Tent camping with a Fiesta..

[scotman]

It transmits the image wirelessly. But the camera is powered up when the reverse lamp comes on. I will use a weather tight quick disconnect for the lights and camera leads.
I haven't done the install yet. That will happen as soon as I get the basket riser back from the welding shop. Im anxious to give mine a road trip too.

 

[scotman]

I had enough leftover light gauge aluminum diamond plate material to do a wrap on the basket.
It only adds a couple of pounds and solved the concern of where to mount the lights. I removed most of the little uprights that the top ring was located on. The diamond plate material is much stronger, even though it is the thinnest or next to the thinnest gauge of diamond plate material available. The original uprights are very thin and flimsy.
I used the tube diameter of an engine stand bracket as the form for the corner radius I needed. Nothing fancy required to get the thin diamond plate to bend! I just persuaded the material with a wooden mallet. It didn't marr the face of the material one bit.
I still need to add a couple of stabilizers under the basket and the steel tube that passes through the basket and into the hitch mount needs to be cut back about four inches. Plus redrill the holes in the steel tube. The LED flush mount tail lights are last. Then it's done. Im still waiting for the welding shop to do its thing with the hitch adaptor.

View attachment 5331

 

[LionsTooth]

I put about another 1500 miles on this setup and here is what I learned. There is too much slop having 2 receivers; even with the rattle clamps. Part of the issue is loading down the car drops the rear ride height and that multiplies the slop out at the end of the basket. I am going to pull the basket's 2-inch tube in closer and redrill the pinhole; I can come in about 8-inches and still open the hatch. The next step will be to cut a 10-degree V notch out of the top of the 2-inch tube, bend the V closed, and then weld or bracket the V closed; that should raise the tail of the basket to an acceptable height.

Overall I loved how the basket worked. I got rain & snow for the first 300 miles...no water at all in the box. I used common sense and retightened the straps after the first 15-30 minutes or so. After that, no loosening but rechecked at gas stops. I got 41 mpg across the trip; no loss of mileage; didn't expect any loss. I did move the license plate up after tagging it on the ground a couple of times. It now lives on the same holes but screwed into the bottom of the plate, not the top. No pic of that...next time.

As far as noise goes. With my phone on Bluetooth playing music, I can't hear any difference. Without music, I can hear some light sqeekys and rattles, but nothing I would not have expected. Without the rattle clamps, I imagine it would be quite an audio show out back.

 

[scotman]

Similar issues on mine LT. The insert i made of aluminum needs a pie cut to correct the basket load sag (I guess that is what you could call it).
The steel one i made when I discovered the rectangular 11ga tube i was able to do the pie cut and then weld it up. That fixed that problem.
But, even with the very close coupled bracket, the steel tube that passes through the basket has a definite "chucking" condition. I spoke with a guy at a trailer equipment shop, he explained that the weight of the basket and bin will cause the setup to move at the loosest point "like a dog wagging its tail.
Have you found some shim stock? On my basket, the worst looseness is vertical. The horizontal aspect is ok. The range of motion is almost three inches as measured from the centerline of the tube. The height of the basket is perfect for me. The basket is mounted just far enough away from rear bumper to allow the hatch lid to open and only just barely brush by the edge of the box lid. Overall, im happy. But the sloppiness needs to be shimmed out.

 

[LionsTooth]

Similar issues on mine LT. The insert i made of aluminum needs a pie cut to correct the basket load sag (I guess that is what you could call it). The steel one i made when I discovered the rectangular 11ga tube i was able to do the pie cut and then weld it up. That fixed that problem.
But, even with the very close coupled bracket, the steel tube that passes through the basket has a definite "chucking" condition. I spoke with a guy at a trailer equipment shop, he explained that the weight of the basket and bin will cause the setup to move at the loosest point "like a dog wagging its tail.
Have you found some shim stock? On my basket, the worst looseness is vertical. The horizontal aspect is ok. The range of motion is almost three inches as measured from the centerline of the tube. The height of the basket is perfect for me. The basket is mounted just far enough away from rear bumper to allow the hatch lid to open and only just barely brush by the edge of the box lid. Overall, im happy. But the sloppiness needs to be shimmed out.

