Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos
Without going into too much painful detail, we had a mishap several week-ends ago. While working with sand bag crews on the Mississippi River, the truck and camper fell into the flood waters as a road...
Forum Discussion
D1trout, I know it's a funny hybrid I have. I was initially worried about construction as I dug deeper into the undercarriage, but then I remembered that it has lasted 30plus years with the absolute minimum maintenance. It made it 8 hours home with a rotten cabover, wings, rear floor and only 1 tiedown actually doing anything. And I can't see any new damage, cracks, separation etc from the drive. So I figure with a restrengthened cabover, wings and floor it will be good for a few more decades. Perhaps my best course of action will be to get wings, cabover and floor solid and square and then see how it handles.
I think that some sort of attachment from outer wings to floor or frame would still be necessary to counteract sway stresses travelling to the floor mounting points. Since the tiedowns only went to the van floor, perhaps simply framing in the lower storage a little from the wings to van floor would accomplish what the tiedown's did.
At a future date I will be remodelling the interior and putting the heavier appliances etc at the lower level provided by the underwing areas. But time and monies dictate that for now I will make it sound and replace everything in original location. All my appliances are working and in fair condition. The only removal I intend to do is get rid of the toilet and BW tank for a potty, to allow use in the winter. I should be able to mount a GW tank then.
The only part of this that is giving me real pause is how much of a pain it is going to be to repair/replace the cabover wood without access to the underside. But necessity is the mother of invention and as I'm not deep at sea with a non working main engine (an experience I would not like to repeat), I have the luxury of contemplation before I tackle it. And the much appreciated experience/opinions of those on this forum.
thanks, and if anyone wants to weigh in as to why 3/4"-3/4" plywood seems to be favoured over the original 3/8"-foam-3/8" original composite I would be most appreciative.
happy canadian thanksgiving!
I think that some sort of attachment from outer wings to floor or frame would still be necessary to counteract sway stresses travelling to the floor mounting points. Since the tiedowns only went to the van floor, perhaps simply framing in the lower storage a little from the wings to van floor would accomplish what the tiedown's did.
At a future date I will be remodelling the interior and putting the heavier appliances etc at the lower level provided by the underwing areas. But time and monies dictate that for now I will make it sound and replace everything in original location. All my appliances are working and in fair condition. The only removal I intend to do is get rid of the toilet and BW tank for a potty, to allow use in the winter. I should be able to mount a GW tank then.
The only part of this that is giving me real pause is how much of a pain it is going to be to repair/replace the cabover wood without access to the underside. But necessity is the mother of invention and as I'm not deep at sea with a non working main engine (an experience I would not like to repeat), I have the luxury of contemplation before I tackle it. And the much appreciated experience/opinions of those on this forum.
thanks, and if anyone wants to weigh in as to why 3/4"-3/4" plywood seems to be favoured over the original 3/8"-foam-3/8" original composite I would be most appreciative.
happy canadian thanksgiving!
