Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Weight and stuff!!

Well I've had lots of fun with the camper on the truck. I've driven around town a couple times, everything seems to be fine. Right now, the camper weighs 1400 pounds! However, there is still a lot of stuff to put inside the camper. I'm guessing that I'll have a dry weight of around two grand. I was worried about not having a sway bar, or overload springs, but I think my truck is doing fine. We'll see once I finish putting gear and people inside!

About the inside, I tried as best as I could to put the jack knife sofa inside, but it is just too big. I would not have enough room to have a table!! So, I 86'd the idea, and am now looking at making a booth with a table that will also be used as a small bed.

Insulation idea. I learned from a guy who manufactures insulation (fifoil.com) that if you create a radiant barrier, you can increase your R value quite a bit. For example, the studs in my roof are two and one half inches, if i stall two inch super tuff R, glue it to the roof making sure the alum foil side is facing in towards the camper, I can add another R-4 to my roof! A two inch piece of super tuff R has an R value of 12, so with the radiant barrier, I could be around 16. If I used 3 1/2 inch fiberglass, since I would have to compress it one inch, I would only get an R value of 10. So I'm going for the radiant barrier! The wings will be insulated using 1 1/2 studs with 1 inch super tuff R installed the same as the roof. This method is for cold weather climates. If you live in a warmer climate, you would insulate the opp0isite way. Although I didn't need any of the products fifoil makes, thanks for the expert advice!!!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

couple more




On The Truck!!!


Finally!!!! Now I just need a new truck!!

Camper On Blocks!!!!!




This was by far the scariest part of the project so far!!!! Basically, in order to get the camper in the truck without camper jacks, I had to raise the TC to thirty six inches into the air. Then, I backed my truck up to the camper, keep in mind, there is no room for error with blocks, I had less than a quarter inch between the outside of my truck, and the outside blocks. I also released almost all the air out of my rear tires to get more clearance. Once the truck was under the camper, I filled the tires with air, and slowly released the four bottle jacks. Total time to load was about two to three hours.