'91 K5 Four Wheel Camper

[ZooMad75]

Whoohoo !!!
Sort of....????
I bet that you can do it, even though it will take a lot to help out and finish the camper.

It is sort of a Whoohoo moment. Lately, it's all my mind thinks about when it's not required to be processing on something else like work or talking to the wife. I think about it when I go to bed, when I wake up, in the shower and driving to and from work. I've had more ideas pop into my brain at night that fuels me to do some research on the idea to make the camper better, more capable and more enjoyable.

Having it at my house as we start getting more light and warmer temps (72 today btw) will certainly get my butt into gear to complete it. It's a big visual boost to drive the enthusiasm having it sitting in the driveway.

A couple of different things need to happen to install it though. The plywood floor that currently has some dingy ass carpet on it needs to get stripped and redone in some type of vinyl flooring. The floor goes in first prior to the camper. I kicked around the idea of not using it at all and gaining almost an inch in headroom, but that leaves me to screwing the bench down to the stock floor and all the cargo tie downs I plan to put in will go into the sheet metal too. I don't want to screw into the stock floor. It shouldn't be too hard to strip the carpet and at minimum just install the wood. I can install the flooring on the plywood with the camper on if need be. The second thing that needs to be done at the time of install is new top to cab weatherstripping. Thankfully I already have both parts. Just need a tube of 3m weatherstrip adhesive to install with. That should make the camper to Blazer connection truly water-tight.

Everything else I can do with the camper installed. As a matter of fact the bench design change I've cooked up really requires the camper to be installed. It will be a folding setup to allow me to tie down cargo like a 12v fridge (eventually) or a couple of coolers and other gear. The bench will ride in the up position in travel mode to allow access to the gear and then simply fold down over the gear when it is time to relax and camp is set up. If it works like I envision it, the result will be awesome.

 

[mrk5]

Should be exciting

 

[ZooMad75]

In the scope of me getting my rear in gear on little projects I exiled myself to the driveway to get some wiring done. Having completed the plumbing side of my OBA system I needed to get the dash switch wired into the pressure switch on the tank. I figured while I'm there I can finally wire in and install the switch for my auxiliary battery solenoid. I originally set the aux battery solenoid to come on with the ignition and tie the two batteries together while running and not when the key is off.

So an afternoon's worth of wiring completed and I have both systems operational. The aux battery switch is a 3 way on-off-on setup. Down runs it like I had it, as it has power with the key on and basically runs as I described. Set to the middle the solenoid has no power and keeps the aux battery divorced from the system all the time. The upper position takes power directly from the aux battery and allows a self jump if the main battery is too discharged to crank on its own. Works perfectly for a fraction of the cost of a aftermarket aux battery kit.

The OBA switch is pretty straight forward. It provided power when on to the relay/pressure switch on the tank. The pressure switch allows the compressor to run to 120psi and then shuts it off, when pressure drops below 90psi it turns the compressor back on again. When I switched it on the compressor ran for about 5 minutes and shut off when it hit 120psi. I dumped some air from the tank and it came back on as planned.

 

[6872xtc]

Nice! I like your thinking with the aux battery control.

 

[ZooMad75]

The day has come to load the camper onto the K5. I started out this morning getting ready by starting to pull the tailgate. John and his two boys came over to help take the top off. As things normally go there is always one friggen thing to disrupt plans. The torsion springs for the gate were a little of a pain, but what turned into a problem was that the head of one of the bolts to the right hinge had broken off a long time ago. It would not allow the hinge to pull out of the pocket on the body. Taking too long we unbolted the hinge from the gate and moved on so John's oldest could go back home to meet a buddy to go skiing. So with the top off that left John and his youngest to ride back to his house in the topless K5. With no rear seat or gate. We got some looks from other vehicles to say the least.

