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cursedshitbox posted:I grew up in a RV. that probably explains a lot. We tent camped at a KOA outside of Chattanooga a couple of months ago and it wasn't bad at all. We just got a 1975 Serro Scotty Hilander camper trailer for $700 that pretty much needs to be gutted and rebuilt with all new wood. Basically, we bought a decent trailer frame and a good set of templates to make our own custom Hilander  . I started a thread about it a week and half ago, but I haven't updated since then, as the weather has not cooperated with dismantling efforts.Over the next couple of nights, I'll be measuring and documenting the dimensions for all of the poo poo inside so we can easily make replacement parts for the plywood poo poo that's falling apart. My wife works at an aircraft factory (in environmental engineering) and they have to use sheets of foam to protect parts in shipping, so we have tons of free, high-quality, high density foam to make cushions and beds. I figure the dismantling can be done in one day, then the tedious process of rebuilding the structure, rewiring, and putting in an interior can begin. I'm going to end up going apeshit on the frame, I just know it. It has some kind of undercoating all over it and while it isn't rusty, it looks like poo poo, so I'm going to strip it back to bare metal and paint it with either POR-15 or something like John Deere Blitz Black.
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May 20, 2014 21:15
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:36 |
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I got the floorplan of our little camper trailer measured and drawn out, so we're ready to tear this thing down and start rebuilding. Too bad we're going out of town for a week on Saturday  . I would love to have it liveable by mid-July, so I can use it for the annual Guys' Weekend rafting/camping trip some friends and I do every year. We go raft on the Ocoee (both upper and middle sections), camp Friday and Saturday night, drink, smoke, and generally do everything our wives have tried to train out of us. With only being able to work a few hours a week, I probably won't have it fully dressed out, but I think I can have it rebuilt and mostly wired up by then.
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May 22, 2014 18:01
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Jonny 290 posted:My converter/panel has shipped! I havent gotten batteries yet but we've settled on 4x Energizer 6v ~220AH golf cart batteries from Sam's Club (we don't have Costco here) for $102 each after tax, picking them up tomorrow. Next best bid in town is $140 after tax each for Trojan 105's, so I'll save enough to pay for a good chunk of the solar subsystem. My elementary school decided to carpet the lunchroom one year. The lunchroom floor of a school for kids ages 5 to 10 covered in carpet  . The smell when they pulled it up during the summer 3 years later was incomprehensibly terrible. I've worked at landfills, poultry rendering plants, water treatment facilities, and all manner of industrial sites and that carpet is still the most horrifying thing I have ever smelled. It will haunt me till the day I die.
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Jun 3, 2014 03:06
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I actually have two whole days this weekend to tear into our Scotty and get it disassembled down to the bare frame. I am beside myself with excitement that I should get to really work on it for the first time since we got it. Photo dumps of the festivities to follow!
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Jun 6, 2014 16:38
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oh god how did these get here i am not good with campers... The streetside wall (above) is in decent shape. A little deterioration at the corners, nothing too bad The curbside wall, however...  ...is loving destroyed. That panel on the ground there just fell the gently caress off when I took the skin off. I am amazed the whole thing didn't explode into a cloud of splinters on the interstate when we hauled it home. We knew that we were replacing all of the wood under the skins when we bought it, which is why we only paid $600 for it. I'm just amazed at how bad it really was on that side. edit: christ on a loving bicycle, I didn't realize how bad those pics were. Serves me right working till 11:30 PM, I suppose. I'll get some good pics of the carnage tomorrow afternoon. bandman fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 05:41
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There's a closet in there holding up the roof Seriously, that's why I left the closet in while I took everything else out. I knew that it was the only thing holding up the roof. This bitch is getting torn down to a bare frame and rebuilt with all new wood, so I don't give a poo poo even if it does collapse. I'm probably going to get new metal for the roof, since the one there now is three aluminum panels screwed together and slathered with seam sealer. One big sheet of aluminum would mean fewer potential places for leaks, and I'm all about building this thing to last.
