How I Built my Subaru Camper: New Design

[Music] [Applause] hey guys chase and welcome back today i'm going to do a quick video on the camper build out just go a little bit more in depth so since i posted the video showing my camper build this last summer about six months ago i've been very surprised by the number of people that have commented reached out through email and through instagram and asked for more details on it and specifically for the design and the plans and when i first started getting asked my initial reaction was no i'm not gonna do that just because i don't know how to and i don't really have the experience to offer a whole lot but people just kept reaching out and so i ended up deciding that it'd be worth putting the time in to kind of learn that process and get to a point where i can at least share what i've done and go a little bit more in depth in a way that can hopefully help you guys uh in your process of building out your car or your subaru so that's what i'm gonna do today and i also have announcements that i'm pretty excited about so with this this whole process since i've been working on trying to build the plans and actually rebuild the whole setup i've been thinking about the best way that i could share that with you guys just because through these videos i feel like i can only show so much and once it's posted i can't update it i can't change things if i change tools or design whatever and so i ended up building a new website and i got a hold of my good buddy jared who's a very talented writer and well he has a lot of skills that i don't and so i asked him if he'd help me out and so we we joined together and here in the last few weeks we've built up a new website it's called road to ridge.com i'll put a link down below but this is just kind of kind of be the hub for all things um car camping and mountain travel so we are going to put the plans up there the details on the build um you know different just all sorts of different stuff so if you're interested in this video or my other ones you'll probably want to check that out and we will be continuing to update that and then additionally i also started the facebook group that i'll link below as well and that's just going to be a place for conversations to happen surrounding these builds and just the the questions comments and hopefully we can get together maybe some even more experienced people than i um will show up and and have some good insight to offer so if you're looking to build jump over there but anyways here we go this might get a little bit long so i apologize in advance but i'm going to go as in depth as i can right now and kind of cover everything from the new design the reason i built it the way i did the tools that i use the material that i use and really just as much as i can without you know going on for hours so here we go okay so uh like i mentioned my videos previously i used to have my truck and i take that camping um a lot i'd sleep in the back or go backpacking whatever it was awesome but then here recently in the last couple years i ended up selling that and switching over to this rig and that was just to basically gain better gas mileage so i could travel i'm a little further and just yeah have a little better mobility and then also have uh the option of using the um car's heat as a heat source when i'm camping when it's you know cold out and so there's a variety of other reasons but those are the biggest ones and i've been pretty happy with it so far so my rig is a 2016 subaru outback limited and it's pretty much stock i have some all-season tires on it right now i'd like to upgrade those and then i've got my roof rack set up up top and i'll probably do maybe another video on that another time but it's the the factory roof rails up here and i've got this basket cargo carrier over here that's where i put all my gear skis stuff like that and then mounted on the side of the basket right here i have my awning and yeah so that's that as far as the inside goes when i stop to set up camp wherever i am i'll slide the seats forwards that they're just ahead of this post on both sides and then yeah i've got the camper back here and when i built this really the biggest goals for me were one to keep it modular so that it could come apart into different pieces that could be easily removed in case i need to switch it back to the seats to haul people or if i want to sell it and i don't want to include this with it down the road i just wanted it to be able to come in and out easily so that i wasn't just pinned down because i did remove the seats in order to do this build and get more space so it's modular comes out quick i can switch it back and forth between this setup and the seats in about 10 minutes so it's not too bad but anyways yeah let's dive into the build itself so looking over here the first thing you see the step here this is just pretty much what i use to get in and out and then leave my boots at night so that the dirt is kind of contained down here it doesn't get up on top where i'm sleeping and then also i'll throw my soft cooler bag here when i'm driving and then if i do need to work while i'm on the road i have this table that i showed my last video made one on how to build this but it basically hangs off the back of my seat and then i can sit right there on that step with my my legs in there and it works really well to uh just work while i'm out on the road and now this uh this seat in front of it i left a little bit of space on this design in order to keep a backpack or um a camera gearbox and then it's angled off to where with the seat back i can still um slip it in and out there so now we'll bounce around the side or to the back for the uh the camp kitchen i guess i'll call it so we've got my kitchen cabinet here on the back