Install date is Thursday! We were hoping to start our trip to Bozeman today, but traveling from Minnesota, the North Dakota interstate is closed.
Truck Accessories/modifications
Accessories for the GFC:
DIY Gear:
Added some edge guard to the rear and side panels to protect the noggin from sharp corners
Had some cheap solar lights laying around and used some extra hardware from a mirror my wife bought to make some camp lighting that can hang from the t-track
Nice build! You have a link to that edge guard?
the 15’ let me cover one whole side panel, the rear panel, and one vertical edge on the other side panel. I just ordered another 15’ to finish off the last horizontal edge, 2nd vertical edge, and will leave me with extra if one of my first attempts on any edge fails.
It isn’t necessary to do the whole horizontal edges on the side panels for head protection reasons, but I think it adds a more complete and clean look to do the whole edge.
Edit: I wanted to give credit to @DirtTrailsWanted for the blog post which has some great inexpensive GFC upgrades!
I finally had a free weekend to do my first overnight in the GFC!
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for lighting in the tent portion of the camper, and instead of buying something new I found that these Biolite solar lights work great! They have a kickstand to use as a table light or hang from a branch, and the little plastic clip on the kickstand fits perfectly into the track!
I have the same light and had no idea that clip fits in the track. Great tip!!
The tent is so quiet now! Clipped off all my zipper pulls today and replaced them with cord toggles.
A few more small modifications and additions to our setup:
We usually stack our totes for camping on top of each other and it starts to get annoying always taking one off the top to get to the bottom. I wanted something easily removable but would not shift and move around with driving. I used an old shelf to create a 2nd level along half of the bedside on the passenger side. I was able to use my bed stiffener as one support leg added a 2x3 to the other side connected back to the bed stiffener for added structure. I drilled out one of the holes on the Tacoma bed cleat to fit some threaded rod and then used 2 nuts to sandwich against the bed cleat and 1 nut to pud downward pressure on the shelf top to keep that side pressed down and secure on the wheel well.
I have been using a Dakota Lithium Battery for my diesel heater but wanted to make the setup a little cleaner. Got a battery box and some foam to “insulate” the battery a bit too.
Are you trickle charging off the bed power? How does that 23 Ah dakota perform with the diesel heater?
I’m down the rabbit whole wanting house power and also a simpler power source to keep the portable diesel heater portable. Drinking from the firehose trying to learn about solar systems and wondering if I’m just better off with a power box and a dc to dc charger. Living in Wyoming with 6 months of winter and putting power in an unheated bed I get a little paranoid and am looking at insulated/ heated options.
You can find heated LiFePo batteries for this reason
Kind of redundant but I am using my Anker Powerhouse 757 to trickle charge the Dakota lithium. Because of the amp draw at startup I couldn’t use the Anker to run the diesel heater. Temps outside were low 20s and the truck bed and tent stayed around 50 to 55°F.
I just used the battery heater combo last week and it didn’t last a whole night on medium (7:30pm and died sometime between 2am and 4am). Thankfully sleeping on my muskox pelt I stayed plenty warm 
and woke up at 4:30 because of the lack of white noise of the diesel heater. I want to test the system out again because I figured that the 23ah battery would have been enough to make it through a full night for sure.
