Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: 67avion on 07/07/12 12:24pm

ticki2 wrote:

BTW , just as an observation , of all the rotted out Avions I looked at before I found the one I have , I never saw one with the back or front overhang sagging . I believe it is because the shell actually supports the floor as apposed to the floor supporting the shell . The floor does supply lateral support .

That seems sort of right to me, though we did see one of the forum members, AvionC11 I think, that appeared to have an issue with the front sagging. My observation is that the floor just simply comes loose from the shell because of the lack of support. Many if not most of the screws that secured the floor to the wall were broken or tearing. The same was true around the toilet. It looks to me like BlackFlag's design will at least mitigate the tendency for the section to fail. He also has some interesting ideas on the stairs. I'm hoping that the combined strength of the rail system and secure attachments to the shell (which I don't think that Blackflag has addressed as yet) would give you far more security in the rear overhang. In turn, you could increase the space for gray water storage and even potentially build a porch for exterior storage.

Its all good to me. Stick with it.

Posted By: BlackFlagForge on 07/07/12 02:17pm

The biggest problem I noticed with the floor of my tub is that it was only held in place by staples.. 2 inch staples every 4-6 inches I hope that my liquid nail & 3.5 inch exterior grade screws will address some of the issue. I had thought about using angle iron around the base to replace the aluminum and maybe welding that to the runners but I'm not sure yet if it will be needed.

Posted By: 67avion on 07/07/12 03:01pm

Blackflagforge wrote:

Yes, somewhere buried in this thread is my post dealing exactly with this issue. And yes, we used "angle iron".

On edit: I found the page on the floor of the tub repair and its page 30; fibreglass pan repair is page 24 -25; greywater and plumbing are pages 11, 13, 16- at least thats what I found there may be more. Hope this helps.

* This post was edited 07/07/12 03:24pm by 67avion *

Posted By: 69 Avion on 07/07/12 05:14pm

BlackFlagForge wrote:

This is the idea I'm going for, it looks like the only thing that will need to move is the gas line to the fridge, and that would ony need to extend down about 1.5 inches into the holding area instead of being screwed right to the floor itself. The braces will skirt the outside of the unit and come back to join to two runners of the same channel that will extend like the old wooden ones did.
[image]

Y
You have the same camper jacks that Cayo says that they never put on these campers. They are really good, heavy duty jacks, but I can't find the brand. The jack holders (cast) on the bottom of the wings, say "LAJACK" on them. There are red labels on the jacks, but mine are faded and I can't read it. Can you tell who made them? I am looking for another jack handle.
By the way, I noticed that you have a galvanized LP line just like mine. I replaced it with soft copper when I went around my new gray water tank. They do make a little check valve for the shower line if anyone is concerned about it. I'm going to run mine the way it is and see if I have a problem before I put one in. I don't think that I will need one, but time will tell.
As far as a previous question of making the fiberglass cover, lower, I wouldn't do it. It would make the ground clearance less, besides, I was able to get 19 gallons of gray water storage under the existing cover. Make sure you keep your gray water storage as far forward as you can.

* This post was edited 07/08/12 11:05am by an administrator/moderator *

Posted By: 69 Avion on 07/07/12 05:24pm

This is what my gray water tank and repipe ended up looking like.

[image]

I still need to finish the ABS pipe, which is the easy part. We made a transition fitting from the 2" gray water discharge to the 3", 1/4 bend. Ticki2 found a factory one for his.

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

Posted By: 69 Avion on 07/07/12 05:43pm

BlackFlagForge wrote:

I dont think the stairs will be much of an issue for me, a basic light wooden set would work fine. Open the door and they are ready to pull out and slid in place. Not sure yet about keeping them secure when traveling but if I build them light I can put a rack on the inside of the door to hang them from.

As for the supports I plan to use at least two pieces of steel channel in place of some* of the wooden runners that are used, like 69avion did with his plastic wood runners but this way the weight should be transferred along the length of the camper though it will have stress points @ the weld area I wont be hauling any of my anvils inside so I hope it wont be an issue.
this is a quick idea of what Im talking about, not quit to scale but you can get the idea, this would be the under side of the unit so ignore the google man standing next to it heh.
[image]

This should add quite a bit of rigidity to the floor of the unit overall. The black holes would be the sockets for the stair inserts, this way the steps are supported by the steel and not from the plywood, the factory stairs just had a type of carriage bolt that on my unit was rusted through and pulled out on the leading edge.

You certainly put a lot of thought into your reinforcement. I like it. Remember, the channel doesn't have anywhere near as much strength that direction as it does the other way. You may want to consider angle iron of 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 x 3/16" (or similar)to save weight and then put wood runners next to it (1 x ?, two pieces thick) to replace the factory runners. Basically, you would be incorporating the angle iron into, or alongside, the wood runners, except the angle iron would extend back to the cantilevered rear section to add strength. I think my gray water tank, with minimal mods, would work with that setup.

It may be hard to tell from your pictures, but your wood doesn't look that bad. I think a few good coats of a premium exterior stain, after you fix a couple of small spots, and it will look like new. The only bad area on mine ( and it wasn't bad at all) was the exposed area above the steps. Everything above the fiberglass cover was like new. The area above the steps required a few more coats of stain because it kept soaking it up.

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* This post was edited 07/09/12 07:09pm by an administrator/moderator *

Posted By: 69 Avion on 07/07/12 05:48pm

BlackFlagForge, I forgot to ask. How hard was your fiberglass cover to remove once you realized that there were nails in it?

Also, was your 1/2" nominal soft copper for your city water hookup unsupported like mine was?

[image]

After looking at your picture more closely, it appears that someone replaced it with PVC. The wood blocks with the "U" clamp held the copper (if it was like mine) and there was a small regulator in there. I put a drop ear "L" under there with a mount to support it properly. I will extend it out from the fiberglass cover with a brass nipple and a hose connection and then I will put a regulator, in line, on the outside where I can get to it easily. I doubt that anywhere will have enough pressure to hurt it, but a regulator is still nice insurance.

* This post was edited 07/07/12 06:02pm by 69 Avion *

Posted By: ticki2 on 07/07/12 06:09pm

69 Avion , tell me more about the check valve for the shower line .

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

Posted By: BlackFlagForge on 07/07/12 06:17pm

The cover was quick to let go once I removed the nails, two of the eight I used my cutoff wheel the other six were rusted to the size of half inch toothpicks and ripped loose with a few whacks of the chisel

My major wood damage is in that same area above the stairs that was exposed and a little in the blackwater area because the tank has a crack that was never addressed. I'll do what probing I can and if its just that under layer I'll rotfix/bondo the small stuff but I think I need a full replace on the passenger side. The city was replaced as you saw with pvc and gator fittings, Ill be running pex for all of my water needs, Ky weather can change over night and that stuff is amazing when dealing with freezing.

Ill go take some pics now of the jacks, they are the set that came with the camper as far as the PO knew I'm not a fan of the 3 support points as its starting to weaken and bend the side its on so I plan on welding together a fourth on the passenger side.

Posted By: BlackFlagForge on 07/07/12 06:40pm

La Jaqa

* This post was edited 07/08/12 11:10am by an administrator/moderator *

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