Atl-atl's K5 Blazer Four Wheel Camper "The Crawlin Cabin" documentation thread!

[Atl-atl]

Here we go. I started my search for a K5 Blazer with a Four Wheel Camper almost exactly five years ago when I first came across them and wound up with a Hawk in my Dodge Ram 2500. Since then I have remodeled three campers, one in a very substantial way. A year ago I nearly bought a non-running example with a camper that was in shambles, Im glad I waited. Ill spare the details since this build will be posted across multiple forums and lots of people have already seen my previous work. If you are interested Ill include links at the end of this post.

It has patina, it has a little rust, it has a crapload of character and without further adieu, we have my newly acquired (4/9/2020) 1978 Chevrolet K5 Blazer + Four Wheel Camper Blazer.

Cheyenne trim level, 4x4, 5.7 auto. Arizona truck its whole life. Picked it up last Thursday, drove it home from Tucson with no issues other than a little float in the steering. Cleaned it up and tested all the systems Friday (everything works!). Managed to kill the battery because I forgot to turn the camper lights off when I went to bed. Woke up Saturday morning, finagled my Tacoma out of the garage to jump the Blazer that was blocking it in and promptly drove straight to the Tonto National Forest for a quick "test run" with a good friend who takes great pictures and makes great videos. He's talking about moving to Austin and selfishly I want him to stay in AZ and document this build in a much better way than I ever could.

Technically it has had "two owners" but in reality it is a one owner vehicle. It came with a plethora of paperwork including the original order card for the Blazer, the original order sheets for the camper and lots of maintenance records of years past. As far as I can tell its completely original and stock, except for maybe the wheels. They at least seem to be period correct.

At the moment Im researching until my brain explodes every night. This is really helping quarantine but not my pocket book. I unloaded the second of my two motorcycles today in anticipation of this truck taking up all my free time and disposable income. My plan last year was to go crazy with a modern camper renovation, LS swap, long leafs, 40s etc. but this one is so nice and so original I dont know if I can bring myself to do that, at least not to the camper... For now the plan is to fix up the interior of the cab for creature comforts on long drives. Make the stock drivetrain as bullet proof as possible for long drives and start building some axles outside of the truck while I learn the ins and outs of the K5 platform. I camp 25+ nights a year and plan to do even more in this rig.


Thanks for reading.

Aforementioned build threads
2008 Dodge Ram 2500 + FWC Hawk build thread
https://www.expeditionportal.com/fo...lar-cab-long-bed-documentation-thread.146703/

2018 Toyota Tacoma + FWC Fleet build thread
https://www.expeditionportal.com/fo...fleet-shortening-documentation-thread.199234/

 

[Fastereddie]

Looks sweet man. Nice score!

 

[ZooMad75]

I was wondering what the plan was considering the great original condition. Both the truck and camper are in.

I'm not a purist by any means, but it's cool to see one original. One thing I'd get into right away is gutting the FWC wiring out of the camper. It's sketchy at best. If the headliner is in good shape you can leave the wiring be but you'll see in the cabinet it's bad. Plus they stapled most of it right to the inside of the cabinet.

I'm probably not telling you anything you already know as far as the camper though with your experience. On that note I might lean on yours since you reskinned the camper on the Tacoma. I'm going to need to reskin mine sooner than later due to an incident with an unwavering juniper tree. Keep this in mind when wheeling yours. Pine trees and Aspen's are pretty forgiving, junipers aren't.

 

[Capt Ron]

I am going to build a side dinette setup to replace the couch

While working on mine this weekend I told myself it would be more user friendly with a side dinette like my dad used to rave about whenever he would buy a camper with one. Looking forward to this modification for sure.

 

[Atl-atl]

I was wondering what the plan was considering the great original condition. Both the truck and camper are in.

I'm not a purist by any means, but it's cool to see one original. One thing I'd get into right away is gutting the FWC wiring out of the camper. It's sketchy at best. If the headliner is in good shape you can leave the wiring be but you'll see in the cabinet it's bad. Plus they stapled most of it right to the inside of the cabinet.

I'm probably not telling you anything you already know as far as the camper though with your experience. On that note I might lean on yours since you reskinned the camper on the Tacoma. I'm going to need to reskin mine sooner than later due to an incident with an unwavering juniper tree. Keep this in mind when wheeling yours. Pine trees and Aspen's are pretty forgiving, junipers aren't.