i've got a pullout drawer it's not on slides and that's because the slides take i believe it's about half an inch on either side so i'd be losing an inch which is fairly significant when you're dealing with this type of a an area and it's removable um so i can take it inside when i need to you know add stuff to it or if i need to clean things it's just nice to be able to grab the whole box take it inside or if i'm at a campground or somewhere where i want to go set up i can bring this over to a picnic table or whatever i just keep my jet boil pans cup um aeropress coffee all that stuff in there and then i've got this water cube up here it's really convenient i basically just set it up to where it rolls back a little spigot there and i have a second smaller one that i can stack behind if i want to bring two and then up here i've got a little gap on top for just extra storage my fan up there and then i have my lights so i actually ended up replacing the lights with these new led ones i like them a lot better there they have motion sensors in them so i can turn them on and then when i'm moving around camp at night they'll turn on and off as i come into view and then i've got my spaces down here for all of my random stuff um primarily my battery and electrical equipment so this is my battery bank that i use a ton actually it's plugged in right here and lined through the back of the the cabinet and that comes back here to this 12 volt outlet and so it charges as i drive and then i've got my usb 12 volt and 110 outlets that i can use to charge my cameras um tons of you know different options with that and so that's been very useful then these other compartments i usually just you know put books or whatever extra storage i need and then uh i've got this flip up table so this is also new with this design and it's just a flip-up table that latches it's got these nice little um latches that hold it nice and firm and that just doubles as extra kitchen space and also if i am inside i can actually use this as kind of a work space when the my pad's in there and sleeping bag and all that stuff so that's been a nice addition and then i still have the same slide out kitchen tables here and those have really been one of my favorite minutes to have on the road it's like a tailgate for a car really and it's just been awesome for cooking and working on but yeah so moving on then i got my box here this usually just carries all of my extra camera gear really any extra gear that i don't have room for up there or i just need better access to and this i'll take out at night and just sit on the ground or else i'll throw up in the basket on top that i showed you guys earlier so that's that and then bouncing around to this side we've got a couple things so this is new for this design i built a little box that adds on to the front and this is just basically a big snack box and this part over here is perfectly sized for a lacroix box so if you're into those it works out really well and then the last model had the front bed extension piece slipped on and that worked really well um with this one i switched it up just because having that piece that i had to store somewhere was a little bit annoying and so i switched it over to where this one has a flip forward extension bed extension so when i get the seats forward that flips perfectly flat and i'll do that real quick to show you so there it is it's on a nice hinge and then i've got this uh compartment here that i use to store recovery gear medical kit um extra blanket a bunch of other stuff and that's also the access for the attachment to the frame itself and i'll show you that when i go to remove it so there's that and then on the side here has the same little shoe compartment which is really convenient can store you know an extra set of shoes or two and uh and then there's still a little bit of space in front of there in between the seat for um some extra storage so that's kind of a brief overview of the new design now i'm going to take all the stuff out and then i'll remove each component piece by piece and talk about it a little bit all right before i get started one other thing that forgot to mention was the weight of this thing so i wanted to build it fairly lightweight so that i wouldn't just lose all the gas mileage that i was making use of with this vehicle so the the first build which is actually on the ground behind me now it was 60 pounds heavier than the car was with the seats in so i pulled the seats out and they were i think it was about 48 pounds and then when i put the build in i weighed each piece and that's about where it landed so it was about the weight of a you know young kid so not a significant difference and this one i think is probably a tad bit heavier just because i used a little bit different material and i'll touch on that later but it's somewhere in that ballpark i would guess 60 to 75 pounds over the weight of the the vehicle just to season okay so to remove this this setup is simple i designed it to where everything comes out with removing only four different bolts so it's two in the cam or the uh the cabinet and then two on the platform and all four of them are just a 3 8 head bolt and can be done with just a wrench i prefer to use a a socket on my drill with this little 90 degree deal but uh it can be done with just this so it's very simple so let's get started on this cabinet uh so the cabinet's out i'll show you what those bolts were secured into when i get the platform out but next i'll just pull the platform out and basically just slide the tables and then going up on the inside of that cabinet to get those two bolts that are driven in from the underside up there it's right up in here all right so i got the cabinet in the platform out and i figured this might be the best time to