Jayco Sportster 8ft - Renovation

[Manfred65]

Today she first installed the rear window:

It is fix which is important because in europe it is not allowed to place an exhaust under a window that can be opened or less than 12" from the side of a door or window. With this original window we were able to place the exhaust of our Truma furnace below it. The exhaust as last part of the furnace installation was our next step this day.

In the late afternoon we replaced the front wall of the camper. First we used the old wall as a pattern. In the corners below you can see the cutout which someone made to fit the Jayco on a Nissan Frontier ( "Navara" in Europe ).

placed the glue on the frame.....

screwed the wall to the frame....

and thats it :

I was afraid if everythink will come together in a tight fit. But we worked as straight ( or crooked? ) as the guys at Jayco 22 years ago! The only differences we had came from the material:
Originally there was 1/2" Ply, we used material of 1/3"+ !

You miss the front window ?! Because of the risk of "production tolerances" we decided to mount the aluminium cover on the camper before cutting out the window!

 

[Rusty]

Manfred,

I just finished reading all 7 pages of the rebuild...and found myself speed reading through the last few pages to find out how far you had come and how close to finished you are..... you will be toasting this project with a fine champagne I'll bet ....congratulations!!

I had my doubts when I first saw this project. Many would have given up long ago...you and your wonderful wife have persevered
with this project as absolute professionals. The results are nothing short of perfect "German Engineering". from the plumb and level propane lines to the use of the newest materials...this has been a project to be proud of. I wish you two the very best in your camping adventures throughout Europe.

And for the truck...a very lucky find indeed.....that's the engine you'll want to keep...and rebuild when it becomes necessary.....

they make very nice front receivers (trailer hitches) which bolt onto the frame and allow you to mount bike racks and such on the front of the truck...something to consider.

My most sincere compliments...bravo

 

[Manfred65]

Hi Rusty,
thank you very much for your comments and the nice feedback. I also follow the Alaskan Forum and all your posts. I don´t know if there is one Alaskan in europe. Also Guttis Alaskan from Iceland is back in the USA i think,

Yes, we also had our doubts when we started! We told ourselves: "OK, if we burn this money and stop the renovation we have learned a lot how campers are built!" Two guys from our german TC-Forum provided me a total of 7 ltrs. Fuel to have a nice fire....

But you know : Somewhere is a "point of no return" at the time you invested a lot of money and work in such a project. I tell you:
we never considered stopping the renovation! We used material and tools which we had at home from our farmhouse renovation,
bought a few square meters of plywood and changed some details to european needs and rules.

Our total investment (without work) including all the technic like Chargers, AGM Battery, Battery-monitor, new furnace, Toilette, is around 5400,- $$ at the moment including the price of the rotted camper.
Parts that are missing now: solar panels up to ~ 200W, water crane is still ordered, LED-outside lighting, happyjac Tiedown-system is still ordered, the camper jacks will be an own construction using a chinese copy of the famous Hi-Lift. ( we only unload at home )
and a few meters of aluminium profiles.LED interior lighting is already waiting in our workshop,
The aluminium profiles at the corners are our way to cover the bad looking corners of the aluminium panels. stay tuned!

I think the roof repair will be "Part2" in 2015

Now we are waiting for our truck: It is at a workshop that is specialised in the changes and documents to register in Germany .
Also the payload ( real only 1653 lbs ) must be increased to 2500 - 2950 lbs. ( Rear Axle weight is enough remaining for more ).
The engine runs fine with it´s low miles and i got a great mpg of 22,4 at the first (unloaded) test drive over 470 miles.

Front receivers and bike carriers are not allowed in germany. Reason is pedestrian protection. One project can be to change the european hitch to an original American Trailer Hitch with 2" Receiver because there are so much Gimmicks available for these hitches.

And the Alaskan plans are always growing in my head. May be a selfmade "bavarian alaskan" with some changes to make it interesting for europe and my needs. I thik there is no real market for Alaskan in Europe because the best sold Pickups are
Nissan Navara (similar to Frontier) Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi L200 and the actual Ford Ranger. Alaskans are too big and heavy for these trucks. But this can be another thread in the Alaskan section.

Thank you again for your compliments

 

[Rusty]

you're more than welcome Manfred....a fine piece of work...even better using a farm corporation yard for repairs

I have the same truck with a crew cab......I've had more than 4000 pounds...a little over 1800 kilos and it did nicely...my Alaskan, when wet, weighs about 2100 pounds and with the airbags the truck rides like a luxury sedan.

Firestone airbags with an internal gauge set and controls from the cab are a good addition...it will take the turns in a smooth, even attitude without swaying

keep up the good work

 

[Manfred65]

Jayco announced a wet weight of 1354 lbs / 615 kgs incl. Propane and 15 gal of water.

There is a little awning on the roof, AGM Battery + Portable Toilet. The new furnace is more lightweight.
We worked not for a lightweight renovation, but some changes, 9mm walls instead of 1/2" ply, changed insulation, removed jack brackets and camper jacks should help to keep the weight down. If Jayco´s weight was real i hope we can end up around 700 kgs /
1543 lbs.

