Christmas Progress #2

Here are some pictures of the camper with the windows Dad and I installed yesterday. We used butyl tape and silicone. This afternoon I had some time so I installed the diamond plate alum on the bed sides. Now I can take a little break, in a couple days Dad Stein and the Stein boys will be in town so hopefully we will be able to install the roof!! Stay tuned.....

Christmas Progress #1

Here are some pictures of what my Dad and I did over Christmas break. We painted everything with varnish, (two coats) put eternabond on pretty much every seam. Webseal on the roof seam. Then cut out the two water holes, one for pressure, one for fresh water, and we also cut out and installed the vented propane door. I got the two water hookups for free from my buddy Dan, and I paid about twenty bucks for the propane vent! The next day, we installed the windows the next day.... Thanks Dad for all of your hard work!!! I forgot to mention we also installed the final piece of alum onto the nose of the truck camper. That was a task!!! Wow...

Weekend Report

Here are some pictures of the tc after I put the siding on. Last weekend since I knew that I was going to be putting the siding on by myself, Sam Seth and I used a brake and bent each sheet at the top and bottom. This was very important to do because there are no screws holding the siding on, just 560 glue. So I had to make sure the siding was being put in place and not moving around. I would simply put the glue on the wall, and then put the siding on. I started at the back, and overlapped each sheet by one inch and used a special 3m double siding tape to connect the pieces. The temp was about 35-45 degrees all weekend so what I did to help was put a propane heater in the camper. The camper walls were actually warm when I put the glue on so I wasn't worried about the glue not setting. Once the glue dried for about a couple hours, I bent the tops back and then cut the alum. so it is flush with the corners. I used a 3/8 inch router trim bit to do this. Router bit works smooth as long as you stop every couple feet and put WD40 or motor oil on the bit so it won't get clogged up. Next step is to put the windows in, cut the roof vents, and install the roof....

More Progress Pics

Progress

Finally!!!! Sorry it has been so long. Since I expanded the camper by adding some height, I realized that I could not put it together inside my little garage. So I asked our lovely landowner Sylvia if we could use her barn and she said yes!! Over thanksgiving break I was able to put the truck camper together with the help of my two wonderful brother in laws Sam and Seth. We worked all day last Friday and Saturday. We got the camper put together and ready for the alum siding, however, it was too cold for the glue to work. Now I'm going to have to wait till this weekend, get the heaters going in the camper, and keep the glue warm. This sat. I'm hoping to be done with all the siding. I have a rubber roofer coming over this weekend to hopefully put the roof on. I'll keep ya posted.

Tiedowns

Here is a couple pictures of the tie down brackets that I made. The angle iron pieces go into the wall, and the flat iron pieces will go on the bottom of the wing of the camper. The bottom pieces will act as a guide for the eylets, that's the idea for now anyway. I might have the eyelet welded to the iron plate just to make it more permanent. However this way, if I do ever break something, I can replace it without major repair. I screwed and glued them in today. You can also see the wiring of the wall that will go to the inverter. I'm using 14guage wire. Oh yeah!!!

Siding, Electrical

Here are a couple pictures of the walls after I put the luan siding on, and installed the wiring. One side of the camper is for AC power only, while the other is DC only. I will be installing two LED lights for the main area, and a reading light for the cabover. The AC wall has two outlets for the fridge, microwave and tv. Plus two lights as well, one will be a big florescent light, and another for the cabover section. Wow , I'm running out of room in the garage. Also ifyou look past the walls, sitting on the camper is 1200 bucks worth of alum siding...

Ordered the siding

Yesterday I ordered the siding for the truck camper. After weeks of estimates, I finally found the price I wanted. First I tried regular RV siding. I got prices from 2400 to 3500 bucks. Crazy. I finally ended up going with alum skin that is used for trailers. It's seemless, plus it is just as strong, if not stronger, for half the price. I order approx 350square feet for a total cost of around 1200 dollars. The only catch is you need to buy the glue, tape and trip. That will bring the total price up to around 1400. The order should be in around four weeks from now. Just have to keep waiting, and waiting....

