New Old Perfect Expedition Camper (NOPEC) - Transitioning a 1995 Kodiak Truck Camper Into A Newer Version
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NOPEC
Well-known member
Coming from a guy that makes sinks out of plastic and a printer, that's pretty high praise!
Thanks a lot and all the best of the season.
vintageracer
To Infinity and Beyond!
Given all the work you have completed on your build and all the discussions in other threads concerning slide-in camper weights and overloading what is the finished weight of your slide-in or the weight of the truck/camper combination?
NOPEC
Well-known member
Good question, Mike. I too have been watching and enjoying the discussion on the jackknifed Dodge.
The mould manufactured fiberglass campers are heavy, especially when compared to some of the advertised weights of the composite FRP stuff. The numbers on my camper before I started into it were; Gross Weight 963 kg (2123 lbs) which includes 132 ltrs of water (291 lbs), 16 ltrs of propane (20 lbs) and 132 ltrs of "Refrigerator" (I have absolutely no idea what that means, so I guessed milk, ice, pop, beer, broccoli, etc., maybe 45 kgs (100 lbs)..... Which brings me to about 1712 lbs. (I am never sure if the weight of the four jacks, which we don't carry anyway (150 lbs give or take) are included in these factory "numbers".
My plan for this project was among other things, to try and reduce the overall weight, hopefully by around 150 lbs. I never got to weight the camper or the stuff I removed (or added) during the build but I suspect I got somewhat close to that figure. Whether it is now under 1600 lbs or so now, I highly doubt because frankly, I don't believe the original factory numbers. I think a lot of manufacturers are "generous" with their numbers.
So for me, I have a 2014 GMC 3500 SRW with a sticker number of 11,500 lbs GVWR and an advertised 4165 lbs of "payload". I have a steel front bushbar, sliders, frame tiedowns, slightly oversize tires, lots of tools and recovery gear, ladder, two vehicle batteries, serious house battery, etc., etc. When modestly loaded with the camper, us, fuel, water, propane, DEF, food, etc., I come in around 10,200 lbs. Last summer, with two kayaks and extensive expedition gear, including 45 days worth of food plus all of our usual camping and living crap, I hit 10,800 lbs. So to me, the over 2 tons of advertised payload looks like a huge amount but really, it seems to get used up pretty quickly, in our case anyway.
It is interesting when comparing my 8'3" camper on a 6'6" box, to the photo of the Dodge. In our camper, the only real weight we have out over the end of the box (other than the structural stuff), is our black and gray water tanks, plastic toilet, etc., on one side and a bit of light weight storage on the other. We religiously keep the volume in both tanks to a bare minimum.
Hopefully, that helps. cheers Bob
PS: Maybe "Trackhead" will weigh in here, he also did a major gut/reno job on one of these same campers..
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I ended up buying that Kodiak, I'll be picking it up this afternoon and will start gutting it. Thanks for this thread for inspiration.
Time to start figuring out how to do fiberglass and how to do it in my shop without ruining everything else in there with dust and glass particles. lol
Time to start figuring out how to do fiberglass and how to do it in my shop without ruining everything else in there with dust and glass particles. lol
NOPEC
Well-known member
Well done, I feel a little like a drug dealer/influencer! Here are a couple of suggestions for starting out.
Make up (or buy) a couple of short but beefy sawhorses and lower the camper down on them. I used a couple of stringers between the horses ("north/south") to ensure that I didn't put undue stress on the "now suspended in the air" floor. Ensure that the horse are strong enough so you will feel confident that they will take the weight of the camper because, invariably at some point you will need to or want to remove the jacks (but initially, leave the jacks in place with a slight load just for redundancy).
The really gnarly airborne dust and glass really becomes an issue when you start on the exterior finishing. It took me months to do the interior gut and refit and the fiberglassing of the shell. Those processes only created the usual shop/construction dust and a bit of flying fiberglass matting which was a non issue with the religious use of a respirator. So depending on how quickly things go, you may find that you will not get into the crazy sanding phase until the weather warms up. Personally, if possible, I would do my best to move the camper outside for this part of the project.
