84 Fleet Rescue-First $SOLD

[TacoFWC]

***SOLD***


I have more than $500 invested into stainless screws, insulation, and paint. I need my garage for a wood shop and this thing needs to go. Let me know if you need further info, let my loss be your gain


I will trade for quality wood working tools. I need a table saw, router /table, chop saw, drill press, etc. I'd also like a small mill vise for a drill press. Let me know what you got.

A decent size table saw with built in router would be a plus.

NOW UP FOR SALE-Have a read and let me know if you are interested. -Benny, (530) 570-9709

See last page for latest posts for current condition


Hello all, I am new to campers, and new to the forum. I recently picked up an 84 FWC Fleet that seems to have seen plenty of mileage along with damage from parting with its truck...on the road. Upon initial inspection it was very clear that the roof would need some pretty extensive attention, but overall it help up surprisingly well. Since getting it home, I have gutted it out almost completely. Here is where I'm at, and I appologize in advance for any shady pics.

Day 1 right before the drive home



Interior



Roof damage



Galley ripped out



And pretty much stripped

 

[rotti]

Looks like a good project.
At least your close to factory if you need any inspiration, parts or help.
FWC customer service is great.

I bought a new Grandby back 1983 and the only real problem I had was the rear door finally falling apart after 23 years.
They build a great camper!

Keep us updated on your progress.

 

[subterran]

Congrats! I will be watching with interest - you never know, mine might need new canvas sooner than later. I'd like to see how you tackle that part. Thanks for posting!

 

[TacoFWC]

Thanks guys. I have a good idea of what direction I want to go with this but need to work out a few things before I start to reassemble.

First off, I am going to bang out any dents and patch any holes in the skin. If I can get a warm enough day I'd like to pull out the windows, paint and re-install the glass with fresh caulk.

I have two major items that are about to start holding up progress.

1. Electrical-I am not an electrician, but I am also not afraid to go for it. I have searched through a lot of threads and poked around a lot of diagrams on line, but it there are so many different set ups that it gets overwhelming trying to figure out what to do with mine. Pleeeeeeeeaaaase feel free to give me a basic list of components I will need so I don't waste money ordering uneeded items. I can fill in the blanks such as wire and connectors haha! This is the setup I'd like to have

Charging system from truck battery to single deep cell battery in camper:
Seems to be a lot of info on this, not too concerned with what I need but feel free to suggest a plan

Capable of running off deep cell:
Interior lights, vent fan, furnace, water pump, AC outlet (lighter), porch light, possibly a fridge
-I feel okay about wiring power to a fuse block and then running wire to each needed item. Do i need to commit a fuse to every single item? If I have three interior lights can I run them in series with a seperate switch for each. And do I need a relay between the battery and fuse block or anywhere else? I am pretty lost when it comes this...

The Camper has an outlet for shore power, but I removed all of the camper wiring, it was scary to say the least:
I'd like to have a way to plug in at home and run all the items that the battery normally runs, and charge the battery from shore. What converter/inverter will work for me? Can I run 110 style AC outlets off it to be used when I am shored up?

Now on to my other delema: I want to start rebuilding the galley, but I have no Idea what still works or doesn't work. My biggest concern being the fridge, I don't want to build storage and counter around the fridge and then come to find out it doesn't even work. Does anyone have a way to bench check it? I'll post a pic of the fridge to go along. If this turns out not to work, I'd rather make room for a cooler or more storage.
I'd like to make sure the furnace works, I will neeed to have one regardless of if this one works or not, but also don't want to do anything twice. Is there qa safe way to wire this to maybe my truck battery and BBQ tank?

Thanks so much in advance for any inputs, sorry if I am throwing out typical newb madness. I feel if I can get the wiring and appliances worked out I'll be able to get the wall insulated and paneled, then start on the galley.

 

[subterran]

Well, everyone has their opinion, so here's mine FWIW:
As for DC electrics, you should have a fuse to every line you run, without fail, including the feed line from the battery to the fuse block. I recommend a bluesea fuseblock:
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Syst...386879031&sr=8-3&keywords=blue+sea+fuse+block

They make a bigger model, if 6 is not enough for you. I personally do not trust chassis ground, and run everything 2 wire (positive and negative). Keep this in mind: the more you gang onto one circuit, the harder it will be to troubleshoot fuses blowing. For example, you might choose to run all of the lights (lets say 3 total - 2 in the ceiling and an LED rope light around the perimeter) all on one fused circuit, and 2 years down the road you start blowing fuses. You'll have to figure out which fixture is failing, where if each had it's own circuit there would be less troubleshooting.

