6 replies to this topic

[ST85]

     In one week from today my wife and I will be driving to Boise to receive our Hawk shell. We have been waiting for a year for this and the stoke factor is high. We have gone through many iterations on how we explore the west. Starting with a 06 GMC Sierra w/ a Leer Hi-top topper, to a 14 Tundra ( hit an elk w/ the GMC) with a 06 Coleman Cobalt popup trailer (on 12'' tires, super fun setup), to a ridiculously over built DIY truck topper... And now, the current holy grail, 22 Hawk shell w/ side dinette. 

       My goal for this new platform is to try and build the most practical, capable, lightweight, setups I can to get us farther into public land. What I mean by that is, the West is getting a bit busy with all the Wandering people are doing right now. Thats great, I'm stoked people are getting out, that doesn't mean I want to camp with them. 

        Anyways, back to the build... 2014 Tundra 120,xxx miles DC, 6'7'' bed on 33''s w/ Bilsteen stuts, leveling kit and soon to be installed custom leaf package from Boise Spring Works. We don't have any kids right now, and except for our special needs dog "Carl" we try and travel light. When starting to narrow down what we actually wanted in a camper, staying as close to or below the GVWR of the tundra was my number 1. Tundras are great at towing but lack in the payload dept. Mine can handle right around 1475 lbs in the bed. So right away that narrowed the field, and long story short we ended up on Four Wheel campers. A Kimbo or Scout would have been great but I think they are too big and heavy to get into the nooks of the west we seek. Prior to ending up with the Hawk shell we strongly debated on the Flatbed version and going with some AU brand of Ute tray, but after looking deep into this at the end of the day, no matter what suspension upgrades you do, you'r still over GVWR. I read somewhere that Tundras had some special type of wheel bearing that inhibit this vehicles ability to carry more weight, and also Toyota does not give their blessing at all to pulling off the stock bed and swapping with a flatbed.  Can anyone confirm this? 

      We went with the shell because I wanted a simple blank slate in which to outfit it to our specific needs and desires in a camper. We didn't want all the add ons, just the ones that made sense to us. I am a carpenter and have my own remodeling business in the local are we live in, so I'm handy when it comes to DIY. Im not saying Im the best at this, but building and making things from scratch is definitely in my wheelhouse. 

 

 

     I wanted to share this build in hopes to give people ideas in their future builds. I am a long time researcher of the Expedition Portal world and have gained a lot of knowledge from other peoples posts, but since WTW seems to be more hard sided pop up oriented I decided to post here in hopes to give and get further inspiration and knowledge where i think it will be better received.

    I am also on IG under the handle @seedwoodworking I will try and post more photos and videos on the build process. Please by all means, chime in and let me know if there is an easier or better way of doing something. My goal is to learn. 

 

 Take a look in my gallery for the previous setups. Gallery

 

Enjoy!

 

Edited by ST85, 03 February 2022 - 06:08 PM.

[astropuppy]

Your going to love it. We too have a Hawk shell on a 2011 tundra with Boise Spring, springs. Your Boise Spring upgrade is a game changer. We live in Boise and Drive highway 21 up over the hump all the time. No sway etc or issues dropping into Lowman.

 

Boise spring talked me out of new shocks until my old ones wear out. More than impressed with them. Enjoy! 

[desertmtn]

Save yourself a second wiring install and have them run 6awg from the truck to the shell. Enjoy the stoke!

[fish more]

Welcome to WTW

[ST85]

Great to hear. I was wondering if I was going overboard. I have airbags now but wanted a passive system, something that cant really break down. Also thanks for the heads up on the rear shocks. 

Your going to love it. We too have a Hawk shell on a 2011 tundra with Boise Spring, springs. Your Boise Spring upgrade is a game changer. We live in Boise and Drive highway 21 up over the hump all the time. No sway etc or issues dropping into Lowman.

 

Boise spring talked me out of new shocks until my old ones wear out. More than impressed with them. Enjoy! 

[ST85]

Thanks for the suggestion, however, I went ahead and purchased 4awg due to the length of the run. I read on the stickie under the wiring tab about the loss in volts per ft and how to combat that. 4awg might be overkill but I might upgrade the alternator in the future to accomidate as much charge as possible.  

Save yourself a second wiring install and have them run 6awg from the truck to the shell. Enjoy the stoke!

[rruff]

Old thread but in case anyone cares, I might be able to help with these questions:

     I read somewhere that Tundras had some special type of wheel bearing that inhibit this vehicles ability to carry more weight, and also Toyota does not give their blessing at all to pulling off the stock bed and swapping with a flatbed.  Can anyone confirm this? 

 

Tundras have a semi-floating rear axle, similar to other 1/2 tons. 3/4+ ton trucks have a full floating rear axle such that if the axle breaks, the wheel won't come off, which is better for security. They have higher load ratings too of course. The 2nd gen Tundra axle and bearings are beefy but they have had issues with bearing failure and it's very expensive to replace them at a dealer. They supposedly "updated" the bearing in 2010, but this didn't eliminate the problem. Based on the number of reports I've seen where people had early failures even when they never carried loads, vs people who drove over 200k miles with a big camper and never had a problem, I suspect it is caused more by tolerances than load. In other words unless you get a "bad" one, the bearings will last "forever". If you get a "bad" one though, they may not last long... and replacing the bearings does not fix the tolerance issues, which are caused by the dimensions of the axle parts.  

 

The axle ratings on the Tundra are 4,000 lbs front, and 4,150 lbs rear. Guestimating the stock front and rear axle loads, I have about 1,800 lb capacity on the rear axle, and 650 lbs on the front before I hit those numbers. Note that axle ratings may be limited by stock tires and suspension, rather than the axle structure which seems overly stout for a 1/2-ton. At any rate, plenty of people have loaded well past the axle ratings for >200k miles without issue. It's important to note that capacities are set by Toyota to bound their warranty and liability, and that for non-commercial users, it is not a legal limit.

 

Regarding the flatbed question, lots of people hard-mount flatbeds on Tundras. I've never heard of anyone having a structural issue. But, I can understand why Toyota would never give a blanket approval to this, because a stiff flatbed and camper will alter the structure quite a bit. A photo will illustrate this best: https://www.boundfor...the-mojave-road

 

The Tundra frame is designed to flex torsionally, especially at the rear of the truck. The normal truck bed doesn't resist this twist, but a stiff flatbed and camper does. You can see in the photo that the rear end is all very square up to the headache rack, and then you see a lot of frame twisting in a short distance; between the headache rack and cab, and between the cab and front bumper. The portion of the frame under the engine area is fully boxed and stiff, so nearly all the frame twist is occurring from the rear of the cab to the back of the front wheelwells.

Edited by rruff, 21 August 2022 - 11:16 PM.