If you decide to do the sanding in the shop, I would use clear vapour barrier plastic and a bunch of Tuck Tape and build what in essence, would be a rudimentary paint booth to enclose the camper. Basically, a shroud suspended from the ceiling with a really simple design (a glorified tent) but designed to be semi permanent for the duration of the project. Bring the walls to the floor and make an overlapping slit door. There will be tons of dust. I made up a poor mans Freud vacuum system for my RO sander out of my shop vac, extra hose with extensions and Duct tape which worked pretty well, considering the price
.Check out the on line West Systems Boat Repair Manuals. Much of the information is applicable to any type of repairing or building with Fiberglass and I found it super helpful.
Looking forward to following your progress!
Thanks for the tips and words of encouragement.
I got finally got the camper in the shop last night ( after sliding down the icy hill a few times trying to back up into my shop, then proceeding to catch the bottom of my shop door on the roof top vent and ripping it off) lol
The camper bones look good so far, it was definitely well used over the years; the fabric on the dinnette is worn completely smooth.
But none of that matters much since I'll be ripping it all out anyway.
I'm pretty excited but also reality has set in that this is a major undertaking.
I got finally got the camper in the shop last night ( after sliding down the icy hill a few times trying to back up into my shop, then proceeding to catch the bottom of my shop door on the roof top vent and ripping it off) lol
The camper bones look good so far, it was definitely well used over the years; the fabric on the dinnette is worn completely smooth.
But none of that matters much since I'll be ripping it all out anyway.
I'm pretty excited but also reality has set in that this is a major undertaking.
NOPEC
Well-known member
Sounds good. All of the thirty year old "RV quality" plastic stuff on the roof should definitely go so knocking parts off of one on the door frame just helps!
The three 14x14 vents, the cover for the holding tanks vent, any assorted antennas, the fridge vent, etc. are on that list. I glassed over the roof fridge vent as I had changed out the absorption fridge and replaced it with a compressor type. I also glassed over the vent hole in the bathroom as I had replaced the dining area vent with a HD Maxxair fan which is only a couple of feet from the bathroom door so the fan in the bathroom became redundant.
As far as upholstery, you may ultimately decide to alter the seating arrangement, table, etc., so a design change as well as a total replacement, well may be in the cards... My fabric was amazing good for the year so I kept it and just adapted the cushions to my seating change and it worked out really well.
Let the fun begin!!
Once again, awesome write up with some very cool ideas, I look forward to the door repair as well.
I've had a few old fiberglass sailboats and done some repairs, West Systems and their magazine Epoxyworks are great resources, as is "This Old Boat" by Don Casey. My first thought as to eliminate the seams would have been a different approach than you took, and would maybe have needed less material and sanding, curious if you considered sanding/grinding down then building it back up with glass matting or tape
like in the pic here. I guess the screws would get in the way, but think they are kinda redundant when the whole thing is glassed together.
I've had a few old fiberglass sailboats and done some repairs, West Systems and their magazine Epoxyworks are great resources, as is "This Old Boat" by Don Casey. My first thought as to eliminate the seams would have been a different approach than you took, and would maybe have needed less material and sanding, curious if you considered sanding/grinding down then building it back up with glass matting or tape
like in the pic here. I guess the screws would get in the way, but think they are kinda redundant when the whole thing is glassed together.
NOPEC
Well-known member
When I did my seams, I was hung up on the need for ensuring that the initial structural integrity of the walls was to remain at least the same or increased, which I think I accomplished. To that end, I felt I needed to keep and improve the bond created by the use of screws to hold the panels together as a part of the greater bonding task. After all is said and done on this project now, because of my lack of much previous experience, I have a new appreciation of just how strong fiberglass actually is.
So that being said, I suspect your proposed idea, along with being waaay less product and labour intensive, would work just fine. You could simply remove the screws and fillet the gap to match the top and bottom panel. The only issue I see is that there is a certain "sprong" factor to the top edge of the fiberglass when the screws are removed and that would have to dealt with in order to get a nice consistent fillet. I am sure that once the screws are out, you could worry enough epoxy up under the top edge of the wall (after removing all of the crappy failed butyl caulk..) to get it to bond. If you went this route, I would just put a bunch of screws back into the old holes to hold the wall down while it sets and then of course, remove them after everthing is bonded. Any remaining bobbles, you could just smooth off during the grinding/sanding of the final fillets.
