'94 Hallmark Ute (Re)build

[1stDeuce]

Ok, inspired by some of the interesting and helpful posts I've seen on here, I'm going to try to document some of the projects that are involved in making my "new" camper into a better unit for me.

First on the menu: Electronic Thermostat. (Inspired by Northern Explorer)
I may move it later, as this isn't the best location, but hopefully it'll control temp better than the original.

That was easy, how about a new outlet and cover to replace the rasty old one... Lots of Simple Green later, the panel isn't sticky anymore... Eeeewww.
Old

New!

Then a new cover for "shore power" cover. I need to find a new plug for the inside of it yet, as the original wasn't usable.

And finally, the big project: Get rid of the closet where the porta-potti was...
Hopefully I can turn this into storage, and perhaps re-use the door, and gain a bit of room at the back of the camper.

Check this out, someone added seat belts for the fore and aft table seats... You'd have to be pretty short to sit back here with the top down... this comes out as I'll never use it. Front one goes out the front of the camper, so it stays for now to keep the holes plugged.

Enough projects for now!!
I'll post more on the closet to pantry conversion as it goes...
Chris

 

[SLO_F-250]

Chris,
Looks like you have a solid camper there. Good luck with the mods and camping adventures. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

[1stDeuce]

New Battery Time!

Ok, so the camper came with a Group 31 RV/Marine and a tiny side post auto battery wedged in what looks to be an enlarged battery compartment at the back right side of the camper. The little battery is junk, and the big battery has only about 12.1v after charging and resting for a bit, so it's on it's way out.

In an effort to move some weight forward (8.5' camper in a short box...) I decided to take advantage of unused bed space on the right side of the truck, and I'm putting a new Group 31 AGM from Deka up there. I thought about going flooded cell, at about half the price, but this way I can put it under a seat inside for some winter use later this year.

I ended up getting a "Super Start" branded battery from Oreilly's actually.
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/SSB0/AGM31T.oap?keyword=agm+deep+cycle
The price was the lowest I could find for an AGM Group31, at about $195.

Looking at charge info on the Deka site, I think It'll be happy charging off the truck. I've been watching battery voltage and I'm right in the happy zone for the AGM battery almost all the time.

Not sure what to do with the old battery compartment... gonna reduce it's size back to "normal" and it might be a place to just put little stuff that I don't want inside. (1lb propane cyls, tools, dirty clothes??)

Hopefully add some pics when it's all back in the truck.
C

 

[1stDeuce]

New roof vent, reseal Fantastic vent

Well, the forward roof vent hasn't had a hinge since I picked up the camper, so I figured it was time to put in a new one. Picked up a vent with a full hinge and a plastic base online for cheap. Decided the smoke cover would allow a little better sleeping in.

Old vent with no hinge and lots of silicone.

The silicone peeled off really easy!!! Square drive screws are used everywhere in this camper, and they always come right out.

Little cleanup of the roof around the hole and I got this stuff from the local RV place.

Ran a nice 1/4" bead around the opening, set the new cover in place, screwed it down, and lap sealed all the joints and screws. Took less than an hour to be this done. All that's left is to cut down the inside and the inside trim and install it.

Decided to re-seal the Fantastic too. Turns out the cover has a crack near the hinge, but I'm going to epoxy that for now. The silicone on this cover had come loose from the roof in a few places and had been leaking a little it turns out. I had to basically saw it off the plastic though, as it was bonded very well. This re-seal took twice as long as the entire replacement of the forward vent.

In all, an easy couple hours of fun. A little cutoff action with a dremmel and I'll have the new inside trim up on the forward vent and it'll look nice!!

 

[1stDeuce]

Well, update on my sweet new vent... The screen now has a few holes in it, and the lid track is loose from the lid at the forward edge. Evidently it's in a low pressure area, and it opens while you drive, which explains the bungee rig on the old one. One of the track fasteners came out, and the track poked the screen a bunch. The lid was flipped forward when I stopped... I taped it down for now. Guess I'll go back to the bungee after I fix the screen and track. But the nice full hinge held solid, even with the lid blowing in the wind!

