Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: ticki2 on 07/11/15 11:05am

I guess I'm in the same boat as Gary , a 5000 mile weekend jaunt is not going to happen . Perhaps if it coincided with other plans [emoticon]

. It sure would be fun .

'68 Avion C-11
'02 GMC DRW D/A flatbed

Posted By: Dave Pete on 07/11/15 12:41pm

I hear the spring and disclaimer thing. It seems Lil' Queeny took the summer off. (So many summer projects - so little time). It's a good thing we have long winters in Wyoming. [emoticon]

Oh! And by the way, I'm sure a Muley Point exists over there on the west coast too. (doh!)

Posted By: Dave Pete on 07/11/15 12:45pm

ticki2 wrote:

I guess I'm in the same boat as Gary , a 5000 mile weekend jaunt is not going to happen . Perhaps if it coincided with other plans [emoticon]

. It sure would be fun .

We drove our pickup to the top of Mount Washington (bikes hanging off the back), much to the chagrin of the guards at the entry shack. But we had pre-measured and so they gave us our CD and off we went; 1/4" within tolerances LOL.

Can't you just see a troop of Avions cruisin' New England in the Fall?

Posted By: cajunavion on 07/11/15 01:31pm

Howdy!
Do you not already know it does not matter where one is,
only where the mind is. Are we not all at Muley Point. At least
while we are talking and working on Avions?

Posted By: D1trout on 07/11/15 02:34pm

Right on, Cajunavion! We needed a little dose of coonass philosophy! Now we just need to figure out a way to be at the same mental Muley Point at the same time!

Posted By: ticki2 on 07/11/15 02:36pm

Dave Pete wrote:

Now Mt. Washington I could do , it's less than an hour away . Maybe we could join the antique auto race and take them to the top [emoticon]

. BTW you are suppose to peddle the bikes up the Mount , that's another race for the hearty . I once took a motor cycle up the road on a windy day . You had to lean the wrong way going around some of the turns . At the top we had to lash the bikes to the hitch rails so they wouldn't blow over .

Posted By: 67avion on 07/11/15 04:17pm

Whoa D1. "C-A" were fighting words with the Cajuns I knew growing up. And we learned never to provoke a "C-A" without a serious backup plan in place.

We need to talk this out at Muley Point. I'm inviting the Great Whazoo and Seldom Seen to facilitate.

Posted By: Dave Pete on 07/11/15 04:46pm

ticki2 we loved the east and New England for our short time there. We'll be back [emoticon]

Posted By: D1trout on 07/11/15 08:41pm

Cajunavion, I hope you took my comment as an admiring one. I'm having to do a lot of visualization and mental travel in order to keep myself focused and moving forward! And we sure enough need a sense of humor.

Posted By: D1trout on 07/12/15 09:41am

I have searched the web for a source of anodized aluminum. I will need long pieces for the new lower exterior surfaces on Argo's reimagining as a 4WD Class C. Here's a sample that looks nearly perfect. The top is the new sample and the bottom is a piece of Argo. This company only anodizes the alloy 5005.

And here's the info for getting this particular sheet. They have offices around the country. Ck out the website. (Sorry, I can't seem to get this right side up!?)

And now for the next big step. I have taken the bed off the truck and laid out what I believe will be a good frame system for Argo. I had another conversation with the folks at Tiger motorhomes in South Carolina, the rigs mounted on 4WD vehicles. They confirmed that they weld a frame to the chassis, then bolt the camper to that frame. Then they bolt the front of the camper to the back of the cab and finally, bolt the cabover to the roof of the cab. They have a large cut-out/pass-thru between cab and camper. They say that among all the Bengal models out there, with hundreds of thousands of miles driven, including South America and the Arctic Circle trips, they have had no problems with this style of connection. So I'm moving forward with that mounting. A slight variation: I'm thinking to put 1" urethane body bushings between the crossrails and the long rails to absorb some road shock and allow the camper to move in concert with the cab, which, of course, has body bushings on the mounts between cab and frame. The blue tape on the back of the cab represents the cut-out for the pass-thru.

You can just make out the simulated bushings between the cross mambers and the long camper support beams. I think this will all be fabricated out of 3" aluminum channel stock. The cross pieces stick out to the edge of Argo's body, allowing attachment of the storage cabinet structure, like this old rig:

And that's the Argo report for Sunday, July 12th. I wonder if I'll be rolling by next July 12th...

Dick

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