Your 2 way fridge likely works. They're pretty bulletproof. I had one in my pop-up, but I found the cooling inconsistent. If I kept it level, it would make ice, but the bottom of the box just barely got cold. Also - 2 ways are inefficient users of battery power compared to dedicated 12v compressor units (a 2 way will pull 7-8 amps all the time to run, while a compressor will pull about 3 amps for short bursts totaling about 20 minutes per hour.) That said, when a my old 2 way was running on Propane, it was very efficient. I wound up going with a compressor fridge, because I wanted to "be sure" about it working, level or no. There's nothing like spoiled food and hot beer.

You can test your old fridge by just hooking it up to a battery, and keeping it level. If it works that way, it will probably work on gas, too. If it doesn't, then you may have a regulator problem in the camper system.

To charge the camper battery from the truck while it's running, I have a Magnum Power smart combiner. There are about a million way to do this, but this is the way that made to most sense to me:
http://www.amazon.com/Magnum-Energy...9&sr=8-1&keywords=magnum+power+smart+combiner

Wiring choices also widely vary, but in general with DC you should use the fattest wires possible, especially with longer runs to avoid voltage drop (the longer the wire, the less voltage you get at the far end). I personally use the Low Voltage Landscaping wire you can find at most any Lowes-Depot:
http://www.amazon.com/Paradise-GL22...6880527&sr=8-2&keywords=12GA+landscaping+wire

As far as wiring in a 120v socket, my approach has always been to make a 120v plug receptacle, and use one of them to plug in a plug in a charger for the 12v system. That way, you have a 120 plug for anything you may have to power that way, and all of your 12v stuff keeps working whilst being charged. Here's a slick way to interface with it from the outside with just a common extension cord - and it comes in both white or black to fit your preference:
http://www.amazon.com/Marinco-200BB...386881131&sr=8-4&keywords=marinco+inlet+white

I'm a keep it simple sort, but I hope it at least gives you some ideas. Keep sending in photos as you work - I love to watch!

 

[hoptroll]

Where did you pick it up? Looks like my buddy's shop in Watsonville

 

[TacoFWC]

Where did you pick it up? Looks like my buddy's shop in Watsonville

Picked up that gem in Woodland, CA

 

[UHAULER]

Picked up that gem in Woodland, CA

There are two good places for parts in Sacramento on El Camino, Cardo industries specializes in aluminum sheet,siding,angle and tubing.Next door is Allied trailer supply.

 

[bill harr]

Nice project. Agree with everything subterran said on the electrical. Fuse everything and large gauge wire with you can. If you add 110v run it trough a breaker, you can get a 2 breaker panel at Home Depot for around $15.00 + the breaker. Put in a GFI plug don't be cheap on this. I am doing a build inside my new Hawk, have been reading a lot about converters for 110v to 12v. I have decided not to put one in, I will use the battery tender I have if I need to charge the batteries. If you run new wires take your time and build then into a loom (not spaghetti). Run black for all your grounds, then you don't guess what wire is hot. +1 on the blue sea fuse box. You may want to use green wire for your lights, red for appliances, blue or white for other items. May be a little anal but you don't want to screw up your wiring and it makes it earlier to find a problem down the road.

NOTE: On 110V systems BLACK is hot and WHITE is ground
.........On 12 V systems BLACK is ground and WHITE is hot.

Take you time and take lots of pictures we love pictures. Note there have been several builds on WTW. Do a search and you will find them.


If you decide to get away from the Propane fridge Big Rig Gifts had the best price I could find on a DC fridge. I also got the solar in a bag to keep my batteries charged.

 

[TacoFWC]

Whoa, check out this guys sweeeeeet schematic

Right on! Thanks for the inputs and I will keep the progress and pics coming. Okay, so bare with me here, as I mentioned earlier I am an electrical knucklehead...

Please take a look at my outstanding wiring diagram and give me your thoughts. The idea is to have the AC seperate. Then with the DC, have two seperate fuse blocks. One dedicated for the roof and the other for the cabin.

AC Sys: Do I get a 20 Amp breaker box for the plug or do I go slightly bigger? smaller?

