Happy Birthday

This weekend was my 38th birthday. I decided to take the day off in order to work on the camper. I wanted to remove the interior paneling to determine the state of the electrical and 12 volt system. This would also reveal any upper rot that needs to be reconciled.

The electrical has obviously been reworked at least once. It all looked pretty solid. The AC and 12v are separate systems where the 12v only runs the exterior lights on the camper. The AC has 2 lights, 2 outlets, a fan line and breakers. I am hoping to rewire the camper so that the AC and 12v work together like modern rv's. I plan to run at least 1 deep cycle battery in order to allow for dry camping. The plan is to run lights, DVD player, and a vent fan when only on 12 volt. When AC is available to be able to run everything including AC.

I do not plan to run a fridge, or running water at this point, but as my knowledge builds this may change. I have been ready a good book called Managing 12 Volts by Harold Barre. Conversations on the electrical are fun, but it will be sometime before I get to that part of the project. Why you ask? Wasn't that the point of removing all the interior paneling? Well there is a reason I called this the Nebraskan Camper. The top is junk.

I knew the top by some rot, but between the top and the bottom, I thought the bottom was worse. I was wrong. removing the interior revealed a top that is very rotted. I sat in the camper for a long while contemplating the situation and determining the next steps if any. The camper was either ready to be junked, or I make a real commitment and rebuild the top from scratch. The top is really quite simple. There are 3/4" plywood ends and 2x2 runners and window frames. This does not sound too difficult, but it is made more challenging since the camper is in my backyard and not moving until the tree guy removed the 2 very large trees in my backyard, the snow melts, I rebuild the fence, and create a driveway to the alley. That means that any and all rebuilding will need to take place where it is. - great. The good thing is that I estimate the total cost at less then $200 to rebuild the entire framing.

Then there is the matter of the exterior. I was planning to save this to cut costs, but I am doubtful that I will be able to reuse it once a new frame is built. For that matter a rebuilt top deserves a new shell. I have no idea on this yet, but we will not let that from letting us proceed.


Here is nice pic of the interior paneling removed.

Not looking so good

This is what I had hoped for.

This is what I got...

From the outside.
I had to put the camper on blocks so that it would be easier to work on the top. Plus nothing looks better then having something up on blocks in your backyard.

Not so good electrical connection. That is just plain scary.

A nice picture of my ghetto backyard.

The best picture for last. A fifty year old camper on blocks under a tarp. I just need to slap my wife a few times and buy some cheap beer and the package will be complete.