Alaskan Camper Build Up

[Carlyle]

With my formal training in CAD I came up with this design for the LCD TV to sit behind the driver's side settee and will be attached to 20" gas arms that will require about 20-30 lbs of pressure to push back down and lock away behind the settee. Alaskan is having hesitations, but I really want this to work:

Just kidding about the CAD experience...

We bought two hides of this from www.weleather.com for the seats:

 

[Carlyle]

I will take your point to heart and look for a tank, or two that will tuck in somewhere under the frame. Are Kevlar composite tank safe under a vehicle? Are they as strong as a steel tank for this sort of application?

 

[Carlyle]

Our current Hallmark has soft sides as well as sucks up propane and batteries in the winter very quickly. At -20 F it can barely keep 60-65 inside and the bed is oh so cold... I'm hoping the hard sides, double pane windows, and extra insulation is going to make this camper more hospitable in the winter. We are also having a catalytic heater built in to augment the furnace. This will also draw no battery power.

I agree with going with a large propane tank and having the spare fuel along. I also plan to take a small tank that can be refilled locally when going on longer trips. This will plumb into the existing system when needed.

 

[Carlyle]

BTW, the Espar is nice but very expensive and a major undertaking to set up.

 

[wild1]

I think that you will be pleased with the setup that you are building. We have an extended cab f-350 with a utility box and an eight foot alaskan. We are pushing a hundred nights out in it this year including three months in the southwest and baja last winter. For us it strikes the perfect balance between comfort and portability.

 

[Carlyle]

Thank you for the encouragement Wild1. I spend over 100 nights a year in our camper just for work and then we go camping so like you I know how important it is to be portable as well as comfortable. It certainly is nicer to use our truck camper versus the Eurovans we used to use. Any things you have done to your Alaskan to make it work better for you?

 

[pygmyowl]

I had a 8' Alaskan on my 99 F-350 PSD and sold it over a year ago. Loved the low CG and the insulated panels and large windows. Took it up north on the Dempster twice to Inuvik.

The main problems I see in Alaskans are the split full size door and the baffling. If you don't go where insects are a problem then you will be all right. There are big gaps in the split door and along the baffles that let in mosquitoes big time - I always had to do a lot of duct taping. The door is the worst offender - had to stuff towels, socks, etc to keep the bugs out. Also I have had snow blow in during storms.

Maybe I had a lemon, but the electric hydraulic often would bind when lowering the top as it wouldn't come down at the same speed, often having to raise it back up and start over again, this after spending a great deal of time fiddling with the valves.

Hope you like yours, but I think there reputation is over blown.

 

[Carlyle]

Sorry to hear about your mediocre experiences with your Alaskan camper. I had lift trouble with my old camper that was made worse when we had our kayak and bikes were on top and got caught in a Colorado March snow storm with the top up soon after we had purchased the camper. The lift bars bent and it has never been the same since. Every time I took it to them it never was quite fixed and something else always seem to break... The repair dept was always nice, but the design just didn't work that well.

I'm not going into the Alaskan with rose colored glasses, but the quality I have seen when at the factory is simply better than almost all campers on the market. I will ask about the split door issue and see if there is a solution to the mosquito and cold air issue because that will have to be fixed as we camp so much in the cold or bug land central.

Some people in the winterizing of their campers put up some sort of insulation around or on the door. I have a converted moving blanket that is sewn to the shape of the door and snap it in place for the coldest winter days. I haven't seen an rv door that has much insulation and this is one of my solutions. I also replace the weatherstripping regularly and that seems to help as well. Bugs are a constant problem in any camper and I'll talk to Alaskan to see if they have remedied that problem.

 

[wild1]

Sounds like you have covered most of the items in your build list that we have addressed, for cold weather the catalyic heater and the inside battery compartment will go a long way towards keeping you warm. I have not had a problem with the door but you do need to maintain the weather stripping. The seals can be drafty but the round insulation sold in hardware stores is easy to slip into the junctions. I would have them put in more efficient lighting then what comes standard, and replace the outside light by the back door with something like a Hella matador worklight,the better to see what went bump in the night.

 

[Carlyle]

Thanks you for the advice everyone. As far as the racks on the top go, I'm basically transferring over my old Yakima system to the roof of the Alaskan. Yakima are already at Alaskan awaiting to be put on the roof while it is being built.

I have two load warriors on the top now, but will take the front one off to allow for the two solar panels that are being mounted instead.

One problem with the rack is that the curvature of the Alaskan roof is such that the cross bars will be closer together. The Yakima towers are short and don't allow for much clearance. Anyone see any solutions to this? I've thought about putting a gentle curve in the cross bars to match the roof, but
don't know how this will affect the mounting of the basket or how it work for the kayak and bike?

I agree whole heartedly about lighting in the camper. I'm hoping that the LED'S being mounted in the camper will give good lighting. If not, I'll be mounting more. I have found that the little round battery powered LED's are great in dark spots. I have in in closets and all over the place in this camper and will do the same in the new one. I even put one in the bathroom so that I can see when the top is down and need to run to the back and get rid of a bunch of filtered coffee.

