Originally Posted by Northern Explorer 

Speaking of spare tires… How do you plan on carrying those. I didn’t see any type of tire mount off the back on the U.P. trip pictures that I have. Or do you plan on carrying them under the back end of the chassis somehow?

Oooh… That brings up the back end of truck, one of my favorite parts!

On the Michigan trip you would have seen the open ‘vestibule’ at the back of the camper that looked something like this:

That was without the rear ‘ramp door’ installed (being worked on next week!)

Essentially what happens is we have taken a standard cargo/toy-hauler ramp door and designed it to mount on the back edge of the vestibule with a lock-out so that it can only go down 90′.

On the ‘top-side’ (i.e. inside surface) of the door is some outdoor carpeting and fold-up railings.

Over the rear ‘patio’ area then there is a small Fiamma van awning, with an add-a-room attachment, so we can close that area in if we want to in inclement weather.

(something like this — only less cheesy)

This essentially adds an extra 100 sq ft of living space to the camper, without really taking up any space.

Very special thanks to Rob Gray’s WORT for the inspiration:

90
Then… on the back of the door is mounted the two spare tires/wheels on a separate hinged mechanism that can allow them to lower down independently.

The whole thing should look something like this:

Even with the ramp door up/closed there is still an are about 17″ deep between the ramp door and the ‘inside’ door/window. In that vestibule area will be two 25gal stainless steel tanks (built into the side walls) to hold the pre-filtered water (i.e. they will be empty 90% of the time)… and storage room for bikes / strollers / spare-parts / etc.

I’m really excited about this part of the truck. I think it adds a huge amount of ‘liveability’ to the vehicle without sacrificing much (except about 2.5 degrees on our departure angle)