More pictures

Here is a picture of the front wall. I put the front wall on first... Used Sika 221 glue, and a bunch of screws. I wasn't too worried about glue coming out the sides, I actually wanted that to happen. Above the bench seats, I'm going to put 1/2 inch plywood studs, and insulate then cover with some launa.... That's the plan for now anyway.... next pic.
Front wall again. I did use a sheet of MDX for the floor mainly because of the weight issue. All the indoor and out door wood will be treated with Doc Rot wood treatment... Plus the floor will be painted, and I'll probably finish it with laminate...
Here is a picture of the wall resting against the camper bed. I put it up to get more accurate measurements, to make sure everything will fit. If you noticed, I left a couple lightening holes open so I can lift the wall into place!!
Ahhh yes, here is a picture of me, lying dead on the camper. I'm tired. My wife and I have been moving like crazy in the past couple weeks. We both are looking forward to having a fun weekend together in the camper....

Back working again!!

Hello All!! I'm finally updating my blog site. It has been very busy lately but I managed to get some truck and camper work done. This is my 1987 chevy K20 pickup. Yes it's rusty, yes it's old, but remember, I'm a teacher, not a lawyer! Plus it's paid for!!! Ha! Anyway, I put new tires on, I went with a set of BF Goodwich Commercial TA's All Season. I've used AT tires before, but this truck eats em up too fast. Plus I figured I'd try a highway tire to see how many miles I can put on. I also went up a size, 265/75/16 Load range E. Next step is to find a box, and get some body work done! On to the next picture.....
This is a picture of my neighbor Lewis and I sitting talking camper. Lewis is a very nifty old man to talk to that's for sure.
Here is the truck camper as of today. ... I put the front and back walls up first. However, just for fun I put up one side wall up just to see what it will look like. I can't put the side walls up yet, because I wouldn't be able to get it out of the garage!!!!
Here is a picture of the back wall. I'm putting on turn lights, and 5 running lights on top. I was going to put a flood light, but I decided to put them on the bumper of my pickup instead.
My wife and I went and picked out some siding for the camper, However, after putting it on, you can see in this picture that it already started to warp. Grrr. I'm not too worried though because that side I will be putting up a tall cabinet that will hold a portapotty, and a coat rack.

Hey!!! It's Been A little Busy Around Here!!!

Yeah that's right! This is Emma, Daddy has not been able to work on the camper for a while because He and Mommy have been sick for the past week and a half!!! Tell me about it! Here I am, 5 months old Having to take care of my parents already! Yup you guessed it, I'm not sick at all. Anyway, Grandpa and Grandma and coming tomorrow, so Dad and Grandpa are going to be working on the electrical, while Me, Ma, and Grandma play some cards!! Talk to ya soon!!

Emma

New Cab Over, Sofa and Door

Here is a new picture of the front of the camper. Since I had to raise the camper to fit my truck better, I realized that I can add more cab over space. So I added 6 inches more room. The second picture is the jack knife sofa that I got for $100. At first I was a little discouraged about the price, then I found out how much they want for a new one, plus shipping! I actually lucked out because now I can make the back cushion the right size to fit my camper. Last picture is of me and the door I got for $100. The door is 70 X 24 1/2. It has a screen and locks. It has never been used! I wanted to include myself in the picture because my wife can't stand it when i wear my "spenders". Ha Ha. Sometimes she actually hides them from me! Anyway, I thought you guys would get a laugh outta that!!! Next step is to insulate the walls, and install wiring. My Dad is coming out to see our baby and he is a master electrican, so I'll be looking forward to the wiring!!

Later,

Dave

Front and Back Wallls

This is the finished back wall. You can see how the door is offset. Should be pretty cool to have the extra cabinets on the one side!!!

Here is the front wall. Finally got it right! I also picked up some insulation last weekend too!! You can also see on this picture how I added 6 inches of wood to the cab over section. I actually used a router to joint the studs, and first used dowels to glue them together. Once the glue was dry, i used screws. The extra small sections of 2x3 are only there for support.

Progress

Hi All,
Since it's been a while, I thought I better give an truck camper update! A couple of weeks ago, I built the back wall for the camper, including the door frame. I also pickup up a door for $100 bucks! What a deal! I made the door frame off center so that the middle of the wall is actually the end of the door frame. This way, I can build more cabinets on the passenger side, as well as make the fold out bed more contained. Here is a basic layout of what I'm going to do...


