You will increase the cool down time and reduce the efficiency if you sidewall vent. If you go that way, add a fan in the vent. The roof vents are very problem free in terms of leaks and easy to seal. I would not sidewall vent unless I had to do so such as with the fridge in a slide.

Just my two cents worth on that,

Steve

 

I talked to our shop foreman and he said he can build me whatever custom cabinets I want so I'm going that route, that and further inspection of the doors show some mold damage and I don't want to chance it. This TH sat in a field from 2006 or 07 until we bought it in 2014. Still, for $900. its one heck of a lot cheaper than buying everything new.

Back to the cabinets - I have a problem. The problem is my boss told me about some real light weight wood one of the salesmen told him about. I got a sample and brought it home to show Steve "before" checking on the price. It 3/4" balsawood board, durable and only weighs 31.75 lbs for a 4x8' board, which is great since tongue weight is a concern. A 3/4" sheet of ply is just over 64 lbs.

I should have checked the price before showing it to Steve because Holy sh....t!!! my cost is $200.00 a 4x8 sheet. I found the price out yesterday because its not something our supplier stocks (wonder why) so she had to research it. My boss only gave me a certain allowance for cabinets/wood/labor before its going to cost me and even if we only used this wood for the cabinets in front of the axles, that would be all we get, unfinished wood. Steve & I need to discuss the options again.

We have a little 3000 Honda that will fit in the storage area when we need to take a generator. The Onan 5500 that was in the donor works but man is that thing huge and way more than what we need. I'm not entirely sure we'll ever pull this camper with the Jeep but he wants it to be an option. Our F350 Dually will more than handle this little 18 footer.

 

Steve, all of your cents and experience is much appreciated. This is the type of thing its best to know while in the build stage.

Thank you.

 

If you do not want to go with the high dollar board, I wonder if you can find cabinet doors in composite on eBay or even just RV cabinet doors. Composites are really big in the industry because of the weight savings.

I rebuilt the back of a fifth wheel not long ago and the two 4x8 matching sheets of paneling I got with crating and shipping set me back $326.

Yeah, the 5,500 is huge. You should be able to sell it, if you are not going to use it. We have a Yamaha 2,000 and 2,400 and also tow with a F350 dually which is kind of nuts for our 26-foot fifth wheel. The 2,400 will usually pull the AC, but it really screams. I put solar and a 2,000 watt inverter/charger in our fiver, not an easy fit, but you will not find it, unless you know where to look. I used a 50-amp distribution center for the breakers, but split the distribution so one side is fed only by the shoreline and one by the shoreline or the inverter. That made a pretty sanitary installation without a second box.

I worry about you using the the Jeep as a tow vehicle, but I guess that is just me.

We also dry camp or else state parks or the National Forest in the Smokies. Right now I am looking at large fifth wheel at the repo auction as a donor for whatever we come up with next.

Steve

 

Its amazing with all of the damage in the front of the donor that the glass shower stall didn't break.



The shower is going to sit right smack in the middle of the V with the toilet to the left. We're not putting a sink in here since we'll have limited space. Don't really see a need for one anyway.

The only cabinet I plan for the bathroom is right at the entry door. Space permitting, I want an open cabinet for storing shoes/boots when you first walk into the camper with a cabinet 20" deep for hanging jackets right above it. Any vacant space like behind the shoe/boot cabinet will be additional storage in the bathroom. I won't know for sure how to design this cabinet though until we get to do actual measurements but we have allowed for a 18"ish wide cabinet. The bathroom door will be between this cabinet and the kitchen cabinet.

 

Can you post a link to what kind of composite material you're talking about? Not the doors but the material itself. I pretty much have my mind set on flat panel doors with an awesome new Pionite laminate color they just came out with.

BTW, the cabinet shop I work at mfg's commercial cabinets only so we don't run into this weight issue. We build them to last forever.

Ouch................

I'll have to show this part to my Steve too.

I highly doubt we ever tow this camper with the CJ. Most Jeep events we go to are local and if we go any distance we load the truck camper in the dually and the Jeep on a trailer. I like that soooooooo much better.

I guess once we have a bathroom I won't be able to call it primitive anymore. Dry Camping, I like that.

 

I'll see if I can find composites. They display them at industry shows, but I have never look for them.

 

More interior stuff we took out.

The stereo and speakers are a must.



Not sure that we'll use all 4 speakers but I really like these ceiling mount ones. I imagine 4 speakers would be overkill.



The AC roof vent brings us to another issue.


We want to keep the thermostat since it also controls the furnace and don't really want to spend however much it is to convert to the non-central AC vent unit. We're also not going to run any ductwork anywhere. Here's Steve's idea: Since our roof space is like 2" and the donor's is 4", he wants to build 2" aluminum tubing to secure the vent to with cutouts on the inside of the tubing where the donor has ductwork and cutouts on the outside of the tubing to direct the forced air to the front & back of the camper. Would we need to put some kind of insulation on the inside of the tubing along with the outside of it to help control condensation from dripping? Any suggestions on the type of insulation?

 

I am going to propose something simpler. You have a small camper and likely will not be closing things off with doors. Keep the set-up you have, You will have to do a little work I think to trim back the short piece of ductwork that dumps down for the rooftop unit into the grill. Forget the ductwork, you don' need it. Open the cold air dump on the ceiling grill in your graphic and fabricate a very simple diverter that will take no more than 2" inches at the ceiling and throws air front to back. Nothing to insulate and almost not money or time.

i have never done what I am proposing, but can see no reason it would not work.

 

I am not sure you even want to mess with this, but here is the URL for the largest RV salvage in the United States Colaw RV Used Parts - We Have Your Part.... If I were trying to track salvage parts, cabinets doors, etc., I likely would look here.

In the olden days Winnebago used to have a huge warehouse in Iowa right down from the plant where I used to spend hours, but for reasons unknown to me they did away with it.

 

Correction: I just had Steve read this whole thing. I only have 2 corrections to this thread so far.

1. The trailer needs to be less than 9' on the drivers side.

2. He said he never had any intention of pulling it with the Jeep. Maybe I was thinking of when we bought the pop-up?

If that's all I got wrong so far, I'm doing good.

 

I forgot to mention that we are not using the axles from the donor. Instead we went with torsion axles.

Time for the outriggers to complete the frame.



and here's the completed frame.

 

We are using 1-1/2" aluminum box tubing for the shell.

The walls are being constructed as you would for a house.



Once the first wall is squared and fit it was taken back off and used to square up the other side.



Both walls are done and clamped in place.



That's all for now.

 

Nice. I have a 25' lightweight camper that has had some water damage, I would like to do a similar build on it's frame, but more like a Silver Streak.
What are you going to skin it with?

 

We're going to use a heavy gauge aluminum sheeting with stainless torx screws. We could get by with a lesser gauge like they do with cargo trailers but hopefully we won't end up with the wavy sides like you see on many of the cargo trailers. I think the color is called sand stone.