Two plywood boxes, sliding oneover the other, open up to make atruck camper that sleeps four

BUILD AIMtwo full-length bunks. Plastic side curtainsbutton around the bunks to enclose the en-tire camper.

How to plan yours. Make careful mea-surements of your truck box to determinethe size of the unit you'll build. Some of thedimensions given apply only to my truck(a 1965 Dodge six-passenger pickup).

Find the minimum inside height by seat-ing the tallest in the family on a boardacross the wheel wells. Most truck bedshave at least four feet between wheel wells.This lets you use a full sheet of plywood asthe floor. Test-position all the main struc-tural pieces after cutting. Be sure there'sroom to raise the tailgate.

How to build it. First, lay out and cut thelower ends and side pieces, using B-B, con-crete-form-grade fir plywood. Use the flat-test panels you can find. Don't cut the dooropenings yet. To the end pieces, attach theguide strips (battens) that align the uppersection for raising.

Assemble the ends and the lengthwisestructural pieces of ½" and ¾" plywood. Thisis easier to do with the section turned up-

Continued

f you've been figuring that the cost of atruck plus a camper is a bit steep, or you'realready a pickup-truck owner but the bud-get won't stretch to a camper, here's acollapsible plywood unit you can buildyourself. Just follow the blueprint on thefollowing pages.

Opened up, this camper has over six feetof head room, lots of living space, and sleep-ing places for four. Closed, and loweredfor minimum wind resistance, it's easy todrive, yet has enough head room to seatpassengers while traveling. Removing therear cab window makes easy access.

Two bumper jacks raise or lower the up-per section, and hinged sides unfold to give

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By A. S. RYAN

Support raised roof inside with flip-up braces, out-side with bolted-on safety brackets. Stairs and bunksupports store inside camper when not in use.

Raise the roof, using bumper jacks and extensionsupports at each end. Top door opens out, bottomdoor inward, to let you exit over tailgate if necessary.

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EXPANDABLE CAMPER

With roof raised, facilities in camper are readily available. Up front, Mom gets lunch going.

Set up for the night by opening out the side bunkand roof panels and bracing them with conduit.Lower braces rest on hooks that are bolted to truck.

Enclose the camper by attaching plastic or canvascurtains around side bunks. Snap buttons hold themsecurely. Windows open to provide ventilation.

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To determine the size of your camper, measure your truck's dimen-sions as shown above. The standard pickup can sleep four, plus onein the cab (below). Next month, plans for kitchen facilities will showhow to build a table that lowers to make a cross bunk.

side down. Use 6d finish nailsand a good waterproof glue,and make sure all cornersare square. Glue-nail the floorin place.

Cut out a door in the lowersection. Put a temporarybrace across the opening(save the cutout for a door).Cut out the truck-cab accesswindow. Attach doublers tolower sides, as shown in blue-print. Attach the fold-downsides to the lower sectionwith five 3" hinges or a pianohinge.

Put foam gaskets betweenthe camper body and bunksections to limit vibration,and use spring-loaded hooksto hold the sides up.

Raising the roof tree. As-semble the roof by support-ing the upper end piecesin vertical position (braces-nailed temporarily do i t ) , andglue-nailing two-by-four roofbeams in place. Cover with½" exterior plywood, usingone full panel at center and asmaller curving panel oneach side. To bend these, cutlengthwise grooves every 3/8"beginning about 1" from theedge. Make test cuts andbends on scrap. Glue-nail thepanels to the end pieces andthe beams.

Attach the two-by-twomolding at roof sides, bev-eled as shown in the drawing.Cut the wind-deflector cross-piece at front to fit the curveof the cab, leaving about aninch between them.

Cut out the upper rearopening (saving the cutoutfor the door), and screw anangle iron across the top ofthe doorframe to stiffen it forjacking. Drill a hole in thecenter of the iron to receivea stud screwed into the topof the jack extension to keepit from slipping off. (A holein one of the cleats on the

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With top lowered for travel there's enough head room to sit insidecamper. Six-passenger truck shown below sleeps two in its cab.

Build an Expandable Camper[Continued from page 166]

front panel does the same job.) A crossbrace bolted to the jack extension keeps itvertical while it's being jacked up. Thejack extension is sized to provide enoughheight to raise the top in position to re-ceive the roof supports.

Hinge the ½"-plywood upper sides to theroof molding. These open up to form a rooffor each side bunk. Add weatherproofing tothe inside edges of the end panels and thefolding roof sections. Put two windows ineach of the open-out roof sections. Be surethe windows open outward.

Finishing it off. Paint the upper and lowersections before you put them together. Sandall rough edges, and countersink and puttyall nails and screws. Coat the camper insideand out with an oil-base, sandable primer,and finish all surfaces with high-qualityenamel. Cover the top with canvas, or fiber-glass and plastic resin.

Up she goes! Telescope together the up-per and lower sections, and test-raise themseveral times. Adjust the batten guides un-t i l they're nonbinding. Sand them glasssmooth to aid sliding action.

Hinge four one-by-two uprights (two atfront, two at back) to the lower section ofthe camper to support the upper one in theraised position. Put catches on them to holdthem in the up position. Also, fit two angle-iron and block assemblies (as shown in theblueprint) to each end of the raised top.These are placed on the outside and boltedthrough the end walls. They provide extrabracing and act as a safety support whenthe top is up.

When raising the top, unhook the foldingsides so that the side curtain snaps don'tcatch on the lower section.

Before placing the camper in the truck,remove the truck's rear window. Then, witha neighbor's help, lift each section onto thetruck. Run four bolts through the floor andtruck bed to hold it in place. Make the con-duit supports to lengths that keep the fold-out bunks level, and the bunk roofs slopedslightly outward (for rain runoff).

Cut and sew plastic or canvas curtains tofit around the bunks, and attach them withcanvas snaps.

Fix up the interior to suit your needs, orfollow the plans in next month's issue foroutfitting the camper with storage cabinets,gas stove, sink, and icebox.