Floor Covering

Andrew Kley and Andi Covault (Andrew is stationed at Ft. Sill near Lawton, OK) are also building the camper and relayed an idea to me for the floor.  I installed rubber foam interlocking tiles sold for gym floors and the like.  Installed today--here is the result:

I'm happy say I'm very pleased with it and glad Andy and Andi alerted me to the idea.  The painted floor looked good, but was very slippery and easily scratched.  This flooring has a little "give" to it, good traction, and will provide a bit more insulation.  Also very easy to install.  If you put down this type of flooring I see no reason to varnish or paint.

Mushroom Vent Problem

Everything went very well on my initial trip.  One small problem was that I drove home through some heavy rain and, though the cabin was mostly very dry, about an ounce or two of water came in through the front vents.  I suspected the vent flanges, which have a cut-out section for some reason:

I looked again at the photo in the manual and it appears they left the flange off (and didn't bother to tell us).  *

I removed one of the flanges, but now find that I will need a shorter bolt to enable the cover to close. 

I wrote CLC to verify all this, and if I am correct will point it out in the bulletin board (and update this post).

* In the meantime, I decided to go back through the instructions and now I see the a phrase I missed on page 373, ". . . we elected to remove the middle vent screen . . . . "   They do not mention that you will need to replace the 5/16 x 1 1/2" hex bolts with 5/16 x 1" hex bolts.  Otherwise you will not be able to close the cover all the way with the middle screen no longer there.

AFTER MORE STUDY I have learned that what CLC calls a "middle vent screen" is actually a rain baffle and that it is possible the weather stripping they have you add blocks it from doing its job properly.  If my "solution" does not do the job I will put the rain baffles back in and remove the weather stripping.  It's also possible, though, that putting the flange on the inside of the cabin is causing problems.  Water infiltration is one of the hardest problems to solve on any project.  I'll just have to keep trying!

Shakedown Cruise

One purpose of the shakedown cruise is to bounce around on the roads a bit and see if anything comes loose.  It seems to have passed the test but I'll check every nut and bolt I can get to (especially the trailer-mounting bolts) and make sure they are tight.

As you can see I mounted the kayak (another CLC product I built about 10 years ago) on the camper.  That's a 17 foot kayak--makes the camper look kind of small.   I drove it around the block two or three times making adjustments until I felt it was safe.  Then I took a deep breath and drove it out on the open road.  Drove a couple miles to a filling station (needed gas anyway) and re-checked everything.  I also got all the interested looks and compliments I was hoping for.  🙋

I then drove north a bit on the highway and got it up to 65 MPH.  Seemed very stable.  Will I drive it with kayak on a several-hundred mile trip?  I'll have to think about it for a while, but I don't think it will be a problem.

Just About Done

 Starting to install the liner panels.  These are made of a tough, 3/4" MiniCel foam.  The liners will help to insulate the camper and prevent condensation from forming on the walls and ceiling.

 A few more panels have been added.  You can probably see a couple triangular gaps.  I'll fill those in later with scraps of foam.  Fellow builders may notice the mounting for the side light is at the rear of the door instead of the front.  I did that because I'm going to install reading lights on the front wall.  You can barely see some wires for one of the lights poking through just above the ventilation grille.

 I used screw-in anchors to mount the lights, after cutting off the "drill" ends to make the anchors 3/4" long.  The only problem was they turned too freely so I added a little CA glue to the threads.

And here is one of the lights mounted.  Feels very solid.

The liner installed.  I wish I had understood a few things about it better before I started.  It's functional, but has several goofs.  Won't be showing it off to the public! :)   Moving the side light to the rear of the door separates the lights better, but it also means the boss for mounting the upper fairlead is now in the wrong place.  I put "Gorilla Tape" there to protect the wood--will probably have to replace it from time-to-time.

Well there are some loose ends yet to tie, e.g., install the side lights when they come in and install the replacement actuator rods.  I have not yet begun building the storage box that mounts in front.  That is a pretty big project in itself, but in the meantime I can use the camper as is.  I even put the mattress in and took a nap on it--very comfortable.

Getting Very Close to Finishing

Two 4 1/2" holes have been cut in the front (shown here) and two in the rear quarter-panels for "mushroom" vents.  My good friend and neighbor, Joe Welch, helped  me install the vents--one of several jobs I can't do by myself since I don't have 8-foot arms.

Next came roof rack installation.  Paper templates are provided to make sure the holes for the racks are properly placed.

Here is one of four sets of holes that were very carefully drilled, guided by the template.

Four "bosses" were provided to use when attaching the rack brackets.  The bosses are curved on the bottom to match the curvature of the shell.  The bosses received two coats of epoxy, and here they are shown after three coats of varnish.

I skipped photographing a few steps, but here are the roof racks mounted in place.

 Next came installation of the galley hatch.  I simply had to install the hinge pins and the gas lifts, shown here holding the hatch open.  The hinge pins are bolts, so heat-shrink tubing was placed over the threads so they don't chafe the holes in the hinges.

Finally a hasp was installed for locking the hatch.

And on to the doors.  First step was to install the windows.  The protective covering has been left in place on the outside for now.  It had to be removed from the inside surface so sealant could be applied directly to the windows.

 Here's a shot of the inside of a (mostly) finished door.  There is supposed to be a rod extending from the handle to the bottom of the door, similar to the one going to the top but the one I had was too short.  I'm waiting for a new one to come in next week.  There is a webbing strap stretched from top to bottom.  When the door is cut out, it flattens a bit and doesn't quite match the body.  The strap pulls it back into shape and also serves as a convenient grab handle for closing the door.  You can also see one of the installed mushroom vents just to the right of the door.

