Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: cajunavion on 02/09/14 12:52pm

Howdy!
Im trying to layout the cabin in a different way
from OEM. Bathroom and bed the same.
Trying to be mininalistic. Would like moving
kitchen sink in frount of bathroom, less plumbing
that way. Pulled in bunk like Garry. Would like
to leave the closets and cabinets out. Put
second bed/table across entire cabin in frount.
The issue is distributing the weight easily. How do I
figure the best weight distribution
scientifically. Something besides how the thing
leans. Tanks, battery, and
electrical principally.

Best mimimal Avion C10 layout?

Posted By: 69 Avion on 02/09/14 04:32pm

cajunavion wrote:

My factory layout has the kitchen sink, and water heater, right in front of the bathroom. The hardest part of keeping the balance nice on the Avion campers is the fact that it doesn't have a basement so the black water tank and the gray water tank have to hang below the floor, behind the truck bed. Because of this it is important to keep all the heavy items up front like the fresh water, batteries, LP, etc. The closet in the back is nice because you can put clothing in there which is relatively light weight.

Ford F-350 4x4 Diesel
1988 Avion Triple Axle Trailer
1969 Avion C-11 Camper

Posted By: cajunavion on 02/09/14 05:22pm

drawings

Posted By: cajunavion on 02/09/14 05:38pm

Posted By: cajunavion on 02/09/14 05:39pm

Posted By: garryk6 on 02/09/14 10:27pm

Look at these pics, and see if this is what you are looking to do.
Front dinette C10

Garry

Garry K
Wife + 4 kids
Retired Military Family.... Alway's on the move....
2002 F350 CCSB 5.4 6spd 4x4 in AK
1966 Avion C-10 Truck Camper

Posted By: D1trout on 02/10/14 10:55am

Cajunavion, your inquiry comes at a good time; I too am working on a layout for my C11. It started life with the side dinette. I decided that I wanted a front dinette for both the social nature of sitting across from Annie but also because I could put the table down and have a 72x42" platform for the two German Shepherds to lie on and stick their noses thru the front window into the cab. I am putting a 40x15" double slider window in the front of the camper that matches the slider in the back of the truck cab.

If we were to be 4 eating inside, 42" seems a sort of minimum width for two people to sit next to each other at a dinette table, A standard single bed is 39" wide - that's pretty narrow for dining elbow to elbow... but I could still end up with less than 42" width.

I start with the premise that the bed needs to be 72" long, which allows 16" extra to use to reach the full interior width of 88". My solution, at the moment, is to make a smaller propane locker on the right side with an aluminum bottle and place my water tank - about 30 gallons - in the box formed by the right hand seat extending out into the center floor space. Each side of the dinette is 22" wide - 18" of seat and 4" of back cushion. The table is 28" wide. It will have 4" fold-under flaps on each side to make it a table that doesn't require hunching forward to eat comfortably. The table will slide either far to the right or to the left to create an additional work surface.

Both propane and water are on the right side. Plumbing occupies more space under the sink so I'm thinking to put the sink on the right and the stove on the left. I want to have as much food prep surface as possible. The demand water heater mounts on the wall of the bath and the gray water tank goes directly below the bath. No black water tank with the cassette toilet. All water and plumbing on the right and propane piped over to the stove on the left side, as well as back to the water heater and a heater somewhere. The refrigerator remains on the left side, utilizing the existing outside door vent. And I'm keeping the closet and storage area. This rig is woefully deficient in storage space.

I am uncertain about the space where the original water heater went. Perhaps batteries, or just seal it up from the outside and utilize the increased undercounter storage. Or batteries in the bottom of the closet space.

I had been lead around by the OEM stove hood being located in the center of the right wall. Upon reflection, I realized that I hardly use the fan in the hood over the range in my home kitchen. Plus the camper will have two Fantastic vents with fans and the window directly behind the stove. I'm satisfied that I won't miss the vent hood. If I do, I'll install one on the left side. I really like open work space in the galley in this plan!

A note about my model: the upper walls and rear cabinetry haven't been represented here. The fridge will be built-in, with storage above, as in the OEM.

More will be revealed!

Dick

Posted By: cajunavion on 02/10/14 01:29pm

Howdy!
Garry - Yes! Thats it. I have never seen that exact layout.
I suspect the water tank must be in that left bench extention and
batteries in the right? I would have switched
them to keep the plumbing all on one side
What I really like is the "hot" closet to put all
the appliances in with the upper and lower
ventilation. Those benches do look like they
have really wide seats with those extentions.
I thought there were only 3 floor plans, No?

Posted By: cajunavion on 02/10/14 02:29pm

Howdy!
D1 your models put my crude drawings to
shame. I love your sliding table idea.
Triple the use of the same space! Any ideas
on table material(plywood or something exotic
and light?) and the pedistal? I like the idea
of a full width table/bed, but gee it is heavy
made of plywood.
You know you almost have to build two campers
when it comes to appliances. One for traveling/boondocking
and one for full hookups. Id like to be able
to run on batteries with an inverter. 69avion
steared me right on the Fridgedaire mini window
unit, all thats needed, fits the old water heater
hole perfectly, plus batteries and inverter will
run it. All I need to cook with inside is
a tiny microwave, it too will run off the inverter
solo; propane cajun cooker and gridle for serious
outdoor cooking.

Posted By: 67avion on 02/10/14 03:11pm

Well that's mighty impressive D1. I like your ideas Cajun, as well. You guys are going way beyond me, and that's a good thing. Though I have trouble keeping up.

I'm hoping that 72" will be adequate for a sleeping space. I think the width is OK. But is that for the dogs? You're sleeping in the cab over, right?

One question I didn't see addressed dealt with the COG issues in locating water, batteries, etc. I really don't have a very sophisticated answer, though I'm sure others do. But my solution was to weigh the entire rig, with the camper on board, front and back separately, to roughly determine the center of gravity. Then, I pushed as much weight in front of that line as possible when configuring the camper. I have also weighed the left and right side of the loaded truck and camper to determine, roughly, the east/west COG.

I installed Goodyear airbags that I can trim from left to right as well. This balancing act is all important to the ride of the rig.

I like the idea of a propane Cajun cooker outside. Take a look at the Australian camper set ups with their outside cooking features. It might just work for you.

On edit. there is a discussion of Center of gravity that is way above my payscale on this siteclicky

* This post was edited 02/10/14 04:03pm by 67avion *

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