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Jun 27, 2014 05:57
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That is one good lookin' loaf. At least on the side in the picture, the edge strips appear to be in good shape, so there's hope it's not rotsville in the walls/roof/everyfuckingwhere. I'm doing some simplifying on my trailer. It came with a shower/shitter combo, which I'm ditching. I'm also not going to remount the onboard water tank, because we don't ever plan on using it anywhere without running water. The fewer chances for water to gently caress things up, the better. I'm also going to go straight 110v on all of the electrics aside from the brake lights, running lights, and trailer brakes. Again, we don't plan on using it anywhere that doesn't have at least a 30 amp hookup. Hopefully I can dismantle the rest of the camper over the weekend and get the frame cleaned up and dig in to the wheel bearings and brakes. It's 40 years old, but it still came with electric brakes from the factory. I'm sure they're thoroughly hosed in every possible way, but I'd like to retain them. 4Runners didn't have large enough brake rotors from the factory, so they get chewed up even without towing a load. You can swap Tundra brakes on, but I'd have to swap on 16" wheels and tires and swap in a 4.10 or 4.30 rear end to make up for the taller tire, and on and on until I've spent $1500 on the truck, when I can just fix the trailer brakes and/or use my dad's F150 to tow and not worry about it.
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Jun 27, 2014 16:54
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Yeah, the doors on classic campers are a bit narrow. I'm not  anymore, but I'm not exactly skinny (exactly 6' tall, weighed 260 at my heaviest, down to 185-190) and I barely fit through the door on our 74 Scotty not because of my rear end, but because of my shoulders.Our door is similarly beat up and the core was rotten down at the bottom, so I'm going to follow some directions I found and recore the door myself. Ours is torn down to the floor and frame now. The floor will be coming off this week and then I'll attack the frame with a flap disk on the angle grinder to clean off some of the old undercoating and the little surface rust present, and paint it with some Herculiner. Then I get to dig into the brakes and get them in working order. After the frame is in good shape, here's my list of poo poo to do: - replace most of the gaskets on the windows - recore the door - cut new plywood for the floor and sides - strip and repaint the skins - get replacement metal for the roof because there was a hole cut for a vent we won't be using and it was made from 3 pieces of aluminum and I want to eliminate all the seams I can. Once all of that is ready to go, we'll get my sister-in-law to come down for the weekend to keep the kids out of our hair and get the whole thing reassembled and dried in. It'll be an empty shell at that point, so we'll still have to do the detail work of building cabinets and benches and wiring the whole thing.
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Jun 30, 2014 15:17
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wolrah posted:You don't need to run a taller tire to run larger wheels, you just have less sidewall. That can lead to a harsher ride, but if you're currently on 15" wheels on a truck/SUV of any kind you have plenty of sidewall to spare and it'll probably handle a little bit better. Yeah, we already swapped to a 235/75/15 because the tire selection in 225/75 is terrible, and the speedometer reads almost exactly my GPS-indicated speed. If I went to 16s to clear Tundra brakes and kept the total diameter the same, it would look like my truck was on stilts and that just won't do. By the time the trailer is ready to roll, I'll probably just own my dad's truck since he can't drive anymore.
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Jul 15, 2014 15:37
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You can also have a 5th wheel toy hauler as well. The toy hauler can generally take a larger load than the bed of your truck + tongue weight of the trailer.
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Jul 16, 2014 13:10
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Beginning the process of polishing the aluminum frames on all of the windows from the Scotty. I cleaned up the cargo access door (goes on the rear of the street-side wall) and that took me the better part of two hours. I experimented with several different methods, and I think either the Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish or the Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound worked best. The steel wool either removed the oxidation and left too many scratches or took for-goddamn-ever to remove any oxidation, depending on the grade of the steel wool. I'm gonna try out some sort of light abrasive pad or disc on a Dremel tool this weekend.
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Jul 17, 2014 05:25
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Sandbagger SA posted:sand it down and put on another coat of paint. Check and see if the tires are the correct size. Our 74 Scotty is down ~1.5 inches because it has 185/70/14 wheels/tires instead of the 205/75/15 tires that were stock.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:35
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Finally got the chassis painted and the floor finished on the Scotty. The paint was done weeks ago, but I got around to doing the floor in the last couple of days. Next up is wheel wells, sides, ceiling, insulation, skins, windows and doors, and interior! 
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Sep 26, 2014 00:06
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Winter update on my scotty: didn't do poo poo other than get one wall put together and get bead board glued to it. Now that it isn't cold out, I might get my rear end in gear and finish it up.
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Mar 22, 2015 18:51
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:36 |
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Jonny 290 posted:Didnt even know those existed for RVs! Neat. thanks now I got another thing on my wishlist Several of the laundromats I've done work at have used multiple tankless water heaters plumbed together instead of one or two big boilers.
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Mar 23, 2015 04:31
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