Finally finished this build after picking up a used GFC in March. We have spent 6 nights in it so far. It has been such a game changer compared to my old fiberglass shell.
It’s made out of 1/2” Baltic birch plywood finished with spar urethane, and formica for the top and accents. It was really important for me that it was lightweight, kept half the bed empty for changing and dog sleeping area, and easily removable in the winter.
Dimmer switches for the tailgate light and the downstairs lights, charging port, and my “electrical panel”. All the wiring within the GFC has in line barrel jacks so it can stay installed even if the cabinet gets removed.
Wow! That’s beautiful and exactly the type of thing I would like to do, find, buy for my long bed. Do you feel the plugs in the battery will be challenging to get to when bed is full or not a use case for you? Probably a stupid Q but was what is the gray unit attached to exterior of tent? Thanks again! Really nice work!!
Thanks! We rarely will use the plugs on the Goal Zero, just for laptops or maybe the occasional tool. And in those cases the bed will most likely be empty next to the cabinet. Phone/speaker/headlamp/accessory charging all happens at the 12V ports I put around the build. We store our camp table, chairs, firewood, and other items that get taken out at camp in the bed. And the gray unit is a water tank, I designed some custom sheet metal mounts for it.
Thank you! We are in SLC but have been in Moab for the past three weekends, here we are camped just north of town. Gotta take advantage of the spring desert season while you can.
Lol, I swear I see you on 700 East occasionally, or another sepc’d exactly like your truck/GFC. Really sticks out compared to other combo’s because it’s so close to mine.
I mounted them with 1/8" aluminum plate that I cut to size with a miter saw and added thru holes (Link)
If I were to do it again I would probably make something out of Z-channel or buy @jedgar 's solar mounts (Link). The flat plate is sleek and cheap but it requires removing the beef bars to remove the panels.
He makes awesome stuff I am looking for something to bottom mount them though I do see what you are saying about having to remove the bars to remove the panels. I feel like I would rarely need to remove the panels. Unless you can shed light on that.
If you don’t think you will want to remove them then I would say it’s a good route to go. I don’t do much camping in the winter so I was thinking of removing them and putting ski racks on. That would require me removing the bars, removing the panels, and reinstalling the bars. Doing that every spring/fall would be a pain. Also a solar panel failure or wiring issue would be a little harder to fix.
The flat plate also requires you get everything really close to square before you install the panels/beef bar assembly. You don’t have access to the screws so you can’t leave bolts loose to help with alignment onto your roof. I was careful to make sure the solar panels were inset the exact same distance from one side of the beef bars and used thin spacers between the beef bars and solar panels to make sure everything stayed square.
For the flat plate method you’ll just need 3/4" 10-32 screws, 10-32 lock nuts, 10-32 oversized washers, and of course the 10-32 track nuts. Here is a diagram of how I have mine mounted:
Great point on alignment and lack of wonder camping. Wonder if you could space the panels to just below the beef bars so you could mount the skis still but not need to remove the panels. Adding roof panels isn’t super close for me yet as I bought 200w bifacial ECOFLOW panels with my ECOFLOW generator.
But I would like the option incase I didn’t want to lug pop up panels.
Exactly what I am looking to do.