Alaskan Camper '84/'14 Build Thread

[ripperj]

At some point during all this the two huge and heavy boxes containing the roof and all the sheet metal arrived. The fact that the boxes were heavy was irrelevant, because they were destroyed in transit. Fork truck tines had pierced the box in several places.

I refused delivery and off they went. This was an issue as I took two weeks of vacation to install it all, and couldn't really shift the dates.

I lost another 5 weeks waiting for round two. I had another Refuel Outage looming and it would be winter in New England by the time I got done with it, so I needed everything to go smoothly with the second shipment. Hemet RV assured me that they would double the boxes and put high value stickers all over. The second shipment did arrive a month or so later with no drama
These are photos from the original order.

 

[ripperj]

Once I had a good roof i was able to get an over all length measurement, so I could begin framing the cab-over roof section.

I made doublers from 1/2" ply and extended all the roof framing. I staggered all the joints and none of the joints are over the bulkhead. I made a few test pieces and the joint is stronger than the wood. I used 1/4" cabinet grade ash for the cabover ceiling, stained and polyed, with ss screws attaching it to the frame.

Pretty soon I had an upper section ready for insulation

 

[ripperj]

I must have my story mixed up a bit, because this is still the old lower section at this point, around mid Sept 2014

 

[ripperj]

My Dad drove down from Ma to help get the roof on. I think this was the day before I had to disappear on 12hr nights shift for 1.5 month

 

[ripperj]

So the above pic shows an obvious problem. I had introduced a slight taper to the cab-over, coupled with puffy insulation, caused the roof to not lay flat at the front and rear. Turns out this has happened to several people on WTW that re-roofed their Alaskans, but that didn't make me feel any better. Sheet metal just doesn't like compound curves.

There was some swearing (ok alot) a few tears, a couple beers, and then the only solution I could come up with formed. I needed to take the track saw to my $800 one piece roof and cut four slits in it.
I waited till the next morning (circular saws and beers dont mix) and cut the slits. I then riveted a strip of aluminum over the slit.

 

[ripperj]

$60 worth of Eternal Bond tape made the oops water tight and fairly un-noticable, Its supposed to be good for 15+ years, longer than I'm going to care about it.

 

[ripperj]

Not sure why my pics are not showing any longer, they were there before!

 

[ripperj]

After taking the old lower section to the dump, I went and bought a pile of marine grade ply. I used 2x4 PT for the floor framework, to keep it off the truck bed.



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[ripperj]

I used 1/2" marine ply for the sides. I glued and screwed the whole thing together with 2" screws and liquid nails. The original lower section was still holding together nicely after 30yrs and was just construction grade AC ply and nails, I figure marine ply with screws and glue should last a long time. This part came together pretty quickly as I had Xmas week off, so I had time to play.

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[ripperj]

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[ripperj]

I insulated the floor with 3/4" foam and topped it with 1/2" ply. I made a 2'x2' cutout for a shower pan that will be made from copper sheet.


I made the enclosures for the water tank and two golf cart batteries, as well as a large storage cabinet under the sofa, and the cabinet buy the cassette toilet. If I was thinking more I would have offset the water tank 1.5" for the hydraulic cylinder support. The supports are typically 17" long pcs of 2x2 that go down to the floor. I will have to weld up some angle brackets instead.

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[ripperj]

Note that I added additional supports under the water tank and batteries both in the 2x4 supports under the floor, and also the 1x2 "stud" under the 1/2 floor on top of the 3/4"

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[ripperj]

I started laying out and making the maple face frames for the cabinets. This was a good excuse to buy a Festool Domino jointer, like a biscuit jointer, but has an oscillating end mill that makes a deep and narrow slot that premade loose tenons are put in with glue.

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[ripperj]

I made a large slide out tray for my ARB fridge, it will get a maple face frame that looks like cabinet doors. I didn't find high capacity drawer slides, so I used four that are rated for 100# per pair.

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[ripperj]

The rear section of the camper has a storage closet on the sofa side and a propane compartment on the driver side. I debated on this propane compartment as it is only accessible when the roof is up, but I don't ever intend to travel with the valve open, and the bottom will be well ventilated. Other than shutting a valve, I'm not sure what better access would do for me. The compartment will either be coated in resin or thin aluminum.
The large opening is for the water heater.

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