New to Forum with New/used hawk shell

[marty]

And be very careful if you are going to use a 6 inch hole saw and a 1/2 inch drill to make those access holes. It can be a wild ride and a painful one. I am not even going to haha that one. But I can send you some track and doors to cover the holes if you let us know the size. have fun.

 

[davinski]

Wow, way cool to hear all this stuff. Amazing what insight you get when you actually have a camper in front of you!

Anyhow, Marty, the track for my access holes is coming off on 2 of them....do you guys just glue or stable these on?

dave

 

[marty]

We staple them on with 1/2 long by 1/4 crown. So you already had the access holes ? Then it should have had the eye nuts also. unless it only had two access holes. You will find that these campers are normally friendly to work on. Some stuff is a little complicated but in general they were made to be worked on. What I mean is not much is built with so many staples coming from the back that it is imposable to take apart. Have a nice day.

Marty

 

[gvitek]

New/used hawk shell

I'm only into my Hawk for a year now but I recently tore out an eyebolt (see Baja Hole). The eyebolts in the 2006 model are placed vertically to the "shoulder" of the camper. In my opinion, 4W did a poor job in installing the eyebolts. There should be at least a large washer (2" or more) on either side of the plywood. My OEM installation only had a large washer on the bottom half and so the eyebolt tore out through the plywood. I plan to add some more plywood and reinstall the eyebolt using hefty washers this time.

I have the installation instructions for mounting the eyebolts in the truck (2 pages) if you would like me to email them to you.

 

[davinski]

Wow, I'd love to have those directions.

davinski (at) earthlink.net

muchos gracias.

dave

 

[Sam]

Thanks for all the info. I got the eye bolts installed and just got back from the new/used campers maiden voyage. Started in Death Valley and headed North up Hwy 395 to Mammoth and Tahoe. All went well and I was very pleased with the camper.

Before I had used the camper I was pretty sure I wanted to change the layout of the camper dramaticaly. My initial thoughts were; not enough storage, I don't want to cook inside, and the ice box was a waste of space.....Boy was I wrong. After actualy using the camper it became clear that the FWC folks came up with a very good, usable set-up. Now I will leave things pretty much the way they are, and just give the camper a little facelift.

gvitek: Thanks for sharing your story, I have read several posts about turnbuckles coming loose, poping off, and now your incident. I went with a heavy duty eyebolt/turnbuckle with no hooks so there will be no chance of coming unhooked. It seems like the weaklink now is the plywood. Ben, Marty, it seems like you guys could weld a plate/crossmember in the frame of the campers and secure the eyebolts through there?

I have enclosed some pictures of the trip, and the eyebolt/turnbuckle install.

Thanks again everyone.