1977 Pop Up Camper Rebuild

[PKCSPT]

your son looks ready to roll.

[TheThom]

Well, it rained here most of the holiday weekend and since I won't have time to let the canvas air out and dry, I collapsed it all before the weather turned. I did have time to tweak my awning. I'm copying an idea from Jim65wagon. I bought a large tan tarp from [url="http://www.mytarp.com/18-oz-vinyl-tarps-tan-color.aspx"]this site[/url] The local upholsterer actually had the same fabric because it's what she uses to make dump truck covers. She sewed the keder welt that let it run through the sail channel on my roof. She also sewed a pocket in each corner for a tent pole. I bought tent poles from [url="http://tentpoletechnologies.com/"]this site[/url].

I had to trim about 6 inches off the pole, but it should work OK. The outer edges are supported by extending tent poles.

Here are some pics of the set-up with the camper collapsed. It's worth noting that those poles extend up to 8 feet or so.

The awning is 8' wide and extends 10' out. Total cost was ~$200 with over half of that being the upholsterer's fee.










If you look at the top of this pic, you can see what it looks like when it's collapsed in it's cylinder



And now we have 30MPH winds and rain. Gotta love island life in the PNW.....

[TheThom]

[PHOTO BOMB WARNING] I took the camper to a 2 night shakedown run at a nearby state park. My plan is to boondock a lot. But for the next year, I live less than hour from 3 or 4 beautiful state parks. While I'm still working the kinks out of everything, it's hard to justify bypassing those just to get off the grid. I'm moving back to CO next summer and expect to do more boondocking once we're there.

A few more poser pics, but at least it's out of the driveway.













Anyway, everything with the camper is going well.

BATTERY: I had some battery issues the week before. I must have a slow leak to ground, because the new battery DIED. I took it to a local auto parts store and they put it on their big charger and revived it. But needless to say, I'm not yet confident in my wiring to leave it in there long term. The battery performed great: I plugged my son's white noise machine into it (with a 12V adapter) and it ran all night and barely dropped the voltage.

Propane: this was my first time connecting so many things through one tank (stove, grill, firepit, heater). It performed well. Only hitch is that my heater wouldn't light while my firepit was running. Turned it off, lit the heater, started it back up with no issues. Didn't mess with the portable water heater. B/t my battery concerns and some remaining troubleshooting to address leaks, I just didn't get to it.

Heater: got into the 40s and I used my portable Mr Heater all night with no issues.

Stove: I really like my Camp Chef Explorer stove. I only used it a couple of times to cook eggs, and boil some water, but it's so much more powerful that a small portable stove, that it makes quick work of these tasks.

FirePit: I'm a big fan of our new Camp Chef Redwood portable firepit. It doesn't have the character of a wood fire, but it is REALLY easy to get going and I didn't realize how much of my gross-comping-feeling came from all the smoke. It's nice to sit by a cozy fire and not be overpowered by smoke.



Awning: you might notice the pole in the middle. It's just too big and the fabric doesn't really stretch, so the poles kept collapsing in the middle (during the driveway test). I fixed it with an aluminum paint pole with a pad on the end to protect the fabric. Works great and is adjustable.



Things to do: I definitely need to make my chuck box to organize my cooking/eating stuff. I have the drawer slides installed. I just need to make the box. I also have some general organizing to do inside the camper.

All in all, camper performance wise it went great. Little guy got sick and grouchy, but that wasn't the camper's fault.

[KCStudly]

PERFECT!!!

I remember your first post where you felt the need to ask permission to share your PU rebuild.

No question needed. Those "in the wild" pics are priceless and are what we are all (or at least I am) striving for. Thank you so much for sharing. Love the pic's in the wild!

Very Nice camp set up!

[PKCSPT]

It was fun watching this build

[sumo]

It turned out nice. You should be very proud. Nice work.

[rowerwet]

lookin' GOOD!

[TheThom]

Well, the wife got a new vehicle. Since we need it to be able to tow for family trips, we got a new to us '12 Tahoe ( I still have my Cherokee). I had to get a drop hitch to get the height right and this pic is taken during the around the neighborhood test drive. Height looks good.



It makes me sad to say, but the Tahoe towed it so much easier than the Cherokee does. This won't be a set-up for trails, but, in reality, 95% of our driving will be national forest and fire roads which this can handle.

The good news is that I had the trailer out and about to talk to a couple of local welders about ideas for rebuilding the roof. I can make it out of mostly wood myself, but it'd be nice if I could get an aluminum tube cage and build from that. We'll see what the estimates are.....

[rebapuck]

Looks so good. You did a great job.

You mentioned awning corner pockets. I can't see from the pictures just what their purpose is.

[TheThom]

Looks so good. You did a great job.

You mentioned awning corner pockets. I can't see from the pictures just what their purpose is.

The corner pockets hold the cross-poles in place

[S. Heisley]

Good Job! Now, we have to wait to see pictures of it in the wild!

[TheThom]

Well, I'm finally starting the roof rebuild. I have to get it done by the end of May because I'm moving cross country and need to tow that sucker.

First some teardown pics of the old roof

Here's a close-up of how good the wood was.....OK, not really. The front and back were plywood that was rotted through. The sides were a layered plywood/?epoxy?/metal that was REALLY heavy.



I quickly decided to start from scratch rather than salvage the roof sheet aluminum.



Here's a sketchup model of my plan. I've since adjusted the measurements to make it a bit taller, but the idea is still the same.



Rather than rounded corners, I'm putting angles on it. Hopefully it will give it kind of a cool look.

My plan: a local metal/fab shop sells 4x10 sheet of aluminum with metal on one side and white paint on the other - the kind used for semi truck sides. The local heating place that cut and bent the aluminum panels for m walls and doors said they could seam the aluminum and cut/shape it to fit over a wood skeleton of the roof.

I bought some wood. I thought long and hard about the best way to do it regarding both strength and weight. I ended up going with 1" stock pine for the walls. The top will have 1 or studs holding it together. I want to be light on weight, but I'm also installing a roof rack and want it be sturdy.

Here's some shots of the wood. It's cut and set in place, no fasteners yet. I put it up there to brainstorm ideas for the next step. All in all, I'm pretty excited about how it might turn out.





That's it for now. I just need to fasten it up and pre drill some holes for the roof rack tracks, mounted flood lights, etc.

[stonykill]

looking good!

[jbyrd]

Looking very good.
I just got done tearing one of those down that was beyond salvageable.
my roof was as bad as yours, guess that was a weak point on those trailers.

[TheThom]

After quite the delay I've made some progress on the roof. I was finally able to source some appropriate sheet aluminum and the local heating place cut and bent it for me. The top/front/rear is two pieces seamed together and the left and right and left panels are individual pieces. In the pics below they are resting on the frame. I had to strap them on to get them home (while driving very slowly).







Now I need to trim it out, prime it, paint it and have it ready to tow across the country - all in about 3.5 weeks. I'm going to paint the top with roll on bedliner like I did the bottom except it'll be tan instead of black.