Because of your background working with fiberglass on boats, you would probably have a good idea if this method would give you the strength you would be comfortable with. You would would be definitely be using way less fiberglass than I did but I suspect my method was a bit of overkill.....
NOPEC
Well-known member
Last Installment of this Build Thread.
Here are some pics of the Inside.
The basic changes from the original interior were the new countertop, smaller sink/tap and all new PEX/Sewer components, new water pump, replacing the stove/oven with a stovetop only, getting rid of the huge table and "kick around" for the dinette, the smaller compressor fridge, new water tank, a Maxxair fan and a Maxxair vent. I also made the bedside cupboards wider to elimate the dreaded "knee trap" between the matress and the side of the cupboard (got mega points for that one...) I know there is a bit of a "grannie's kitchen" look to it but we like it that it serves as a reminder of just how good the orginal cabinetry was in this camper.
Some of the product brands utilized:
Nova Kool, compressor fridge (no freezer by special factory order)
-Best kept secret in our books...- no freezer means no worry about keeping things frozen (do you really need icecream or popsicles..) which means no need to run the fridge at night which means no slight harmonic compressor buzz for light sleepers which means way less battery use (just our highly opinionated opinion)
-We wired a remote on/off switch to limit unnecessary door opening which helps to allow the non-running fridge to be an icebox until the morning.
Propex propane heater
Propex propane water heater
Suburban stove top
Go Power solar controller (managing 2x100 watt flexible panels on the roof)
LED fixtures throughout (third time using "Kohree" brand, haven't had a hint of a failure)
Vicron monitor
Blue Sea breakers which double as switches, when needed
0 gauge cable from Blue Sea ACR to vehicle batteries (through inline 150 amp breakers) with Anderson plugs
Blue Sea HD Marine switch for Vehicle batteries to house battery (through ACR) and vehicle batteries to house batteries direct (ACR by-pass)
Fixed, wired in AC CTEK battery charger.
RV type exterior doors generally are pretty bad. Mine had two windows and was made with a FRP/aluminium sandwich consisting of an interior EPS and wooden frame. I had changed the door skins on a couple of previous builds, it is pretty easy to do really but this time, I went with just reinforcing both the interior and exterior surfaces which both made for a much stiffer door and of course, covered up the window holes which were now filled with XPS block and spray foam. I did a one piece on the fiberglass surface of the outside of the door and two large covers over the window holes on the interior aluminium. Sorry, I just don't have a good picture of door during and after this modification but hopefully you can get the idea from the photo below with the ladder.
One thing to mention if you are thinking of doing one of these fiberglass shells, is start looking around for a cheap or free 8 ft pickup truck canopy as a source of sheet fiberglass. Try to get one with just plain surfaces instead of all sorts of fancy dropdowns and angles. I used a couple and was able to cherry pick the flattest surface for my needs with some left over.
The grey and black water holding tanks and the moulded fiberglass of the bathroom were all in good condition. Just a bit of a visual makeover and then I left the bathroom mostly original. Of course, the white RV quality outdoor shower was degraded and brittle so it was completely removed as it was/is useless (IMO) The "city water" hookup also was removed. The holes left by both of these were covered with a removable hatch. (The hole from the removed outside shower, along with the hole for the driver's side taillight, are the only access to the bathroom plumbing in the back of the vanity sink, the toilet line as well as, the holding tank valves. Otherwise, I would have glassed the hole over). I glassed over the external water fill/hatch cover as I just don't want any type of external access to the water. Instead, I added a 6 inch diameter marine style hatch to the top of my water tank for acess for both cleaning and filling with a hose from a tap or by Jerry Can. (The PEX waterpipe/gorilla tape "T Wrench" in the photo is highly engineered and designed to be used to give the lid an extra palm whack when tighting and loosing it. Sadly, I used "red" instead of "blue" PEX on a wholly cold water part of the system)....
As well, I changed the location and type of shore power connector and 7 pin for the hookup to the truck as well as the 0 gauge wire to the truck batteries.
All of the exterior lights were replaced with LED. The roof clearance light holes were fiberglassed in to only allow a two wire diameter hole to remain and then small one piece LEDs were sikaflexed (is that a verb..?) on. The original holes were huge and well known as a common leak location.