show um the design and kind of how it nests together so the cabinet obviously was just fastened down to the platform itself and then the platform is fastened to the vehicle frame where the seats mounted previously before i pulled them out and the way that i did that is let me flip this up here so you can see on the underside i did um a series of strips of ripped plywood on the bottom that i used to put the the sliding tables in and then up here towards the front i drilled holes and so there's four that match up with the four different spots on the the frame anchor in there i only use two just because i don't don't feel the need for the other ones and then on the the as far as how the bolts secure it in there's these things called t nuts and they look like this there's a few different styles but these just kind of sit flush into the wood and they just act as a nut so you don't have to actually connect a nut on the other side of the bolt you just slide the slide the bolt in get it started and then you can wrench it down with with an impact wrench or drill or whatever so that's what i used to secure it and again it's just those those four different bolts and then up here i've got the kind of the support system for the cat or the platform and this is by far the most challenging part to build um just because getting it to nest into this area where the seats were without putting any unnecessary pressure on any wiring or just not hard point uh was was challenging and this one is is working super well so far i think i've got it pretty dialed in to where it's just resting on you know a couple of hard anchors and it's set up to where this this piece gets sandwiched between the frame um anchors here and the platform itself so it's also secured to the frame this is a two-piece um unit the first one is this and this is kind of the uh the bed extension support as well as the the storage spot and it's just anchored in using two 90 degree metal pieces here and l brackets i guess they're probably called and it just pops up i have to set this down or throw it on my hand just basically pops up like that so we've got these two two brackets and they each have a cut in slot that they sit in so they're nested in and then the top of the bracket sits flush with the top right there and so it's nice and secure so remove that first okay now i will pull this thing out and this guy is resting on the front and the back so i'll just slip it forward so you can kind of see where it sits on the back end so we've got these little um seat mount brackets and that's where the back of the platform sits flush on and then we've got this cut out and that's what nests up with these um seat mounts and all the seat belts everything stays in so when i pull out the seats i didn't remove anything else and that way i can put the seats back in nice and easily so i will pull that out now all right there we go so the seat is out um or sorry the the whole build is out and now just so you can get a better look at the what the car looks like without the seats in or anything else you can see that it's a little bit of a complex arrangement to a frame stuffed into but this uh this setup has worked nice and the front rests on this carpet edge right here across and so all of the pressure is right here and right here all right so we've got all the pieces out and you got to see how they nest together so this is what they're looking like here on the ground when they're all separated it's simple um they stack up nicely if i do need to store them in the garage which my garage is a mess right now i have like three different projects going on but yeah so the entire thing was built with three quarter inch plywood i used birch plywood that was just what i had from my local box store here so i built the first one this this one back here with half inch plywood and that worked well i didn't have any issues really but i did notice that there's a little bit of flex when i would climb in and on like the some of the areas that weren't supported directly by something below them i just i was a little bit nervous and so i decided to try out three quarter inch on this one and it's proven to be a lot better i think not only is it more stable when i'm like climbing in and out on stuff but it's also better at creating strong joints i've found just because it has that extra a little bit of width when i'm you know joining things together they just seem a lot more rock-solid so for materials pretty much all i used was this whole thing was built with right at about two four by eight foot sheets of three quarter inch birch plywood and then i've got all the hardware so the hinges for the flip up table on the cabinet and then the one long hinge for the bed extension and the t-nuts there and then the four 3 8-inch bolts with washers on them and that is i believe about it for the hardware to build or put everything together i used a um joining system that's made by craig and i'll show you that tool in a bit but it's just pocket joinery and so each one of these little holes that you see here are just angled pockets with screws in them and that's how i joined everything together i used wood glue on some of the components i didn't use them on all but adding in wood glue just makes everything stronger so yeah that's that's pretty much what i use for the build itself and then if you have the desire to make it waterproof or i'm just more resilient in general you can cover it in polyurethane so i do that on a lot of my projects and that is this stuff right here you can get spray-on version or wipe-on and there's plenty of videos out there on this but a good way to protect it and then if you have the desire to put carpet on it so my first design i i actually carpeted the whole thing you can kind of see it here that was really nice um