I spent $85 on light bulbs at the parts store today and realized that most of my bulb outage issues are not the bulbs but the wiring, in the truck and the camper. Wiring is going to be my single largest task I think. Luckily wiring on these older vehicles is minimal compared to modern stuff. Also you can simply trace the wires everywhere they go, no can-bus or funky electronics to deal with thankfully. As for the camper the wiring is incredibly minimal, two interior lights, one exterior light, shore power hookup and a 3 fuse block is it. It will be easy to replace everything except maybe the wires through the roof but the headliner is in good shape so Ill leave those alone. I will probably wire in an electric water pump while Im in there though.

As for re-skinning, ask away. I dont know if the way I did it would be the way anyone else would do it but it worked and all the original trim fit back in place hahaha. Unfortunately almost everything in the desert is unforgiving so I am going to be careful where I go with the truck. There is a lot more stiff thorny 10+ foot tall brush in the desert than most people would expect.

While working on mine this weekend I told myself it would be more user friendly with a side dinette like my dad used to rave about whenever he would buy a camper with one. Looking forward to this modification for sure.

My plan is to completely remove the original bench and keep it intact so it can always be put back together. Ill build the dinette seats and table out of all new material. The nice thing about these Blazer campers is their width. The Tacoma size Fleet campers barely have enough room to have a side dinette and be able to walk in between the seats and cabinets. You might lose a little bit of storage underneath but Ill take that trade off. Plus you can still use the cushions to form a sleeping bench if necessary so there isnt a lot of downside.

 

[ZooMad75]

I spent $85 on light bulbs at the parts store today and realized that most of my bulb outage issues are not the bulbs but the wiring, in the truck and the camper. Wiring is going to be my single largest task I think. Luckily wiring on these older vehicles is minimal compared to modern stuff. Also you can simply trace the wires everywhere they go, no can-bus or funky electronics to deal with thankfully. As for the camper the wiring is incredibly minimal, two interior lights, one exterior light, shore power hookup and a 3 fuse block is it. It will be easy to replace everything except maybe the wires through the roof but the headliner is in good shape so Ill leave those alone. I will probably wire in an electric water pump while Im in there though.

As for re-skinning, ask away. I dont know if the way I did it would be the way anyone else would do it but it worked and all the original trim fit back in place hahaha. Unfortunately almost everything in the desert is unforgiving so I am going to be careful where I go with the truck. There is a lot more stiff thorny 10+ foot tall brush in the desert than most people would expect.




My plan is to completely remove the original bench and keep it intact so it can always be put back together. Ill build the dinette seats and table out of all new material. The nice thing about these Blazer campers is their width. The Tacoma size Fleet campers barely have enough room to have a side dinette and be able to walk in between the seats and cabinets. You might lose a little bit of storage underneath but Ill take that trade off. Plus you can still use the cushions to form a sleeping bench if necessary so there isnt a lot of downside.

Pretty much described the original wiring in mine, glass fuses and all. It really was pretty simple to set up in mine, but with better wiring, fuse block and LED fixtures.

I had a couple of close calls with Joshua trees on the Mojave road so I totally agree.

I'm pretty happy with my lower bench setup, but really curious to see your side dinette turns out.

 

[Big Ray]

I would love to pop one on my suburban.

 

[Atl-atl]

Pretty much described the original wiring in mine, glass fuses and all. It really was pretty simple to set up in mine, but with better wiring, fuse block and LED fixtures.

Other than cleaning up existing issues my first major wiring project is going to be cleaning up the camper wiring, replacing the fuse block with a Blue Sea unit I just put in my Tacoma (after I take it out ha) installing the second battery and replacing the relay from the truck to the camper with a Blue Sea add-a-battery.


As for my most immediate issues, my steering is pretty loose. Ive gone through the list of causes so I started diagnosing today. I definitely have play at the steering shaft bearing, not a ton but enough that I ordered a new bearing retainer for it. Then I had my girlfriend turn the wheel back and forth while I looked over all of the steering components. There is definitely some movement of the entire box on the frame. Gotta get a brace on order. Tomorrow Im hoping to check a few other things like wheel bearing nuts which apparently are a super common cause of loose steering in these trucks. The last thing I noticed was the front leaf spring bushings are definitely toast. There was visible back and forth movement in the bushings as the steering was going back and forth. That will hopefully be remedied soon with new suspension.

Then this evening I went to the auto parts store and left with $85 worth of light bulbs, only to find that a number of my lighting issues are not bulb related. A lot of the wiring on this truck has been messed with in various horrible ways. My front right turn signal doesnt work and my rear right tail light doesnt work. I decided to tackle the rear right first. Someone in the past did a really shoddy job wiring in a trailer plug but the truck doesnt have a trailer hitch. Interesting. Also being from Arizona a lot of the wiring is super dry rotted, cracked and has exposed copper. I removed the trailer harness, vampire connectors and cleaned up some of the exposed wires and surprise surprise, rear right tail light and license plate lights work again!

