lots of water damage in ceiling - Page 4

looking4fun · 10-14-2014, 07:15 PM

hey everyone! Took the camper out last weekend for the first time since the rebuild. I wanted to take it out sooner but being a parent I have learned you never have time to do anything you want to do. lol but back to the camper. It worked great.! Everything worked exactly as it should. I had no issues and with my new truck to pull it I was very happy with the camper and the entire trip. I added 2 27 series batteries to the tongue and found out that they will run the heater at least for one night. The other nights I was connected to my uncle's generator. Also learned my 6' tall frame really doesn't fit that good in the shower but I was able to make myself fit. I did however ended up fixing my uncles camper. His batteries weren't charging when hooked up to the generator. Turned out to be a blown fuse on his 120VAC to 12vDC converter. Took about 30 min to find the converter and another hours to get to the store to buy a new fuse. Then my cousin comes over asking me to take a look at his camper. His water wasn't working but found out he had to turn a valve to open the fresh water tank to the pump. simple fix. lol Over all it was a great weekend with family! looking forward for many more happy trips!

Offspring22 · 10-15-2014, 08:26 AM

Congratulations! You are no officially the RV Tech of the family! You can expect any group camping experience to be partially filled with troubleshooting and repairs. Remember to collect your fee of beer before, during and after each repair!

michellep · 10-15-2014, 05:13 PM

Congratulations is right! Great job. You're very talented.

looking4fun · 04-22-2015, 07:18 PM

Hey everybody! Not much to update but figure I would tell you of my future plans with my fun finder. I just purchased a portable a/c unit for the camper. After a bunch of research I purchased a 9000btu dual hose unit. I should fit under the sink/stove and I'm going to frame out the old fridge vent (intake) and make that the intake, not sure where the exhaust will be yet. One step at a time. Along with painting the roof, building a heat shield for the furnace, and moving a light, I'm going to be building a bumper to mount a small container for sewer stuff and mount a hitch for a bike rack. Eventually I'm going to build a bunk for my daughter until then she is in the pack n play. Starting yo get warm so I need to get over to my parents to prep the camper for this season. Hope to get this stuff done soon!!!!!!

harryshoe · 04-26-2015, 05:32 PM

Allow me to join those who have marvelled at your effort and offered congratulations. That's an amazing job. For a young guy you have amassed a wide array of building skills.

I hope you have many days of happy camping in your custom unit.

Harry

looking4fun · 04-30-2015, 11:49 AM

I got the metal for my bumper build!!!! I'm also going to be mounting a storage box on it. Since I don't have cabinets any more I lost a lot of storage space. Im using 1.5"x3" rectangular tube with a 1/8" wall. It should be very strong!!! OoOo and my a/c unit arrived the other day!! im very excited can't wait to get working on it but it will probably have to wait until next weekend.

looking4fun · 04-30-2015, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harryshoe

Allow me to join those who have marvelled at your effort and offered congratulations. That's an amazing job. For a young guy you have amassed a wide array of building skills.

I hope you have many days of happy camping in your custom unit.

Harry

hey Harry
thanks for the compliments and checking out my thread! This project took a lot of figure out and learning as I went. lucky I've always had the nack of tearing stuff apart and putting it back together. Along with my father that taught me a lot about building and repairing stuff while I was young. Also I was a automotive/hydralic/heavy equipment/heavy truck mechanic for about 10 years until I decided to start a different career that better suited my family. But check back everybody and then. I'm hoping to have more to post soon.

looking4fun · 05-04-2015, 08:10 PM

I didn't have anything to monitor my battery charge but I found this nifty little monitor at Cabelas in Hamburg PA today. Its nice because it can monitor multiple batteries and I have 2 different sets of batteries.

looking4fun · 05-17-2015, 08:36 PM

By some miracle I was able to devote an etire day to working on my camper! I was able to get my A/C installed, a few plugs, new switches for my batteries, and install my battery monitor. And I have pictures too!!!
This was the first thing I worked on. It is the intake for the A/C. I will be using the old fridge vent to suck air from the out side.

This pic is the exhaust for the A/C. it is just coming out the floor. I was very nervous cutting a hole this big in the floor. still need to make a cover to keep pest.

It started to get alittle warm in the camper so I decided to put the A/C to good use. lol

Made the spot for the A/C to fit under the counter and attached the hose.

looking4fun · 05-17-2015, 09:00 PM

I just was ready to post the second half of all the pics but something didn't load and I lost it. its getting late so I will redo it tomorrow.

looking4fun · 05-17-2015, 09:01 PM

I just was ready to post the second half of all the pics but something didn't load and I lost it. its getting late so I will redo it tomorrow.

looking4fun · 05-18-2015, 09:43 AM

ok let's try this again. This a pic converting my fridge vent into the intake for the AC.

And this is once I was done building the intake box. I covered most of the seams with foil tape. It was a pretty bad job of taping so i didn't want picture evidence that it happened. Lol

Some plugs that I installed. One for the AC and the other just to have it. Once I got these wired up I switched everything over to shore power. No more extention cords!!!

