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Woody
Woody GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
7/22/15 8:09 p.m.

That is great.

Toyman01
Toyman01 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
7/22/15 9:17 p.m.

Here are a few shots to tide you over until I sort through the rest of them.

This is what 660hp worth of Cummins looks like.

I'll get them sorted and posted as time permits.

Edit: Sorry I broke the links for all these pictures while sorting pictures. You have to check the Canada Trip Thread thread.

classicJackets
classicJackets New Reader
7/22/15 9:33 p.m.

Really, really cool pictures. Can't wait to see more.

NGTD
NGTD UltraDork
7/22/15 9:59 p.m.

I see you made it to Kakabeca Falls. They are beautiful!!

Datsun310Guy
Datsun310Guy PowerDork
7/22/15 10:28 p.m.

My dad and my grandfather used to go fishing in Canada and went through Thunder Bay many times back in the late 1950's. My dad is encouraging me to do the drive around Lake Superior.

Toyman01
Toyman01 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
7/23/15 8:12 p.m.

Rather than muddying up this thread more with trip pictures, I'm going to start another thread.

The Epic Canada Trip.

Toyman01
Toyman01 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
8/22/15 3:11 p.m.

Camper update time.

I need to get it out of the back of the truck. I've got a mobile office trailer and a 5th wheel camper to move for a friend. That means figuring out a way to jack the camper up and drive the truck out from under it.

This is what the camper came with. This is the better of the two. I have used them once, to load the camper when I bought it. They are terrifying.

Not a chance in hell they would be used again so I had to come up with another plan.

One option was buying 4 truck camper jacks and figuring out how to mount them. That was going to cost $1000 minimum. Scratch that. Another option would be to rebuild and straighten when I have, but they don't work very well because the slides jamb. The next option was building something. Being who I am, I naturally decided I could do better.

We started with this pile of stuff. I stole the idea of using the HF winch plates from Woody.

A little cutting and welding turned a HF winch plate and some 2 1/4 box into a mount.

Chop, chop, and this slides in the mount.

Several steps later and a trailer tongue jack was welded on the box tube.

A few more steps and you end up with this.

The paint on this one is drying. I've got another one to finish tomorrow.

More to come.

Toyman01
Toyman01 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
8/23/15 10:46 a.m.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Painted up all pretty like and ready to take the load.

And out of the truck.

The front sits on the two jacks I built. The back sits on one of the scary jacks. It worked pretty well.

The next step was to sit in on a trailer for storage. That way I can move it around the yard or set it up and work on it. My plan was to just slide it in between the sides, but that was before I measured it. One lousy inch.

Chop, chop, chop, and the sides were gone and the camper was sitting on it instead.

There will be more to come, but not for several weeks.

bgkast
bgkast GRM+ Memberand UberDork
8/23/15 10:53 a.m.

Looks tippy on those jacks. Maybe use some ratchet straps as cross bracing?

Toyman01
Toyman01 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
8/23/15 11:17 a.m.

In reply to bgkast:

The plan is for it to only be on the jacks long enough to get it from the truck to the trailer and back. It does move some, but not too bad. The flex is actually in the camper structure, not the jacks. I'll be looking into doing some reinforcing around where the jacks mount.

I have also decided to build two more of them for the back, but that won't happen until the weather cools off some.

Mad_Ratel
Mad_Ratel HalfDork
8/23/15 12:20 p.m.

I'd personally want a bit more of a base on your jacks. Otherwise that's a great idea.

(mainly just from front to back to stop them from moving on ya.)

Ian F
Ian F MegaDork
8/23/15 9:38 p.m.

Hey... if it works...

This popped up on eBay today: http://www.ebay.com/itm/391233977809?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Should be interesting to see what it sells (or doesn't sell) for.

Toyman01
Toyman01 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
11/14/15 1:04 p.m.

Well, the camper is back in the truck in preparation for a camping trip next weekend. The only progress on it was fixing the thermostat for the heater. It might be nice to have. The contacts weren't working some of the time, so I swapped it for another one I had on the shelf. Unfortunately it was worse than the original and the new Chinese stuff is irreparable. I reinstalled the old one and fixed it.

The other little project was modifying the propane tank mounts so I can remove the tailgate. The tanks originally sat on the tailgate and were strapped to the camper. Removing the tailgate gets me another 4"-5" of storage in the hitch rack and since the camper doesn't sit on the tailgate, it's not needed. The modification consisted of adding a hook to the bottom of the mount to keep the tank from sliding out of the strap.

Toyman01
Toyman01 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
6/26/16 5:56 p.m.

And...it's gone.

The Alaskan camper went to a new home today. Another guy about my age wanting to go camping with his kids.

I didn't make any money on it, but I did manage to break even.

Kind of a sad day, but with SanFord coming on line in the next month or so, it wouldn't be getting used much.

It was a fun project, it served it's purpose.

I'll leave you with some memories.

Somewhere in Wisconsin.

Thunderbay Ontario

Red Rock, Ontario.

Rossport Ontario

Marathon, Ontario

Somewhere in West Virginia.

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