After spending one night in the 78’ truck camper I decided to start getting things repaired.
Further into the soft spots, it progressed from bad to worse as I exposed the framing.
So bad that when I pulled the siding back on both sides of the over cab bed, the whole frame came crashing down onto the garage floor... the aluminum siding and trim rails were the only thing giving it support.
I went back and forth for about a week as a stripped down the original. One day I’d have my mind set on refurbishing the camper. The next I’d be resigned to rebuild it completely. I finally made up my mind that the effort and energy would be best spent on a 100% rebuild from the ground up.
With the dilapidated 78 on my newly constructed dolly, I went to work next to it building from the ground up. I’ve been careful to keep the floor plan pretty close to the old Sunline. I did tweak the general dimensions to allow a 2” drop in height to get me under the garage opening while mounted on the truck. (I had to break off the black tank vent cap to get the original into the garage on the truck, everything else squeezed under 10’)
I immediately went with a universal frame construction method rather than the whole wall section build and scab they used @ Sunline. The volume of structural integrity is massive comparatively. It adds weight in the build but a good trade in my opinion. It does add a lot more prep and engineering time to the project, but that’s part of what makes doing projects like these enjoyable to me. The spec weight of the camper sold in 1978 was around 1350lbs. I expect to add around 500lbs to that in the reconstruction with my material selection, 2k is acceptable for my truck with no problem with gear/water. They make 08 truck camper models that tip the scales at close to 4000lbs now! For comparison my 1992 Sunline TT weighs around 3k dry and that’s a tandem axle trailer included. On top of that, I’m losing some components from the 78 design that will help offset weight, ie- gigantic front forward over cab window, LP range, fridge(for now), etc. The only adds I plan right now are a gray water holding tank(the original design drained right out the side onto the ground!) and a power converter unit.
My goal is to have a truck camper that looks the same as its 78’ original counter part with a flare of modernization. I’ll be able to use a lot of the interior hardware like drawer/cabinet pulls, lighting, cushions, etc on the new build. I’m also going to go to some length to get the exterior to match as best possible with the pin striping, marker lights etc.
A couple things I wonder if anyone could give me a better direction on…
RV windows… the original windows are pitted and a few pretty far gone, it was stored at the beach. I’m looking for a place that might a have good selection of used windows that I could get 6 matching replacements of various sizes. Brand new ones aren’t really in the budget as they run hundreds per window! This is the next step into knowing what to frame my rough openings as I build the walls and roof.
Fiberglass sheeting… while the roof is going to get done in aluminum, the material variety used on the sides on the original is far to vast and time consuming for me to sort and order then bend and form. It’s just too much work in the long run. I’m looking for somewhere that might have long sheets of fiberglass… 2 pieces roughly 14’x 8’ and 3 @ 4’x8’. Ideas?
Thanks for looking,
Take care,
Jason
Double WOW.
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