One of the great things about social media is the exposure to a wide variety of truck camper rigs that have either been built or are in the process of being built. One that we recently came across is a rig built by Justice Peru who goes by the name tinyhometoyhauler on Instagram. His rig, consisting of a Ford F-450 and a Livin Lite Camplite 6.8, is one of the best we’ve seen. Like another rig we recently featured on Truck Camper Adventure, his Ford F-450 has been converted from dual rear wheels to size-41 super singles, the same size found on the EarthRoamer. This truck camper rig is all the proof you need that you don’t need to spend $500,000 to build a great looking rig. To learn more about his rig, Justice was kind of enough to answer a few questions.
We took notice of your Camplite Ford F-450 truck camper rig on Instagram. We love it. Can you tell us about your Livin Lite Camplite 6.8 camper and why you chose that particular make and model?
Justice: So when I first brought this idea of a truck camper to my wife, she instantly dismissed it. About a week into trying to sell her on the idea she came back with a list of demands. It had to have an actual wet-bath, a north-south bed, short enough to keep our truck tailgate, and no wood! After searching high and low I delivered, but then had to find one available. We ended up having to travel from Florida to Texas just to secure one with everything on her wish list. Plus it matched our truck paint color and was also aluminum like our truck.
It’s too bad that Livin Lite went out of business. They made a terrific truck camper. What features do you like best about the Camplite 6.8? What it the styling or was it the camper’s all-aluminum construction?
Justice: The layout was the deciding factor. The all aluminum construction was just an added bonus that confirmed it being the right choice.
What year is your camper and how much did you pay for it?
Justice: Our Livin Lite Camplite 6.8 is a 2018. We paid $24,000 for it.
What kind of batteries are you using in your camper?
Justice: We have 100 amp hour of LiFePO4 lithium battery.
Do you use solar power or a generator to keep your truck lithium battery topped off?
Justice: We use a combination of both depending on our location. Typically our solar panels keep our batteries fully charged as we drive, but since we run our air conditioner often we also have to use a generator.
It looks like you updated and refurbished the interior of the camper. It looks great. What exactly did you do to it to make it look so good?
Justice: My wife actually painted all the walls white and the bench seat black. She replaced the factory press on back splash in the kitchen with Tic-Tac Tile’s subway tiles. We removed the over the window dressings while just spray painting the black out/ screen fixtures so they matched the walls. Since we have a three-year-old and a large breed dog, the bench seat had to be turned into a bunk bed. We used a piano hinge, foldable leg hardware off Amazon.com, and wood to create our son’s custom bed. We then ordered a foam crib mattress that had to be cut to fit the exact measurements and a fold down bed rail. We removed the shoe cubby in the bedroom loft. It was replaced with a handmade ‘L’ cubby that created better organization. We centered the plans around the Ikea Kallax two-drawer inserts. Our bathroom was a completely blank slat. It had no storage. So we added a simple medicine cabinet from Lowes. Our additional storage was more of a trial and error. We ended with Target suction shelves on the counter and really strong adhesive corner shelves from Amazon.com. Lastly, we did a microwave delete to make additional storage for our Ninja, Keurig, and cooking utensils.
Can you tell us about more about your truck? It’s a Ford F-450, correct?
Justice: Yes. It is a 2019 F-450 Lariat Super Duty that has been converted to super singles with a square track width.
Why buy a F-450 DRW and go to the expense of converting to single rear wheels when you could’ve bought a F-350 SRW that has more than enough payload for your camper?
Justice: We really weren’t worried about payload capacity. We truly wanted a truck that was future proof. Originally we were going to go down the Tiny Home route, but that was derailed due to needing to travel often for work. An F-450 will be able to not only carry our truck camper, but also the towing possibilities are almost limitless.
What other aftermarket modifications did you make to your truck to make it more trail worthy?
Justice: Cosmetically, we replaced our front fenders with McNiel Racing’s 6-inch wider fenders that are wrapped to color match our truck. We also have front and rear SmittyBilt XRC GEN2 winches. Our front is 12,000 pounds while our rear is 10,000 pounds. We replaced our front bumper with FabFour’s Matrix bumper, which was designed for their 40’s no lift system and our rear bumper is Road Armor’s Stealth bumper. We would have liked to stick to one brand for both, but neither offered the features we needed or the look we were going for. All of our aftermarket lighting is LightForce’s Night Fall series. In the front we have a 30-inch single row light bar, one pair of flood ROK 40s, and one pair of spot ROK 40s. In the rear we have a pair of ROK 20s. We added a Carli adjustable track bar and Fox 2.0 shocks. We also feature a Kelderman dual steering stabilizer and Ready Lift leveling kit.
It looks fantastic! What else did you do to the truck?
Justice: For the camper we added AirLift Company load-leveling 5,000 airbags with Daystar cradles. Lastly, we have Stazworks 20×10 custom wheels with Goodyear G275 MSA 335/80R20 tires. Of course some trimming has been done to our fenders and body to clear the tires.
How much did you spend to build-out your truck?
Justice: As of right now it’s right around $15,000. Our friend and mechanic, Rich, at 321 Auto is amazing.
Are you partnering with any of these aftermarket companies? Any plans to display your rig at the Overland Expo or other shows?
Justice: Yes. We are currently partnered-ish with LigthForce. As of right now, we are scheduled to be featured at their booth for Overland Expo West, contingent on the coronavirus, of course.
What inflation values do you typically run with those massive size-41 Goodyear mud-terrain tires?
Justice: With the camper, we run 65 psi in the front and 75 psi in the rear.
Have you had a chance to take your rig to the scales?
Justice: No, we haven’t. We estimate it to be between 12,000 and 13,000 pounds.
Do you have any regrets in your choices? Anything you wished that you had done differently?
Justice: We wish our camper had bigger holding tanks. Right now our truck camper is very much limited to what a weekend warrior would need. When it comes to full-timing as a family of three it gets to be a bit limiting when it comes to boon docking or food storage. Just recently we were inquiring around town to get a few warranty things fixed, but have actually been told Livin Lite is too much of a headache. They turned us away. So that’s been a bit of an issue, but we finally did find someone. Currently waiting for our appointment.
What kind of mileage are you getting with your setup?
Justice: Our mileage with our camper on is right around 10 mpg.
Have you done any off-roading with your truck camper rig? If yes, how did it perform.
Justice: Yes, we have. We spent a week out on the Cape Lookout beach, which we had no problem navigating. We also have done a few OHV trails in the north east. Our only limiting factor was width since most trails are Jeep size. We plan on doing more off-roading since we are spending more time out west this year.
Your rig is an impressive build for sure. You did an amazing job. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about it?
Justice: Her name is Thursday, because she is thick and thirsty.
The front fenders don’t look wide enough. They’re illegal!!!
That is a badass looking truck
That is a really sanitary mod. The proportions are great. It fun to see something out of the ordinary!
I do believe he has enough truck for that camper!