Doin' the Full Monte

[Jim & Susan]

So, we got the bedroom roughed in. We replaced all of that dark, old, dirty plastic with real wood. This is 1/4" birch stained with red pecan by Minwax and two coats of polyurethane. It's a lot lighter than it looks in some of the pictures.

Jim

[Jim & Susan]

Here's a shot of the roadside bed area. We decided to keep this side pretty much as the original. The old bed frames were pretty much shot, so we just rebuilt them. We "load tested" it last night with me, son-in-law, and daughter sitting on it together. Seems very sturdy.

[Jim & Susan]

And the curbside bed. This side is going to be open underneath because the battery will be moved from the back of the camper to over the axles (to get some of the weight of the tail of the camper). The Univolt is to be replaced with a more modern unit and will be placed under the bed as well. I figure this took probably 100 lbs of weight out by making these few changes. The old beds are metal and very heavy. The old Univolt is also very heavy.

Jim

[Jim & Susan]

Before doing the finish work in the bedroom, we have decided to rough out the kitchen and gaucho area, again with real wood. Winter will be here before long and it will be too cold outside to work with stains, paints and so forth. If I can get the job down to small pieces before cold weather, then I can complete those items in doors in the warm air.

Got a request for you guys following along. Since Eric and I are not cabinet makers, does anybody know of a good website to "tutor" us along on the kitchen cabinets and overhead lockers?? Eric is very talented, I have a lot of "sweat" to put in the project. But neither of us has ever built cabinetry.

Jim

[utee94]

Jim, the progress looks great!

I don't know of any website for building cabinetry, but what I did was simply to read every detail that Jordan, Uwe, and Carlos put into their threads (you have the benefit of living fairly close to Jordan, I bet he'd let you take some closer looks if you wanted to do so). I also looked closely at Frank's blog for even more details and ideas.

After that, measure twice, and cut 57 times!

[Jim & Susan]

You know, I really need to go visit Jordan again. He lives about a mile from one of my work sites. Now I just need to find an excuse to get up to Woodstock! Thanks for getting my brain in gear, bubba.

Jim

[utee94]

You are most welcome, you've done it for me dozens of times over the past year of reading through this thread.

I think Jordan even mentioned building some cabinetry in the near future, if you could catch him in progress, you'd get even more ideas. Plus, it would be an excellent excuse to drink some beer...

[Jim & Susan]

Now I just need to figure out how to put these things on.

[maccamper]

Hey Jim, your local rental store may have what's called a transmission lift - rather than a small, round "saddle" like a standard floor jack, it should have a square, steel plate with adjustable angles bolted to the top. You can set the angles to cradle the square steel tubes of the axles and make the whole job much easier, and safer.

You have been spraying your old axle mounting bolts with liquid wrench the last few days? About 4 to 5 days worth should be just right. Maybe even tap them once or twice a day with a hammer to help it along. Best of luck with the install.

Laird

[Lothlorian]

Jim:

Jim if you swing by the house you can use my floor jack and I have two mover dolleys. The mover dollys were a life saver for moving and postioning the axels underneath the trailer. Plus you can get the floor jack under the axel easier if you have it set on the mover dolleys. I used two floor jacks and we jacked the axel on both sides at the same time. It went up like nothing. It was very easy to positiong and get them up there. Once they are up there you can use your step up drill bit and put the holes in. Just make sure the axel is up there tight. It will fit in the channel like a glove. I did not have to cut any metal to make the axel fit in the channel. It was a simple job. I really stressed about it until I started doing it. Of course Lewis helped me and he was the brains who guided me.

Brian

[Jim & Susan]

Thanks for the tips guys. The transmission jack sounds promising, but I'm not sure it will lift up high enough. I rented one a couple of years ago to lift the tranny on the pickup when we put a new engine in. I remember that is was too short for the job. I'll have to go visit the rental place again and check.

Brian, I may be giving you a call. Do you have two of the floor jacks? I have one, but it's a small one and only reaches up about 10-12 inches. Tell you what, I'll give you a call tomorrow night.

Jim

[Lothlorian]

I have a two ton floor jack. The kind that is on rollers with the long handle. I borrowed the other one from Lewis who helped me. I got mine on sale and put a 20% off coupon toward the sale price. I got it for under 60 dollars. I figured it would have cost me about that much to rent one. It is not a high end jack but for as much as I will ever use one it worked really well. If you come by I will let you have the the left over boat vinyl that I used to slide into my trim in the bathroom. It worked really well and was easy. Looks great.

- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

I will be waiting to here from you.

Brian

[ALANSD]

[QUOTE=biggoofball;736266]I don't think it's possible. Like I did, you'll have to remove the old rubber and string some rubber through. Should be easy for you as you are handy. If you use high quantities of small diameter rubber you will get a smoother ride. Large diameters and small quantity, firmer. The real fun starts when you mix smaller and larger. And don't get me started on multiple diameters. The matrix gets huge. And that is neglecting weight!! As soon as you factor in the weights the matrix ends up being an Excel spreadsheet 57,936 pages long.

Just in case - This is a joke.
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There is an axle rebuilder here in N Georgia, who as I understand it does replace the rubber in those axles. How they do it I don't have a clue, but someone here on the Forums had it done. Under 500 for two axles rebuilt.

[Jim & Susan]

Hey guys, I'm getting ready to order the terlet from VintageTrailerSupply.com. Does anybody know if I need to also order the toilet flange they sell, or will one come with the toilet? We've decided on the Sealand Lite model.

Jim