This is the real reason my tail light wasn't working.

Works!

 

[ZooMad75]

If you have movement at the frame of the steering box you really need to look for cracks in the frame coming from the mount holes. Very common issue on these trucks. The brace is an excellent idea but if the frame is cracked it needs repaired with a weld on plate after the cracks are addressed.

It's time to get really familiar with the guys over at Off Road Design as they have all the fixes for these trucks. Steering box brace and frame repair parts along with all kinds of suspension options, plus a whole lot more of other goodies.

 

[Atl-atl]

If you have movement at the frame of the steering box you really need to look for cracks in the frame coming from the mount holes. Very common issue on these trucks. The brace is an excellent idea but if the frame is cracked it needs repaired with a weld on plate after the cracks are addressed.

It's time to get really familiar with the guys over at Off Road Design as they have all the fixes for these trucks. Steering box brace and frame repair parts along with all kinds of suspension options, plus a whole lot more of other goodies.

The inside of the frame does not appear to show any cracks. Its dirty in these pics so I need to clean it and look again. Does it normally crack all the way through? You cant really look on the "outside" of the frame where the steering box mounts to be able to see if there are cracks unless they are huge. Jeep Cherokees are notorious for the frame cracking in the same place so I know what Im looking for but I dont see anything here. My gut feeling is there are no cracks and Ill be able to get away with simply installing an ORD brace.

 

[ZooMad75]

Deep cracks would be seen on both sides for sure. Yours looks pretty clean in those pics.

 

[Atl-atl]

I spent an entire 8 hours today cleaning up a literal rats nest. My front right turn signal wasnt working even after a new bulb so I pulled the housing out to find this...

A rat had chewed through the wires and there was a nest underneath the battery tray. There were chunks of wood, twigs, thorns, lots of actual shit, fur, dirt, you name it.

After cleaning it up this is what it looked like. I had noticed a damp spot in this area under the coolant overflow. Now Im curious if there is a leak or the nest was holding onto moisture. Obviously the nest was there for a long time because it rotted through the sheet metal which sucks but I guess its not that big of a deal since its not noticeable when everything is put back in place.

These two chunks of wood were inside the fender

Nothing a little solder and shrink wrap cant fix!

Then I went to town on the rest of the wiring, mostly the battery terminals. I had planned to get a little more wiring done but the rats nest delayed my plans. I did manage to replace a few chassis grounds, replace some random ring terminals, degrease and clean the crap out of the terminal ends, battery tray, cables and some other misc. items in the area. The amount of sticky gunk on the terminals was something Ive never seen before. I wonder if it was actually used to keep them from corroding because there isnt any real corrosion, just a lot of gunk. I used some citrus degreaser from my bicycle tool box and it worked like a charm.

The after picture of these terminals is ridiculous. Things were so incredibly dirty. Even if it didnt change how anything works with the electrical system, Im happy because of how much nicer it looks. The white wire you can see is the positive wire going to the relay to charges the house battery for the camper which lives on the other side of the radiator. The small red wire goes across the radiator and then back through the firewall, I have not traced it yet but its definitely not factory, obviously.

My turn signal is now lit up but its constantly on the bright half of the dual filament bulb. I think I crossed two wires. Does anyone have a wiring diagram so I can figure out which ones I crossed. There are three wires going into the bulb; black, brown and blue.

 

[Atl-atl]

So I found wiring diagrams thanks to google and a banned member here on ck5. Looks like I crossed the brown and blue. Kinda makes sense since black is typically the ground in automotive wiring.

Massive online reference for GM owners manuals, wiring diagrams etc. can be found at http://brochures.slosh.com

 

[Atl-atl]

When I pulled the coolant overflow bottle yesterday to clean out the rats nest I disturbed the trans cooler lines enough that when I took the truck for a spin today it started leaking trans fluid like crazy. I got to a gas station, diagnosed and went straight back home, womp womp. I decided to go ahead and replace the soft lines. They were completely dry rotted, cracked and stiff. Its no wonder they gave out. I think this solves the problem of where the moisture was coming from underneath the overflow bottle. None of the radiator related components show any moisture so I think Im good to go. Although I will be replacing the heater core hoses soon because they are quite stiff. One odd thing I noticed is my trans cooler must have been replaced because one of the hard lines has a similar fitting and flare to a brake line but it had a rubber hose just clamped to it. I couldnt find the correct adaptor at the parts store so I decided to just redo the same hose clamped onto the pipe that was there and it seems to be holding.

You can see the fitting left of center in the picture below.

Little fixes like this make me very happy.

