Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Fri Oct 22, 2021 10:45 am

Alas, September 17th, right outside Nebraska City on the way back, I heard a big "woosh" sound and looking back in the rear view mirror, I saw that the front had caved in. I pulled over to the side of the road and my wife and I got out to see how bad the damage was.

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We apparently lost some clothes out the broken front, but nothing much else. But we had plenty of damage to deal with. The spar I'd added immediately above the window had cracked. I'd apparently never driven screws threw the lower front panel into the spar below the window, so that was helping. And since I'd forgotten the spar at the bottom of the front had let stuff packed in the camper smash the front panel mostly free at the bottom. So by this time the only thing holding the lower front panel in place were a few screws here and there and the fiberglassed seams to either side of the window. Not good.
In about ten minutes I made some very rudimentary repairs and then slowly drove into Nebraska City.

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Thankfully the great folks at Mead Lumber in Nebrasksa City got some 1/4" plywood cut up for me, and I spent about 30 minutes making some better temporary repairs. Alas, during the remaining hundreds of miles of driving home, the next front panel up was once again able to flex. That was probably because the plywood held things together fairly well, but didn't offer much resistance to the stress from the wind, like the cracked spar had. So the damage to that panel became more severe. Nevertheless, it held up well enough to get home.

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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Fri Oct 22, 2021 2:24 pm

We returned home late in the middle of the evening on September 18, 2021. Much of the next day was devoted to settling back in, unloading the camper and tow vehicle, grocery shopping, laundry, etc. In the evening I started work on rebuilding. First the 1/4" plywood patches I'd added in Nebraska City on the 17th, and then the shattered lower front panel came off.

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Then the tarp went on. Alas, between weather and work and getting settled, I only got sporadic work done during the week, mostly removing more stuff from inside the camper and removing upper front panel that had torn. The tarp had to keep going on and off, at least partially.

Friday the 24th I resumed working more intensively again. The first thing I did Friday was installing new spars. This time I went with 2x2 spars instead of 1x2, and on the front curve I installed two of them rather than the one in my original plans (which I had forgotten to install!). The existing 1x2 spar below the window survived intact, but I added some additional sections of 1x2 to build it up to 2x2.

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Then I installed the new front panels, 1/8" sheets of plywood. This was just a temporary installation for now. Additional cleanup was required before permanent installation, but I wanted the panels back in place so I could move the camper without worrying about it disintegrating in its partial state.

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With the panels temporarily in place, I was confident it would be safe to tow the camper and push it around a bit. By the end of the evening, it was sitting in the backyard once more.

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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Fri Oct 22, 2021 4:09 pm

With the camper sitting in the backyard and safely under the tarp, I took break from working on the camper shell. As I mentioned earlier, I'd cut out most of the pieces for the drawers while in my sleep-deprived rush. The plan is for four big drawers that fit under the queen mattress.

In the last days of September, I finished cutting the wood for the drawers and began assembly. The bottoms of two lower drawers are 1/4" plywood reused from what I bought in Nebraska City. Those are intended for heavier stuff. The two upper drawers have bottoms of 1/8" Masonite, surplus from by failed build #1 of 2009. I glued the bottoms to small cleats running along the sides and fronts of the drawers, and weighted the bottoms down for good contact.

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While the glue dried, I cut wood for drawer guides and supports from 2x2, then began to assemble them inside the camper.

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A few days later, I added a shelf. Above the shelf I added a panel of scrap 1/8" plywood to hold a panel with 12VDC outlets, USB ports, and a voltmeter.

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Alas, the various components of the DC panel extended farther back behind the panel than I'd anticipated, so this was just a temporary position.
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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Sat Oct 23, 2021 4:23 pm

I removed the DC electric system (battery, converter, distribution box) and the mini dinette bench that housed it. I had realized there was no good reason to extend most wiring runs by seven feet more than necessary, and that I needed better access than it had from the curbside dinette bench.

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I didn't start heavy work on the electric right away, though, but started preparing for the permanent installation of the front panels, including a lot of cleanup of where the broken panels had been. For example, I had to remove some screws and tiny bits of plywood from the broken front panels that remained glued to the front edges of the side walls. I did a good bit of sanding. And then, finally, I permanently installed the two sheets of 1/8" plywood for the front panels, with lots of glue and screws. Then I filled in over the screwheads. By October 10, this is what the front of my camper looked like.