The outside light/handle thing beside the back door was removed and the wire was chased up much higher behind the exterior fiberglass and a Perkins Marine LED exterior light was installed. It bugs me to no end when a rear bumper licence plate is covered up by stuff at the back of the vehicle (too many years a cop) so I ran a wire from the passenger side tail light wire and installed a licence plate holder/LED light on the back. The great thing about doing an exterior fiberglass makeover is that you can change, add and subtract to your heart's content!!! (you can see the licence plate holder and new exterior light in the photo below with the ladder)
Because we are up and down on the roof alot, loading and unloading kayaks, I had a custom, modular aluminium ladder made by a friend of mine. I fiberglassed the bosses for it to rest against right above the doorway (the corners from the donor truck canopy were the perfect profile and yes, the bosses are definitely a bit much...) I don't like the standard fixed RV type ladders because, firstly they give anyone access to your roof and second, when you are trying to load long boats on the roof, you are having to wrestle the driver's side boat while hanging off of the ladder and then have to do a layback move to get up on the roof. The portable central ladder (which when broken down, stores nicely in the back seat area of the truck) solved both of those issues...
In the photo below you can also see bi-lateral additions to the back wall. I initially fiberglassed over the passenger side back window and after I was finished, the whole wall on both sides still felt kind of floppy. So I fiberglassed on the matching covers and it was a huge improvement. I was thinking that I could attach some tactical MOLLE plates on the newly re-enforced wall and then I suddenly realized that I was waaaay too old for anything MOLLE or tactical for that matter.
I Installed heavy black plastic stone and rub guards near the back and on the leading edges to protect the fiberglass from gravel rash and me backing into the camper while loading..... This is the third camper I have done this on and it really saves the finish. Affixing the plastic with 3M VHB two sided tape and sealing with sikaflex works perfectly.
There were tons of little things that I planned for, some I didn't plan for and some I had re-do and if I ever do another one of these, I will cover off some of this different stuff then and report it here!!
What would I do differently, if I had a chance to start over?
Actually, not much.
I would learn more about fiberglassing by hanging around some knowledgeable folks prior to starting. I see now that I probably overkilled a lot of the fiberglassing which took time, money and probably cost me a bit of weight. But man, is this thing solid. We do a fair bit of bush crashing and although we try not to be stupid about it, we don't worry too much about any thing we encounter. That also goes for road surfaces. As far as technique goes, if I had known more, I could have really improve my initial layup, which again, would have resulted in a lot less elbow grease during prepartion for finishing.
I have, on purpose, a rundimentary electrical system which serves me just fine. However, in a future build (or revamping) I may just switch over to something fancier but for now, no plans.
I have no issues with the bathroom/holding tanks set up we currently have but did think maybe of going with something fancier but it would be unlikely if I changed it...
So what did this project cost?
I bought the camper for $5500 CAD. I kept a fairly accurate account of all of the stuff that I bought. At the end of it all, including the camper, it worked out to just about $20,000 CAD or today, about $15,000 USD.
But, that was a complete overhaul of both the interior and exterior, creating something that you could argue is not only superior to the original in a lot of ways but is now uniquely your own. For me, this last part was the key. Plus, it was an incredibly satisfying project. However, the time and hours that went into it were crazy but for me, that just made it all the more fun.
I know that there are a few folks here on ExPo that are sniffing around a similar project, so hopefully soon we can see what someone who really knows what they are doing can pull off!!
Cheers Bob
Here are some pics of the Inside.
The basic changes from the original interior were the new countertop, smaller sink/tap and all new PEX/Sewer components, new water pump, replacing the stove/oven with a stovetop only, getting rid of the huge table and "kick around" for the dinette, the smaller compressor fridge, new water tank, a Maxxair fan and a Maxxair vent. I also made the bedside cupboards wider to elimate the dreaded "knee trap" between the matress and the side of the cupboard (got mega points for that one...) I know there is a bit of a "grannie's kitchen" look to it but we like it that it serves as a reminder of just how good the orginal cabinetry was in this camper.
