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'91 K5 Four Wheel Camper

This is the build for my 1991 V1500 Blazer, AKA the K5.3. It started out life being sold to the U.S. Government with a 350 TBI/700r4/241 combo. 4 years with a 5.3/700r4 Combo and now moving to an 8.1L Vortec and NV4500 5-speed.
Overview Gallery Discussion
Not 35 spline 60, but it shows the difference. Inner also doesn’t have the neck down
I’m sure there some math equations for the difference between 4340 and a stick axle, but a picture works too
 
Had a productive day with the truck. Nothing major mechanical but more arts and crafts. I did go out with my buddy Bill and tried out our radios on the GMRS bands. We took off west past the local reservoir and spread out quite a ways without any loss of signal. I took off into the open space area that leads out to where the river starts filling the lake. The trail winds around and drops into little creek crossings and back up again. Bill stayed by the highway and I kept going further down the trail to check our range. We were able to stay connected 2 1/2 miles with the difference in elevation and no line of sight at all. Plus Bill rang Larry on his phone over in Pueblo West about 8-10 miles as the crow flies from us and he got on his Baofeng and we were able to talk clearly to him as well. I just need to get lined up with a local club to take my test soon.

On the arts and crafts side I went ahead and lined the lower bench with some outdoor type carpet. I got a 6'x8' section at Lowes and with my son's help we chopped it up to fit. A can of spray adhesive and a few staples later and we've got an upholstered bench. We won't be going into the upholstery business anytime soon, but it's good enough for who it's for.

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GWeakland620 said:
What are the dimensions of that bench folded out?
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I don't remember. But I think the fold-out section is 10" wide. The main bench is 22"ish and then the camper section is about 6". It's 6 feet total in length. With the section folded out the lower bench is more than wide enough for me to lay down and not hang an arm off the edge. Which is something I can't say about version 1 of the bench. The one time I tried sleeping on the first version without the fold-out section I found that I could lay on my back and not have enough room for my arm at the edge to stay on the bench. That's with my other side all the way at the window. But with the fold-out section it's nice and roomy. Plus there is still enough room on the floor to get to the door.
 
ZooMad75 said:
I don't remember. But I think the fold-out section is 10" wide. The main bench is 22"ish and then the camper section is about 6". It's 6 feet total in length. With the section folded out the lower bench is more than wide enough for me to lay down and not hang an arm off the edge. Which is something I can't say about version 1 of the bench. The one time I tried sleeping on the first version without the fold-out section I found that I could lay on my back and not have enough room for my arm at the edge to stay on the bench. That's with my other side all the way at the window. But with the fold-out section it's nice and roomy. Plus there is still enough room on the floor to get to the door.
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Yeah that sounds about perfect!
 
You sure know how to give yourself a great birthday present. You got to work on your rig and then get some seat time also. In honor of your birthday {ok I am just using that as an excuse} I did some pavement pounding/mall crawling in mine also. It felt good to get back behind the wheel.
 
Capt Ron said:
You sure know how to give yourself a great birthday present. You got to work on your rig and then get some seat time also. In honor of your birthday {ok I am just using that as an excuse} I did some pavement pounding/mall crawling in mine also. It felt good to get back behind the wheel.
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I've been procrastinating on the bench project. But the weather was perfect this weekend and I made good use of it. Plus the carpet was made out of 100% recycled plastic bottles so I can feel better about myself and the environment. It's about as "green" as this ride is going to get.

Good to hear Thing 2 is pounding the pavement again. Did you get the stalling issue sorted out?
 
ZooMad75 said:
Did you get the stalling issue sorted out?
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Yes but I am still a bit concerned. I installed a new crank position sensor and it has been running fine. The sensor was the one I "borrowed" from my tow truck from my original no start condition at install. Kinda weird it fried so soon {aprox 1k miles} after installing in the crawlabago. Not sure if there is any correlation but I now carry a new sensor with me just in case.
 
Spent today replacing the front lift panel on the camper. The factory design leaves a lot to be desired and since it was made out of pressed wood mine was wasted due to the previous water leak. I've tried to replicate it with the original hinges (3 of them) and two new panels out of 1/4" plywood. That failed due to the lack of access to super slim rivets as regular pop rivets wouldn't allow the setup to fold flat.

Another setup is using electrical conduit as the lift mechanism. Many of the FWC camper folks over on Wander the West have used this setup so I figured if it works I could put it together too. I already had some conduit bent up into the shape needed but had not set aside the time to assemble it. I picked up the extra hardware I needed on the way home from work yesterday. I got into a groove and ended up not taking pics along the way, but the setup is pretty simple. One bar is attached to the roof and the other is attached at the bottom with L-brackets. The two bars get attached at the exact mid-point to each other. To lift it's just lift and push the lower bar up and forward. I reused the original handle as the cabover section is too far forward to reach normally.

The nice thing is, when the roof is up the bars go over center and lock in the upright position. Then the handle gets hung from a conduit clamp screwed into the roof as another way to lock it in the upright position.

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Nothing major but long overdue to be done. Works pretty good too.
 
I am definitely gonna have to get some measurements from you when it comes time to use this idea for mine.
 
Capt Ron said:
I am definitely gonna have to get some measurements from you when it comes time to use this idea for mine.
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I can get some for you when you need it. The tricky part is bending the conduit to where one bar fits right inside the other.
 
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