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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:30 pm

During early October, I assembled the second small dinette bench. This one was going to be for the streetside. Unlike the one I'd installed on the curbside, for this one I put a hinge on the top (bench top) piece, so I could open it for easier access to where the DC electric system was going to be installed. I also made some fixes to the curbside dinette bench. I sprayed both benches with polyurethane but did not install them at this time.

Removing and cleaning up failed/faulty seams took up several days and evenings. The hardened polyester resin softened up with ten-fifteen seconds of a heat gun on low, which let me scrape it up with a plastic putty knife. Taking off the paint near the seam was a multistep process. First I applied the citrus-smelling paint stripper, then after about an hour I can back and scraped. That got some paint off. Next I scrubbed the scraped areas with painter towels doused in mineral spirits. A lot more paint came off. Third, I sanded the areas with a random orbit sander. By the end of the sanding stage, most of the paint was off. Finally, I went back over the areas with towels and mineral spirits ago. That got me back to raw wood.

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I'd planned to have that cleanup done by Sunday, October 10th so I could fiberglass on Monday, October 11th. In fact, I thought I had. But looking at on the 11th I found I needed to go back and touch up, and by the time I was done it was dark and temperatures were dropping. I figured I'd fiberglass on Tuesday the 12th. Something I ate for dinner disagreed, and a popup shower on the 13th meant I had to delay until the 14th. This put me back into rush mode, because I was due to leave on the afternoon of the 15th for a weekend of camping with some of my wife's friends.

Fiberglass wasn't the only thing I needed to do before we left, though. The afternoon and evening of October 14 were almost a blur, and I have only a few photos. First, I cut out the opening for the front window. From the inside, I drilled holes at each corner of the opening using a power drill with a large bit (maybe 3/8" or 1/2") that made holes large enough for my jigsaw blade.

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Then I marked lines on the outside between the outer edges of the holes. These leans marked where I would cut with the jigsaw. This whole process went very smoothly.

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Next, I installed the streetside dinette bench and the DC electric system. I did not connect the runs to the DC outlets and devices immediately.

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The light was just starting to fade on the evening of the 14th as I started the fiberglass work. This time, I used fiberglass mat rather than fiberglass cloth. Where it went on well, it looked good. Between my experience, fading light, and running out of resin before I finished all the fiberglass I'd planned to do, I can honestly say it didn't go well everywhere. I think this picture proves that.
It definitely needs more work in places and some rework in others.

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Before I went to bed, I built a wooden "plug" for the front window hole, since I didn't have time for fabricate the front window before departure. This "plug" helps keep the elements and critters out of the camper. God willing, in the next few weeks I'll fabricate the window, remove the plug, and install the window.

Thankfully, my work on the 14th had me in pretty good shape for the camping trip. Before leaving on the 15th I had a few tasks to finish up, but nothing too strenuous, and nothing too rushed. Late morning and early afternoon I reconnected both the trailer lighting and the DC wire runs. Next, I installed the top two drawers that go under the bed and reinstalled the bed slats I'd removed to install the drawer guides/supports. The drawers don't have their finished faces yet, but worked OK. Finally, I installed the fixed curbside dinette.

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The camping trip went fairly well. We had fun. We survived. The camper came back home in pretty much the same condition as it left, unlike during the maiden voyage. The only real exception were a leather drawer pull that pulled through the screw, and the parts of the shelf/power panel. The latter is simply a matter of going back with some corner braces and attached things more securely, while the former will probably be addressed via small washer.

Alas, the trip revealed that one of the new seams leaks, and one of the original seams was compromised at some point and now leaks, even if it didn't used to. Hopefully, this coming week the weather will cooperate and I can do the fiberglass work before winter. Getting that done in the next week or so should also let me get it sanded down and painted before winter.
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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby DrewsBrews » Sun Oct 24, 2021 11:15 am

Glad to see you are able to get back on the horse! The rebuild seems to be a definite improvement. Hopefully it is enough for whatever mother nature throws at you.
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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Sun Oct 24, 2021 12:19 pm

DrewsBrews wrote:Glad to see you are able to get back on the horse! The rebuild seems to be a definite improvement. Hopefully it is enough for whatever mother nature throws at you.


Thanks. I think that with more and heavier spars in the front, and fiberglassing the whole frontal aspect, it will be plenty strong to resist the stress put on it by travel at speed.
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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby MickinOz » Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:01 pm

Bloody hell. What a saga!
What can go wrong when you are running too fast to think straight, eh?
It's very good of you to post this cautionary tale of woe. Hopefully this will be of use to others who are contemplating smashing out a complicated build in record time.

