Remounting the Alaskan Top

[Kansafornia]

A question for the group: For those of you who built a new top for your Alaskan away from it's base, how did you remount the top?

I only have a few tasks left to complete before remounting my Alaskan's top shell to its bottom and have been thinking about how best to do that very task. I'd love to hear how you did it and what both worked/didn't work at all.

Dad always said that it was typically easier - and cheaper! - to learn from someone else's mistakes and wins than to recreate either unknowingly. As such, I look forward to your comments and insights.

 

[Dr.Science]

After making sure the slides were correctly aligned, mostly it was a matter of fitting lots of spacer blocks until the top was low enough to engage the slides and bolt up the hydraulic tubes. Then pressurize the system, lower away, and run it up and down a few times to check for smooth operations, no leaks, and correct fore/aft valve settings.

 

[Kansafornia]

Yessir, all great points and solid insight! Thank you.

I was thinking more in regard to how one actually lifts the top into place. How have folks physically lifted their Alaskan's newly built/rebuilt top half from its build location to remount it onto the lower half?

I can recreate that proverbial wheel, however... If anyone has done this with their Alaskan I'd love to hear what you did and what did/didn't work.

 

[dastrom]

Yessir, all great points and solid insight! Thank you.

I was thinking more in regard to how one actually lifts the top into place. How have folks physically lifted their Alaskan's newly built/rebuilt top half from its build location to remount it onto the lower half?

I can recreate that proverbial wheel, however... If anyone has done this with their Alaskan I'd love to hear what you did and what did/didn't work.

I rebuilt the top seperate on my 8' '75 C/O. I was lucky enough to have a tall open ended shed and used 4 come-alongs to lift the top high enough to back the base underneath on a trailer. Took a while to get the base lined up under the trailer. To complicate things I had removed the hydraulics since I cut a foot off the back and made it into a 7' and then had to rebuild the cabinets. I also replaced the back on the top and bottom. I took me a while to figure out where to reinstall the sliders on the back and get them parallel and aligned. I let down the come-alongs a little bit, one at a time, which took a while and was quite sketchy but I was doing it by myself and it was what I had. If I had to do it again I would have reinstalled the hydraulics first and lower it enough to engage the hydraulic tubes. Then install the back sliders and then the front ones using the hydraulics to raise up and down to get everything aligned. Hope this makes sense!!

 

[Kansafornia]

Thx for the replies!

In the end... 5 of my framers and my son helped me lift and align the top. Took all of about 5 minutes to mount and align - given the ready availability of manpower. It was much easier than anticipated.

Some pics...

https://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/gallery/image/24976-alaskan-topon-a08/
https://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/gallery/image/24973-alaskan-topon-a04/
https://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/gallery/image/24974-alaskan-topon-a05/
https://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/gallery/image/24975-alaskan-topon-a06/

Tomorrow I plan to address my dilapidated, original cushions.

 

[dastrom]

Thx for the replies!

In the end... 5 of my framers and my son helped me lift and align the top. Took all of about 5 minutes to mount and align - given the ready availability of manpower. It was much easier than anticipated.

Haha! Took me longer than that to type a reply to your question!! Glad it went well!

 

[Bos_Trok]

Looks great! glad it went so smoothly. Jealous of that new paint job.
Can I ask what's that horn looking thing hanging from your boat rack in the back? Looks like recent thrift score by the hanging tag.

 

[Kansafornia]

Bos_Trok, excellent question my friend!

I love my '63 Alaskan and, as such, have been trying to outfit her with as many "time-period-specific" items wanted that I can find. I've scoured Bay Area antique shops with my youngest son (the heir apparent to our Alaskan as he's been my partner in crime in her buildout).

What you've notice in those epics is actually a '1963 mfr multi-function torch (aka flashlight) manufactured for the Great Northern Pacific Railroad corp specifically for it's Line Mechanics. My son gave that to me last year for Christmas and I've since gutted the unit and rebuilt it in LED. In fact, it's sooooo incredibly bright that its a bit frightening to other campers. :-D. The unit has a 'glow mode' to light up an area in a soft yellow ambient light and another side with >750 Lumen blind the campsite next to you lighting.

Wrt time.period.specific, our latest search is for Korea-era, sectional metal food trays. My parents had a 1969(?) CO when we lived in Alaska ('70-'73). To this day my most vivid memories of that camper are 1) of the light above the table - and our camper has a near exact replica from '63 - and 2), of the metal food trays that my father (then 1st Lieutenant) freshly back from Vietnam had outfitted our camper's galley. Needless to say, I'm on the lookout for similar trays for our Alaskan.