Another problem with these old Yotas is that (as far as I know) none of them had locking tailgates. I took a chance on a reproduction locking tailgate latch for a Hilux of the same era, and the fit was close enough that it worked. It’s not ideal though, there’s a gap at the bottom that will need to be filled. But now the tailgate locks, and that’s what matters.
One thing I really don’t like, is now with the hatch latches, the tailgate latch, and the camper lock, my keychain has become enormous. Maybe in time I’ll be able to match some of these cylinders.
EDIT: I realized I didn’t name this locking tailgate latch. It’s a Pop and Lock PL5050.
Nice, @pnwmountaineer, I think I bought the $12 ones. Here in Southern California, Zoro is usually 1-day or next day shipping for me. So when I need something from Grainger, I find it on Zoro, and get it lightning fast, usually with good prices.
I’m trying to set up my GFC for 1-3 day trips on a moment’s notice, even just afternoon getaways. A few observations from this trip:
With the additional gear, I have my airbags at 12PSI (update: 16PSI) each. Made a huge difference. It’s sort of obvious in hindsight, but I was also able to level the tent with the airbags once on site. Cool. Didn’t think of that when I installed them.
I had the passenger side panel pop open while driving up a mountain. Looks like I need to lock my panels at all times. Didn’t see that comin’.
Because I have a small truck, the edges of the cabana panels are an eye hazard. I am going to post more detailed information about this. I’m about 5’11" and the sharp corner of the panel falls exactly at eye level. Banged my head on the locks at least ten times.
Dirt in the truck bed is a much bigger problem than I first anticipated. Mostly brought in on my shoes.
Paying close attention to what worked and didn’t while camping is by far the best way to get ideas about how to improve and accessorize this camper.
I think there are a few reasons why the locks are such a hot topic, but the biggest one is that I simply find myself interacting with them ALL THE TIME. I’m trying to start by treating them as a “skill”. I wanna be a southco ninja. But when/if that fails, I am gonna be a badass engineer about it, and those locks had better look the f*** out.
The GFC tent is so easy to open and close that I don’t think about it at all. It’s one of those things that is so good that it becomes invisible. I appreciate that so much, I feel like more than anything, that’s what I paid for.
I’ve had two camps in three weeks and I feel such enthusiasm for this machine and the coming year.
To anyone reading this thread: How do you find BLM/dispersed/non-reservation campgrounds in SoCal? Are you using an app? A book? It feels like there are just tons of blogposts/info/state sites, but very little real useful information. I’d really like to expand the number of places I can go with the GFC. Any tips or pointers for someone new to this?
I use “The Dyrt”, “FreeRoam”, and “iOverlander”. The USFS app is great as well. Where I am in Washington there’s a couple others specific to our state. I use CalTopo for ownership later overlays to see whose land I’m on as well.
I made a shelf that mounts under the front portion of the bed. It’s covered in cargo net so that it can flex. This is where all the bedding goes. Super easy to stuff it in there, and it doesn’t block the rear window.
Normally I don’t use the phone while driving, but now with the GFC, the phone is getting much more use and I’m trying out some of the apps recommended by @pnwmountaineer . I was getting really fed up with glare, cables, and volume control, so I made a custom phone mount to solve those problems. I’ll probably print up a matching mount that permanently mounts inside the camper.
Inspired by @tbacon4758here and @MikePradohere, I installed a bungee cord paper towel holder. This would have been so great to have on my last camp. Love the simplicity of it. Will probably add a roll of toilet paper, too. (EDIT: I added TP and it was a good move) (EDIT 2: this has become one of my favorite “utilities” onboard the GFC, highly recommended!!!)
Added a small thermometer/humidity meter. There’s a great spot for things like this right inside the strut. I may end up switching this to the left side and mounting my panel light controls here later.
GAIA GPS for me, with the USFS and public lands layers. GAIA now has an Overland layer which combines most of the manual toggling before into the bits you need: USFS, BLM, UMVM maps, and their base topo map. Then it’s about pointing the rig somewhere and exploring.
iOverlander can be okay in a pinch/necessity but I find those are very hit and miss and because of its popularity, busy or just super random.
I have OnX, but don’t like it as much — great for finding trails, and subsequently, camping, but I’ve long used GAIA and find it’s level of detail really good.
A lot of spots can be sort of gleaned or approximated from small hints in social posts or YouTube videos, then going to a satellite map or GAIA to poke around.
First looks at a basic airflow analysis. I’m not an analyst myself, but this is software designed for non-analysts to explore trends and find initial direction. It’s interesting.
Went out for a trip this weekend. It was so freeing to simply park on the side of the road and make fresh coffee for two before hitting a trail. On return from the trail, it was a pleasure to cool off on the tailgate under the shade of the cabana panels. A+
I discovered a few more needs that must be addressed:
A small garbage can with a latching lid that can be secured
My rear window was covered with a piece of cloth held in by magnets and it’s a hassle
I want to put some retroreflective tape on the GFC to make it visible to headlights at night
I want some red lights in the bed so I don’t trash my night vision
I had an attempted break-in in a Dollar Tree parking lot (fortunately caught by my car alarm). I need some kind of small secured space for items like cameras and documents
Not sure how this thread isn’t getting a ridiculous amount of love, but a bunch of us in-house have been ogling over the build and all your rad R&D. Pinning this to the top of the category for a bit.
I’ve mentioned lighting a few times in this thread. This will be the lighting post. First of all, I’m an optomechanics guy by trade, so lighting is very important to me. Quality of light matters to me.
This means good color rendition - at a bare minimum, 90CRI emitters
This means dimmable - nothing worse than inappropriate levels
This means absolutely no camera artifacts or flicker
I chose a [BuckPuck driver]( BuckPuck DC LED Drivers -). “Buck” drivers reduce incoming voltage to match the LED requirements (so 14.4->12v would work). “Boost” drivers raise incoming voltage. So if you wanted to power from USB or something less than 12V, you’d need boost. This specific driver solves the flicker issues found in cheaper drivers from Amazon, and also gives me dim-to-off capabilities. There’s still a sharp knee where the LEDs turn off early, that’s unavoidable when there are integrated current limiting resistors (basically all “12V” strips). For these strips, I got the 1A model with a 5K pot and 7 pin SIP connector.
Whipped up a quick prototype enclosure. Needs work but it’s simple and looks good. A big priority for me is positive feedback from every system. In this case, I wanted the switch to be easy to find in the dark and to give very clear feedback that it was pressed. That meant a guitar pedal switch for a maximally satisfying click.
You can see that the BuckPuck really gives you a lot of flexibility with power. I’m using a Milwaukee M18 battery for prototyping, getting a couple hours of runtime at max brightness.
Here in Southern California, Zoro is usually 1-day or next day shipping for me. So when I need something from Grainger, I find it on Zoro, and get it lightning fast, usually with good prices.