comfortable soft uh but i wanted to try just doing bare wood for this one to see how it worked i'm not entirely sure which one i prefer yet but if you want carpet it's pretty easy i just bought some bulk carpet from home depot and it was the same as this stuff right here it's nice and thin carpet and then i used this 3m adhesive and i sprayed down the wood the back of the carpet sandwiched it together and then once i got it all laid on cut out i also added staples around the edge just to make sure that the edge edges don't peel up but that's it for the carpet all right so that was most of the materials that i used and again if i forget anything i'm gonna add it into the into the website so if you're wanting a full list i'd probably go check that out but uh moving on to the tools that i use so a little bit of background on me i don't have really any carpentry background i did work in construction for a little bit but it wasn't in this this uh capacity and i also don't have very many tools and i just got this this garage so i did this with a fairly minimal setup and i hope that i guess when people see this that it maybe opens the door to to you guys to realize that uh it's not that hard um youtube is awesome there's so many resources out there to to teach you on different components but anyways the tools that i did use are pretty much all right here and again if i forget anything i'll add it into the article but uh i used a drill and impact wrench you really only need one probably just a drill would be fine and then you know drill bits and a screw driving bit and then i've got a sander you don't need one of these i use this this palm sander it's really convenient but you can always just hand sand and then i used a jigsaw and this was used to cut most of the angled components um so the holes in the cubby and the yeah really all of the the pieces that i had to remove were done with this guy and that could probably be done with the sawzall or maybe even a hand saw if you don't have one of these and then moving on i think the biggest challenge that i originally was concerned about was not having a table saw and i was fairly happy with what i did to get around that so i used a skill saw for the majority of the straight line cutting and for ripping the plywood into strips for the the underside and building the tables and the way that i did that was well i guess there was two methods one was i would just measure draw a line and then cut and use a straight edge to kind of guide my saw and the other one which i was a lot more excited about it worked extremely well was using this craig uh saw guide so this thing you just attach the skill saw into and then it has measurements on top you can set your cut width and then where my hand is here it guides along the edge of your board and you can use it to rip strips of up to 24 inch width and that worked really well so i use this a ton on this build especially well i mean yeah really for the whole thing so this is an awesome tool and it's not that expensive either so much cheaper option than buying a table saw for the time being at least and then i used a framer square use that quite a bit you could also use a um you know bigger square really any any right angle device that you have and then a tape measure and my wrench for the the bolts themselves and then for all the joinery so like i mentioned earlier everything i did was using this pocket hole jig so this is a craig jig that is essentially just a clamp with these pocket guides that you use their drill bit to go into create these pockets that you can then drive your screws through and it just makes very bomber joints that i've been really excited with and you use that rather than just you know screwing through the back side of a board and so it's much much more aesthetically pleasing and that you can hide the um the pocket holes inside of all the components or on the underside and they just sit nice and flush with everything and yeah so then the last tool i didn't mention is uh clamps use these quite a bit especially for the cabinet clamping things together to kind of hold them tight while i screw them together so that's that two a couple other things that i didn't mention i did in my previous video uh are the the window covers so when i am sleeping in the car at night i've got these little bug nets and they just slip right over the door so that i can leave the window down as far as i need to and they'll keep any bugs from going in and out i also have these reflectix window covers so i have a cut out for each window and it's just this aluminum covered bubble wrap and that helps to to insulate the inside a little bit and also block out all the light and then these are one other thing that i forgot to mention these are rain guards and they just work for keeping the rain you know out of the window and so at night i can leave it cracked down to there at a minimum and even if it rains or snows it'll just you know go over the top and i'll still have air flow going in all right guys that is pretty much it thanks again for all the questions and the the comments and everything that you guys have reached out and said it's it's been awesome it's definitely motivated me to really well build the second version build the website all that stuff so i really hope it helped you helps you guys a lot and again um please check out the website uh we're super excited to share that with you guys and yeah that's it so take care

Channel: Chase Christopher

Views: 501,004

Keywords: car camping, camper conversion, subaru outback, subaru camper, car camper, camper build, AWD car, Mini rv, Micro camper, Winter camper, SUV camping, SUV camper, Micro camper build, Inexpensive camper

Id: 8_di8H62RLA

Length: 27min 41sec (1661 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2020