 

[1stDeuce]

Ok, it's been a while since I posted anything, partly because I've been busy using the camper!! A few things to mention...

First, a big thanks to the folks at Fan-Tastick Vent!!! I shattered the cover to mine (which I had already epoxied!) on one of those low hanging "clearance" pipes the day before a bit trip. Turns out you can't buy a cover through CampWorld outlets. But I called Fan-Tastic and Bob Beretta sent me to a local RV America, where they happily handed me a cover and a lift mechanism, and Bob sent them some replacement stock for the next guy!! Kudos to an American made (Michigan!) product supported with good honest business practices and going ABOVE AND BEYOND my expectations!!! Kudos to RV America too!! (Booo CampWorld) Honestly, my fan still works fine, but if anything else goes wrong, I will buy another one just to support this awesome business!! Sending me free parts to repair a 17 year old camper is just crazy!! DON'T buy the cheap import fan, get the real deal and you won't be sorry!!!

I never did get to re-arranging my porta-potti closet to use it for storage, but that'll likely happen this winter. Instead, I spent a weekend tearing out the pass side plywood where the jacks mount, which was rotten and sagged. Also ended up putting some new pine in the side of the camper, also in the area of the jacks. This was NOT fun. People, go caulk the trim on your camper NOW, and paint the underside of the plywood with some quality porch and floor paint so it doesn't suck up water all the time. I ended up deciding that the left side of the camper was ok, and doubling up on plywood all around where the jacks mount. Much better now, with the jacks mounted solidly. I'll post some pics of before, during, and after, but it wasn't terribly difficult, just took a lot of time.

Oh, I made a nice roller stand for the camper too, but I could only find casters with a 350 lb rating, and even though I used three on the front, it doesn't want to push around at all. Time to buck up for some high $$ units I guess. But it is nice to be able to work around the camper w/o worrying about the sawhorses and jacks giving out.

I also took the rear doors apart and re-glued them last night. They were flimsy thanks to the factory glue having let go, likely a long time back. This morning they were nice and sturdy feeling. If they loosen up again, I'll probably make new doors rather than try to rebuild these again. Most of the wood framing is rotted or cracked, so Liquid Nails is now providing the majority of structure.

Next up is repair of some de-lamination and rot at the front left corner. I'm not really looking forward to this project, as it means I have to pull the outer trim off the top of the camper wall, and I believe it's mostly one piece, and it also holds the soft wall to the camper I think... Be a good time to put new soft wall on if I could get it cheaply... Thinking about foregoing the insulated and just having a canvas place do me a grey replacement, or perhaps double up the fabric with white on the inside and grey outside. Probably cheaper than getting a replacement through Hallmark, but I'll call them too. I also need to let out some slack in the front canvas if there is any... It's causing the roof to sag down a the front when you raise it all the way. Looks pretty common among Hallmarks, but it seems like that would be hard on the roof!

I can say that if I buy a used camper again, I'll look for one that was stored inside. Weather damage is mostly all that is wrong with my camper... They're just not made to sit outside all the time. I also might try for an aluminum framed camper if I'm going to keep it around. I think Outfitter, Phoenix, and FW all do aluminum frames, but they're all pretty hard to find used...

I'll update with some pics later, since I left my camera at home today.
C

 

[1stDeuce]

Fixing the jack mounts...

Ok, as promised, a little more detail on the jack mount rebuilding...

So here's a few pictures of the jack mounts before...

As you can see, they're sagging up into the camper, so not only is the plywood soft, the side of the camper is soft too. My guess is that the camper sat on these jacks for a good portion of it's life before me. And it sat out in the weather. And nobody loved it with any paint.

So I started with the EZ side... Turns out some screws and a hammer took the old plywood out without much of a fight at all.

I spent some time with a 4" angle grinder removing some rotten wood at the front, and at the back, and then put new 3/4" pine in its place with a lot of Liquid Nails. Then put new plywood in with lots more liquid nails and new screws.

