Back in business after my surgery it's time to get started. Over the last week I've had the camper setup in my driveway. I took the spare tire off and the flat tire I had and took them to Farm and Fleet to get a new set so I can move the camper around and eventually out of the driveway. The tires were Carlisle Radials for a total cost of $182 for the set mounted. Little more than I had planned - but safety is worth some extra money. I'll get the spare done this weekend I'm hoping.
As for the rest of the camper - I cleaned up the inside and bought some shelf paper for the drawers and shelves. I'm hoping to get that in this weekend also. It's weathered a few storms we had this weekend and all seems dry aside from where the canvas does not stick to the Velcro next to the main door. So I'm happy about that.
With all that the camper is really ready for it's maiden voyage. I'm waiting for a set of portable stabilizing jacks to come in - just to be safe in the front. Also will need to get an air mattress or two - but that should be it. I'm hoping to get out later this month or early May - heck we may try to camp in it this Saturday night!
I'll be posting more pictures soon!
Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Wash and Questions...
So day two, and the last day I can work on anything with this for about 2 weeks (having surgery this weekend). I finally got out and power washed the outside and cleaned the top up a bit - looks much better for sure! Not much to report really now, but trying to figure out a few things.
First - what are these break outs in the top?
Second - Can I repair the screen somehow with the canvas I have now? Most of repairs I need to make are beyond patches.
Third - The top seems to be vinyl coated and there are some dings - i need to figure out how to maintain, seal and repair the dings. Below is what I'm talking about:
Below are some pictures of it just cleaned. I'll figure out how to remove the oxidation later.
First - what are these break outs in the top?
Second - Can I repair the screen somehow with the canvas I have now? Most of repairs I need to make are beyond patches.
Third - The top seems to be vinyl coated and there are some dings - i need to figure out how to maintain, seal and repair the dings. Below is what I'm talking about:
Below are some pictures of it just cleaned. I'll figure out how to remove the oxidation later.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Just Purchased the New-To-Us Camper
After searching for nearly two months we finally found a camper that we could agree on and that was in our price range. We wanted to find something to get out of the tent camping scene so we decided to find a pop-up camper to try for the season. We didn't want to spend a lot in case we decide this is just not for us. The bad thing finding something that wasn't in too poor of condition, useable and available proved to be pretty difficult. My goal price was under $800. If we did find something in this price range it was usually in pretty rough condition or already gone - these things go fast! While I was looking at this one the party selling it received four phone calls! Which brings me to the camper we finally purchased.
We found in a 1974 Bethany Citation 88 in Sycamore, IL. The alert came up through my craigslist iPhone app and I called right away on it. I had never heard of a Bethany Camper but for 37 years old it looked pretty decent in the pictures and was priced within our budget! A bit of information about the Bethany campers can be found here: http://www.popupcamperhistory.com/bethany.php.
We made the hour drive and was able to see it with about twenty minutes of daylight left. The outside looked decent - and the canvas (real canvas) looked pretty good too - just a couple of very small tears which I felt I could repair. What I didn't really see was the actual condition of a few of the screens. The side screens on the wings ended up looking pretty bad as did the road side screen. The others seemed OK. The interesting thing about this was the fact that it did not have a cable and telescoping lift system - this camper uses a weighted pop up lift system - so easy that one person can lift the top solo. The condition seemed OK, my wife liked it enough, it didn't smell so we we snagged it up. We made it home on old tires right before the rain came - phew!
Below are some pictures I took of the camper the next day after we got it home. It's going to be a project - but I hope a fun one! The whole album can be found:
We found in a 1974 Bethany Citation 88 in Sycamore, IL. The alert came up through my craigslist iPhone app and I called right away on it. I had never heard of a Bethany Camper but for 37 years old it looked pretty decent in the pictures and was priced within our budget! A bit of information about the Bethany campers can be found here: http://www.popupcamperhistory.com/bethany.php.
We made the hour drive and was able to see it with about twenty minutes of daylight left. The outside looked decent - and the canvas (real canvas) looked pretty good too - just a couple of very small tears which I felt I could repair. What I didn't really see was the actual condition of a few of the screens. The side screens on the wings ended up looking pretty bad as did the road side screen. The others seemed OK. The interesting thing about this was the fact that it did not have a cable and telescoping lift system - this camper uses a weighted pop up lift system - so easy that one person can lift the top solo. The condition seemed OK, my wife liked it enough, it didn't smell so we we snagged it up. We made it home on old tires right before the rain came - phew!
Below are some pictures I took of the camper the next day after we got it home. It's going to be a project - but I hope a fun one! The whole album can be found:
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