I don't have any pics putting the camper on as I've taken enough on the last couple of go rounds. Plus John, Tony and I were constantly moving to prep the truck for the camper. The heavy bed mat was pulled out, to be put back in later. I had fresh weatherstripping for the cab and the top so they got glued in with 3m weatherstrip adhesive. Camper tape was used on the top of the bed rails and the gate opening. We yanked the carpet off of the camper floor and pulled all the staples and put it in the truck. The bed mat went back in and the camper was lifted up. We dropped it onto the truck without much fuss. We did have to open up some holes to line up better on both sides but it didn't take much.

On to the installed pics...

Pardon the duct tape. I had the lock for the propane compartment at home. Still need to install it.

Inside, plus the stuff I needed to take home from John's house like the camper jacks and other stuff.

Now it's onto fitting it out. Wiring, lower bench, ceiling.....

 

[campfire]

Woohoo!!!!

 

[LNielson]

Now that is cool!

 

[stockk5]

nice score!!!

 

[max 02]

Looks good on there!

 

[Capt Ron]

Looks great. In fact it looks so good I just decided I am keeping mine.

 

[ZooMad75]

Looks great. In fact it looks so good I just decided I am keeping mine.

Thanks guys! Glad to be a positive influence on you Ron!

 

[ZooMad75]

Had the day off and planned on making full use of it. So bright and early I popped the top on the camper and got to work sanding the cabinet.

80 grit made quick work of the old stain/poly. Followed up with 120 to smooth it out. Had all of the sanding done before lunch.

It made a flipping mess for sure. I wish we could have done this before we mounted it, but that's why shop vacs came to be. Sand for a few minutes, vac it up for a few. Repeat.

Pulled the doors back off to be able to sand around the hinges and sand down the backsides.

I will say this, with the front windows open, back door open and the windows open in the sideliner I had pretty good airflow.

After a final vacuum I fired up the truck and the OBA in order to give it a final blow out to get the last of the dust off of the surface I was going to work with.

Taking a break in the action I ran to Lowes to get the supplies needed to complete the next phase. I chose a little darker color than before. It's not a perfect match to the FWC paneling, but I liked it.

I'm not planning on going nuts and staining the inside right now. Later maybe, but right now it's getting the outside done.

I plan on covering the plywood seen here with a grey carpet like what's used on sub and speaker boxes. Way better than the shag that was on here before.

American Chestnut is the color. I like it.

While I was waiting for stuff to dry I fixed something that was bugging me from our initial assembly. The aluminum angle stock was used originally to support the joint between the cab wall and cabover floor. Bugle head wood screws were used and they just sat on top of the aluminum. It just didn't look finished. So I took the screws out and followed up with a countersink bit to make the screws fit flush to the aluminum. Now they won't catch something as I climb into bed in the dark.

Stuff is pretty dry now but I want to give it all another coat so I'll go back through the process again tomorrow.

 

[campfire]

Had the day off and planned on making full use of it. So bright and early I popped the top on the camper and got to work sanding the cabinet.

80 grit made quick work of the old stain/poly. Followed up with 120 to smooth it out. Had all of the sanding done before lunch.

It made a flipping mess for sure. I wish we could have done this before we mounted it, but that's why shop vacs came to be. Sand for a few minutes, vac it up for a few. Repeat.

Pulled the doors back off to be able to sand around the hinges and sand down the backsides.

I will say this, with the front windows open, back door open and the windows open in the sideliner I had pretty good airflow.

After a final vacuum I fired up the truck and the OBA in order to give it a final blow out to get the last of the dust off of the surface I was going to work with.

Taking a break in the action I ran to Lowes to get the supplies needed to complete the next phase. I chose a little darker color than before. It's not a perfect match to the FWC paneling, but I liked it.

I'm not planning on going nuts and staining the inside right now. Later maybe, but right now it's getting the outside done.

I plan on covering the plywood seen here with a grey carpet like what's used on sub and speaker boxes. Way better than the shag that was on here before.

American Chestnut is the color. I like it.

