Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: garryk6 on 12/29/16 09:23am

SilverPompadour wrote:

Happy holidays to all. I hope many of you are on the road enjoying your Avions.

The LP forced air heater I installed is overkill unless it's real cold out, great for the quick warmup though. Im looking to add a Wave 3 to the system and wanted some input from the group. Has anyone had any issues with dust causing a malfunction? Do they really weigh close to 7lbs. without the legs? IIRC DGordon has his mounted inside a cabinet door which looks ideal but I dont think my feather weight doors could handle that much weight.

Silver,
I had only the Wave 3 for the first 5 years. It works great down to about 30. Below that it has difficulty keeping up, even with putting reflectix in all the windows. Also you have to keep the vent cracked, and there is so much moisture produced by the Wave and the bodies, that the moisture freezes on the vents, and then when it warms it rains on you... Arghh.

Having just spent almost two weeks living out of the Avion with the furnace, what a difference. Still have to contend with the moisture generated by bodies and breathing/cooking etc, but the 12000 btu Atwood worked like a charm even down to around -8F. If we hadn't augmented with the small electric when connected to shore power, we would have gone through alot more propane, but we were nice and toasty the entire trip.

Hope this helps!
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: 67avion on 12/29/16 12:20pm

Gary, that is an epic adventure that you described. I simply can't imagine the complexity of the family life onboard the Avion, the traipse to California, and then the drive back with a monster snow plow hanging off the front of the truck....not to mention driving around with the family, with the snowplow and on and on. Your good humor and energy is inspiring! By the way best of luck to your son in 29Palms, and thanks for his service (and yours).

Rasta, I'm thinking of you two in warm Florida while we get one blast after another up here in Flyover Country. No, I don't take the jacks along when we travel. They worry me with their extended width and I really don't have space to store the bases. Actually, I don't want to give over the space. So far, we have not had any issues with this decision, though we recently made a trip to the Dakotas and suffered a bad blow out that sidelined us for a while. But, our bottle jack got the truck up and out of the way to remove the tire and replace it.

Silver I have been OK with the Wave heater in terms of its set - up. Invariably, we pull the unit out of the storage area and place it on top of the counter where it heats up....and where we have a small fan that distributes the heat somewhat. Its radiant heat, so it only gets really hot where its pointed, as you know. And yes, we have had a failure with the Wave when construction dust coated the surface of the heating pad. I sent it back to Wave and they repaired it. However, it still sets off my gas detector. And that is very annoying. Truth be known, we seldom travel when the weather is real cold, so my experience with the Wave is somewhat more limited than folks who travel a lot in winter. As to the weight of the unit, it has not affected the door at all. Everything closes nicely...so far.

Good hearing from everyone during the Holidays!

Next year in Muley Point! Onward!

* This post was edited 12/29/16 03:49pm by 67avion *

Posted By: ticki2 on 12/29/16 02:31pm

Gary my boy , you sure get around . I also went camping over TG . Some heavy wet snow , some rain , some freezing rain and lots of fog .

I tried a little experiment for the condensation problem and it seemed to help considerably . On mine mot of the wet was at the bottom of the wall in back of the cushion on the dinette . The other place was below the front window of the bunk bed .

For the wall I used some spray rubber cement to adhere some 1/4" x 9" sill seal to the bottom portion of the wall . This helped a lot . Then I removed the back cushion and it was even better .

On the bunk I pulled out the mattress a few inches and made sure blankets and sheets were not touching the wall . I also have the 1/4" masonite spacer under the mattress .

With those 3 things done I had no condensation . I am pretty convinced
that allowing the warm air to get to the walls helps a great deal . Temps were 20F nights and 35F days . I am sure more would have to be done to endure the temps you did , but I was impressed that such minor changes made such a big difference .Work in progress

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

Posted By: ticki2 on 12/29/16 02:51pm

rastaman33609 wrote:

Hoping everyone had a good holiday and best wishes for the coming year.