Some of the product brands utilized:
Nova Kool, compressor fridge (no freezer by special factory order)
-Best kept secret in our books...- no freezer means no worry about keeping things frozen (do you really need icecream or popsicles..) which means no need to run the fridge at night which means no slight harmonic compressor buzz for light sleepers which means way less battery use (just our highly opinionated opinion)
-We wired a remote on/off switch to limit unnecessary door opening which helps to allow the non-running fridge to be an icebox until the morning.
Propex propane heater
Propex propane water heater
Suburban stove top
Go Power solar controller (managing 2x100 watt flexible panels on the roof)
LED fixtures throughout (third time using "Kohree" brand, haven't had a hint of a failure)
Vicron monitor
Blue Sea breakers which double as switches, when needed
0 gauge cable from Blue Sea ACR to vehicle batteries (through inline 150 amp breakers) with Anderson plugs
Blue Sea HD Marine switch for Vehicle batteries to house battery (through ACR) and vehicle batteries to house batteries direct (ACR by-pass)
Fixed, wired in AC CTEK battery charger.
RV type exterior doors generally are pretty bad. Mine had two windows and was made with a FRP/aluminium sandwich consisting of an interior EPS and wooden frame. I had changed the door skins on a couple of previous builds, it is pretty easy to do really but this time, I went with just reinforcing both the interior and exterior surfaces which both made for a much stiffer door and of course, covered up the window holes which were now filled with XPS block and spray foam. I did a one piece on the fiberglass surface of the outside of the door and two large covers over the window holes on the interior aluminium. Sorry, I just don't have a good picture of door during and after this modification but hopefully you can get the idea from the photo below with the ladder.
One thing to mention if you are thinking of doing one of these fiberglass shells, is start looking around for a cheap or free 8 ft pickup truck canopy as a source of sheet fiberglass. Try to get one with just plain surfaces instead of all sorts of fancy dropdowns and angles. I used a couple and was able to cherry pick the flattest surface for my needs with some left over.
The grey and black water holding tanks and the moulded fiberglass of the bathroom were all in good condition. Just a bit of a visual makeover and then I left the bathroom mostly original. Of course, the white RV quality outdoor shower was degraded and brittle so it was completely removed as it was/is useless (IMO) The "city water" hookup also was removed. The holes left by both of these were covered with a removable hatch. (The hole from the removed outside shower, along with the hole for the driver's side taillight, are the only access to the bathroom plumbing in the back of the vanity sink, the toilet line as well as, the holding tank valves. Otherwise, I would have glassed the hole over). I glassed over the external water fill/hatch cover as I just don't want any type of external access to the water. Instead, I added a 6 inch diameter marine style hatch to the top of my water tank for acess for both cleaning and filling with a hose from a tap or by Jerry Can. (The PEX waterpipe/gorilla tape "T Wrench" in the photo is highly engineered and designed to be used to give the lid an extra palm whack when tighting and loosing it. Sadly, I used "red" instead of "blue" PEX on a wholly cold water part of the system)....
As well, I changed the location and type of shore power connector and 7 pin for the hookup to the truck as well as the 0 gauge wire to the truck batteries.
All of the exterior lights were replaced with LED. The roof clearance light holes were fiberglassed in to only allow a two wire diameter hole to remain and then small one piece LEDs were sikaflexed (is that a verb..?) on. The original holes were huge and well known as a common leak location.
The outside light/handle thing beside the back door was removed and the wire was chased up much higher behind the exterior fiberglass and a Perkins Marine LED exterior light was installed. It bugs me to no end when a rear bumper licence plate is covered up by stuff at the back of the vehicle (too many years a cop) so I ran a wire from the passenger side tail light wire and installed a licence plate holder/LED light on the back. The great thing about doing an exterior fiberglass makeover is that you can change, add and subtract to your heart's content!!! (you can see the licence plate holder and new exterior light in the photo below with the ladder)
Because we are up and down on the roof alot, loading and unloading kayaks, I had a custom, modular aluminium ladder made by a friend of mine. I fiberglassed the bosses for it to rest against right above the doorway (the corners from the donor truck canopy were the perfect profile and yes, the bosses are definitely a bit much...) I don't like the standard fixed RV type ladders because, firstly they give anyone access to your roof and second, when you are trying to load long boats on the roof, you are having to wrestle the driver's side boat while hanging off of the ladder and then have to do a layback move to get up on the roof. The portable central ladder (which when broken down, stores nicely in the back seat area of the truck) solved both of those issues...
