Renovating a Kestrel

[mib]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum, because yesterday we bought a quite used Kestrel FWC for our Dodge truck. We, that is me and my wife, living in Palo Alto, CA. We camped in our truck for some months with a camper shell (no problem with the drought), but said if a good FWC pops up on craigslist for a good price we will buy it. So it was, and now we own one. Although made for the Tundra, the camper almost fits on our 99 Dodge Ram - I put some 3.5" wood underneath after reading about Kestrels and for hauling it home, but it turns out I now have 2.5" over the rails and 4" over the cab. So we'll probably end up with a 1" plywood board underneath with a slide-out table next to the door (have some ideas in mind and will hopefully get it done on the weekend).
But first, we need to renovate the camper a little. It hasn't been abused, but certainly more used than cleaned and the previous owner couldn't clean it before selling it. We'll put it in our garden for a week or two and mop through, likely repaint the furniture and put in a new floor. We've been using a vanagon for over 10 years (incl. half a year full-timing Europe to India), so we know quite well what we want and need in a camper.

There's some things I don't like at the current setup that I will change, and I hope that some people here can help me with their experience:

- AC battery charger: I don't think we ever need to plugin the camper. I will upgrade to some other battery managment system, as I don't like the sole solenoid-based switch to the AGM battery (it's a rather new Optima Bluetop - just hooking it to the 13.5V minus loss due to tiny cables is a really good way to kill its potential, of not the whole battery). We will also add solar panels sooner or later, so no need for the AC charger, old tech anyway.
Question: how do it take it out best, at least the ridiculously huge cable? I think our camper has the stock Hawk cabinet and I don't know which panels I should take out best to get to the charger.
I will replace the loading system either with a CTEK Dual (served us well in our Vanagon and does charge with approx. 15A), or a Lithium-based battery system.

- if anybody has a wiring diagram of the whole camper (around 2003 Hawk or Kestrel), that would be great. Just makes it all so much easier.

- to those who switched the rooflight to one with a fan: is the supposedly existing prewiring hot, or is there any switch to it? For a start, I'll propably just throw in a large, quiet PC vent.

Our camper came with an icebox, no cooler. I'm trying to figure out which way to go now (the icebox was broken anyway and was one of the first things to go. I'll probably end up using the compressor box we have in Europe.

Other little things is switching to LED (likely with upgrading bulbs and using some of the cheapo-China-strips), adding some airline tracks inside and out for cargo, etc. etc.

I'll try to keep things here updated and post pictures.
For now, there's only one, as the truck is parked in the driveway:




Best,
Mike

 

[billharr]

Congrats on the camper. On my 2002 Hawk I added a fantastic fan. When I pulled off the vent there were two wire for the fan. Don't remember if there were hot or I had to add a fuse.

Lots of good information on builds here.

Bill

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Congrats Mike. Welcome to the family.
You can get a lot of help from the factory. Email Stan ...stan@fourwh.com or Brenda (service manager) brenda@fourwh withe the serial number and they will tell you what wiring came with your build.

Consider replacing your ice box with a compressor fridge from Engle or Waeco, or one of the other brands listed on this site. Four Wheel has links to these companies on their website.

Attending a rally will also help. Next one is in San Clemente, Ca end of October.

 

[kmcintyre]

I would "warn" you that I did a similar renovation a while back and the more you do, the more you update. Eventually I pretty much did the whole camper; countertops, vinyl, lights, pad, upholstery, floor, etc., etc. While you are at it, I would clean, inspect, etc. the furnace. I re-caulked most seams, screws, etc. I put in a CO/smoke detector, wiring, usb ports, etc. Oh, the battery wiring and separator were added too. I can't think of much that was left really but this year when I take it off the camper, I'll refinish/paint the wood.

Have fun! Lots of great ideas and help out there!

