[Ran D. St. Clair]

Stealth Camper Build Thread

A stealth camper is a mobile home that can go pretty much anywhere and live in relative comfort, more or less indefinitely, without shore power, sewage, or running water. It’s dry camping or stealth parking, in locations that range from a Walmart parking lot, BLM land, National Forests, or a friends driveway. It is very commonly done by even conventional RV folk, but usually only for a night or two.

I imagine it conjures up images of crazy unwashed smelly drunks dumping their garbage in the street in front of your house and then driving off to desecrate someone else’s neighborhood. I’m sure there are people like that in the world, but I’m not one of them, and my home won’t be an eyesore. It’s a box van, plain and simple, clean, and in good working condition. It will be there and gone before you even notice it. The point is not to bother anyone, and not be bothered by anyone. That implies not breaking any laws.

The point of this thread is to share the experience of designing and building a stealth camper. I assume very few readers would want to make their own stealth camper, but there are many similarities to more conventional RV’s and there are many handy people out there who would consider building or modifying a camper for their own needs. I intend to dig deep into at least one possible example of how things are built and why they are built that way. If you like to get technical about tools, techniques, materials, and design philosophy, then read on.

In many ways I am a newbie to this RV thing, let alone building a stealth camper and living in it. If you are a newbie of one sort or another then that might be to your advantage, because I will ask some of the same obvious questions that you would have asked, and make some of the mistakes that you would have made. If anyone out there catches me in error, please correct me. I would rather be corrected than misinform. Likewise if you just have a different point of view, jump right in.

This forum tends to lean towards the very high end class 8 truck conversions. There is relatively little about medium duty trucks. I will buck that trend, not because I want to, but because I have little choice. I am not as broke as you might assume, but I am CHEAP, so if you can’t afford a top of the line class 8 conversion, I might have some options for you. I will admit, however, that if you just want a conventional RV, then you could probably buy a used one cheaper, and you could probably resell it for more. Building your own makes no sense unless you really want something unique, or you really enjoy building things.

I am working a full time job, and then some. I also have friends and family obligations, and I have a stealth camper to build. Forgive me if I can’t always respond right away.

Lets begin…

I have already purchased my truck, a 2002 Mitusubishi Fuso FE-SP COE (Cab Over Engine) with a 4.9 liter direct injection turbo intercooled 4 cyl diesel rated at 175 HP. It has a 4 speed automatic transmission with an overdrive button on the shift lever, but even in overdrive it would probably top out at 3000 RPM at about 78 MPH, so I won’t be racing Geofkaye at 100 MPH on the interstate. It has an unladen weight of 5,240 and max GVWR of 14,500. The 14 foot long box was built by Supreme Corp. and is made of FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Plywood). The total vehicle length is about 20 feet with a wheel base of about 11 feet, so it turns as sharply as I would ever need it to. It has 4 wheel disk brakes with ABS (Antilock Braking System) which is better than any car I have ever owned.

I am no truck driver, but it seems to me to be plenty powerful, at least when empty. I would have preferred a manual transmission for better fuel economy, but I may grow to appreciate the simplicity of driving an automatic with a fluid filled torque converter, like a car.

It has barn doors in the back, and two very large top hinged doors on the right hand side that basically allow access to the entire right side of the box. It also has underbed boxes all around except for the forward left side of the underbed which is mostly filled with the 33 gal. diesel fuel tank. It also has a built in gas tank for the generator bay which is currently empty.

My truck is a COE (Cab Over Engine) because it needs to be short enough to fit in my present driveway while I build it into my future home. Where I live, it is illegal to park such a truck on the street but it is not illegal to park an RV on private property. It is arguably not an RV yet, but it will be. As soon as it is, I will try to re-register it as such, which may prove to be difficult or impossible here in the United Socialist Republic of Mexifornia, (CA) but I need to try because the registration and insurance for even a medium duty commercial truck are way too expensive.

I would have preferred a more conventional cab, and a larger box, and possibly a pass through from the cab to the living quarters, but these things weren’t options. I realize that a COE is going ride rough, especially as lightly loaded as it will ultimately be, but that’s just how it has to be. I’ve driven it a bit completely empty and it doesn’t seem too bad. Sure, a really big bump will bounce me off the headliner, but most of the time it seems the Mitsubishi engineers did a good job of making the springs progressive. As I load up the back I expect it will only get better. I may also want to look into letting some air out of the tires. I generally like running them hard for optimum fuel economy but beyond a certain point for a given load it probably doesn’t buy me much except to make the ride more harsh. I may even want to consider running only the outside duel in the back. I will have to get it all finished and weight it first though.

The truck doesn’t have an air ride seat, but it does seem generally comfortable enough. One problem is the generally upright seating position. I like to recline the seat back a bit but it is already up against the back wall of the cab. I found a simple and cheap solution that I really like though. My local electronics store (of all places) has these mesh lower back supports. They have a wire hoop that gets contorted onto a potato chip shape by the tension of the fabric. It fits nicely on the seat, provides great lower back support, increases the recline angle just enough, and as an added bonus provides for some air circulation back there, which is great for those 105 degree days in the central valley.

The rest of the cab is fairly car like. It’s not luxurious or anything but I think most people would find it perfectly comfortable. It has a good strong AC unit and all the normal amenities. It has a broad bench seat for the passenger, and a central seat back that folds down to reveal a map holder, clip board, cubby for logs, etc. You could probably sleep on that bench seat in a pinch, but that shouldn’t be necessary.

Naturally the cab lifts up and forward to reveal the engine, so you need to give some thought to what might shift around inside the cab before you lift it, but it only goes up about 45 degrees, so things don’t shift that much.

I paid $14K and it has less than 27K miles, so it’s almost new. I think it had probably been neglected a bit, not driven much, less than perfect maintenance, etc. My mechanic went through it from top to bottom and it is in good shape and now up to date. I replaced the fuel line from the diesel tank, which was leaking. I think the folks who put the box on moved the fuel tank, and they either didn’t use the correct type of fuel line, or they didn’t support it adequately.

The U bolts that held the box on were loose (check those bolts). The front tires were (are) heavily worn on the outside edge. We checked the toe in and found it normal, so I am thinking that the people who were driving it were just gunning it around corners and wearing out the tires. It is powerful enough and maneuverable enough to forget that it’s a truck and push it harder than is necessary. (Not that I ever would ;-)

To be continued…