Wiring: So I am guessing the green lines can be typical wiring you'd use to wire outlets at home? Then the blue would be the landscape wire allterran mentioned? And then the yellow would be automotive style, gage depending on component and length or wire needed?

Fuses: What amp fuse/style between battery and blocks?

Battery: Optima Red Top good enough?

Switches for lights and appliances: Do i just use a 2 position toggle on the positive wire? Or on the ground...or do both pos and ground need to go through the switch?

Hopefully my ignorance can answer some lucky forum searcher down the road...:Wow1:

 

[bill harr]

Good wire information here

You can get buy with one fuse box This is the one I use 12 slots.

Run all your neg through a bus bar




Better yet they have one with a neg bus built in


You can use a 50 amp 12 circuit breaker on the feed to the fuse box. I ran 8 gage wire.



On the AC side if you run a 20 amp breaker you need to use 12 gage wire. That is what I did.

 

[TacoFWC]

Thanks for all the awesome info, very helpfull. I think I am going to try to take advantage of the good weather this weekend and paint the exterior while I can. While I'm working on that I'll put the wife to work on insulating the walls, and priming the interior subframe! Should have some good updates soon.

I want to paint it a nice charcoal with black trim. Any thoughts on paints? I'll be rattle canning it...

 

[subterran]

Your plan looks good to me! My only suggestion is that you'll want to keep the fuses as close to the battery as possible, to elimintate the possibility that a wiring fault will happen 'before' your fuse. The reason you want to fuse everything is that a dead short in DC becomes an arc welder!

For my AC system, I just used romex.You should consider conduit, too. A 20 amp breaker should be more than enough, unless you're going to run a sawmill or a 1 ton AC unit, LOL!

As far as battery to fuseblock, really anything 20 amp or bigger should be fine, unless you're going to use a 250 watt or larger inverter that plugs into the 12v socket. If you were going to do that though, I would suggest running it with it's own fuse, directly to the battery with as short of wires as you can. It will work better that way, and you can use as long of an AC extension cord as you need to, once it's converted. Fuse-wise You'll want to go with something you can easily replace, rather than a 'fusable link' type. They have some nice ones for car amps if you look around. The bigger the fuse, the more 'dramatic', loud and flashy they are when they blow, so only go as big as you need.

As for the battery, IMHO Optoma batteries are too small (amp hour-wise) for the money. They are great for rough handling, being AGM types, but they're really overkill and overpriced. You want to get a battery with the most amp hours possible for the weight you're willing to carry. I used a 90 amp hour deep cycle battery from the auto parts store. Just make sure you get a deep cycle type, and not just a car battery. The deep cycle ones withstand repeated depletion better. You can also wire a couple of batteries together in parallel if you need to.

A 2 way switch in the positive wire is the way to go there. Heck, in some places, I have used the in-line rotary ones that come on cheap AC lamps. You can buy them as DIY add-ons, or you can buy a cheap cord that has one, and just wire it in. As long as it has a fuse in the line, you're good.

By the way, I also do not trust crimp-style connectors, unless you solder them, too (such as rings for direct-to-battery connections) All in-line splices I do are soldered and shrinkwrapped. If you do it right, it won't fail you.

For the paint - check out this thread:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/115501-1985-FWC-Fleet-Refurbish

Almost the same camper and paintjob you want. He details the process pretty well.

Go man go!

 

[TacoFWC]

Wasn't able to get as far a long as I'd like, but did make some progress. Got the windows pulled out and the remaining moulding off. All the openings are roughly scraped, exterior wood painted, and interior wood primed. Banged out a few dents and did a little sanding, sprayed a little area with some color to see iff its going to work out. Really happy with the color, its a nice metalic grey. I will probably paint all trim and window frames black, the fake wood hammered black, and match the door with the grey. Hope to get the grey sprayed tomorrow, but also have a bit of holiday shopping to do...


Here it is with the exterior stripped down



And the wife hard at work



Gloss black on the exterior

.


Does anyone know what is used on install of the windows? When I pulled them out it almost looked like a two side tape. It was still super plyable like putty. Would make it really easy to reinstall them if I had a similar product to put on, then maybe edge seal with caulk? Any thoughts or previous experience?

 

[bill harr]

The windows were probably put in with Butyl rubber tape. This link is the first one I found for double side, I would look some more before ordering.

Bill