Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: D1trout on 12/12/15 09:54am

67, I'm glad to see a picture of Chuck Cayo, our link to the illustrious history of these TC we obsess over! I hope he is able to sort out your issues. Nobody knows them better than he.
Onward!

Posted By: cajunavion on 12/12/15 02:00pm

Howdy!
Silver, way-to-go, nice work! I would add, fill
in all those potential voids, or water will pool there. The insulation
will trap it between the plywood, and well, then it all begins
again. Foam works well, except it is hard to control. You could
seal your panels with epoxy as well.
Do consider a modern interior situated to your tastes, not being
a slave to classic vintage, after all everything can be new again.
Michael showed us that.
How's it go D1, pictures?!!!!!!?
D, could we get a pictorial on your solar system?

Posted By: rastaman33609 on 12/12/15 03:46pm

Silver....man you have that thing torn apart,re assembly looks good.

This is my bunk area....that is 1/2 ply that was epoxied them primed and painted grey with oil paint. Then I used 1x8 ceder boards, in the gaps I placed insulation board.

[image]

Posted By: rastaman33609 on 12/12/15 03:59pm

(Sorry cant seem to be able to post more than 1 photo at a time)

On top is another sheet of 1/2 ply once again epoxied and painted

[image]

So.....I have a question...My wings are complete, before I go any further. What are you guys using for tie-down points. Are the jack stand brackets being used or do I need to install separate tie-down hooks?

Could I used an 'eye bolt' for one of the jack mount bolts. My stands are going to be bolted through 2 sheets of 3/4 ply with a piece of 1/8th aluminium plate between jack and the body on the outside.
Inside the bolts go through alum plate also.

Posted By: garryk6 on 12/13/15 12:46am

Jack mounts are my tiedowns

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: SilverPompadour on 12/13/15 05:32am

Thanks Cajun, but Im not sure which voids you are referring to(there are so many). I had intended to leave the gaps where the ply panels insert into the channels on the bunk and wings. I was also going to add some type of 'scupper' drain to these channels to allow the water to exit. All the edges, seams and fasteners of my panels are sealed with total boat and Trempro 635. Almost the entire bunk was glued using the epoxy as the temps here have dipped below the working range of wood glue. Its looking more and more likely that I will fully coat the panels with epoxy before interior reassembly.
The interior will definitely be a non vintage custom install. If I can utilize the original ceiling mount cabinets without a large visual mismatch between old and new, I will. If not they will be up for grabs.

Rastaman you're coming along nicely as well. My interior skin had to be stripped to gain access to the fridge vent, ac and stove vent rivets and clearance light wiring. Most importantly on my C11, it gives access to screw down through the wall channel into the bunk, wings and floor. How did you get to these fasteners when doing your bunk install?

D1, I think thats a good approach, sounds like it might even be... fun?

67, Thanks for the history. It provides motivation and reinforces my belief that this is a worthy project. Looks like your baby is in good hands.

1968 Avion C-11
1993 Dodge D250 LE Cummins

Posted By: ticki2 on 12/13/15 06:11am

garryk6 wrote:

Jack mounts are my tiedowns

x2

I drilled a hole through the gusset of each jack mounting ell bracket .You will have to check if the tie downs have clearance with the truck bed . I am mounted on a flatbed so a little different than a pickup bed .

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

Posted By: D1trout on 12/13/15 10:56am

Operator error! Pls see my later post...

* This post was edited 12/13/15 11:33am by D1trout *

Posted By: rastaman33609 on 12/13/15 11:23am

Silver... I did it the lazy way...I drilled out the bottom rivets and a few of the vertical ones on the interior skin, then pried the skin up enough to reach in behind it. I cut strips of wood about 1& 1/2" thick then screwed down through that into the ply. I didn't get the bite into the bunk wood I would have liked as its only 1/2" so I also made some L brackets out of 2" aluminum for the sides and riveted them into the vertical channel and screwed down into the ceder planks.

For the front I ran a strip of 2" angle aluminum long enough to span the distance under the window. It was then attached again to the vertical channel on either side of the window and multiple screws into the ceder planks. Nice and strong now.

For the wings, with the wood inside the channel I was able to get a good bite through the 2 layers of 3/4' ply using 2&1/2" screws.

I rechecked the interior lights and running lights once more before riveting things back in place.

Posted By: D1trout on 12/13/15 11:30am

Gents, in response to recent posts...
Rastaman, here's a pic of my tie down arrangement when I was still planning to keep Argo a truck camper. It's a SS marine bow eye bolted thru the base of the jack plate. It worked quite well and, at 2500 pound SWL, I had a high degree of confidence in it's ability to keep everything together. I like the idea of distributing the force thru two bolt/nut attachments rather than a single eyebolt. My only advice would be to be certain your mounting spot will allow easy attachment of the actual tie down.

And another

Silver, I have high hopes for the aluminum interior corners. Here's a pic of the construction paper stage of the layout. At this point I was laying out on the plastic liner. It ended up being much more accurate to lay out on the ribs after I'd removed the liner. But you can get the idea here...

As for the Argo process, I replaced the aluminum frame channel that ran across the truck chassis because they were deflecting too much under the load of Argo. We made steel cross pieces using heavy wall rectangular tubing. It's plenty strong and stiff. I kept the aluminum channel that runs lengthwise under the actual box of Argo. I just set Argo onto the newly engineered frame yesterday. No deflection now.

I have now begin the layout of the side storage box assembly. You may recall that this old customized rig in SoCal was the basic inspiration:

I was feeling daunted by the prospect of the design and layout. I called truck service body builders on the west coast to see if I could get one built. Finally I just bit the bullet and started mocking up what I want. Here are two approaches:

This is the straight back approach and conforms to the line of the bottom of the bustle. I'm trying to keep the bustle because I customized it to create a very nice fiberglass gray water tank inside it. But this line wastes a lot of potential storage, which is woefully lacking in Argo, so I brought the box down to the same bottom elevation as the cab:

This is a more conventional use of space and gives me lots more room for an eventual layout something like this:

I've studied the stock doors on the outside of Argo to come up with a door construction detail for these compartments. I found that propane and fridge doors were made of .037" stock. The water heater door was made of .060" stock. Thicker will certainly be better for my storage doors. I'm going to build the water tanks into the curved front ends of the storage areas. I reckon I can get about 30 gallons on each side. This offers the advantage of the water weight being low and in the middle of the rig.

I'm going to be glad to get these compartments built and installed so I can bolt Argo to the truck and get on with the interior. If I'm going to make it to Muley Point this summer, time is of the essense!

Dick

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