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!