As far as shimming goes, like you state right & left is not so bad, but up and down sucks. I will likely bolt the 2-inch receiver together...solving that slop. Then I will need to shim the smaller receiver. I figure I can flush rivet some stainless shim stock in place on three sides to stop the right/left and downward slop. The trick will be to make sure I can still slide it in/out if it gets dirty in there.

 

[scotman]

I love stainless steel! It stays clean. I have been working on a tubular brace. Once I get shim stock that tightens it up appreciably, i will trim to fit and drill this tube in place to triangulate the damn thing into control! Theoretically. I hope.
So far, I have weighed the items i plan to put into the box and am at 96 pounds. Still have room for a mid size cooler but haven't determined what the loaded weight of that is ,yet.

 

[LionsTooth]

I love stainless steel! It stays clean. I have been working on a tubular brace. Once I get shim stock that tightens it up appreciably, i will trim to fit and drill this tube in place to triangulate the damn thing into control! Theoretically. I hope.
So far, I have weighed the items i plan to put into the box and am at 96 pounds. Still have room for a mid size cooler but haven't determined what the loaded weight of that is ,yet. View attachment 5366

Pretty sure I saw stainless shim stock at Home Depot a couple weeks back. If not I can order some online.

 

[LionsTooth]

I put about another 1500 miles on this setup and here is what I learned. There is too much slop having 2 receivers; even with the rattle clamps. Part of the issue is loading down the car drops the rear ride height and that multiplies the slop out at the end of the basket. I am going to pull the basket's 2-inch tube in closer and redrill the pinhole; I can come in about 8-inches and still open the hatch. The next step will be to cut a 10-degree V notch out of the top of the 2-inch tube, bend the V closed, and then weld or bracket the V closed; that should raise the tail of the basket to an acceptable height.

Overall I loved how the basket worked. I got rain & snow for the first 300 miles...no water at all in the box. I used common sense and retightened the straps after the first 15-30 minutes or so. After that, no loosening but rechecked at gas stops. I got 41 mpg across the trip; no loss of mileage; didn't expect any loss. I did move the license plate up after tagging it on the ground a couple of times. It now lives on the same holes but screwed into the bottom of the plate, not the top. No pic of that...next time.

As far as noise goes. With my phone on Bluetooth playing music, I can't hear any difference. Without music, I can hear some light sqeekys and rattles, but nothing I would not have expected. Without the rattle clamps, I imagine it would be quite an audio show out back.

View attachment 5359

View attachment 5363

View attachment 5361

OK...I came up with a non-weld way to get my basket almost 4 inches higher at the back end. I bolted the basket bar to the top of the 2-inch receiver. Because of the reinforcement on the receiver collar that added a bit of pitch to the equation. This arrangement removes all the slop (x & y axis) in the 2-inch receiver and so no need now for the rattle clamp or pin. It brought everything in about 5 inches closer; I can still open the hatch with the bin in place.

Before...fully loaded.



Now...not loaded

 

[scotman]

You crafty devil!

 

[Handy Andy]

Nice job!

 

[scotman]

I've been driving around with the carrier loaded up to 150 pounds for just over a week. It is all good.
I have started to create the cables for the reverse camera install.
Starting at the top. I made a pair of guides for the ratchet straps. They perform two tasks. The D-rings prevent the straps from slipping. And the guides also fit over the edges of the box just firmly enough to cause the tension of the strap to be shifted to the edges. The effect of this is downward pull and slight pinching. It doesn't take much more than a couple of clicks on the ratchet and its firmly held in place. The guides will arch slightly to clearly show they are snug.
The straps connect to the carrier via four, stainless steel eye bolts.

 

[scotman]

At the bottom of the setup i added a tubular strut from the hitch mount adaptor to the tail end of the basket tube. and then made some mild steel brackets that attached a pair of outriggers from the carrier tray to the tubular lower strut. The basket is not moving beyond an inch now. That "slop" is at the hitch adaptor.

