SKAMPER 072S Project

[Ferny]

Been wanting a cab-over pop-up for a while now, but wasn't looking for one because well... I'm broke!
I walked into my dads salvage yard to go work on my ramcharger the other day and saw this....
It's a 89 Skamper 072S



Took a peek inside



And I knew I had to have it!
Talked to my dad to see how much $ he wanted for it.
He told me he already tried to give it to my sisters boyfriend, but he didn't want it so if i wanted it, i could have it!

The Good....
It's Free!!!
Stove/Fridge/Furnace/ all work!
Pop-up canvas is in good condition with no tears.
It doesn't smell weird.
Everything is pretty solid and in decent condition with not too much wear/tear for being 25 years old.

The bad...
Looks like it had a leak at one time or another but has been repaired (badly) and PO installed some hokie looking roof rack on it.
It's missing the jacks, i guess this didn't leave the PO bed.
The crank for the top is stripped and slips when you are trying to lift the top.
There's some goofy random stuff installed on the inside and outside of the camper.
There are no turnbuckles PO used tie straps to mount the camper, I'm not sure how to properly mount it in my truck.

The Plan...
I'm going to be using the Skamper in my 04 Dodge 2500 Quad cab 4x4
clean, clean, clean
buy/build some jacks
remove all the goofy junk the PO installed
buy/build a new top crank
buy/build mounts for turnbuckles or something else i dunno
replace the ceiling skin
scrape off the roof patch job and redo it properly
possibly paint or re-skin the exterior
use the heck out of it!

Here's some more pictures after we figured out we weren't going to brake anything getting the top up with a stripped out crank...





My first priority is to come up with some jacks, stuff gets tore up when it sits too long at the salvage yard. So I want to get it to my house ASAP.
I've been searching for hours online for parts info and can only find a few things here and there.
Most of the stuff i found was from this site and still nothing on the jacks/crank/bed mounting.
What i do know is a company called Thor purchased Skamper and didn't really support parts after the acquisition so i might be SOL on the crank.
Every time i do a search the only crank that comes up is for a trailer pop-up cable style which is square, not a star pattern like this one.

I welcome all/any thoughts or input

 

[brian90744]

you can rent camper jacks, just fyi
brian

 

[NCprepper]

Search for "Heco Crank" and you should find some online and on ebay.
I would recommend buying atleast two so you have a spare.
I can't remember where I bought mine or I would have provided a link, sorry.

 

[Ferny]

Search for "Heco Crank" and you should find some online and on ebay.
I would recommend buying atleast two so you have a spare.
I can't remember where I bought mine or I would have provided a link, sorry.

Thanks!
Found one for $34
You Are awesome!!!

 

[AF6GL]

Thats why I love this forum!

 

[sheep1499]

Great find!!! I think Rico jacks are a new updated version of the old ones OEM ones. If you have a forklift maybe you can basket tie it to a lift with the top fully shut and transfer it.

 

[kerry]

Crank system was being built by a company that built garbage compacters or something. In the recent past they sold the business to a camper parts supplier company. All the various parts are still available the last time I checked.

Here's the new owner:

http://www.canvasreplacements.com/

 

[SLO_F-250]

Congrats on the camper! I came across one in similar condition and fixed it up. Turned out to be a GREAT little camper. The link to everything I did is in my signature. Good luck! :ylsmoke:

 

[duneyeti9]

Appears to be the same lift system used on my old (1995) StarCraft pop-up TC, shouldn’t be too hard to find used parts for that. As for tie downs, I installed my own tie downs using a backing plate of ½” plywood under the camper overhang to allow turnbuckles with hooks to attach to the bed tied downs, I know the bed tie downs aren’t rated for any real heavy loads but when used with a rubber bed mat my camper never moved an inch. I later went to using ratchet straps for the tie downs this allowed me to adjust the tension more easily when I wanted to take the whole rig off-road. Happy camping.

 

[brian90744]

camper bed hold down

I recommend HappiJac bed hold downs for your Dodge, Keep the brackets on the Nissen that the camper was on in the junk-yard. Looks like an easy build.

 

[pappawheely]

Nice score!

 

[tanglefoot]

Nice find! I don't have any jacks either--I rented some. They were a little scary but they worked. When I first put the camper in to pick it up, we did some terrifying/resourceful things that involved some come-a-long winches, a fence post (to roll the camper in), a bunch of cinderblocks...

If you have access to a flatbed trailer, loading dock, or similar that you could drag the camper off onto, maybe you could cardboard-slide it off of that and into your truck...

Some campers are using the large ratchet straps to anchor them. They're usually inside the bedsides...maybe to hooks with backing plates under the bed.

Oh, to have a boneyard in the family--you've got it better than any of the celebs on Rodeo Dr if you ask me!

 

[wannaby]

what about the Nissan don't look too bad either...?:ylsmoke:

 

[Ferny]

WOW its been almost a year but I finally brought it home

Now that summer is over its the perfect time to start on the camper right?
I couldn't get the jacks to go high enough (feet are missing too) so we just used two fork lifts to get it on the truck.
On the way home it was super wobbly, like scary wobbly!
Probably because it was on two stacked pallets but still.

Does anyone know if..
You can rest the weight of the camper on the bed rails with side boxes like SLO built?
I'm trying to weigh whether going higher for storage space or keep it low for stability.
Do you think resting on just the floor would be enough for stability?
Thanks in advance for your input!

Picks of loading it up... this is all i got because both of us had to be working both forklifts at the same time...

 

[tanglefoot]

I suggest keeping it low but not having it supported on the bedsides. Use a sturdy platform of some kind underneath and then secure it.

Maybe you can build some doors and/or slides and use the space inside the bedsides for storage.

Looks like a unique forklift in the pic!