 

[Manfred65]

Only a little progress today. Most time we worked on cleaning the cabover aluminum panel and doing a test fit.
So we realised that we have to add two wood strips to which we can screw the panels.

Test fit also for the ply-countertop which was already in the camper by the time we bought it. It was screwed to the original (particle board-) countertop to carry the later installed dometic stove. The cabinet was still in the shape like it left the factory. Theres only a little cutting and sanding necessary to fit the new atwood stove in place. Now we wait for the new crane to finish the kitchen area.

 

[Manfred65]

Today we started with placing reinforcements to the cabover. Our wood stripes don´t match with some screw holes on the panels

After the glue has cured we placed the front panel to the cabover:

Then we had to test fit the second panel to make sure we do the correct cutout for the front window.

After this the second panel was placed on the camper, bonded to panel one and screws instead of staples.

This panel was cut a little shorter and the third one is replaced by an aluminium panel we found in the camper when we bought it.
You remeber the cutout for the Nissan Frontier. There was some aluminium missing on the original panels.

Unfortunately there were no 8ft clamps in my workshop.

 

[Manfred65]

Test fit in the kitchen:

The original water crane left two holes in the countertop so we used them for the new crane ( only cold water/no city water connection) and the second hole is closed by a soap dispenser

 

[Manfred65]

....on sunday viola installed the front window:

We also started our work to cover the holes the jack brackets and the first owners left in the panels.
It´s not very stylish for this nice old camper but new panels would have blown our budget by far, sorry.

The aluminium L-profiles are only bonded to the camper by our special body glue.

Measure: 60 x 60 x 3 mm the corners up to the wings. ( ~2 3/8" x 2 3/8" x 1/8" )
70 x 70 x 2,5 mm the upper corners ( ~2 3/4" x 2 3/4" x 1/10")
40 x 40 x 2 mm cabover corners ( ~1.6" x 1.6" x 1/16"+ )

 

[BluesideUp]

I second Rusty's comments, your restore efforts are really first rate workmanship

 

[Manfred65]

....really first rate workmanship..... ???


You need to know another one ?

There are lot´s of things which are not so accurate work. Esp. the aluminium-profiles are not "my job" but i hope to get it done!

 

[Manfred65]

Todays work was to install the last window:

and the newly designed windowsill at the rear window:

The lady needs a place for the flowers

More aluminium-profiles bonded in place:

How to fix the "3-screw-nuts" in place at the rear door frame ?

We used some thick cyanacrylat glue and short cable scraps. It worked great!

 

[Manfred65]

I don´t want to bore you with another aluminium Profile. More on the weekend.
The Screen door got it´s new screen today and the underbed storage got his lid back.

Somebody screwed his License Plate to the Entry door so we have to cover the holes now.

Pic of the finished door on Friday

 

[billharr]

Manfred, just wanted to post and let you know how much I am enjoying your build.

Bill

 

[Manfred65]

Hello Bill,

i am so glad that so many of you are reading my built/renovation. You guys have the biggest TruckCamper experience collected in this forum. I started this thread also with the reason to grab some informations and help if necessary and possible.

I checked out your FWC built and it is very well done and exact fit to your needs. I also considered a FWC but i was afraid in making changes to the frame. Today it there is no possibility to order a custom door, may be for a outside storage . This was a no go.

So i ended up between Alaskan ( my favourite in style, ) Phoenix-popup ( wet bath in the smallest campers ) and an Outfitter Apex8
( the perfect floorplan with the basement, a friend of mine owns one ). Actually there was no money to buy and ship a new or nearly new camper. So we shot this one on ebay-Austria and here we are!

Manfred

 

[Manfred65]

New Screen, the door is original !

Drillholes - Camouflage:

 

[Manfred65]

The Door-frame was our next part. Fitted in place today

Then i supported the roof from the inside and removed the ratchet-straps from the roof. We lowered the popup frame to the wood-frame of the camper.

We were not sure if it would fit! I checked the old pics were i could see that also the original was not perfectly matching.

The rear part fits well, only a few millimeters, the difference between the original plywood and our new HDF-Cover between insulation and outside panels!

A little more difference was in the front. The cabover was rebuilt completely new ! The left side ply was a little bended. So as a result there is a little more difference than original between wood frame and Aluminium popup-frame. But no bigger problems. This will be sealed by Butyl tape and Body Glue when we attach it tomorrow!

 

[Manfred65]

After the "test-fit" yesterday it was time place the popup-frame back to the campers-frame.

First we attached a Butyl-sealing-Tape

and after that we lowered the aluminium frame step by step down to the sealant.

and finally screwed the parts together.

Useful tool to do this work:

All this is easy and fast to read, but there were a lot of tricky details: The 4 tubes of the roof-lift and the dented sheet on the cabover corners, but some unchristian words later the job was already done.

After cleaning the sides from the squeezed out butyl we attached three of the upper corners.

 

[longhorn1]

Enjoyed reading your report. Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[Manfred65]

.......me too. I am out for work these days. In munich there is "Oktoberfest" now. A lot of work for private bus companies like ours....

I can't wait to see the possible upcoming problems with the roof......but, do i want to see this ???