This is my battery monitor modural. Took a few min to figure out the wiring and getting the wires through the wall.

The first switch I had for my batteries was in this compartment. To get to it you had to move what ever was on top of the compartment and open the lid to get to the switch. But now I found some 30amp switches at Lowes and I'm using them as my battery cut off. I have 2 sets of batteries so I did the same to the other set.

And this is my AC installed and everything back together. It was a long day but I'm happy with my progress. Next big project is my rear bumper and painting the roof. As of now the tie straps are holding the AC in place until I can figure out something better.

looking4fun · 05-28-2015, 09:37 AM

More work finished!!!! Well almost, I will explain. While looking to make more room in the back of my truck for camping I thought putting a bike rack on the back of the camper would save some space. So I decided to build a bumper to mount a trailer hitch bike rack. Well while looking in lowes for the metal I needed(which I didn't find in lowes) I saw this nice pickup truck tool box at a really good price! So I thought I can extend the bumper out some, put this box on it for more storage, and mount the hitch under it. I didn't really want the "wings" on the box but to have a custom box made IMO would cost to much and if I cut/reweld them it I'm sure I would butcher it. So I'm leaving it. This is how it started. I cut open the back of the frame

I already had all the holes drilled except for the ones need in the frame. Knowing I wouldn't be able to hold the nuts where it attaches to the frame I made up a nut strip and welded the strip into the support tubes.

After the tubes were mounted in the frame I was able to mount the tool box to the support rails.

And this is what it looks like. There are 2 bars that are bolted to the support rails that run the lenght inside the tool box.(wanted it to look as clean as possible) The bolt on hitch will be bolted to them.

Now for the almost finished. While grabbing lock nuts from my home stock I didn't grab enough. So I need to get some more to finish bolting down the tool box and mount the bolt on hitch. I would have loved to not need to weld because I kinda wanted to make it all bolt together so any one who might read this could do it if they wanted to. But from my time constraint and welding just being simpler I decided to go that route. Hope you guys like the pics. Wanted to take more but a thunderstorm was rolling in and had to clean up fast.

dj8skate · 06-04-2015, 03:41 PM

Wow this is one awesome rebuild. Really impressive. I'm driving to your house if my trailer ever leaks.

profdant139 · 06-05-2015, 10:14 AM

Looking4fun, you make me want to learn how to weld! Your "internal nut strip" is a brilliant solution -- the bolts come up into the support beam from underneath, right?

Also, what keeps the box from rocking from side to side? If I understand your design, the sole point of contact is in the middle of the box.

Thanks for posting this stuff -- very inspiring and ambitious project!

looking4fun · 06-05-2015, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by profdant139

Looking4fun, you make me want to learn how to weld! Your "internal nut strip" is a brilliant solution -- the bolts come up into the support beam from underneath, right?

Also, what keeps the box from rocking from side to side? If I understand your design, the sole point of contact is in the middle of the box.

Thanks for posting this stuff -- very inspiring and ambitious project!

Welding is an art. When I weld I feel like it's the equivalent of finger painting. Lol but I'm a lot better then I used to be. If your interested I see mig welders on Craigs list a lot and some times for really cheap. It's something that you just need to keep practicing to do. But if you get the basic stuff down it opens a whole new world to fabricate/repair stuff. To answer your questions. You are right about the bolts, they come up through the bottom of the camper frame and into the support. As for what holds the box in place I have 2 pieces of metal tube connecting the 2 supports that are bolted to the frame. Those 2 pieces of metal are sandwiching the storage box between them and the 2 supports. Next time I'm there I'll take a pic of it.

Rollinhome · 08-09-2015, 10:14 AM

looking4fun,, that was an awesome job on your trailer.
I'm looking how you did this job, as I have a 12' FunFinder 2006. with front bubbling Fibreglass... I will tackle this job in Sept. But out cold weather comes .Thanks for the photos and info

Rollinhome · 08-09-2015, 10:15 AM

looking4fun,, that was an awesome job on your trailer.
I'm looking how you did this job, as I have a 12' FunFinder 2006. with front bubbling Fibreglass... I will tackle this job in Sept. But out cold weather comes .Thanks for the photos and info

Marti · 08-10-2015, 09:58 AM

That's an amazing restoration. And the nice thing is that you know exactly where the studs, plumbing and wiring is if you ever need to make any changes. I love the wood paneling.

Did you reuse any of the original materials from the trailer, besides the toilet & tub?

p.s. When you were taking the trailer apart, what kind of framing was in the interior walls? Especially between the cabinet and bathroom wall where the shower head is.

looking4fun · 08-10-2015, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rollinhome

looking4fun,, that was an awesome job on your trailer.
I'm looking how you did this job, as I have a 12' FunFinder 2006. with front bubbling Fibreglass... I will tackle this job in Sept. But out cold weather comes .Thanks for the photos and info

Not a problem. I had a fun time repairing my camper. I hope your repair is alot simpler then what I went through. Try to fix one problem and then you find 5 other problems.