The Hella Matador is a great idea and had thought about it. Instead I have a set of PIAA 1500 back up lights being mounted high on the rear of the camper. They turn on automatically when I go in reverse (very nice), and the over ride switch will be just inside the door. I have this arrangement on my current camper and it works great. When someone/something is around at night I switch them on and it's instant illumination. One thing I have thought of though is to have the Matador lights on the sides and front for cooking and lighting up the campsite when something suspicious is going on.

 

[Carlyle]

On a humorous note, UPS freight was supposed to deliver the Ute flatbed yesterday, but someone punched in the wrong zip code and they had it out for delivery to Cotopaxi, a town 20 miles away. When I told them, they recalled the whole thing to Denver. The sad part is they had to drive through our town to get there and back and within twenty feet of where it was to be delivered...
Now it's traveling an extra 500 miles and going to be two more days. Talk about an inefficient system!

 

[OutbacKamper]

One problem with the rack is that the curvature of the Alaskan roof is such that the cross bars will be closer together. The Yakima towers are short and don't allow for much clearance. Anyone see any solutions to this? .

The towers come in different heights, unless you are already using the tallest tower, this may help. I have also seen spacers (not sure if it is a Yakima product) that go between the towers and the track to give you more height on a curved roof, these are often used when racks are mounted on fiberglass canopies that have raised rear area on the roof. Check with your local yakima dealer, I would be very surprised if they can't solve your problem.

Cheers
Mark

 

[FusoFG]

another plug for diesel heat

Carlyle,

Your Alaskan camper project sounds exciting.

Now that you changed the propane refrigerator to 12v, there is even more reason to consider diesel hot water heat.

And wallas makes a sealed burner diesel cooktop similar to the dometic unit you mentioned to completely eliminate propane.

We just finished a 2 week trip to new england. Lows in the teens, highs 20's and 30's.

We have an espar d5 connected to the engine, the 6 gallon marine hot water heater with a coolant heat exchanger and 2 'radiators' with 2 speed 12v muffin fans.

the furnace connects to the engine using tees I added to the heater hoses.

There is a ball valve in one of lines running between the furnace and the engine.

This allows us to shut off the auxiallary heat to engine at night if desired or turn it on to preheat the engine. Because there is a valve in only one line, the radiator stills provides an expansion tank for the furnace coolant.

With this setup we can:

Heat the camper with free engine heat while we drive. It sure is nice to stop for lunch or a bathroom break on a cold dayand go into a camper already at 68F. With the propane furnace in a previous camper lunch was over just as the camper was warming up.

Heat hot water for a shower or dish washing with free engine heat while we drive. The hot water stays hot for 24 - 36 hours after stopping the engine.

Heat the camper with the diesel furnace.

Heat hot water for a shower or dish washing with the diesel furnace.

Preheat the engine with the diesel furnace.

The furnace can be controlled with a simple switch, the optional timer or a thermostat.

We have the timer so we can read the diagnostic codes and a switch that allows the furnace and radiator fans to be controllled by a digital thermost purchased at Home Depot.

The thermostat can be set up to control just fans when the engine is providing heat while we drive.

The hot water tank acts as a heat storage tank that keeps the coolant warm so when the thermostat starts the furnace heat comes out the radiators immediately while the furnace comes up to temp.

It was pretty simple to install and hook up. I bought all the fittings at Napa and Home Depot. The thermostat has to be one that has batteries for power instead of getting power from the furnace. Set the 'swing' at the maximum to allow for the furnace start up time and reduce run cycles. Keep all the plumbing below the radiator cap so the air will bleed out of the system. The furnace and radiators come with bleed screws to get things started.

With a prevoius camper that was 2 feet shorter and a 20000 btu propane rv furnace it ran constantly to barely maintain 50F when it was 12F outside and we were worried that 2 yellow top Optimas wouldn't make it thru the night.

On this recent new england trip we sat for 2 days and 3 nights with lows in the mid teens and at night the furnace ran less than 10 minutes every half hour to keep us toasty at 68F. We used about 2 1/2 gallons of diesel and less than 60 amp hours of battery.

We also really enjoy the freedom of one fuel for the engine and camper.

Again, good luck with your Alaskan camper project.

Tom

 

[Carlyle]

Mark,
I cannot find anything from Yakima that will raise the towers off the roof, though it sounds like a good idea. The roof of the Alaskan does not appear to be that convex so it may not be a great issue.

Tom,
Diesel heat sounds like a great idea and I do know what you mean about a propane furnace sucking up battery life. My problem with the system is that I know next to nil about it , what it costs and if I can't set it up, who could locally. plumbing into the fuel tank etc does not sound like something I want to do myself and I would want a pro doing that. Any enlightenment would be great and may convince me yet that it would work for me.

Still waiting on my flatbed from UPS freight...

 

[Carlyle]

Anyone know a person or shop in the Colorado area that does Webasto/Espar diesel installs?