Your description of the way the front panels came off suggests there was no glue?
Interesting your comment about stuff in the camper pushing the front panel out.
I originally planned Ol #1 to be single skinned apart from the flat roof section which was to be a double skinned torque box for rigidity and overall strength.
Until I put the front bottom 7mm plywood panel on, and realised that my pillows would be pushing against the outer skin from the inside.
That's the point at which I added a "headboard".
So I went from a single glued and stapled 7mm skin I was doubtful about, to a double skinned set up.
I've got 14mm structural plywood where it appears from your descriptions you had a single 3.2mm (1/8 inch) skin.

Obviously, as much as people were saying to me "remember you aren't building an aircraft carrier" there is such a thing as too lightly built.
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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:35 pm

If I'd remembered I was going to be out of town for a week in August before I committed to the build and departure date, or been building under shelter so I had no rain delays, I probably could have had it campable without the mad rush. Oh, well. I hope my tale at least reminds people to sleep.

The front panels got glue at the edges and spars during initial assembly, but in the front I forgot multiple spars and missed screwing the lower front panel into the middle spar, so the glue on that spar didn't really join with the front panel. So effectively the two front panels were only glued at their edges.

Once we were on the road and I realized I 'd forgotten spars, the ones I was trying to install with the limited tools with me weren't fitting quite square, so I only screwed them in as I didn't want to permanently attach using glue. I figured I'd do a real fix once I got home. I was about 2300 miles into a 3000 mile trip when the front collapsed inwards. The glue held except at the bottom where stuff was sliding into it from behind. Screws to join the front panels to the spars added on the road likely didn't hold because without the glue they were being subjected to tension and compression forces, which isn't their real strength.

My side walls are from sheets of 1/4" plywood but the front/roof/back panels, which gets bent, are from sheets of 1/8" plywood. I will likely be adding front/roof/back insulation and some inner 1/8" ply over it for appearance. I'm undecided about side wall insulation.

Thanks for mentioning the headboard. Even if I don't insulate the side walls in general I might insulate there, or at least double up the ply there.
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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby friz » Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:42 pm

Spend the energy and keep perfecting. Soon you will be camping without worry. My wife and I have been camping in our tear for 4 yrs now. No tweaks left. Just pure enjoyment.

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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Sun Oct 24, 2021 8:25 pm

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Alas, I did not get much done this weekend, as the plumbing in our house suddenly decided to give me four different problems to deal with, and the cable modem bit the dust. Oh, well. There's stuff I can work on tomorrow.
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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:48 pm

It was rainy today, so I've been working on stuff I can do inside. I started cutting 2" wide, 1/8" thick aluminum flat bar stock to make the exterior frame for the front window. The two side pieces are done, and I will attach them to the 18" x 36" acrylic window tomorrow. Then I will be able to get an exact measure for the bottom piece of the frame and cut that out, as well.

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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Tue Oct 26, 2021 6:30 pm

I continued with fabrication of the front window tonight. The window consists of an acrylic window cut down to 18" x 36", to which 1/8" thick, 2" wide aluminum flat stock is attached on the sides and bottoms as exterior trim and flange. I am using 3/4" #8 stainless steel machine screws to attach the acrylic and aluminum. The trim is presently attached with only two screws per trim piece. I need to purchase washers and more screws before I finish fabricating the main window assembly. Hinges and latches remain to be added.

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Re: Arrow Kamper, a small canned ham

Postby TheOtherSean » Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:34 pm

I resumed work on the camper about four weeks ago but don't have the photos ready yet, need to transfer them from my cell phone. I finished attaching the aluminum flange to the bottom and side edges of the plexiglass, and have been doing some fiberglassing of areas I didn't get to before it got too cold last fall. Alas, the tarp didn't keep some water damage, so the amount of fiberglassing needed increased to cover some delamination. I've just about finished the fiberglass and priming, with a bit of touch up to do tomorrow. I hope to install the front window and deal with interior issues over the weekend. I'm hoping the drip cap for the front window to arrives Monday, because Amazon has already pushed the delivery date back once.

All in all, I'm still pretty happy with my camper, but I wished I'd shelled out for the wood to make it a bit longer (but slightly shorter), but wood prices were right at their peak when I finished the design and started dropping a few days after I started my build. I'm looking forward to taking it out on a trip again later this month. I am NOT looking forward to the prices at the pump. Ouch!
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