 

[mib]

Thanks for the answers.
I emailed FWC and got some responses. Where can I find the serial number?
@billharr: a fantastic vent is worth a consideration. I guess for a start I'll do it with a PC vent that lies around in our vanagon.
@Jim: yes, that was the first thing I did this morning - measuring the compartment of the cooler box I ripped out yesterday. It turns our that it's exactly the size (depth x width) that our Kissmann compressor box has. That's a small company from Munich/Germany, but it turns out they're just as sturdy as Engel (we are from there and here in the states for some time. Our vanagon is sleeping at the moment back home, and all the equipment in it as well).
I'll fly home in 3 weeks anyway for a brief visit, so let's see if I can check in a compressor fridge on a plane.
@kmcintyre: thanks, I'm well aware of what's coming. This would be about the 4th camper interior we're building, so we know how it escalates.
Yesterday I was wondering whether it makes sense to take out the vertical panels of the couch, to get it cleaned better (I figured out quite some of the smell - not stink, but definitely present, characteristic for old plywood that has been wet - comes from there).

Well, and yes you're right we went on to rip out the whole couch, everything around the water tank, the kitchen front panel, the whole cooler box cabinet, the faucet, the whole floor...


but I think that's it for now. We managed to get a ton of dust out of it, half a dog (at least the hair), some leftovers from a mouse that liked the FWC just as much as we do and obviously tried to like an aspirin bottle - and some cumin and a bottle of maple sirup.

 

[mib]

Most of the wood is cleaned, sanded a bit, and painted once. We tried to get the paint well on the cut edges to prevent this odour to come back again… let’s see. Right now the camper smells rather neutral, with some note of febreze.




I’m surprised how well the wood-spax survived in the camper. I had worse experience than this one with off-piste driving and plywood. In our vanagon there is no spax actually – everything bolted through.
Some things I found weird:

• what’s the cabinet to the front, next to the water pump? There’s a shoebox (as we called it) that wastes tons of space and has no structural function except for 1 stabilizing screw. We’ll replace it with one vertical divider, and the compartment will be way larger
• 
• 
  
  
• 
• What’s the construction for the rear end of the couch? 5 plywood sheets.. Maybe we’ll replace it with some bent metal.
• 

So what’s next: make sure the color is fine, and then throw it all back in. As flooring, we’ll look for some laminate wood. At home Depot, they only had 4 different ones that didn’t match the colors. So back to Amazon. I decided the battery box will go in front of the wheel well into the truck bed. Fits right in and is easy for wiring. I’ll skip the IOTA stuff and get a CTEK Dual right on top of the battery (either the one from the vanagon or buy one here, they’re half the price as compared to Germany). Then run the + and – cable from the inside of the camper out, wiring for the truck shouldn’t be hard then. Plus, we’ll likely get a flexible 100W-solar panel for on the truck (thus no hassle with wiring onto the camper roof, just the 1m line down to the CTEK Dual).

By the way: that water hose that runs from the tank to the back, next to the door: there's a tiny faucet which is broken at our camper. Is that a winterizing and outdoor valve? Is it a standard size to replace? Can anybody tell me how the tube is attached to the faucet on the inside - can I screw it off and just replace it?

The upholstery is rather new, the PO renewed it some time ago. Same goes for the water tank.

So long…we’re in God’s hands I guess. Hope we get it all together soon. In 2.5 weeks we're on a trip to Yosemite with some friends. Would be a shame to sleep in the camper shell then.

Mike

 

[Beach]

Welcome to the site, lots of good info. here. Wiring for the fan should be in place, on/off is switched at the fan. Nice that you found the extra space in the fwd cabinet, I removed the "shoe box" also. You might want to make a plate or something to cover the over sized hole where the wires and hoses route so things don't fall through. Since your going to add solar, your on target with a 12v comp. fridge. I bought a used Hawk with a 3 way fridge already in place and it struggles once the ambient temp gets into the 90's. My rig has a single 50 watt panel and it keeps up with our 12v needs just fine, battery has never gotten below 12.4v, changed out the light bulbs for LED is a plus.We never switch to the truck charge system, except one time when the truck battery took a dump, threw the switch and jumped off the house battery. .Good advice from Kmcintyre about chaulking and checking all screws for tightness, several of mine took 1/4 to 1/2 turn to snug up. I would also add to that, recoating the exterior wood, my paint guy recommended a oil based porch/floor paint for it's durability and it works well.