long as you top the battery's up with a decent charger every now and then of course. I also now have a decent solar panel from solar2camp, and man, It pumps out some juice!
Adding to my setup now will be an AGM within the canopy which is linked through a Ctek 250s to the auxiliary. I picked the Ctek over the Redarc simply because of Price, and I prefer the terminal mounting on the charger rather than connecting cables, nice and neat. I know, nothing too special, and it isn't, doesn't have to be, just has to work, and work well, and with any luck, this write-up will spark some comments, and ideas along the way!
Now the other thought which locked into my mind before I had the canopy in place was a drop slide, and being an avid DIY'er, I was all over the idea of building one. Again, simple is good, Slide, Drop, Aluminium! So while the canopy build was underway, the fridge slide began.
Now the slide is basically an MSA styled setup, I've built it to suit a 60L Engel, and too my luck it also fits the old Waeco CF80 and new CFX75, snug.
After drawing up some rough ideas on cad, Ensuring the arms would swing clear of the tray-side hinges while dropping enough to make the project worthwhile, I machined up a few trial pieces and began fitting the bits together.
All up the total cost of the drop slide run up about $400, mind you I bought a few new toys for the milling machine along the way, so win - win. Now it's not 100% complete yet, A couple of gas struts, tie down points for the fridge and possibly some nylon runners for the base plate to run on and it will be sweet! It's definitely not as rigid as the MSA slides, but with all the weight sitting firm on the floor during travel, and the whole slide light enough for me to carry on my own, i'm quite happy with the results so far, Time to get into the next stage, fitting out the canopy!
