72 IH + ‘85 Alaskan = Questionable Judgment...

[Nailhead]

Labor Day was almost here at this point, and I needed to get my Alaskan travel trailer ready for my sis & BIL to use. They usually sleep in the back of his Tahoe, so they were pretty psyched. This is the camper I’d originally bought for the IH, and then changed my mind on, so I’d never used it, and it was pretty skanky, including a bunch of dried egg yolk on the stove.

It cleaned up pretty nicely, though, with its gorgeous old-school ply interior:

I wish that interior was in the newer camper.


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[Nailhead]

That done, I was out.

Normally, it’s a four-hour trip to Walden from where I live, but I was taking the backcountry route via Red Feather Lakes, so it was going to take two days.

Turnoff to Red Feather, gas up:

No telling how much gas I’d need to make Walden.

No gas at Red Feather, but I wanted a paper map to back up Avenza-

They didn’t have one, but they had pork rinds. Good enough.

I’d heard on the radio there was the remnants of a hurricane headed my way, and to expect steady rain by nightfall.

I really didn’t want to raise the top in a driving rain with cabover (and my bed) open to the elements while I performed the ritual of lining up all the latch holes, so I decided I should find a spot early.

Pretty much as soon as I decided this, I stumbled on a little USFS campground that wasn’t on the map, and pulled into a spot that looked pretty level. It wasn’t. Thank you again, Anderson.

There was bunch of deadfall aspen around, so I got to work with my new DeWalt chainsaw and the splitting maul, and made myself at home, the absolute picture of contentment enjoying hard ciders next to a roaring campfire in the rain.

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[Nailhead]

Next morning, the rain had quit, the morning was gorgeous, and I was anxious to see what was up the road. I was also a little hung over, so not disciplined at all about taking pix. Sorry about that.

I hadn’t had much to eat the previous night, so I was also nursing a craving for a cheeseburger.

Many miles of rough road later, atop the final grade down to the highway to Walden, I noticed I was losing my brakes. After a search, I found the reducer fitting between the brake line & the DS rear wheel cylinder had loosened. I tightened it up, and added brake fluid to my list, the one topped by “cheeseburger”.

After the 15-mile drive to town, I made sure the auto parts store was open, and made a beeline to salvation:

Where I ran into the only person I really needed to talk to at this point: Bob, the rancher who owned the land where I was headed, and the one who had the gate combo I needed. I offered to buy him lunch, but he’d already eaten, so I proceeded to devour the best damn jalapeño bacon cheeseburger I could remember in contented silence. There’s that word again.

Got grocs, brake fluid, more beer & gas, and hit the road for Red Canyon.

After a three-year journey, the destination was in sight.


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[Motafinga]

I'm late to the party but I just caught up and read your thread and am now subscribed, well done!! I love how much you do your own work that most folks wouldn't even attempt. You've built a fine rig there and the enjoyment you'll get from it will pay off in spades I'm sure.

 

[Nailhead]

I'm late to the party but I just caught up and read your thread and am now subscribed, well done!! I love how much you do your own work that most folks wouldn't even attempt. You've built a fine rig there and the enjoyment you'll get from it will pay off in spades I'm sure.

Thank you for the kudos!

This was a team effort, though; the old guy in the pix was usually the brains behind the operation, and I most often just ran the tools and burned in the welds. The only big idea I came up with was the spare wheel carrier, IIRC.

I really enjoyed your build, BTW, and got a few ideas from it that I'd like to implement in the future.

 

[Andrew_S]

Absolutely drooling over all that Alaskan porn on the previous page.
Your rig puts such a smile on my face. It's so cool to see such a unique rig still rolling down the road.
Can't wait to see more pics.

 

[Nailhead]

Absolutely drooling over all that Alaskan porn on the previous page.
Your rig puts such a smile on my face. It's so cool to see such a unique rig still rolling down the road.
Can't wait to see more pics.

Thanks Andrew, I appreciate it!

I suppose I ought to get back to it, then.

After a twenty-mile drive to the west, I got me a nearly-level camp spot:

View wasn’t bad either…

 

[Nailhead]

I did some hiking the next day, discovering some sort of very old looking cultural feature:

And a pond I never knew about:

 

[Nailhead]

The following day the rest of the party showed up so we went & checked out the waterfall:

Never in my life have I seen so little water in that river. Scary.

The bright attire was in response to bear hunting in the area, BTW.

That evening, my cousin did some astral photography, and took this:

He blew my mind with that one.

 

[Nailhead]

That night was really cold, and I discovered my SAE solar plug had not been making a good connection at the battery— a condition that revealed itself through the shutdown of the heater during the night. Suburban furnaces apparently don’t like battery under-voltage, and, because of the bad contact at the battery, the charge controller falsely indicated a full charge.

Here was the temporary solution:

That woke the charge controller up.

 

[Nailhead]

After I got back, I started addressing the issues encountered on my little trip.

First, I tore into the hub that I thought I saw leaking north of Walden. These hubs/brakes are a PITA because, to gain access to the brake internals, you have to remove the hub. The hub & drum are effectively one piece.

Axle shaft pulled:

Drum/hub off…

…and no apparent evidence of leakage. I forgot to check, but I think there’s a sheet-metal leak diverter in the drum, which would explain why it’s dry in there. It also explains why I now have a new set of brake shoes sitting on the shelf in the garage.

Hub seals leak for a good reason, and in my experience, that reason is a plugged axle breather.

Sure enough,

Why I didn’t check that during the build I don’t know.

All better now:

That’s better.

I put it all back together and drove to a nearby parking lot where I had room to drive several left-hand tight circles to get gear oil to the wheel bearings on that side. I also did a few fast backward stops to adjust the brakes, which are working better than ever.


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[Nailhead]

I also did a little upgrade on the headlights with a new of LED units:

I got these because they didn’t look as weird as a lot of the others I looked at. I’m old.

 

[Nailhead]

A few updates, a few trips taken since I last checked in.

First, I swapped out the old range with the non-functioning oven in it. Gotta have biscuit-baking capability, so I ordered me a new Dometic range.

It arrived broken:

Next attempt was successful.

Apparently, nobody makes the same-size appliance twice:

So I had to make a couple filler strips.

The bottom one came out well enough, considering you can hardly see it:

The top one, however, failed me, mostly because the cap on the spray paint I bought didn’t really match the contents:

Too light.

Oh well. On with it; the road must go through!

Got my gas line cut & flared, and, voilà:

 

[Nailhead]

Got my dinette cushions resized & recovered:

Now I have another bed.

 

[Nailhead]

I modified the top hold-downs for more strength & better appearance from this:

To this:

I like that much better.