New to me grandby

[97grandby]

Hi all- newbie on wtw here. I just got back from my 1400 mile road trip to pick up my new to me grandby. I have had the truck since high school and baught it from my uncle that gave me his camper with it. (Old camper listed for sell in the gear section).

Pretty basic options and I'm working on changing that. Two new battery's for 200 amh are ready to be installed along with a new dometic 65l compressor fridge. I'm also changing the 2 burner stove for a 3 burner one. Does anyone else have any mods that are a most do? Thanks for your advice and insights.


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[DrJ]

What a great looking camper!

Have fun with the mods.

Your old camper setup looks pretty sweet too.
Someone will pick that up and make a great project out of it.

 

[craig333]

OH we have mods for you! First though we need to know a little more about your style of camping and assorted stuff. First thing I'd do is toss the jacks if you leave the pavement. Oh, and congrats

 

[longhorn1]

Nice. Happy camping. Post pictures of the interior and any mods.

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[97grandby]

The camper jacks are for sure coming off. The camper will be mounted on this truck full time. My daily driver is a gmc crew cab and has the 5.5 foot bed and didn't really want a smaller camper. Or to spend 30 mins taking the camper on and off each time in coming and going.

I like boon docking almost always. I never go to camp grounds unless I have too. So I will add solar system of some kind. I want a rack on the rear bumper for my spare tire, Honda 2000 generator and a gas can or two. So I'll look around Vegas to find some one that can make me one. (I don't have any wielding or cutting touches at my house.)

The truck has already had about every part I can think of bolted on and more new parts then I would care to list but it's up and running strong. Only has 113k miles. Not bad for a 25 year old rig. I'll post some pictures of the fridge and battery set up. Trying to get some things done before a 3 day camping trip this weekend at the coral sand dunes.


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[97grandby]

Forgot to add this picture of the old camper and the new camper on at the same time. I will miss the old camper. Lots of good years left in it. I had fun working on it but just don't have the time to do a full rebuild like I wanted and I've seen on the boards. It works great now but as the song goes, times, they are a changing.


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[GroovyDad]

Nice fit for your truck.

 

[Kyrazy]

What's wrong with the old one?

Looks just like ours.

 

[takesiteasy]

Looks great! Love that old truck.

 

[97grandby]

Just got done adding a compressor fridge. I put in a stainless steel dometic 65l. It's much smaller then I would like, but it fits. I was very happy to find it was pre-wired for a fridge and also had propane set up for a 3-way. Only took about 30 mins. I added two 100 amh 12v batts as well. That took another 30-45 mins. All and all not bad considering the truck as been at my house less then 24 hours and the mods are well on their way. I still have some trim work and need to figure out how to re-route the 110 when I am plugged into shore power.


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[DrJ]

That looks great. Nice job!!!

I don't think your model is wired with a converter, so shore power may have some different options.
Major decision is whether to power the fridge directly from 110 volt or to have the 110 volt charge the battery while it is running the fridge.


One option is to wire in a converter than wire the converter to your fuse panel (110 power converted to 12 volt to run your system)
Or put in a battery charger that is powered by 110 volt that just charges your batteries directly (110 power to battery charger that converts it to 12 volt to charge the batteries).

Another options would be to wire a 110 outlet to your fridge that runs whenever you are plugged in.

I would think the easiest answer is to plug in a battery charger from a 110 oultet that just charges your batteries.

Maybe someone who has done this mod or FWC could give us some better direction here.

 

[Cayuse]

If you are going to be boondocking most of the time I'd skip getting fancy with the 110. Put a couple of 100W solar panels on top and use those to charge the batteries and run the fridge/lights/furnace.

Since I've put my panels on top I've never bothered to plug in to shore power even when it was available.

As always YMMV

 

[97grandby]

I already had this on the truck it's an off road bumper my kid brother modified to fit in my truck. The step was made by my dad for another project, but it has now found a new home. Perfect height to get in and out of the truck. Even my 5 year old climbs up and down with out missing a beat. The led tail lights and led flood lights make backing up much easier at night. I live in Nevada so I have the windows tinted pretty dark and still no problems seeing what's behind me.


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[Trailbob]

Nice camper! Two mods I did to my Hawk that we have really enjoyed are:

-A Trimetric 2030 RV battery monitor to accurately keep track of your power use. They also make a solar controller that works in combination with this monitor.

-A catalytic heater (such as a Wave 3) for quiet heat without using the batteries.

Have fun with the new project!

 

[97grandby]

I have a wave 3 from my last camper so just trying to figure out where to mount it. Just got back from the first office camping trip for 3 nights with my 5 year old son and had a lot of fun. Still getting things organized and figuring out what to keep in the camper and what to leave at home in this rig. I'm really considering moving the fridge to just behind the driver in empty space and putting in an Atwood 3 burned oven in its place. Knowing propane is already in the fridges current location is a huge plus in the choice. Plus the fridge should easy fit under the bed slide out and give me a lot more counter space.
Has any one else changed and moved appliances around?
Do any of you carry a small microwave? Might be pretty nice to have if I found the right one. Thanks again for your tips and advice.


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[craig333]

A few of us have microwaves. I try not to use it for more than just a couple of minutes.

 

[97grandby]

Which microwave do you use? I want about the smallest one I can find.


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[craig333]

I just went to Kmart and got the cheapest 600 watter they had. So far its done pretty well considering the torture its been through. I figured it would be cheaper to just replace it when it died than try and find a more rugged unit.

 

[97grandby]

Got back from my first trip and it started off on the wrong foot. Trailer popped off the hitch while loading my utv and drove the hitch right though my rear door. So I'll be repairing that. But other then that was a lot of fun.


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[97grandby]

Picture of the damage. Goes all the way through. I found a diamond panel kick plate I'm going to use to patch it up.


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