Skiers Lodge - Build Thread

[Swedeski]

The other side of the wall with the window requires a little more work. Since the window from the caravan sat in a 35 mm thick wall and my camperwall is made out of 2x2´s.

Had to make some corners too out of the foam to get a nice fit.

Lined the window with some thin woodpieces and filled all gaps with expanding foam.

After I have cut of the excess of the expanding foam, I can attatch the plywood sheet.

I did get the other insidewall painted twice and some stuff done on the truck to. Drained, flushed and refilled the coolingsystem and also drained and refilled the transfer case and front and rear drive axles. Now I have a repair manual for the truck and combining that with some youtube videos I´m actually getting a little more acquainted with the truck.:truck:

 

[Swedeski]

First mount mockup

Finally got the longside walls mounted on the truck and found out if all measurements were right.

First wall...it´sa fit!

Got both up.

And took some measurements before taking the walls down again. When working with my dad it´s no "measure twice, cut once" but have him measure a couple of times... and then he forgets it. Then I measure and then cut. But hey....I really appriciate his help so it doesn´t matter if some stuff takes a little more time. And of I didn´t have his help some parts would be really hard to do.

Now it´s time to make the shortside walls and roof.

Since I have tried to make the truck happier with some new fluids, spark plugs and a new airfilter I thought I should take a look at the joints too.

So played the game "Find the zerk".

I think I found them all and some of them sure needed some grease.

 

[Petrolburner]

Steady progress sure helps to complete a big project like this, keep up the good work.

 

[Swedeski]

Steady progress sure helps to complete a big project like this, keep up the good work.

Thanx! Winter is sure coming along fast. I have to pick up the pace! :elkgrin:

 

[Swedeski]

Sideproject

Got an package in the mail from China today. A 72 watts 12 inch LED bar.

Was really curious to see if I got the good stuff or the crappy stuff.

I already have two big round extralights for the high beam, but I like a lot of illumination going down those pitch black swedish country roads.
Got it mounted and hooked up today.

"Regular lights"¨

"high beam with two extralights"

"High beam + two extralights and the LED bar."

It fit perfectly mounted on the bracket for the license plate. It was just a hair to long to fit in between the two round lights on the grille guard. But I´m really satisfied with the amount of light it puts out.

So tomorrow I think I´m gonna put in some work on the camper to try and beat the oncoming snow.

 

[Swedeski]

Got some stuff done yesterday. I made an "assembly-platform" with wheels so I can move around the camper in the garage more easily.

Got some framing up and trimmed some insulation and plywood sheets.

 

[java]

Getting close!

 

[Swedeski]

Last night i figured I´d get the wintertires on the truck.

They looked a little bit small compared to the ones that where on.

But compared to my DD they looked alright!

They are not new tires but they are balanced that´s why there is a sticker on them.

But as IggyB earlier suspected...they didn´t fit. The rim jammed against the brake caliper. I guess a 15 inch rim with a differrent offset might work, since the truck is registered with it. But that doesn´t help me, mine doesn´t fit.

Took advantage of the first day without rain in a week or so and did a mockup of the floor.

I´m not done with the capsection, but now when the floorplan is made I can get back indoors an proceed with both.

The mainsection of the floor getting insulated.
Now we are getting subzero temperatures (Celsius "freezing") and a little snow in the air. A big ol´garage that would fit both the camper and truck would have been nice.

 

[Swedeski]

The problem with wintertires solved 10 days, a 3 hour roundtrip and 1400 bucks later.

The summertires compared to the winter ones. (They are the same size, it´s the angle thats tricky)

Made the 3 hour roundtrip to buy a set of used 16 inch rims, wich had some rubber on them but I wasn´t gonna save those tires. Then I ordered new winteritres from Germany (140 bucks cheaper/tire including shipping compared to Sweden) and got them mounted on the rims today.

So now I got the same sized tires both winter and summer. These ones are 265/75r16 Nokian Hakkapelitta LT2 studded tires (which is translated into a 32 inch tiresize). What I found out is that not even do You need a "real" wintertire (with the snowflake) here in Sweden, but we also make the distinction between "M+S"-tires (which are not winterapproved), european wintertires (if they have the snowflake they are ok) and "nordic winter tires. These Nordic winter tires are made out of a rubber compound suited for the low temperatures we encounter up here.

As the truck sits now with the Nokians.
So blew a hole in the budget but atleast I will be riding safe this winter. :truck:
Couldn`t find any good used ones since our market is quite small and winter is approaching fast.

 

[java]

Good tires are definitely a plus!

 

[Swedeski]

Started yesterday to glue and screw the plywood sheets and the insulation which just had been mocked up before.

Since the inside walls are just 4 mm plywood I´m using some struts to prevent sagging while the glue settles. Got halfway through and then ran out of glue.

Didn´t make a storerun so I got out and worked a while on the truck. Found a truckcap that´s been sitting on the ground at a farmers place and bought it for a couple of bucks this week. It was really dirty but not so badly worn down. So after hosing it off it turned out ok. It´s nice to be able to protect the truckbed from snow, rain and and crappy weather before getting the camper on.

The truckbed was lined with plywood sheets when I got the truck which I tore off. But I didn´t take off the sheet on the tailgate until now. That was a rustfest! Every single hole from the rivets used to secure the sheet had started to tust away.

Took the grinder out and went to work.

Painting in cold temperatures are far from optimal. But I heated the tailgate with a heatgun, had the rattlecan inside my jacket and put a fan inside the truckbed while the paint dried. It´s not good looking but atleast the rust is not eating away anymore. It will be covered up with a new sheet later also.

 

[Swedeski]

Took the door of the Leercap. This way I will have a ready solution for the door and tailgate.

I will keep the tailgate as a "work-cook-food-and-hang-out-and-drink-beer" area.

Started a little sideproject with insulating the truckbed.

And finally started with the last wall.

 

[java]

Looking good!! No snow here

 

[Swedeski]

Looking good!! No snow here

Thanx.
We have also had horrible weather. Only 5 hours of sunlight in total in November and no useful snow.
But this weekend we finally got an entire day with sunshine.

Offcourse that ment "no worky, go play"

Wifey gets the benefit of beeing pulled in the headwind.

 

[Swedeski]

Seems like every other pic I post is not on the camperbuild. So why break a tradition?
Have not done anything theese last two weekends because of this:

Finally got some useful snow and some sunhours on top of that. So we dropped everything that "had" to be done and skied the entire weekend.

But this week I have got some stuff done. Picked up the last parts at the metalshop.

They will be cut to size and angle and cover all corners on the camper.

And glued the second to last aluminum sheet.