FOR SALE
£2.5K or £10K with 66 plate Ford Ranger “Wildtrack”
Available to view on site in use @
Norden Farm
Corfe Castle
Dorset
BH20 5DS
Thursday June 18th (afternoon) – Saturday(all day)
At the Demountable Camper Group’s 12th annual get away.
The design was based roughly on a S-karosser EC7? 3 berth demountable.
I say roughly because it started out as such, but has been though many additions and alterations.
Front to back.
Basically it has a cab-over double bed across the camper with a sliding opening window at head and feet end.
The dining area,
, seats 2 on either side with the table acting as the base for a large single bed. There are large opening windows with blinds and shutters on each side.Next, looking on the left (looking from back to front) there is a 2 burner gas hob/sink combination unit with a smoked glass fold down top and sliding window above. The sink having an electric fold down cold water tap.
Opposite this is a two door storage cupboard inside with a gas storage locker accessible only from outside that has room for 2 small calor gas bottles, (4.5kg butane and 3.9kg propane) with the associated regulator and switch over unit.
Above these are 4 top cupboards with tambour sliding doors, 2 on each side.
Then, on the left, there is a top storage space, below which is the clothes wardroble. This has the solar power controller and switch gear on the back wall. (heat keeps clothes aired) Underneath the wardrobe is the space for a cool box and the water storage bottle.
On the opposite side is what was intended to be the shower/toilet room. In use it only houses a porta-potty toilet and storage for chair/windbreak etc. I found that every site I stayed at had far superior showering facilities and so was not needed so was considering modifying it to to just a bottom cupboard (porta-potty storage) and opening out the top half for more work space with open shelving.
The addition of 2 extra outside lockers is the main difference to the original design as these in effect hang down below the truck tub base either side of the tailgate. These lockers house electric hook up plug, gas take off plug and wiring on one side while the other has a 2Kw diesel hot air heating unit.
The door at the back has been changed many times and is now a stable type door with a small sliding window to the top section.
On the roof there is a 360watt solar panel fitted on a hinged frame to be able to lift and tilt it towards the sun for maximum winter sunlight. There as also two roof ventilators, a 3 speed suck and blow electric fan above the dining area. A smaller pop up vent above the shower room.
As a cad/cam precision engineer and toolmaker I was able to completely design the camper before cutting the first piece of aluminium.
Having had an earlier teardrop trailer project suffer from damp/water ingress deterioration I decided to make this project rot proof. It has been made to out last me using a minimal amount of wood none of which is structural.
I must stress that this is a home build, a hobby, a labour of love and took about two years to complete. I say complete, but it will always be “work in progress “ to me.
Constructed mainly of 25mm aluminium box section screwed and welded together in a space frame type lattice work with larger heavier section 50x25mm where added strength was needed. The lattice is filled with 25mm thick Celotex sheet for insulation skinned on the outside all over with Fibreglass sheet, off a roll, apart from the tub area which is sheet aluminium checker-plate. The insides are lined with PVC sheet. Bed area has a van carpet inner lining for added insulation while the rest a wood effect vinyl wrap.
Electrically:
In the cabin there are 3 strip led lights, One 2way 240 volt socket from the outside hook-up. 5 off red pin led lights for all night low level visibility. One 12volt socket for phone charging. A 40 watt car stereo is fitted along with 4 speakers for entertainment. In the larger of the floor foot boxes there are 2 off 110Ah leisure batteries with cut outs which are charged via the controller from the solar panels.
In the smaller box a 1000watt 240 volt inverter with 2 off accessible sockets to be able to run small mains powered items.
The decoration to the outside is probably not to your taste but it is only vinyl wrap and can easily be removed with a heat gun/hair dryer. I don’t like a plain white box and wanted it individual.
Legs:
In use, I found I had no intension of de-mounting the camper during outings, so there are only 2 slide down legs at the front of the cabin. Raising the camper side by side with a 48 inch farm type lever jack then sliding the legs down and securing with a lock pin. The back was raised in a similar fashion but supported by concrete blocks. In all takes about half an hour to complete.
The camper itself is secured to the pick up by 4 turn buckles accessed from the inside.
As a homebuilt camper, forget about insurance, no one wants to know. It is made to be adaptable and fixed should you bend it. It should last as long as you want it too and you can add, take away to suit yourself. That is why it has been changed so many times. The price for a home-build might seem a little high but materials that are rot proof are a large part of the cost. There is over £800 worth of high gloss finish fibreglass on the sidewalls and roof alone. Substantial amounts of aluminium box and rectangular section give a solid long lasting framework.
Ford Ranger “Wildtrack” Details
The Ranger is a 6 speed automatic 5 cylinder 3.2l diesel with switchable 4WD.
Just under 170K miles, No accidents, no problems, garage maintained. Fairly tidy bodywork with no rust problems,