While I was waiting for stuff to dry I fixed something that was bugging me from our initial assembly. The aluminum angle stock was used originally to support the joint between the cab wall and cabover floor. Bugle head wood screws were used and they just sat on top of the aluminum. It just didn't look finished. So I took the screws out and followed up with a countersink bit to make the screws fit flush to the aluminum. Now they won't catch something as I climb into bed in the dark.

Stuff is pretty dry now but I want to give it all another coat so I'll go back through the process again tomorrow.

Does the 4WD camper not have its own floor like the Chalet shells do?

 

[ZooMad75]

Does the 4WD camper not have its own floor like the Chalet shells do?

Nope. Floor is independent of the camper. There is plywood under the bed mat that came with the camper. It had carpet stapled to it. I got rid of the carpet to just run the mat. Easier to clean for sure. I could have left the plywood out all together, but I plan on screwing the bed structure to the floor as well as some tie downs and I didn't want to drill directly into the sheetmetal floor.

 

[ZooMad75]

After getting started this morning I came to the conclusion I didn't like how the stain/poly ended up drying on everything. I had a few spots that bubbled up as it dried. So out came the palm sander to take a little off the top.

Without the stainless countertop installed yet, the counter is a pretty good work surface to tackle the doors on. I ended up taking a less is more approach and used a lot less this time around.

It worked better this time around. I was able to get a coat on, let it dry and knocked it down with 0000 steel wool and hit it with a light 3rd coat.

I also figured out the plumbing for the gas line to the furnace. Ended up hitting all three local home improvement places in town to nab the right fittings. Just need to grab one of my tanks and leak test before I fire up the furnace. I'll probably start the basic wiring next. Power from the aux battery, fuse panel and ground bus bar.

 

[GWeakland620]

Wow dude, very good work! Looks perfect. I bet you are just chomping at the bit to get out and use this thing!!!

 

[sreidmx]

Dude that is coming out nice.. I never would have thought on a small camper like that could be that cool. Reminds me I need to get off my duff and work on my travel trailer

 

[ZooMad75]

Wow dude, very good work! Looks perfect. I bet you are just chomping at the bit to get out and use this thing!!!

Thanks! I am ready to go for sure. Funny thing is, now the wife is seeing the vision come to light and she's asking when we can do an overnighter in the mountains. So I'm pretty sure I got the bosses approval.

Dude that is coming out nice.. I never would have thought on a small camper like that could be that cool. Reminds me I need to get off my duff and work on my travel trailer

Thanks for the props. Had I not had the pleasure of camping with Larry in his Phoenix camper I would not have thought to go this way. Small is the word, but for two people it's plenty. It's not something to go full time in, but a week or a weekend will be perfect. I'm making sure no space is wasted in my setup. I want to be able to pack a bag, stock the cooler or fridge and some food and then hit the trail. Just need to get some other stuff done.

 

[sreidmx]

Thanks! I am ready to go for sure. Funny thing is, now the wife is seeing the vision come to light and she's asking when we can do an overnighter in the mountains. So I'm pretty sure I got the bosses approval.


Thanks for the props. Had I not had the pleasure of camping with Larry in his Phoenix camper I would not have thought to go this way. Small is the word, but for two people it's plenty. It's not something to go full time in, but a week or a weekend will be perfect. I'm making sure no space is wasted in my setup. I want to be able to pack a bag, stock the cooler or fridge and some food and then hit the trail. Just need to get some other stuff done.

Dang pretty awesome if you are able to do that!

 

[ZooMad75]

Had to work this morning. I hit it this afternoon and got the wiring started. 12ga wire pulled from the aux battery to the inside of the camper. Installed the fuse panel, power and ground junction blocks. Started working on the interior lights too. Then it started to rain so I had to pack it in. Only one pic shot. This is the inside of the electrical cabinet from the outside. The switch is wired in temporary until decide on where to put it.