After the new plywood was in, I cut smaller sections of plywood to go under the jacks. I chickened out on replacing the plywood on the other side, since the rot didn't seem so bad on that side, and with the kitchen built on top of it, it seemed like about 10x more work to get it out and put new wood in. I'm just going to rely on the new plywood plates to distribute the load better on that side.

Lots of "Porch and Floor" paint later, it looks good, and the jacks seem nice and strong, making it much less wobbly when it's resting on them.

As an added bonus, the tie down loops I put under the sides of the camper inside the box are now plenty strong for holding the front of the camper down. I put a hatch back in the right side too, so I can get to the wheel well area where the battery resides, and to enable buckling the camper down.

Two solid days of work, and hopefully I'll never have to do this again. Finished up by caulking all the trim I could find, which will hopefully keep any more water from finding its way into places it shouldn't be.

 

[1stDeuce]

Rot Repair!!

Ok, the left front corner has been somewhat popped since I got the camper, and peeking up into the side, and under the bed, it was obvious that there was some water damage and rot.

So I spent the last few days pulling things apart to make it better.
As with all the earlier projects, there's nothing difficult here, just a lot of work and time. Here we go...

Here's the reason the corner is soft I'm pretty sure... Soft wall has holes in both front corners, and this lets in water when it rains. Note that I removed the trim at the bottom of the soft wall in the front of the camper, and discovered that it's stapled to the camper pretty good. Or it was, before most of the staples rotted away...

So once all the trim around the sides was off, the front panel came down with very little effort. The rear section was still somewhat glued up, so it took a little work, but now they're both hanging down.

Next I peeled back the side panel to see how much more damage there was. The wood was still very wet, and a lot of it just fell out once I started messing with it. You can also see that the storage floor under the bed has some rot damage too.

My friend and I spent some time removing a good chunk of the storage floor, and most of the front outer wall of the camper, back to where the wood was solid.

I had some 1/2" plywood cut to replace the removed floor sections, and I'm planning to basically laminate the front wall of the camper back into existence from some 1/8" paneling (to match up with the orig inner wall) then 1/2" and 3/8" plywood to restore some structure and proper thickness to this area of the camper. More pics as I go... it may be a few days before I can get back to it. I'm also planning to call Hallmark and Bear Creek Canvas to see about getting some new soft walls for it. These ones are about done.

 

[1stDeuce]

PS, if you're shopping for a used camper, I recommend putting some priority into finding one that didn't sit outside its whole life. I missed out on an almost identical unit that had only been outside for camping trips, and I bet it didn't have any rot at all!! Paid just as much for this one, and I've been working on it ever since.

Any of you with campers out in the weather, go tarp them RIGHT NOW!!! The next owner of the camper will thank you, and you may even thank yourself if you keep it long enough!
Chris

 

[locrwln]

You are a better man than I. I wouldn't know where to start with something like that. Best of luck with it.

Jack

 

[bftank]

how is this coming along? does the hallmark seem well built, despite the negligence? just curious because i am looking at hallmarks on craiglist in denver as a possiblility for me because i had heard they were built well.

 

[1stDeuce]

I don't get to work on it much during the week. More pics this weekend, and hopefully I'll be camping in it again next week in Moab!!

I still think Hallmark builds a great camper. All but the newest ones are wood framed, but they're put together well, and the roofs seem superior to the other offerings out there. My old roof is solid as can be, whereas I've seen lots of Skampers, Northern Lites, etc with the plywood "skirt" style roof that have rotted badly. Honestly, even that may have a lot to do with neglect more than design, and the PO of my camper thought the roof might have been replaced at some point due to hail damage. (I doubt it based on what I've seen.)

