Boonie said:
Poky,
I remember from your elk hunt travel post, you mentioned that you had lived in Utah once upon a time, so I am hoping the adjustment is eased by that fact.
Boonie
Boonie, you've got that right. 35 years ago, just out of college, I worked at Ogden Bay Waterfowl Refuge, as a wildlife worker, seasonal job. Cool stuff I did for part of the time, like banding Canadian Geese, which entailed using airboats (like in the everglades), and charge the geese on the water. During certain times of the year, they are molting (losing feathers, and catch fly), so we'd almost run them over, but I took turns up front, and you'd reach in and grab them just as you caught up, and hand them to another guy behind you on deck, to put them in a cage, and take them back to shore for banding and data gathering. Great fun!
After that, I worked at Mantua Fish Hatchery, which is about 30 minutes from Ogden, where at the time we raised Bear Lake Cutthroat trout from eggs to catchable, and returned them to Bear Lake, which spans over the border between Utah and Idaho.
It's kind of interesting finding myself back in the area after all this time, and possibly where I'll finish my working career.
If you remember when we were comparing notes of when our campers were built, 1981, that is the year I left college and began working at the waterfowl refuge. 1981! Wow, what a coincidence. Somebody, (maybe previous owner) was buying my camper, enjoying it, and I was just starting to work full time. And now it's my turn to enjoy it!
shellback said:
Pokey, Reading your build on the fabric sides, I didn't see any mention of you using the old ones as a pattern. I do know you raised the roof, but is there a reason you didn't use the finished length of your old ones as a pattern? Or did you use the old ones and then find out you had to shorten it a bit? Another question on the windows. It looked like you sewed the top and sides of the screen, made the windows and privacy curtain, then fastened it in place. Did you then move the bottom of the 3 pieces to the outside of the liner to sew it? Thanks, Ron
Ron, I didn't use the old liner for reference, because it was thrashed, and because it was assembled differently, with only one seam in the back. I wanted my new one to be as close to what the new factory ones look like as possible. Frankly, I think when you're making two windows on each side, and all the ways you have to move the fabric to sew the pieces together, it's much easier to do it with a ten foot panel, than 40 feet. I could have used the old fabric to get the measurement circumference, and sort of tried, but didn't feel I was going to be completely accurate that way either. If I do another one some day, I'll use the measurement from the camper body circumference, and not the roof. The fabric will stretch enough for the roof. Mine is working out fine, but does have a little more puckering than I'd hoped for. Hopefully that info will help you.
On your second question, once the screen material was sewn in place with the Velcro inside, leaving the bottom unseen, I placed the velcro'd clear vinyl, and privacy vinyl in place hooked to the inside, and had about 3/4" coming out to the outside, with screen material wrapping around both the clear vinyl, and the privacy vinyl, and then sewing all the bottom pieces together. It really helps to have pictures, and see one in person. I spent a lot of time just studying how it appeared to be assembled, then drew up plans as to how the sequence of each piece would go together. I think my posting walked through that pretty well, but perhaps sometime, I might go back, and just make a thread on the vinyl side liner construction process, start to finish.
.
These are pics I took when I considered redoing the Windows like the original. I took them apart to see how they were stitched and assembled.
http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/12116-new-build-1981-grandby-to-become-a-hawk/page-13
If I copied this right, look at at entry #121, and maybe a few before it, and several after, and this should give you a visual reference. Good luck!
Poky
Sent from my iPad using Wander The West