Custom Shell Interiors

[davinski]

Hey guys,
I like the idea of a simple weekend trip. Get me out of the house and keep the camper going. I only have a portable heater, but have nice down sleeping bags. No problems with puget sound temps.

I have also wanted to go to the san juans in winter and would be up for something like that.

Also, anywhere in the kitsap is nice. Not sure what is open where and where we could camp and not get in trouble.

Anyone have some dates they would like to think about?

Dave in Seattle

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

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[Stan@FourWheel]

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[pods8]

Hey guys,
I like the idea of a simple weekend trip. Get me out of the house and keep the camper going. I only have a portable heater, but have nice down sleeping bags. No problems with puget sound temps.

I have also wanted to go to the san juans in winter and would be up for something like that.

Also, anywhere in the kitsap is nice. Not sure what is open where and where we could camp and not get in trouble.

Anyone have some dates they would like to think about?

Dave in Seattle


Well NWcamper was just confirming he doesn't have a heat or even an extended cab truck to get the fam out, so before we throw him to the wolves lets here his thoughts on what he'd like to see out of a mini rally so he can be included.

 

[NWCamper]

Yeah it might be a bit before I can get out with the need for a new rig and my three week old. Plus....I did start ripping into the camper yesterday. Couldnt help myself. I will keep you posted on my progress.

 

[davinski]

details details.
You guys are so picky.

Forgot that you might need a good truck to get out.
Forgot that little babies make it tough to travel......let alone work on the camper.
Forgot that I should probably get out and am wanting an excuse to do something different.....

Anyhow, we will let NWCamper decide what he needs or wants. The rest of us salty dogs can just wait and see. No rush. Spring will soon be here.

So, NWCamper.....your turn!

Dave

 

[K7MDL]

I am not too far away from you guys, in the Maltby area off Hwy 522 beween Monroe and Woodinville. Mostly ready for an outing anytime myself. I do ham radio oriented trips to mountain tops in the greater PNW, and more often am out motorcycling on trails and forest roads in the PNW and Moab (this April will be my third trip) and Death Valley (once so far last year). I use the camper as base camp. Colorado and Idaho coming up this August also.

I have been looking for ideas on interior storage for my riding gear. 2 peoples worth of gear actually. I like the front dinette layout myself. More urgently I am looking at what people have done in the front corner open space besides stacking plastic bins, and I am thinking about shelves in the right rear cabinet next to the door (at the end of the rollover couch). 9" deep, so maybe just shelves, or stacking clear plastic containers. I see lots of empty space behind the rollover couch back.

I had a full size self contained 8 foot camper for the last 2 years (Pastime 880SC) was nice but was too much room, not offroadable. I just sold it and picked up this 2006 Grandby locally. I like to tinker so LED light conversions, shelves, maybe lifting struts, over door small awning are on my list of tweaks. So while I am not redoing a shell, watching what you guys come up with to fill inthe finer points is fun.

- Mike

 

[davinski]

Hi Mike:

Good to see you join in the fun. Nice to live near the Maltby Cafe....Yum.

Anyhow, I would love a meet up anytime. Would also like to play radio. Got a nice tall pole and some end fed zepps for HF fun. Just been a bit cold to play radio in the camper. I have been busy lately so have not had time to go out. Also, need some new shoes on the truck and some work on the wheels. Hope to get that fixed tomorrow.

Anyhow, I am in West seattle. Any repeaters you like to hit?

I have also been trying to meet up with Pods8. He has lots of cool ideas. It just never seems to work out. We were thinking of getting NWCamper up and out, but he is busy with a new baby. When he is ready he will let us know.

I have a 2001 hawk shell with custom insides. Nothing fancy, but works for me.

73 de N0XLW
Dave in Seattle....

 

[K7MDL]

I lived in West Seattle until 6th grade, the out to Maple Valley. After 8 years pushing submarines around on the ocean floor and in between, I returned to the north end of town in '85.

My radio interests gravitated to weak signal VHF, UHF and microwave contesting mostly as a rover, with some home HF monitoring or country gathering at times. When I am on it is mostly weak signal terrestial, EME, or meteor scatter contacts so I do not get on repeaters any more. Not enough time in a day. That and fishing competed with motorcycling so fishing was dropped a few years back.

http://www.K7MDL.net has the several microwave and VHF projects I built and my rover vehicles and digital/satellite/progagation modeling presentations I have given. I plan to pack some beam antennas and KB6KQ loops on the roof racks of the Grandby and hit some mountain tops this year a few times. I went up Slate peak (7400ft) and Tiffany Springs (6900ft) campgrounds last summer for the CQ VHF contest for example.

