Building Our New Camper

I just read through the thread for the 3rd time. On the ATC side I am just plain impressed by the quality of their work. The welds really caught my eye, and the wiring job they do is outstanding. The time, energy, and work that you and the Lady put into the build really shows your the love of the camper and the adventures that it will carry you on.
Cheers

Captm said:

I just read through the thread for the 3rd time. On the ATC side I am just plain impressed by the quality of their work. The welds really caught my eye, and the wiring job they do is outstanding. The time, energy, and work that you and the Lady put into the build really shows your the love of the camper and the adventures that it will carry you on.
Cheers

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Captm, thanks for the kind words. You are right on with your comments about the guys at All Terrain Campers. They are the best and the quality of their work is the best endorsement! Now that we are using the camper (14 nights thus far ), we could not be happier. We have one solid well built camper that is going to last us a long long time.

Here is a very simple method of holding gear in place as we travel. We picked up chrome plated one inch straps at Emigh Hardware down in Sacramento along with oval head stainless steel # 8 wood screws in various lengths. At REI we got one inch pack strap webbing and buckle snaps.





We installed the straps in various locations to hold our bedding and packs and duffel bags in place.

Mr. 3Pin, nice. Plagiarism is a sincere form of flattery. I just went down and bought some myself. Thank you for the idea!!

Where did you obtain the laminated plywood that you built all the cabinets and seats with? I've looked at Home Depot and they don't carry anything other than plain, unfinished plywood.

Texan76 said:

Where did you obtain the laminated plywood that you built all the cabinets and seats with? I've looked at Home Depot and they don't carry anything other than plain, unfinished plywood.

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The HD in Stockton carries Oak and Birch Ply in 4'x4' and 2'x4' size. It is not in the same area as the 4x8's

Texan76 said:

Where did you obtain the laminated plywood that you built all the cabinets and seats with? I've looked at Home Depot and they don't carry anything other than plain, unfinished plywood.

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I purchased it from All Terrain Campers. It is the material used in their interior cabinets.

If it is a 7 ply, 13mm thick Birch plywood it is commonly used by cabinet makers. Find their local source for hardware etc. and you've likely found where to buy it.

Ski sent you a PM on your Lagun Table mount.

Thanks Bill

Busy weekend, I've replied.

That strap system is great!!!
I will definitely be doing this in the future. Need to find some black metal "straps" to go with the color scheme of my interior.

"Footman Loops". If you happened to have a hot Chromium-Nitrate solution laying around you could blacken the SS ones from a marine supplier. Could probably also grit blast them and apply POR-15 to get a wear resistant black coating. I can help with the grit blasting if you opt to do that.

I mentioned the strap idea to my bride and she was all for it. Thanks!

Ski I didn't see you list the size of the footmans loops you used. Could you please let us know...so we can copy your great idea? Thanks.

one inch

Thanks again for coming up with this. I've got all my supplies. Now just picking where to mount the footman loops.

Ski,

Great buildout!! I like your cat heater mount very clean job.Will be over on the coast doing the PCH from Santa Barb to SF for a few weeks starting on the 15th maybe we could hookup some place. You are sure a faster builder then me ...

Bisleybud & the Saint

Really enjoyed reading this great thread. It's really got us looking at having a new camper made by ATC instead of searching for a hard to find used one here in the east.

As for the black footmans loops. They are availible in uv stabilized black nylon from marine places and kayak suply places on the web. They also sell similar for shock cord. I did similar when I restored my bass boat and used the black nylon stuff. It's held up well in the sun since '06.

Squatch said:

Really enjoyed reading this great thread. It's really got us looking at having a new camper made by ATC instead of searching for a hard to find used one here in the east.

As for the black footmans loops. They are availible in uv stabilized black nylon from marine places and kayak suply places on the web. They also sell similar for shock cord. I did similar when I restored my bass boat and used the black nylon stuff. It's held up well in the sun since '06.

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Squatch, thanks or the nice comments, much appreciated. I cannot say enough about the great job ATC dud for us and their wonderful campers. They are the best.

Thanks for reminding me about this thread as there are more details that I wanted to add about our portion of the build here at home.

I also would like to thank you all for posting this very informative thread. I take delivery of my Bobcat shell in mid-November and as you can imagine, I've got a thousand ideas swimming around in my mind. Your thread convinced me to get a Rotopax and gave me a ton of ideas for my build.

I see you bought a Wave heater; is that supposed to be better at higher altitudes than the Mr. Buddy heaters? Also, I plan to put a deep cycle battery in my shell and I was told I'd need a battery isolator. Can you recommend an isolator (I've seen many different ones on the Internet)?

Thanks again for sharing your build. I hope to meet you all if you're going to the rally at Meadow Lake in a couple of weeks.

GroovyDad said:

...I see you bought a Wave heater; is that supposed to be better at higher altitudes than the Mr. Buddy heaters? ...

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The Mr. Buddy heaters have a "low oxygen" sensor that shuts the heater off if oxygen partial pressure is below their setpoint. And "low oxygen" can be because of high altitude.
I just-now read posts (on another site) by guys who've used their Mr. Buddy at over 10,000 feet successfully...and others in the same thread who say it shuts off when they try it at high altitudes.

The Olympian Wave heaters don't have a low-oxygen sensor, so they won't shut off due to altitude. I've run mine at 12,000 feet. But you will need more venting at high altitude to provide enough oxygen for a given heater setting.


If the heater doesn't get enough oxygen then you'll have less-complete combustion -- the heater will produce more carbon monoxide (CO) -- which is not good.


With either brand heater, make sure you have a working CO detector/alarm.