In the photo below you can also see bi-lateral additions to the back wall. I initially fiberglassed over the passenger side back window and after I was finished, the whole wall on both sides still felt kind of floppy. So I fiberglassed on the matching covers and it was a huge improvement. I was thinking that I could attach some tactical MOLLE plates on the newly re-enforced wall and then I suddenly realized that I was waaaay too old for anything MOLLE or tactical for that matter.
I Installed heavy black plastic stone and rub guards near the back and on the leading edges to protect the fiberglass from gravel rash and me backing into the camper while loading..... This is the third camper I have done this on and it really saves the finish. Affixing the plastic with 3M VHB two sided tape and sealing with sikaflex works perfectly.
There were tons of little things that I planned for, some I didn't plan for and some I had re-do and if I ever do another one of these, I will cover off some of this different stuff then and report it here!!
What would I do differently, if I had a chance to start over?
Actually, not much.
I would learn more about fiberglassing by hanging around some knowledgeable folks prior to starting. I see now that I probably overkilled a lot of the fiberglassing which took time, money and probably cost me a bit of weight. But man, is this thing solid. We do a fair bit of bush crashing and although we try not to be stupid about it, we don't worry too much about any thing we encounter. That also goes for road surfaces. As far as technique goes, if I had known more, I could have really improve my initial layup, which again, would have resulted in a lot less elbow grease during prepartion for finishing.
I have, on purpose, a rundimentary electrical system which serves me just fine. However, in a future build (or revamping) I may just switch over to something fancier but for now, no plans.
I have no issues with the bathroom/holding tanks set up we currently have but did think maybe of going with something fancier but it would be unlikely if I changed it...
So what did this project cost?
I bought the camper for $5500 CAD. I kept a fairly accurate account of all of the stuff that I bought. At the end of it all, including the camper, it worked out to just about $20,000 CAD or today, about $15,000 USD.
But, that was a complete overhaul of both the interior and exterior, creating something that you could argue is not only superior to the original in a lot of ways but is now uniquely your own. For me, this last part was the key. Plus, it was an incredibly satisfying project. However, the time and hours that went into it were crazy but for me, that just made it all the more fun.
I know that there are a few folks here on ExPo that are sniffing around a similar project, so hopefully soon we can see what someone who really knows what they are doing can pull off!!
Cheers Bob
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Quoting an old thread, sorry for that but that’s an epic rebuild and it looks amazing. Lots of inspiration there. I wish I could see it.
I have a 1997 Kodiak K99 (I think) with north south bed. It’s on a long bed Ram 3500. I am banging up the fibreglass between the tailgate. It’s a very tight fit. What are the guards you installed. I definitely need those[/QUOTE]
I have a 1997 Kodiak K99 (I think) with north south bed. It’s on a long bed Ram 3500. I am banging up the fibreglass between the tailgate. It’s a very tight fit. What are the guards you installed. I definitely need those[/QUOTE]
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NOPEC
Well-known member
[/QUOTE]
I think there was a huge shift in truck bed dimensions around 07/08. (I know from experience that 07 and 1/2 was the big change in GMC/Chevs) I had a 2005 GM 2500 short box which my small Bigfoot fit perfectly into, especially as you refer to, in the critical area of narrowing of the box at the tail gate. I next bought a 2014 GM short box and the same Bigfoot barely fit through tailgate opening and only after an inch and a half of bed mat. My Kodiak (probably the same floor profile as yours) would not fit the 2014. I also tried to help a friend move an older 8'4 NL and it also would not fit my newer GM.
Some genius at GM decided that the area at the tail gate should be narrower at the bottom than at the top. I had to grind a triangular chunk out of both sides and then welded in some light sheet metal to square off the edge and fill the hole. It is still tight with the Kodiak but at least the sides are vertical. I sold the first 8'3'' Kodiak that I worked on to my broinlaw who has a late model F350 and it fit like a glove. Any Ford I have looked at seems to have a much more practical vertical (and wider) entrance to the box bed. I Don't know about Dodges though.
I just made the guards out of 2mm hard flexible sheet plastic I scrounged from an abandoned municipal surface water storage reservoir.
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