I will probably buy another Hallmark when I replace this one. I like the way it's put together, and I live 30 miles from where they're built, so they're easy to find here. (Not that I'm likely to ever take it for service...) Phoenix, ATC, FWC, etc are sweet, and framed in alum, but they are expensive and impossible to find from what I've seen, and I like my truck too much to beat it hard enough with a camper on the back to worry about needing the aluminum structure. Perhaps by the time I'm ready to buy another, Outfitter will have enough out there to have a used market too... And then there is the new Colorado FWC dealer... They're not that expensive new compared to the rest, and if one camper could last a lifetime, that would be the one!!
C

 

[1stDeuce]

Well, another weekend of work on the camper and it's all coming back together! We got some wood put back into the side that was rotted away. Not exactly pretty, nor what I had in mind, but it turned out that laminating the plywood that I had around was going to result in the wrong thickness, so we did the 1/8" paneling to match the inside wall, then 3/4" pine for some structure to screw and staple to.

I was going to fill in the center with plywood to tie the two together, but I had this 3/4" pine laying there, and it was the right thickness, and would provide sturdy latch attachment, so I used it. And lots of Liquid Nails. And clamps to pin it all together to dry overnight with the heat on. We also got both pieces of plywood for the storage area glued and screwed up. And glued and stapled the rear section of fiberglass to the bunk bottom. Whew!

Today I took all the clamps off and debated putting another 1/8" of panel on the outside, but there is a bunch stuck to the fiberglass, and I can't peel the fiberglass back far enough to make adding laminate structural, so I just used a LOT of liquid nails to glue the fiberglass back onto the side of the new wood!! And some staples, and a few screws, and again, a lot of clamps. I also glued/screwed/stapled the forward piece of fiberglass back in place, and took this pic before I attacked it with props, ratchet straps, 2x4's, and some other stuff to hold it all tight while it dries overnight again, with the heat on!

Tomorrow after work, I get to take all the clamps off, staple the soft side back on, and put the last three pieces of trim back on the sides and around the top. Then... lots of caulk, load it in the truck, and head for thanksgiving in Moab!!

 

[1stDeuce]

Wow, it's been a while since I put any updates on here. The forward rot repair is holding up well. I moved on to another project after that... Getting rid of what was once the bathroom and putting something useful in its place. Here's a picture of the bathroom in it's original configuration:

Well, there was a curtain that covered the front opening, but you get the idea. I pulled the doors off, since we weren't using it like a bathroom anyway, and it left the entry a little cramped. That left it looking like this:


I used it that way a lot, but still it was a lot of wasted space, and just ended up being piled with crap for most trips. What I really wanted was a nice pantry for additional organized storage. I found a picture of the Hallmark pantry that would have been here if not for the privy, but I didn't like that, so I went a similar but different way... First, I kicked out what was left of the door wall. (I can't find the pics, but it was fun!)
Then I trimmed back the forward wall a ways, similar to what I'd seen on the pantry equipped campers.


Then I got wild and took off the inner access door, paneled over it, and built some shelves...


Painted the inside of the shelves and walls white and re-paneled the back of the short wall and put the soft trim back on.



At this point, I decided that I would only close in the two upper shelves, and leave the lower as a quick access cubby. The bottom would stay open for shoes, stairs, water, or whatever else I want to slide under and out of the way. Here's the finished product:


It turned out pretty good, and I ended up just painting the top plywood to roughly match the light grey of the counter tops, which is fine for me.


Much better! This space is a much more efficient use of the space that was once the banyos. On to the next project!!

 

[1stDeuce]

And here it is!! I paid a little visit to SolarBlvd and bought an 85w panel, mounting brackets, and a SunSaver charge controller.


This was inspired by having the battery run down on me last fall in Moab after two nights without running the truck. I didn't realize it was so low until it was time to go to bed, and then the last thing I wanted to do was run the truck for an hour to bring it back up, which only brought it part way back up, so it was really low again by morning.

Since I converted to LED lights right after that trip, the only real draw I have to support is the heater, so 85 watts should be more than plenty to recover the battery during the day!

I also wanted to move the camper battery into the camper to make loading it a little simpler, and to put it near the charge controller so the temp sensor is somewhat accurate. I'm also going to clean up the wiring mess that's all connected by HUGE wire nuts. Time to order some distribution blocks!