starting to build motorhome

[blizzardND]

Then drive up the road to Bontragers, in White Pigeon MI they have a wole farmstead covered in RV surplus, you might tour the Pony Express T/C plant while you are there.

Just have a plan of what you need, how big each part can be, and make sure he parts you buy will work for you.

Returns are a bitch and hauling them all back there makes that even harder.
-blizz

[volvoman]

posted pictures today. think i'm done with steel frame now. have 1/2 of wood floor down. put down 1 5/16 apathon trailer flooring. use 5" and 7" wide boards. started putting osb on inner side walls. bought steps for side door. two steps that are manual. plan to install air cylinder to slide steps in and out.

[hot rod]

Holy #$%&! That thing's big. What, did you decide to do the exact opposite of Blizz and make it as high as possible? BTW, he's right on Bontrager's. Been there, bunch of buildings full and rows and piles of stuff outside. Gotta watch the pricing though, some stuff seems dirt cheap and other a little overpriced. I'm sure they're all like that though. Pick and choose. Johnson's surplus is on the same road. Seemed a little pricier, but big window selection, plus trim and cast aluminum corners. Somebody else told me about another surplus called Graber's near Bontrager's in MI, allegedly bigger and cheaper. All in general Elkhart area. Plan on getting there early and spending the day to hit a few places. I'm planning a trip myself in the near future.

Dave

[mmmc101]

Look's great Volvoman. That thing is huge. Make's my 12' box look like an outhouse. I envy all that basement space. Keep the pictures coming.
MMM

[volvoman]

worked on it this weekend and built steps. going to take double steps back and get a single step. going to install lights on each step that come on when you open door. floor is 3/4 done. will finish this week. will post more pictures then. thanks for the compliments.

[volvoman]

tag axle sure took up alot of basement space. still glad i put it on. kind of reworking inside living area. sure run out of room quick. just finished end of year and inventory at shop. will be working on it again. helper may be off awhile. going in for a hip replacement.

[volvoman]

went to bontrager's the end of march. got 2 booth dinette set for $550.00, range vent $20.00 stove $245.00, 8' ladder $55.00, set of lights for side or rear recessed type $75.00, 2 windows $15.00 each, water heater $275.00, table base $10.00 each pole $5.00 and steel storage box for chains that goes in floor $15.00. several other small odds and ends. with tax another $1652.54 into pipe dream.

[volvoman]

new update on progress. almost all of inner walls are up and glued in place. started building bed above cab. will try to post pictures this weekend. cut more out of sleeper area and putting dinette booths in there.

[volvoman]

pictures are posted now. almost done framing sleeper above cab. old sleeper a/c heater unit looks like it will fit under one booth and hook up easy. just have to turn it side ways and hook back up. worked on it about 5 1/2 hrs this weekend.

[volvoman]

posted pictures of upper bunk. had floor sanded and sealed. posted them pictures also. sealed steps and the guy doing it splashed on brick paneling around steps. put a real nice shine onto finish. when i put second coat on i will go over all of it.

[hot rod]

I have a question. What is you plan for the exterior skin under your bunk? I have wondered about that in my own plans. Do you intend to unbolt the box and slide it back to work under there? Or am I missing something obvious? I'd like to build my whole box in place without having to slide it back to do the bottom of the bunk but I have not come up with a good scheme for that.

[volvoman]

i am going to slide box back to put aluminum on. i thought about building frame work and enclosing bottom. then weld on to camper. but i still would have to do front wall of camper. so went with sliding back to install. i will do front wall be for doing plumbing and electric.

[hot rod]

How long is that bunk over the cab? hard to tell in the pic, looks like 5'-6'? Are you worried about that flexing? I wanted something long enough for the width of a queen sized mattress, but all you see on the factory builds are those tiny bunks. Makes me wonder if there is an issue there, or are they just cheap and lazy at renegade?

[volvoman]

its 6 foot wide and 8 foot forward. 2 inch heavy wall square tubing with tubing running on angles from top to bottom to help support. welded triangle gussets in corners to help support. ordered window to go across front and two side windows (1 on each side). front window is 50" x 18" non opening.

[volvoman]

went to lowes for kitchen cabinets. the salesman thought i should put steel or something between oven and cabinets to protect from heat. any thoughts?

[#90-GTSC]

That isn't a bad idea. But I don't think they do that in a house. Rather than steel, which is heavy and NOT the best insulator, put some of that silver stuff they put in race cars to keep the driver from cooking. Flexible and light weight. Check Pegasus Racing Equipment or Behlings Racing Equipment ... one or both of those should have something.

Pegasus - Aluminized Heat Barrier Cloth, Non-Adhesive

[hot rod]

First off, are you looking at an rv type oven? or just rigging up a regular residential unit? If you are using something designed to be a built-in unit, it should already be properly insulated for that type of installation, but of course check the instructions for your specific unit to make sure they don't require some sort of metallic heat shield. Shouldn't, but you never know. If so a piece of .030 aluminum should do the trick, a heat shield for a gas appliance like that is designed to be a reflector of heat, not as insulation. I have seen guys use a residential stove in a conversion, but just keep in mind that they are really not designed for mobile use in that the doors don't have latches and the grates and oven racks bounce and move around. On the gas end, either one is the same in that respect, just make sure you only use single flared soft copper tubing for an RV application and not the flex connector you would normally see in a home installation. Those things tend to crack from too much vibration and movement.

[Ran D. St. Clair]

When I read the manual on my residential range that in installed in my truck i found that there was no requirement for shielding behind the range or around the sides of the oven area. There was, however, a lack of recommended clearances above the stove so I ended up shielding that area with about .040 aluminum. I also shielded the back of the oven area with some thin aluminum flashing. It may not have been necessary but it made me feel better. I sometimes wonder what would happen if hot oil poured down the sides of the range and caught fire. Even a little bit of shielding would give me some time to get the fire extinguisher on it.

As hot rod suggests, I used solid pipe inside the living area, but I did use very short lengths of the flexible stainless steel couplers to connect things under the truck where it is open to the air. They are less than a foot long and fairly large diameter so fairly stiff. Not the sort of thing that would easily resonate and bounce. They do make life much easier when it comes to connecting up the plumbing though.

[hot rod]

Ran D, you are right, solid black pipe is always best, most builders just don't take the time and use flared soft copper, which is just fine in an RV application. And of course a flexible connection for each appliance. The good quality stainless flex connectors do a good job for a safe installation and will take the vibration, no problem. The ones we always had problems with were the copper flex connectors (some are bare copper, some have a plastic coating over the copper), those suckers were notorious for cracking and leaking even in a residential application if you moved the stove around too much. We always just automatically made up a soft copper tubing connector out of the service truck to replace those copper flex connectors whenever we saw them on a service call, that's how many I have seen crack and leak. Just take about 6-8 feet of soft copper and make a big loose coil about 2' in diameter, that way you can pull the stove clear out and slide it back in without messing with the gas connection, the big coil will pull out and push back in without kinking if you coil it right. Old gasman trick, cheaper than a stainless connector, and long enough to pull the whole stove out past the cabinet to work on it without having to crawl into the greasy hole behind the stove with a couple of wrenches to disconnect the line.

[volvoman]

added more pictures today.