This is not exactly how it will be, the bed will be the other way, plus no restroom. Plus, I'm moving the booth area towards the front, and putting in storage instead. Just this last weekend I purchase a used jackknife sofa for $100bucks so now I don't have to worry about putting in a booth. The sofa I purchased actually doesn't have a backside cushion, which is good because now I can make one the perfect width to fit my camper. If I replaced the cushion with the original dimensions, the back of the cushion would cover part of the window, plus with it flat, it would take up the walkway space as well. My goal is to hopefully make it short enough so a person can have the bed flat, and still walk around it. We'll see.

About the rest of the design, I did have to change the cab over section, because I raised the camper height 5 inches. After I raised the camper, I soon came to the realization that I can lower the cab over section as well. So yesterday, I lowered the cab over floor 6 inches. This will still give me about an 1 1/2 inch clearance between the roof of the cab and the bottom of the cab over section of the camper. Now I have more head room in the cab over section, plus I'm thinking I might be able to add some cabinets to the cab over as well.

My next task is to build the front wall. I've had a little trouble doing this because I have changed so much that I have to remember what Ive changed in order for the front wall to work. So far, I've had to start the front wall over twice!!! So much for measure once, twice, three times, then cut!! The front wall is going to be framed just like the rest of the camper. I will not be putting in a window as well. I thought about it, but I would like to use that space for my battery and fuses. Right now I'm still planning on installing AC and DC power.

Let's talk siding..... Last week I started pricing out siding for my camper. Oh Boy!!! I can't believe how much it costs for alum siding! Right now It's looking like the cheapest siding will still cost me $900 bucks!! That is crazy. So I'm still looking for a bargain. I did find out that I can purchase flat alum sheeting for a little less. This is the same alum sheets that they put on trailers. You can also make it seamless with the glue they have now. There is a place here that will sell me all the sheets for about $850. That is still a lot if you ask me. Plus it costs $550 to put on a rubber roof!! Ouch. The only alternative that I'm looking at right now is steel siding. Not many people sell it. But you can get it for about $2.00 per square foot. Not bad versus $5 plus a square foot for alum. The only problem is that steel weighs more, and it would make my TC look like a moving pole barn. So I'm stuck with what to do. I have asked a couple steel fabricators about the steel and most said that will work. On person actually asked me if I were married, because since I am, it's not like I need to be fashionable. Ha!! So if any of you have any suggestions, let me know!

Anyway, I'll be posting pictures hopefully this weekend, until then, happy trails!!!
Dave

More pictures of me making the floor

Helpers

I also had some great helpers last weekend. Anna and Alex helped clean up sawdust, and did some cutting as well! Nice job Anna and Alex!!

About the Plans

I suppose since I have some time, I can tell you a little about the plans I'm using. I purchased the plans from http://www.rqriley.com/b-camp.html . The plans cost $45 bucks and come with very detailed instructions. I did change quite a bit though. First off, the plans call for making the walls using 3/4 plywood with 1/2 douglas fir as firring strips. I changed that to 3/4 plywood with 1 1/2 firring strips. This way I can insulate the walls more and add more strength to the walls as well. How heavy are the walls? Well, they are about 125lbs. each! I also changed the nose of the camper. With the plans, the nose was angled upwards with a very steep angle. It made the camper look very 70's, so I reversed the nose so the bottom sticks out more. Plus I make the angle greater to make it match the windows. I did lose some space for cabinets in the bed area, but I don't plan on making cabinets there anyway. The floor I pretty much did as the plans said, except for the height of the walls going up from the floor. The original plans called for the height to be only 19 3/4 inch. My truck box walls are exactly 19 3/4 inches tall. So the camper would have had to rest on the box, and the cab as well. This also created a problem with head room in the camper. If I did the walls at that height, the lowest section of the camper would be about 69 inches. Too short for me. I added 4 inches to the walls so I could have a bigger door in the back, and more head room. So far that's all I've changed, I'll keep you posted!

Camper Floor

Hi all,

This past weekend Sam and I put the floor of the camper together. We started with 3/4 inch plywood, then cut lightening holes, then added insulation. We then put the wings up. What a blast, thanks Sam for helping!!!!