Hopefully very early next year I will be able to get my C10 loaded on to the truck, finalize my grey water 'tank' plumbing which will be mounted to the under carriage of the truck. Then I will have to make a decision on how to transport my 2 or 3, 2'x 4' "portable ' solar panels.

In an attempt to raise the camper to facilitate sliding the panels in between the camper and the cab, I installed 2 layers of 2"x 6" X 8'
boards, effectively lowering the height of the bottom of the camper.
Now by my measurements, the jacks are not going to be able to raise it high enough for the truck bed. (Dodge 3500).

Which brings to mind the question...
How many travel with their Jacks mounted to the camper?...pros's and cons?

Hope everyone has a great new year...
Yeh Mon!
.

If your 2x6's lower the bottom of the camper I'm assuming you attached them to the camper and not the truck . Either way you need more height for the jacks . If you haven't already , take some careful measurements of the jacks fully extended to know exactly how much you need . What is the height of the truck bed unloaded ? If you need 2" or less I think you could use a spacer in the tripod tube . If it is much more you could buy or make the extension pipe the sell for the Rieco jacks . Another option is to make an extension plate for the top of the jack where it bolts to the mounting angle . I had to do this because I needed both Height and width . I get a picture a little later . Since I have an 8'-6" flatbed I have a space in front of the camper and that is where the jacks go when traveling , I like having the option .

Posted By: ticki2 on 12/29/16 03:35pm

Missed the pic

* This post was edited 12/29/16 03:43pm by ticki2 *

Posted By: ticki2 on 12/29/16 03:40pm

Here is my jack extension . If you don't need additional width you can use a simple plate , 2 holes at the top to bolt to the angle bracket on the camper and 2 at the bottom to bolt the jack .

[image]

Posted By: garryk6 on 12/29/16 04:54pm

67avion wrote:

Thanks for the kind words! Since I have regularly hauled a 7.5 foot wide plow, this one did not feel that much bigger, until I looked again at this picture...

[image]

The new plow is 8.5 feet without the wings. The wings add over a 6 inches to each side. That makes it when perpendicular to the road the plow is over 9.5 feet wide. When I place it at a near 45 degree angle, it brings it back to the width of the truck and camper, but extends the leading edge waaaay out front. Almost too far for the headlights even with them mounted higher with bushings. But by pivoting the plow, it drastically cut down the wind drag, minimized the effect of wind gusts but makes it even more difficult to judge where that thing is away out front... [emoticon]

Posted By: rastaman33609 on 12/30/16 06:03am

ticki2 wrote:

Ticki2.....Awesome, that could be my solution right there. I already have spacer blocks, however they need to be a wee bit wider, at the moment I have to position the front tripod so I can get the rear tire between the legs then lower the camper on the truck then re position the legs again so as to get pass the rear leg of the tripod. With this set up of yours I can add an additional 2" to each side and also add my height.
BTW what kind of metal did you use, and thickness.

Thanks for the solution...one step closer to Muley Point...
Yeh Mon

ps, without the 2x6 spacers my height was ok, so I only need to gain back the 3" I lost.

* This post was edited 12/30/16 07:41am by rastaman33609 *

Posted By: ticki2 on 12/30/16 08:52am

They are made with 4" structural channel with 1/4" plates . They add 8" of height . My flatbed is 42" high unloaded . You could go wider and shorter depending on your measurements . That said , the wider you go the more leverage you put on the angle brackets under the wing . Mine are attached with elevator bolts as original. If doing it again I would use carriage bolts with at least 1/4" backer plates above the wing .

Posted By: 67avion on 12/30/16 11:22am

Garry, I was thinking about you and I came across this photo. Reminds me of your tales. Stay warm!

Paratroopers practice door breaching techniques during the Urban Mobility Breacher Course at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Dec 13, 2016. They are with 6th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division. Photo by Spc. Donald Williams

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