 

[Atl-atl]

Well I really got to work today. Finished installing the house battery. Its still going through the original relay so we'll see how long that lasts but for now everything works, camper has power, nothing shows any signs of issues; truck still starts, runs and drives. Hopefully it starts tomorrow because Im planning to go camping. I should probably just order a Blue Sea Add-a-battery. I adjusted and tightened the muffler and tailpipe that had rotated to a point it was in contact with the rear driver side shackle hanger, redid a few more wires, cleaned a TON of stuff under the hood, fixed a vacuum leak, deleted the cruise control (which I was wrong about in my original post, it was not working) including the second worm drive cable-thing, deleted wiring for the CB (the red wire that was running over the radiator support,) deleted the mounting brackets for the factory bottle jack, scraped a metric ton of decades-old caked on dirt; cleaned, sanded and repainted the core support and radiator support, cleaned and conditioned the fan shroud and a bunch of rubber hoses, relocated the wiring harness that was running on top of the radiator to underneath the radiator support. Thats all I can remember right now...on to the pictures!

Oh yeah, I also removed the driver side battery tray, folded one lip flat to create room for the Group 75, 90 amp hour, AGM Duracell house battery, sanded and repainted it.

All the gunk you see is gone but I didnt take an after pic.

The dirty looking area under the old sticker is actually rusty/corroded and thats as good as it would clean up.

Does anyone know what this vacuum ball is/does? The line going into the bottom had fallen off and was causing a big vacuum leak. Idle smoothed out significantly once that was back in place but it still has a tiny rubber line coming off the bottom that is also under vacuum. Its incredibly brittle, simply touching it caused a chunk to break off. There is another equally tiny line on the other side of the HVAC box that maybe it was connected to?

Tomorrow I have a huge shipment of stuff showing up from LMC Truck but Im also supposed to go camping. Youll be the first to know what I choose hahaha.

 

[Atl-atl]

Edit to the last post, its the vacuum reservoir, thanks to nitro_rat from expodition portal.

 

[Fastereddie]

Yep. Vacuum reservoir. One side to engine, other side goes to hvac controls.

 

[Moody Bricker]

When I rebuild my chalet, I put a vote and amp meter on the 2nd battery, the vote meter had a switch to turn it off when not being used,it is a power drain, the amp meter showed the drain from the camper.u have a nice camper.

 

[Atl-atl]

I woke up this morning and it was unseasonably cool and cloudy. I decided it was a day for yardwork and then truck work. I went to town once again cleaning everything up against the firewall, which I hadnt touched so far. Things were going well, the sun came out and it warmed up. I went for a quick dip in the pool to cool off and went back to work. I repaired the tiny vacuum line from my previous post and decided to start the truck to check for more vacuum leaks. After about 5 minutes all vacuum leaks seemed to be gone. I was just about to turn on the AC to see if its functionality changed since repairing that weird line and I notice a weird sound. Yep, radiator sprung a leak.

I had a new radiator/hoses/heater hoses on my to-do list but not yet. That changed. Ran to Napa, got all new stuff. Got home and my girlfriend texts me to say she crashed her bicycle, fractured her mandible and broke her right thumb. Shes a musician so thats incredibly crappy. About 3 minutes after that I realize Napa gave me the wrong radiator. Then I get an update from Fedex and my LMC order isnt arriving until tomorrow now. Pretty much everything went bad today.

To add to the list of shit, there is literally shit everywhere under the hood of this truck. Covering the entire intake manifold, in the 2mm of space under the heater hoses where they go into the firewall! HOW!?!

I removed the air cleaner, vacuumed all the rat poop and scraped a bunch of gunk from the top of the intake manifold. Its blue! Hahaha theres color under there. So are the valve covers. Thats definitely a cleaning job for another day though.

 

[Atl-atl]

Went back to Napa when they opened this morning at 9 and picked up a bigger radiator. My truck had the ~20" tall radiator so I swapped the 17" I got yesterday for a 20 7/8" tall one that is supposed to be for the big block trucks. Its the Napa Spectre NR730. All the fittings lined up and the width is the same so I figured Id give it a shot. Fits perfectly and its BEEF!!! Nearly 3 times the thickness of the stock radiator. 3 core, everything lined up exactly. Only modification I had to make was cutting a small chunk out of the upper rubber mounts due to the increased depth. Otherwise it went right in and is working great. Heat and AC work and all seems well after a drive around town and on the highway. This puppy is all set for AZ summer. I do need to recharge the AC I think, it bounces between blowing cold air and warm air as you cruise down the road. Anybody know if that means something specific about the system?


Theres the missing vacuum routing diagram. Big block intake on this truck is interesting.

Yeah she thicc too.

At the top of the picture you can see the chunk I cut out of the upper rubber mounts.

All new everything makes me quite happy.