I wondered if the question of what the brand was on the first one would come up. I did not mention it so I would not offend anyone that had one. I am confident it is a good camper. The one we bought just had the issues it did. It was a 2001 Fleetwood Elkhorn. The slide offered a ton of room. But I feel it had to much slide with to much on it, refer, seating, storage etc. I think the fact that the whole side of the camper was all slide and not enough wall or structural support at the forward end above the jack to support a heavy overhead. Or the compression at the bottom of the overhead pushing on the door frame of the slide. It pushed it back probably an inch and a half. Eventually we decided to nix any slides to eliminate the weight, potential leaks, and mechanical issues like we found. In good shape and functioning as intended, slides are really pretty cool. Going from a roomy slide to no slide was a minor adjustment but very doable for us.
Regarding the AC install. I have small scaffolding I bought to paint the roof of a Jeep wagoneer I just restored. I could not paint the roof well without it. At least it will get another use now. I already brought a neighbor over to scope out the lifting of the unit up on to a moving blanket. But here was my issue. Camping in it on our first run, I put a pillow over the vent to see what the loss of natural light would do. Suddenly we were sitting in a dark cave. Well shoot, AC units are supposed to go in roof vent locations and we did not want to loose the natural light it offered. Sure I could put another light in, but what about mounting the AC unit rearward of the vent opening? That generated more reading. Was their a structural member behind that opening? I did not want to cut it if there was. I contacted Bigfoot and they sent me a drawing PDF file of the roof layout for a 2005. And using a stud finder (I learned about that here) I was able to find the optional skylight framing and the optional vent framing 6 inches forward of our existing vent. Our bigfoot has a center 14x14 vent, and a fantastic fan over the bed. Standing on the roof with just the right light, I could see the shadow of the middle vent framing in the roof. I could not see the skylight framing but was able to find it easily with the stud finder. So putting the AC behind the existing vent would involve cutting the forward end of the skylight framing out. The polar cub has about 6 inches of unit forward of the opening it needs. It would be close to the vent and hopefully not splash rain in if the vent was open a tad. So cutting a new hole would involve framing in a new opening for strength and resistance to the compression of the AC mount inside and out. I was considering white or red Oak as I have some here. Inside the camper there is just enough room for the grill and or control panel. It would be close to the bathroom wall corner. But still be a non interference fit. I have searched high and low for a reason to not do this custom install. At first I was hesitant. Now seeing the drawing and working this through, I am hoping it is still a go. Am I making a mistake?
I will try to post the drawing. Maybe I need more posts to be allowed, but I will try.
I had planned on changing out the door frosted glass window for a smoked glass with integrated shade. I explained to my wife we will have to open the screen door to open or close the window or shade. Not a big deal to us.
Thanks for all the replies and info. Thats great.
I need to do some work to post the drawing. I will try this evening when I have more time.