The closed door.  A pretty good fit.  Foam weather stripping is holding it out just a bit, but it is uniform all the way around, and I suspect will crush down and let the door in a little further as time passes.

I moved the camper outside for several reasons: To show it off to the neighborhood, and to get better ventilation when I'm gluing in the interior liner.

I also wanted to test the solar panel.  It seems to be working great according to the lights on the charge controller and the readings on my battery monitor.

The panel is  mounted with suction cups.  There has been much discussion on line about where best to place the panel.  Any permanent spot has disadvantages.  It determines which way you park, and the sun moves, so do you keep moving the camper?  I decided to solve the problem this way:  The panel will be stored inside the camper when traveling (so it won't be charging then, but I won't be running any electrics either).  When I camp I can quickly set it up.  In hot weather, though, I don't really want to park in the sun, so I've ordered an extension for the charger line that will allow me to park in the shade and place the panel out in the sun.  Oh, and there is a "hull-through" opening so I don't have to leave the door open when using the solar panel.

About all I have left to do is install the interior liner and add some "fairleads" for the door actuator rods to fit into.  I may have missed something but it can't be much.

More Varnishing, Electrics Installation, and Galley Module

 This is after the final coat of varnish on the shell.  Looks pretty good, but I did find a few "holidays" still--probably showing through from previous coats.  I found I could greatly improve the looks of those areas with Helmsman Glossy aerosol spray.  Not quite as glossy as the rolled-on varnish, but still OK.  You can see one area to the left that looks a little duller, e.g.  Might look nice just to spray the whole camper, but I'm going to quit here.

I'm varnishing the doors and hatch cover on the back porch.  Conditions are about perfect--lows around 50, highs in upper 70s.  I varnish in the mornings while it is cool and finding it much easier to  maintain a wet edge.  This would not be a good idea with a first coat on bare wood, because out-gassing as the day warms would produce bubbles.  But over epoxy or previous coats of varnish--no problem.

Here are some of the electrical parts being installed--shown from inside the galley.  They will be covered up by the galley module.  On  the upper left is the stereo, battery monitor to the right of that.  Lower-left is a gang of six toggle switches, to it's right three dual USB ports (for charging) and one cigarette-lighter style 12 volt port, and in the lower right the master power switch.  The switch gang includes fuses and since everything either goes through that or has it's own fuse, I decided I did not need the fuse box. Not much room in there.

And here's a view of all those items seen from inside the cabin.

And so the wiring begins.  What a mess!  Lots of fun, though.  That really long cable bundled up in the lower right is the data feed to the battery monitor.  It is merely a standard UTP cable (similar to an Ethernet cable but with five pins on the plugs instead of six).  So, I ordered a crimper and a bunch of connectors so I can shorten the cable to about 8 inches.

 Here's the electrics pretty much all finished.  I have made a few minor improvements since I took the picture, but nothing that would show up on camera.

And here's a wider shot showing the speakers.  You can barely see a wire covered with white tape  on the upper right.  That is part of the radio antenna and I couldn't figure out any better way to deal with it.  It did not pick up very much if left down where it would be inside the galley module.  I like this antenna much better than the rod style that I would have to install on the outside of the shell. 

 And here is the galley  module temporarily installed.  As you can see all the electrics are hidden (except the radio antenna).  I still have to strap down the battery, then I can anchor the module in place.  The only battery boxes I can find are huge compared to the battery I have, so I'm just going to put the strap directly on the battery.  Since it is a sealed battery, I don't think there will be a problem.

The electrics as seen from above with the battery-access door open.

And a closer (although off-center) view of the battery and other electrics.  That bit of wire you see on the left will be used to attach the solar panel to the voltage regulator and battery.  I haven't installed it yet as I  need to find some kind of hull-through device for it.

Varnishing Continues

After six coats.  Looks really good but I can still find dull areas where the varnish is a little thin.  I'll do one more coat, but that's going to have to be enough.  May not quite look like a new car finish, but I think it will look great.  NOTE:  The color looks so different on shell from the below shots of the doors and hatch cover because of the different lighting (LED vs. sunlight).  I don't bother to color-correct all these photos.

In order to be able to keep working while all this varnishing of the shell is going on, I talked about varnishing the galley hatch cover and doors inside the house, but the odor would be much too strong.  I've decided to take care of this job on the back porch.  We've had a lot of rain and it is fairly humid right now and still getting pretty cool at night, so I decided to start with the insides of the items.  I discovered Minwax Helmsman (an excellent marine varnish) has an aerosol spray version, so I am using it for this job.  One advantage is that all three coats can be done within three hours.  Also, since we are having the rains, yes the humidity is a bit high, but there is no dust blowing around.

The doors and the galley hatch cover after one coat.  Not bad, but I wouldn't want to varnish the outside this way.  Hard to get the thickness even and besides it would be a really expensive way to go.

This is after three coats.  That's the trim ring for the ventilation hatch on the floor.  Some areas are a little glossier where I got the paint thicker (this may also be due to fairly high humidity--about 65%).  It all looks plenty good for the inside of the camper.  I plan to use this method for the galley module also, but I will do that in the garage under more controlled conditions.  I want it to look nice, but trying to get to all the little nooks and crannies with a roller and brush would be really difficult. 

Anyway, a major varnishing job is done!  Tomorrow I'll turn all these parts over and start on their outsides (unless it is still too humid).