mib
Member
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
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