Truck Camper on a 5th wheel

I had a unique situation to deal with, this truck I bought to haul my truck camper in, had a 5th wheel installed. These photos will show how I dealt with this.

I took the the wheel out of course, but I left the rails in. The rails are bolted to the frame of the truck and would be additional strength. Beside I had no interest in taking it out. I got on RV.Net and saw how others had done it. I got two sheets of 2 inch pink polystyrene foam, cut 1 in three pieces, then glued them together leaving a space for the rails. Its worked perfectly.

I got the benefit of raising the camper up another 4 inches above the top of the truck cab. And as I’m working on the bed mounted battery system, it provided a convenient way to run the electrics under the camper to the other side of the truck where the way too small batter box and hookups are. The battery location is the only place in the truck they will fit with the camper basement configuration. Looking for plastic container for them, Bass Pro doesn’t have anything big enough for those two Trojan T-105’s.

Tip on the wire… 20ft, 4 gauge booster cables at Walmart, $29, with the ends cut off. That's 40 feet of 4 gauge for $30. Save 25% over buying bulk wire at the Depot.

Those are my torklift tie down extensions in the bed, removed them while not in use. Just way to easy.

Clinton week 2

Half way thru week two already. I have all these crazy idea running around in my head about selling the house, buying a cheap 5th wheel and setting up residence here at the lake.

Kind of like my neighbor who does live here full time. One of these days I’ll venture out and meet some of them. Working 13 hours a day when I’m here doesn’t leave much time for socializing. Being Friday the campground exploded with people.

But even with an extra hundred people, it is STILL quieter than living in the city. Hmm, if I remember right, about $265 a month plus any metered utilities I use. Another couple hundred a year for permits. I don’t have to mow grass, I work at Walmart so, I can buy literally everything I would ever need on a daily basis, no storage issues. I could jettison a buzzard load of expenses and put away some serious scratch for an early retirement. Sell the house, buy a 5’r be debt free. I’ll see how the summer goes.

OK 1 thing I didn’t anticipate.. as I’ve never camped in the same place for 2 weeks… spiders. I have spider webs all over the camper. This camper is not spider tight. Chased a wasp into the stove vent the other day. He may have a home in there by now. Haven’t used the stove yet. It’s shiny like brand new inside, hate to mess it up.

Grr, tried to upload this from McDonalds, WiFi doesn’t work. Guess it will have to wait until I get home.

Week 1 Life at the lake

 

Day/night One at the campground, got off work about 9:00am, dead tired and needing sleep. I was too out of it to try and make the bed, so I just jumped in under a sleeping bag. The light coming in the windows, combined with the heat and being uncomfortable made for a hard night with little sleep. Woke up with horrible allergies. But, did get a great hot shower before heading into town and work.

Day/night Two, better… different. Was storming, lightning in the distance when I pulled in the campground about 8:50am. I turned on the furnace, it was 48 degrees. It worked great. Not 5 minutes after I got inside it started hailing pea sized hail. Not huge hail, but it sure made a racket on the metal roof. I watched it pelt the truck hood for 5 minutes, then it quit. I turned on the radio to hear we were under a storm warning. In about 10 minutes the heavy stuff was over. Radio said there was 1 inch hail just a couple miles north of me, and the storm had move through Lawrence at 70mph, making tracks off to Kansas City. Surprisingly the camper did not really rock with the wind. I am a little bit protected by some trees, which was by design. I did notice a little water had come in around the big roof vent over the bed, not enough to drip on me thankfully. All the other spots that used to leak are dry, I must have got them sealed ok. I had a snack and a drink to relax a bit before bed. I took the time to put new sheets on the bed and put it together, it was still raining when I went to bed. I know the furnace kicked on a few times, but after I went to sleep, I never heard a thing until the alarm went off at 5pm. A much better night. While I was asleep we had a bunch of new campers come in. I thought about those in tents during the hail storm, and I’ve been there and can sympathize with them.

Day/night Three… a bit chilly. Like 45 degrees but clear and sunny. As I wait for the furnace to bring the inside temperature up to a level where I can take my winter coat off… it dawns on me that tucked away in a cubby here are a bunch of folded up aluminum padding looking things that I’d forgotten about. At first glance I thought maybe they were leftover parts from when the previous owner replaced the refrigerator. For some reason, out of the blue, it hit me… those are window coverings for cold weather camping. Well duh. I dug into them and sure enough, one for each window, cut to size. As much as they will hold in my heat, they will also keep out the sunshiny morning that would undoubtedly make deep dedicated sleep next to impossible during my days here. The floor is cold to the touch, a new fuzzy bathroom mat is warm underfoot. There is no real draft, but as soon as the furnace shuts off, I can immediately feel the temperature falling. No thermometer, the thermostat says 74. That looks to be a 1992 original, so hard telling how accurate it is. Yes this is a 1992 Lance. The cabover sleeping area stays a bit cooler than the dinette area, I think the window coverings will help keep the heat in better today. I timed the furnace, it is taking 8 minutes for the camper too cool to the point where the furnace kicks back on. That seems like a short time to me, BUT, considering there is no insulation in the floor and the fact that its 45 degrees outside, maybe that’s not too bad. It’s taking 2 minutes to bring the temperature back up to auto shutoff point.

There are 3 truck campers here now. One of the others is a permanent full timer, on a non-service pad. He’s parked right next to the shower/bath/laundry house and has a generator hanging off the bumper. For sure running on a battery bank. I should try and snap a photo of it, it is a piece of 1970’s art on a 1980’s something Chevy. The other truck camper came in last night, a Hallmark pop-up on a Ford F150, towing a nice looking not too fancy fishing boat.

Tomorrow morning  I’ll start my 5 days/4 nights off, I’ll head the hour east to KC. Plan is to get back to the campground day 3 so I can actually spend some enjoyable time here, instead of just sleeping. Project for the week is to get my battery cables built and set to hook into the camper when I put it back on the truck. I also need to build a cradle for the batteries to sit in, in the side of the truck bed.