So some of my mods will be for 12VDC and 26VDC bulk power, others for bulky armored MC riding gear, and some for antenna mounting, rotators, and mast setups on site/on truck. The web site you can see all the aluminum my past trucks have carried up top on the canopies . I just spent the night in the truck cab back then for a weekend contest. Now I am looking for more comfort and a slower pace and look for great remote destinations.

Maybe we need to set a date such as radio contest weekend and invite all and anyone at some choice location. Mix it up a bit, yet loose. Or just a local get together. Could be at my place even, I am easy. In our MC adventure riding circles, we have established meet and greets every week at designated north, eastside, and south locations. We also a few times a year have a garage party where we bring our bikes to a host's home garage and we all work on bikes making mods and repairs and swapping stories and learning, like how to shim the valves, change tires, replace clutch plates, share special purpose tooling and skills, welding. Several times these are accompanied by a pot-luck type lunch opportunity where people will bring something along and the BBQ gets fired up (though I do not have one anymore - I do not cook!)

I have seen some serious camper mods tailored to mobile radio contesting. I do not intend to go there myself, but plenty of smaller changes I want to make like gas spring lifts, cabinet changes, and electrics. I happen to be a former navy nuclear electrician, electronics design engineer, and kept reasonably current on electrical and communication/navigation installations through my boating and radio and motorcycling interests. So if anyone has need for electrical assistance on your campers feel free to ping me, I can likely help.

 

[davinski]

Mike:

Sounds like you know how to have fun. I would love to do the things you do, but you are right, there are not enough hours in the day.

My camper is always a work in progress. Today, got new tires, fixed some wheels. Need new shocks soon. Getting ready for spring and summer.

A meet up with FWC fans would be good. Pods8 and NWcamper are nearby, but I am sure they are busy.

I will send you a message.

Thanks

Dave in Seattle

 

[K7MDL]

Dave came up to my place today while he was in the area and we talked campers and ham radio for a couple hours. Nice to meet you Dave!

I got some good ideas from Dave today. One of the first on my list will be to add some hooks to the rear wall, maybe front also for hats, coats, and sweaters that you want to take off and get out of the way until your next trip outside. I will likely add a telescoping (upward) closet rod above the empty space in front of the stock cabinets of the Grandby. I can stack 1 or 2 clear bins in there or hang my motorcycle gear there as they are very bulky to try to stuff into under seat bins or small closets. Hanging them also gives them a chance to dry out a bit if needed. If the closet rod is supported by telescoping poles (think square tubes with holes drilled in a vertical line and the little spring-loaded pin you push in to adjust the length) then I can raise them when the top is up for more air exposure or keep a bin under them and out of the way.

Dave had a car roof-top basket over his truck cab since he has the short over-cab extension model shell. I do not think I will have the room to try that since I have the extended overhang. I do need to get two 2" hitch recever tubes welded to my existing hitch bar for a motorccycle carrier and to my hitch mounted antenna mast support that does not block the door. Dave uses the camper jack brackets for a mast mount that he can raise when stopped.

I added the IQ4 charger controller this week, swept the snow off the roof, and discovered I missed a rear drawer support bracket when I reassembled the front cabinet face panel.

For winterizing I used a breaker bar to finally get the drain plug out of the water heater. Drained and cleaned teh plug/anode rod and put on teflon tape. Anode was only 20% gone after several years. I also adjusted a cold water pipe elbow near the hot water tank so that is is no longer the low point in the system. The hot water tank and pump and storage tank itself are the low points now, and all but the pump are easily drained. The outside shower low points are easily drained into a cup from the inside since they use hand tightened couplers to the valve fixture. I do not see the need for anti-freeze anymore since the water system can be drained fully and blown dry.

Some roof lifting gas springs and truck tires next I think. Will wait and see how the incandescent lighting taxes the system over days with the solar charger compensating some for their high current draw.

Dave had lots of shelving and drop down desk surface whcih is nice for us hams to operate radios and keep paper log books.

