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camper conversions


mmartin

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Did a double axle 16 footer a few years ago. First you want to drop all the water tanks out the bottom. Second you want to decide if your going to start yanking stuff out or leave it as is. If you take stuff out you will gain more floor space which means more holes.

I decided to leave my interior as is and made it work with 6 holes. 2 of the holes were only fishable when you took the seats off the kitchenette. It sounds like a pain but it wasn't that bad. The only thing I changed out was the furnace for a 30K BTU forced air Suberban furnace which almost cost as much as the camper!

One of the walls rotted out so parked it a few years ago. Campers work great turned into fish houses because they are made to be driven down the road. You will want to find the right reciever hitch so you house sits as level as possible.

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I did a 16 ft camper and put drop down wheel and gutted the whole thing lined it with house wrap and more insulation and then covered it with pine it been to red which is a five hour drive plus where every the fish are biting

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i had a 16 ft ..first thing i did was completly gut it cabinet paneling and the crappy insulation...then unbolt the shell from underneath the frame.. i put a 2x4 about 6 inches from the floor runing the width of the camper.and nailed it to the studss on each side.. i did this on both ends. next place a floor jack underneath each 2x4 and gently jack up.. you will here alot of cracking, dont wory.. once its elevated start in the middle of floor and start ripping out crappy floor, then i replaced with 3/4 green ply..by the way u can insulate the floor before you screw down the new floor. be sure to plan out were the holes will be. that way u can add extra saport around were the hole will be.. then i made my measurements and wrote them on the floor. so when its time to cut holes start on the inside and cut all the way to each side and folow the inside of suports.. u wont belive how much it makes floor stronger.. allso u will more than likely see rotted would on the bottom plate easy enough to replace while it is elevated.. a sawzall to cut nails. after the middle is done move one jack to the midlle and repeat..when all finished lower the jacks and replace broken and rusty bolts with new bolts and tighten her down... u now can begin to insulate the walls and ceiling then paneling.. and desighn what u want.. a cheap futon on 1 end is perfect.. and u can build storage over the wheel wells... bla bla hope this helps.. honestly going through the extra work and replacing floor made it all worth it when u use it and the floor is solid.. only took a weekend byself to replace floor

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Camper conversions...now here's a topic I am quite familiar with. I dug into a 7'x12' late-60's/early-70's camper with a couple other guys to create the Rattle Camp a few years ago. We did a complete (and I mean COMPLETE) tear down to the frame, even removed the shell off the trailer. We cleaned up the frame and painted it, built a new insulated floor(highly recommended), and built out the interior in a very simple, yet functional layout with 3 bench-beds with flip up sections for easier access during the day. It had 6 holes with rattle reels and could comfortably fish 2 guys with all your gear and fit 3 guys if needed. A few "lessons learned" that I would pass on to you:

1) Any opportunity you have to insulate, DO IT. Those old campers are built like wiffle-balls and the old stock heaters have a hard time keepin you comfy when it's 25 below. We reinsulated floor to ceiling, but wanted to keep our old-school louvered windows for nostalgia...even though they were very drafty. We put Reflectix on the windows at night using velcro to stop any breeze from coming in.

2) Speaking of heaters, we upgraded from the original heater to a NuWay heater that doubled as a cook top for soup, chili, coffee. Great improvement and quite affordable.

3) Holes: we cut rectangular pieces out of our floor and hinged them so we could open/close the flaps when their in use or not. We also built our own sleeves out of plywood, which worked very well. We were 16-18" off the ice, so PVC and metal ductwork just seemed too tight to reach that far and not lose fish. * Also, the ice scooper worked beautifully as a poor-man's fish-elevator.

4) Skids: this is where we went a little further than most people. We decided to weld a couple brackets to the frame so we could bolt on removable skids to get us closer to the ice. We used removable pins in our leaf springs so we could jack up the house, remove the the leaf springs/axle, and bolt on the skids in a matter of 15 mins or so. Prob set the floor about 8-10" off the ice and we could pull the house wherever we wanted on the lake. Banking was much easier too.

5) Frame/Weight: keep in mind, if you build out the interior, make sure you balance out the weight front to back. If you're nose or tail heavy, the camper will be all over the road when towing. Also, if you have a welder, reinforce your frame wherever/whenever you can. These babies don't handle the abuse of crossing pressure ridges, rough ice, and driving up/down boat launches very well. We found that out the hard way.

6) Storage: if you can add storage anywhere, DO IT. Seems like we were always short on storage space, though we added some wire shelving and that helped alot. We also built storage into the bench-bed base, above the wheel wells. That worked well for items you needed occasionally and good for battery storage, etc.

7) Lastly, one thing most people don't consider is the roof. Next spring when it warms up, get some roof sealer and coat it WELL. You'll be glad you did the first time it rains.

She wasn't perfect, but the blood, sweat, and beers we put into it made her a site to behold and a joy to fish in. Enjoy your project!

Some pics to share our project and give you some ideas:

Gutting day 1

Gutting day 2

Frame/insulating new floor

Drafty windows

Interior 1

Interior 2

Wheel well storage

Flip up bed-bench

Hole sleeves

New Heater

New Heater2

Adding skids

Finished product

We caught lotsa these outta this baby!

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Forgot to add, if you rebuild, wire for both 12v and 110v. Also, we had a couple computer fans mounted on the ceiling - one front, one back - and they worked awesome. It was sweet falling asleep to the low, smooth hum of the fans.

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I converted a pop-up a while back. Lots of work building a top on it.

There are certainly 2 ways to go.

1. gut and make your dream house (which I attempted)

2. leave mostly the way it is, cut some holes in the floor.

I tried to make a dream house and it ended up being a big pile of carp that took a long time. If your going to use it a lot, go for the gusto. If your going to use it occasionally or on local lakes, keep it simple unless you have a lot of time on your hands. You'll find yourself spending a lot more than anticipated if your tearing it down and building from the ground up. Have a good time with it and make sure you have plenty of space to work on it. I did mine in a 2 car garage and it was a mess. and working all the torn off stuff into the regular garbage can took some time.

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There was a thread from last year on the same thing. I tried searching for it but no luck.

Well there were alot of pics from guys on it and soem were really neat. BUT there was one that got me thinking big time. Seams it was a Kid and his dad and I think they lived in Coon Rapids or Anoka, they guted it and rebuilt it and Ill tell you it was one of neatest houses Ive ever see. Seams it was red in color, had moon hub caps painted to match. Real retro I guess is the name you'ld call it.

Anyone better at searching these forums than me. Id like to see it again. It was from last year Im sure about that.

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