California or bust with early 70s De-Lar

[a_graham52]

Evening everyone.
Here's the plan: 77 c10, early 70s De-lar.inc truck camper from maine to California via rt. 66.

We plan on taking sept. 2016 off and spending the month out on the road. Gas will be expensive but whos counting fuel right?

Yesturday we brought home our TC for the first time. Fit the truck well but I need to upgrade to some LT tires and repair the rear springs. Has plenty of power but sways a tad in the turns lol.



We got it home and have started stripping the interor. Some water damage to the roof structure and a lot of mouse nest in the cealing. The plan is to totally gut the insides and build it to suit us. Going woth a white/blue theme. And on the plus side, our neighbor has a TC that he's using for storage and said we can have all the appliences for free. Water heater, fridge, water tanks, ect!

[JoeChiOhki]

bwc wrote:

HJGyswyt wrote:
Not to burst your bubble with this cool retro project, but you need to understand the difference between a 3/4 full floating axle and a half ton semi floating axle. You can prop up the back of any truck with springs or airbags, but you are still asking 1/2 ton bearings to carry a load bigger than they were designed to do. Many people get away with it, but truthfully, 1/2 ton axles were never designed to carry that kind of weight. All the best with your project.

X2. I would never have a slide in camper if all I had for a truck was a 1/2 ton. If axle breaks your rear wheel/tire assembly comes off and passes you on the hwy. Too much weight for that truck my friend. LT tires etc will not change the safety factor. A lot of folks talk about tires, springs but first things first, full floater or nothing for me, IMHO.

All depends on what the scales say. If he's under his axle rating, then it comes down to brakes and tires.

[bwc]

HJGyswyt wrote:
Not to burst your bubble with this cool retro project, but you need to understand the difference between a 3/4 full floating axle and a half ton semi floating axle. You can prop up the back of any truck with springs or airbags, but you are still asking 1/2 ton bearings to carry a load bigger than they were designed to do. Many people get away with it, but truthfully, 1/2 ton axles were never designed to carry that kind of weight. All the best with your project.

X2. I would never have a slide in camper if all I had for a truck was a 1/2 ton. If axle breaks your rear wheel/tire assembly comes off and passes you on the hwy. Too much weight for that truck my friend. LT tires etc will not change the safety factor. A lot of folks talk about tires, springs but first things first, full floater or nothing for me, IMHO.

[a_graham52]

With only two hours od daylight, getting the skin off and in one piece is very time consuming.

On the subject of the axle,I'm doing the homework on it. Iv got the larger axle I know that. Everyone's opinion I can find on the truck forums suggest the biggest factor in the GVWR is the tires and springs.

[Mike_Hohnstein]

HJGyswyt wrote:
Not to burst your bubble with this cool retro project, but you need to understand the difference between a 3/4 full floating axle and a half ton semi floating axle. You can prop up the back of any truck with springs or airbags, but you are still asking 1/2 ton bearings to carry a load bigger than they were designed to do. Many people get away with it, but truthfully, 1/2 ton axles were never designed to carry that kind of weight. All the best with your project.

Might want to pay close attention to this very important post.

[DWeikert]

niftypkg wrote:
The propane tank storage area should be sealed so there will not be any leakage in to cabin or when fueling.

By "sealed" I hope you just mean isolated from the living area. My propane compartment has a roughly 2" vent pipe in the bottom to allow any propane to escape as opposed to being trapped in the compartment.

[Kayteg1]

Shearing are horizontal forces applied on different level.
In this case your floor sits firmly on the trailer or ground, while strong winds might push high sides at the top. There is nothing that will hold the structure from crippling beside couple of staples on 2x and siding.
This can be addressed by strap or lumber attached at 45 degree (or close) or by nailing plywood on the wall with lot of small nails.
Solid insulation will help as well.
Here in CA we deal with those things on daily basis.

Cripple walls

[a_graham52]

The picture causes the crooked appearence. It's on the trailer and it's not level. Neither was our porch in which I was standing on.

Explain this "no shear" structure. Originally there were cabinets, clauses and shelves from halfway point to the rear. But yeah very little support on the roof. Not something we will be walking across.

[Kayteg1]

Maybe dropped camper accelerate the damage and looks like your vintage camper have thicker lumber than mine having aluminium skeleton, but on the interior picture showing front wall, the top window piece looks pretty crocked.
Question might be if it was manufactured this way, but the wall seems to have no shear-bearing members beside the siding.
Something I would like to see enforced.
Too bad about the cent value, but heck, who complains about 9,800 % profit gain 😉

[niftypkg]

I thought I had a project! My 3 cents. The propane tank storage area should be sealed so there will not be any leakage in to cabin or when fueling. Seal any lines exiting from the storage area. Same for the battery box if it can vent into the cabin.

[a_graham52]

I looked on ebay and found a bunch for $.99. Unless I have something special it seems usless. As far as the bulge in the siding, I suspect damage from being dropped did that. Then mouse nest filled the void and would not allow it to go back into shape. The frame on the inside looks good in thay area. Also to note... the jack is in the center on that side and not on the corner

[Kayteg1]

BTW wouldn't 1929 penny be a collectible?
We found 1906 San Francisco phone book in our old house.
Had it on the shelf for 25 years, but now planning house sale I put it on ebay.
Got $90

[Kayteg1]

a.graham52 wrote:


speaking of propane. is it imprtant to have the heater so close to the tank?.

Not at all. On my camper propane tanks are on passenger side rear, while heater is on driver side rear.
From tanks hose goes to the floor connector, where steel pipe under sides go to the front where it splits onto refrigerator connector, WH and lastly copper tubing goes across front above water tank (separated from interior) on other side, where another exterior steel pipe take the propane to the furnace in the rear.
So even direct distance from tanks to furnace is about 4 feet, the gas travels about 15 feet to get there.
First time I look at it was a bit amused with so much piping, but then I figured it is important to avoid propane piping inside the camper.
Also looking at the picture, you should plan to open front panel as siding wrinkles indicate some problems.
I had it on my 2004 camper and you can read on the forum that routinely those campers don't have frame build to support floor load while jacked up on sides.
Add some dryrot and floor drops from the camper.
I pulled out the siding, replaced rotten framing and added stainless steel 8" corner plates to hold it for next 10 years.

[a_graham52]

we also found 91 cents in pennies. newest penny was 1979, oldest was 1929. our plan of attack at this point is to run 110v, 12v house power, and trailer wiring. my goal is to keep all the light vintage looking but with LEDs for the modern "performance." i suppose we should also be planning our propane routing too.

speaking of propane. is it imprtant to have the heater so close to the tank? i think there was only like a foot of line from the regulator to the heater. i think we would prefer it a little more central and not right next to the door.

[a_graham52]

update time. insides all stripped now and we can see the full extent of the water damage. not too bad i dont think. need about four roof crossmembers, the 2x2s that run the length of the roof, i think one side need 1x2 and some plywood cutouts and the frame will be in good order. iv also included pictures of the exterior damage, looks like at one time it was either dropped or back into in the front.