I like the sliding table front dinette solution shown in Stans photos earlier in this thread. I might have to see about a sliding table mount like that, or else do a drop down table hinged on the front of my sink cabinet. I think a front dinette is the way to go if I was starting from scratch though. Too much to change mine around.

 

[Yukon]

NWCamper,

I bought an Eagle shell new a couple of years ago. All that was inside was furnace & battery. The rest I built myself (cabinets, sink, stove, etc.). Pictures can be seen at my original posting:

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/index.php?/topic/1260/page__fromsearch__1

I also am in the Seattle area (Edmonds).

It took me several months to do this interior job but I am very happy with the results. Wouldn't change anything.

Chris

 

[davinski]

Mike:

Thanks for the tour of your rig and gear. Very nice to see such a clean camper....reminds me when mine was so clear and such a "blank slate" I had not really seen one of the new campers with the thicker over cab section. Looks really nice and I am sure much more comfy for sleeping. I also got a good appreciation for how much space all the internals of the camper takes. Having a shell, sometimes I am envious of the creature comforts of the built ins.

Your truck is also quite nice and new. I like how clean and simple the truck is as well. I am sure, though, that eventually you will make a lot more changes to truck and camper and this will be nice to watch. I will be watching your gas shocks mod closely as I have wanted to do the same. This would really allow some more gear to be carried with a lot less hassle. Right now, I have to take off my portable boat and kayak to put the roof off. No way to carry any storage boxes up there. Don't even have a solar panel yet, so adding this would be easy once it is easier to raise the roof.

I will send you a pm to talk radio stuff, but I really enjoyed the meet up. Now, to get out on the road would be even better.

Of course, anyone who wants to meet up here in the Puget sound area should speak up. A mini gathering is always welcomed and looking at everyones campers is always fun.

Dave

 

[K6ON]

Dave, What kind of roof-top "basket" do you have in front of the camper?? I have the short overhang and have been looking for something like that. Pictures??

Thanks & 73 de K6ON

 

[davinski]

Deltarat:

I have posted photos here before, but don't have a recent shot I can get to.

It is basically a yakima rack system on the cab of the truck. With the short overhang, I can get it in front of the camper. If the camper were a little taller, I would love to slide it under the overhang, but it don't fit. Curve of the cab get in the way.

The basket is a yakima basket. NOT the big storage rack units. I think it is the basketcase. I know I posted photos here before. Great for storing stuff like firewood, chairs, and bulky stuff I don't want to store inside. Off road, I will store fuel up here as I go slow and don't have anywhere else to store it.

I will try to take a photo tomorrow if it is not raining too bad here in seattle.

I got the idea from RV.net and it is actually a great way to store those things you don't want inside.

dave

 

[pods8]

Of course, anyone who wants to meet up here in the Puget sound area should speak up. A mini gathering is always welcomed and looking at everyones campers is always fun.

Dave


I'm down, I just will have lower probability on short notice since I have the fam in the picture.

 

[K6ON]

Thanks Dave, looked it up and it might work. Have a Yakima store locally, will head over that way and check it out.

 

[K6ON]

Thanks Dave, looked it up and it might work. Have a Yakima store locally, will head over that way and check it out.



Drove over this afternoon and liked the rack and basket. One is now installed. Thanks Dave

 

[davinski]

Whoa, Deltarat....you are fast. Crappy weather up here meant no photos. I see you could not wait.

I like your setup. You have a bit more curve than mine. I wanted to slide the basket under the cabover so that it was low to the roof but just did not work. Mines is like yours and sits forward. I thought I could see it from the cab, but nope. I like the fairing up there, keeps the bugs off the camper and makes it easier to wash. I have stored an amazing amount of junk up there.

I also looked at some the carry boxes for ATVs and for small pickups. Was thinking of getting a closed aluminum box that was lockable so that I could store some recovery gear or such up there. Saw one at harborfreight, but was a tad too big. Oh well. Will keep on the lookout.

Also, like your snorkel.....tell us more about fun little add on!

dave

 

[K6ON]

Dave

Put the snorkel on a while back. Posted a few pictures of the install here:

http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/snorkel-install-t266458.html

Plan on using the rack mainly for firewood, hate it in the camper and the dog gets the truck back seat. Will also carry a large bag of charcoal up there. That's about it, not much else I care to have out in the weather.
Book says rack system and basket has 165lb load limit. I'm not sure the roof has the same limit

de K6ON