Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: garryk6 on 08/03/12 12:32am

garryk6 wrote:

Well we have been camping around Alaska in the the Avion. Mom, dad and 3of the 4kids. Got this iPad while on our trip. I see that there has been a lot of activity on the Avion group! My wife and twins stayed in the TC at Elmendorf AFB campground, while my other son and I went to Boy Scout camp. My wife now has a list of to dos for the Avion... But now we will be ordering up the Engle fridge/freezer. Have been taking lots of pics. Saw a momma black bear and her cub yesterday. Well gotta get back on the road!
Garry in AK

Well, we just spent the last few days driving around Alaska. We left Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage on Monday. We had met up Sunday with some real good friends from Kodiak, who were moving to Texas by way of Arizona. Before we had left Kodiak, we had found them a mid 1980's jayco 7' pop-ups for only $1800. We set up a battery in the jayco for dry camping. Then checked the heater, stove and fridge out. All worked great! Anyway we left out of Anchorage Monday and made it to Wasilla to pick up a set of airbags for his 2007 Dodge 2500 mega cab. He was all stock, and getting a lot of bounce over the frost heaves. My F350 with the Avion has been traveling GREAT! We then made it as far as the Matanuska Glacier. We stayed at the little BLM campground and had a great dinner around a little campfire in the rain with a little blue tarp over the table stretched between the trees. Then Tuesday We drove to Tok. Spent lunch at a wayside rest area. It was sunny, and we installed the airbags in the parking lot there by a river. We actually got it all done, pulled out the cores to the fill valves, and finished jacking the truck as jig as we could off the axle. Installed the valve cores, and lowered the truck, that gave us 15 psi in the bags with no air compressor! Ended up lowering the pressure to 10 psi for a nice ride. Later in his trip he will pick up a 7000 lb trailer that was sent from Kodiak to Seattle by barge... That was the other reason for the airbags. We were both averaging about the same mileage. Between 12 and 15 mpg, him with the Dodge hemi, and me with the 5.4 Triton. We said our goodbyes in Tok, and they headed south, and we headed north. We drove to Delta Junction, saw several moose. Then turned south on the Richardson Highway down to Paxson. We were going to top off there before driving the Denali highway, but no fuel... Drove on to Tangle Lakes and the Lodge there had gasoline only for $4.65/gallon. And the pump was from the 1960's, and the price was manually calculated by the gallons displayed on the old rotating numbers! We then spent the night at a BLM campground there in Tangle lakes. This is also where the pavement ends. The next 110 miles is all gravel. A true Alaskan Highway! We drove the whole thing today, then south to Talkeetna. Many times we were as slow as 10mph due to the potholes from the rain the night before, and off and on through the day. There were a few times that we got up to the posted speed of 50 mph, but only very short sections. We saw lots of caribou, a black fox, many swans, a bald eagle, many arctic terns, many seagulls :-) and many more ground squirrels. Several times I did start sliding sideways because I started going a little fast, when the roads went from more gravel to more dirt/mud... The 19.5's were great on all but the slick mud... There is just not enough voids in this style to give good mud traction.
I would recommend this drive to any TC folks, but be prepared for lots of stopping for pics, and ooo's and aaah's, and lots of either mud or dust! I'll post pics of the very dirty Avion later. Need to order up two gear boxes for the joulosie windows,as they stripped, and I need help on how to get the windows to loosen up and not strip out my brand new gear boxes...
Hope you like the Avion adventures from Alaska.
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: rfuerst911sc on 08/03/12 05:05am

Very nice improvement on that holding tank. So from the factory the Avion just has one holding tank is that correct ? I have not torn into mine yet but like the idea of a gray and black tank.

Posted By: 69 Avion on 08/03/12 07:10am

rfuerst911sc wrote:

Very nice improvement on that holding tank. So from the factory the Avion just has one holding tank is that correct ? I have not torn into mine yet but like the idea of a gray and black tank.

The Avion campers only had a Black Water tank. I think that they are about 8 gallons or so.

Gray Water tanks were not required until around 1974.

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

Posted By: 69 Avion on 08/03/12 07:26am

garryk6, it sounds like you are having a great time. Maybe someday you can post some pictures of your adventure with the Avion.

One thing about the Avion camper is that it really doesn't weigh that much for it's size. When you buy a newer brand name camper they usually weigh about 1,000# or more than the Avion for a comparable size. I don't want a camper that is over 3,000# wet. If I need one that large I won't be able to go off road as much as I can do with the Avion.

Posted By: ticki2 on 08/03/12 08:06am

Garry , Nice to hear you are out and about , would love to visit some of the places you mention , maybe someday , it's only 4500 miles away.I will be heading up to the boonies of northern Maine in 2 weeks .

rfuerst911sc , yes they only came with a black tank originally , 12gals according to Avion specs and my measurements . Early in this thread (somewhere around page 11) are some pics of a 10gal grey tank I was able to fit without too much trouble and cost , About $140 for tank , plumbing and valve .

* This post was edited 08/03/12 08:14am by ticki2 *

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

Posted By: 69 Avion on 08/05/12 08:46pm

Does anyone know where to get the light cover for the outside "porch" light? It appears to be the same cover as the light in the bathroom. They were very common 20 years ago, but I can't find one and I don't want to change out those two lights. I would prefer to find two new lenses and put LED bulbs in the fixtures.

Posted By: 69 Avion on 08/06/12 05:29pm

I have the exterior LED lights on, except for the LED bulb on the "porch" light. I'm not going to buy the bulb until I find the cover.
[image]

The steps are on, but I still need to adjust them a little. They fold right up out of the way once the factory step is pushed in. What I like is that the strain for the steps (except the factory step) are all on the bumper and not on the camper. I was thinking about adding a piece of aluminum to the steps so that the top on goes under the factory step and supports it.
[image]

Posted By: ticki2 on 08/06/12 08:08pm

69 Avion wrote:

Those are still made by Truck-Lite , carried by most autoparts stores .The lens is pn8935W .

Posted By: 69 Avion on 08/06/12 08:33pm

ticki2 wrote:

69 Avion wrote:

Those are still made by Truck-Lite , carried by most autoparts stores .The lens is pn8935W .

Thanks, I've been looking and obviously not looking in the right place.

Posted By: 69 Avion on 08/07/12 05:53pm

Today I adjusted my step mount to have the upper arm rest under the bottom of the factory step. I did this on purpose to take most of the weight off of the camper step. It doesn't give me the perfect step height, but it isn't bad.

I also made brackets for my stabilizer jacks. They look awesome. I will post some pictures tomorrow because the battery went dead on my camera today. I made the brackets so that they are as high as I could get them.

The LED lights really look great. They certainly are bright.

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