 

[LionsTooth]

At the bottom of the setup i added a tubular strut from the hitch mount adaptor to the tail end of the basket tube. and then made some mild steel brackets that attached a pair of outriggers from the carrier tray to the tubular lower strut. The basket is not moving beyond an inch now. That "slop" is at the hitch adaptor. View attachment 5538

Try one of these...pretty cheap and they do the job of taking up most of the slob at the receiver.

 

[scotman]

I'm going to the farm and home store i got the carrier tray from might have that trick bracket.They have a huge amount of towing accessories. I am trying to avoid buying online. Too many delays and no stocks.
Once the backup cam is installed i am going to jump on the ride height issue. I still believe that an air spring setup is the magic bullet there.

 

[LionsTooth]

I'm going to the farm and home store i got the carrier tray from might have that trick bracket.They have a huge amount of towing accessories. I am trying to avoid buying online. Too many delays and no stocks.
Once the backup cam is installed i am going to jump on the ride height issue. I still believe that an air spring setup is the magic bullet there.

Thye should have it. It's pretty common at any place with hitch stuff.

 

[scotman]

Reverse camera install;
I cut some .90 aluminum sheet into two 8.5X8.5 squares. I made an slight angle on the inside panels bottom half inch. This allowed it to meet the front panel at the top where the two are bolted down along with the camera bracket. I used a multi bit to drill a 14 mm hole through these panels that the camera power cable is fed. I did press in a couple of rubber grommets to prevent cable abrasion.
I fed the red sheathed camera cable into the carrier and zip ties hold it to the light harness on the right side of the carrier around to the front center to meet the power lead from the right hand reverse lamp harness.
I chose to use a weather tight quick disconnect for the camera power cable from Blazer. It's #CWL625. It is perfect for a secure yet easy to use way to separate the camera power cable from the jumper lead at the reverse lamp harness.

 

[scotman]

Jumper lead from the right side reverse lamp harness;
I removed the tail light body to expose the harness for a jumper lead to power up the camera when reverse is selected.
I just cut the white (hot) and black (ground) and butt connected a couple of 18 gauge. Leads with bullet connectors to the harness section to feed signal power to the camera and still be easy to move over to my other Fiesta.
I like to use a paint on type of electrical tape for connections that are not inside the body shell. Ford provided a hole to pass the jumper wiring through from behind the tail light to the interior. Then i just tucked it under the edge of the hatch weatherstrip and then out to the camera harness.
The display will be mounted on a fabricated bracket in front of the shift lever.
The cigar lighter power plug is adequate for this transferable setup.
The image quality is ok 6.5 out of a possible 10. It was easy to install.

 

[donaldjl]

At the bottom of the setup i added a tubular strut from the hitch mount adaptor to the tail end of the basket tube. and then made some mild steel brackets that attached a pair of outriggers from the carrier tray to the tubular lower strut. The basket is not moving beyond an inch now. That "slop" is at the hitch adaptor. View attachment 5538

That's some great progress, Scott! I really like what you're doing with it, the camera install looks really good. That support under the basket looks like it would act like a panhard rod.

 

[scotman]

Thanks Don! LT was correct about "adding things is a slippery slope". But that reverse camera install is really no big deal. I didn't think that it would be needed because I had moved the basket higher. The result was a blind spot of more than 6 feet depth.
In driving around with the setup I also found that the box blocks the stock reverse lamps pattern. So blind spot returns at night! Because the camera needs adequate light.
So, here is what I hope is the final addition to the creation of this compact camping equipment basket.
I bought an LED 2X2 650 Lumen flood lamp.
It was around $15 bucks. I have cut some 1/16 steel plate to fabricate a robust mounting point in parallel with the basket center tube. I don't want the lamp to hang below the lowest point of the carrier tray or sit closer than 12 inches to the camera.

 

[Rowdy09]

Something like this, but a bit smaller, is my ideal setup.
View attachment 5028 View attachment 5029

Have something like this for my truck. Love it