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    DIY Pop-up Flatbed Truck Camper with shower for 1/2t

    Well, you do you. I can feel your enthusiasm, and I'm sure you will have a lot of fun building your camper.
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    DIY Pop-up Flatbed Truck Camper with shower for 1/2t

    if you can weld steel, you can weld aluminum. the Yeswelder Mig 250 pro can do it natively down the whip. It's just a little trickier than steel and needs a little more prep. If i were to do it again, I'd probably make a steel frame. I think the big thing I'm bumping into is the need to have...
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    1993 HiAce Firetruck Build Thread

    I had time to do some work this weekend. I had hoped to get the upper section of the camper frame welded up. With the exception of correcting one mistake on a panel, exactly 0 welding happened. Instead... I learned some things. 1. even a small camper is big. Once clamped up in my shop, it...
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    1993 HiAce Firetruck Build Thread

    My last post on scribing the ribs got me thinking: so many folks think "If I had a welder and a shop, I could build that". I would say you can, and you will fail a bunch of times. I'm over here using 20+ years experience making everything fromm jewelry to cabinetry and even large scale art to...
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    1993 HiAce Firetruck Build Thread

    I keep chipping away at this thing. The 5' x 12' ACM panels arrived from Grimco Yesterday. These will allow me to skin the sides without seams. More expensive, but worth the peace of mind. I've been working on the pass through flange for the truck. I've made this one out of 1" think HDPE. I...
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    EV acceptance is peaking

    I own an EV and a 30 year old diesel 4x4. The EV is neat because I can drive almost 300 miles on the equivalent of 2.5 gallons of gas. It's easy to drive, quiet, mostly automated, and makes my ~80 mile daily commute nicer. The diesel 4x4 is neat for the opposite reason. It's old, and loud, and...
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    1993 HiAce Firetruck Build Thread

    It seems like a big part of modern overlanding is spending money to make the coolest looking rig, the most luxurious, the -istiest ride we can. I'm going a little differently. Building a rig on a JDM platform is plenty expensive for me, so I'm cutting costs where I can. I've had my eye on a set...
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    1993 HiAce Firetruck Build Thread

    Reading the current thread on cabover vs. longnose platforms got me thinking about my build. I'm not going to continue the argument here, but I can say one of my motiviations for getting the Hiace is that it didn't look like everything else out there. It's not a Tacoma, it's not a Fuso, it's not...
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    Allochris's ultimate buildup thread!!!

    There's a discord server for retired Japanese Firetrucks. let me know if you want an invite
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    1993 HiAce Firetruck Build Thread

    a bit of progress on the camper structure: created roof rack rails that have purchased brackets that ride on the rain gutters. I don't have a picture of the final welded bits, but they look like this: The plan is to have the camper hard-mounted to the cab to manage the load of the bed...
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    1993 HiAce Firetruck Build Thread

    I've got it all packed up, crated, and buried in the shed currently. I can provide some info from the sales slip. the front diff worked fine with standard Toyota 7.5" IFS gears. No problems there. The rear diff was a sort of a standard 8" (non-turbo). The external housing was a little...
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    1954 Dodge M37 + Trailer

    Not mine, but look at this rig, just look at it. 1954 Dodge M37 + Trailer on Craigslist
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    Outstanding video comparing wide versus narrow tires

    I've got a small engined 4x4, it currently has BFG 9.5x30xr15 installed. It seems this is one of the narrower tires available for 15" rims? I wouldn't mind switching to something narrower to help with weight/power/gas mileage. Any suggestions? I'm open to switching rim sizes (Toyota 6 lug), but...
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    1993 HiAce Firetruck Build Thread

    Short update with frame dimensions for truck bed mounting locations. All dims in millimeters, as I'm trying to keep everything metric to be consistent with OEM build
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    Pi, EGT, AFR, Boost, Temp - Digital dash build

    Thanks for sharing. I'll be following this thread. The custom dash solutions are expensive. I've been playing around with an Arduino implementation. I thought about trying a Raspberry Pi and a screen, but decided to start with a simple LCD readout. I'm new to all of this, and it seems like an...
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    Better overlanding 'truck' options in today's market for <$100K (USD)?

    I read through all of this, not really sure what you are looking for, but a good option for "Not a unimog" might be an imported Mitsubishi Canter firetruck. They are rock solid, low miles (<20k), cheap (~40k). They have 4wd with transfer case, can take a lift, and can run super singles in the...
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    1993 HiAce Firetruck Build Thread

    That's essentially what I'm doing, just getting an inexpensive ($170 new) E/F series tank to do it. They fit between the rails and have a good sending unit. All I need is a filler and an external pump to transfer gas. Link to Pirate 4x4 Thread Link to example tank on Amazon
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    1993 HiAce Firetruck Build Thread

    New gears are installed. I also added a Detroit True Trac limited slip in the rear. The truck can go 60mph at ~2800 RPM, which is great. The downside is the 2.4 liter NA diesel runs out of power going up hills, and requires a downshift to 4th gear. 4th gear feels just like 5th did pre-gear...
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