1978 Nomad Trailer Restoration/Project: 88GMCtruck is at it again.

[88gmctruck]

interior walls in RVs typically aren't loadbearing, there is no need to be in that small of space.

They do however, help provide bracing and keep things more square. Removing a something like a closet is no big deal, but if you gut the entire thing that is another story. Even still it should be fine.

 

[bunker]

Ypurs may be diffrent than mine, mine has a bathroom and a closet in the rear, so i dare not remove them my buddy at the rv place told me not to unless i would replace the inner wall with another wall of some sort just to give the roof support. as much rot that is in mine a dare not remove inner walls. Just be carefull

 

[88gmctruck]

Mine is a rear bath as well. All the roof is ran from the side wall to side wall, no actual need for support in the middles.

Rot is another story.

 

[bunker]

whats up David, I did the repairs on the laft rear of my camper im having to do it a lil at a time but new flooring under left rear bench now and rebuilt the area where the propane tanks are and put some caulk around the seams to keep things dry until i can get up some more money for the rest, doing the front area next. still havnt figured out how to post pics. keeps telling me there to big and i dont know how to reduce the sizes yet

 

[88gmctruck]

I post mine in photobucket, which is off site.

Once you get picts start up a thread, would love to see another build.

 

[Edzzed]

Snow camping? You guys are lunatics ... I love it!

He is not the only one who likes snow camping. Nice work on the trailer. If I had the know how I would have gone that route and saved a lot of money. Instead we bought an 08 a couple years ago. Needed more room for the wife and dogs than the camper gave me. And you think you got mud, That's the new trailer. If you ever get a chance to come up to Canada I'll show you a nice lake. Google "Adams river salmon run". This lake is not too far away from it. Both are spectacular to see.

 

[Edzzed]

I'd like to find a board that just plugs into that socket...that would be worth it...

For those interested in LED lighting, I point you to a thread I started in March 2010. I have had no bulb problems with any of the LED's I bought. http://www.bcrvforum.com/led-lighting-t126.html You can buy LED's cheap on Ebay. I realize some of the links in the post are now dead but if you use search terms like "LED panel" or things along that line you can get results. http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_nkw=Car+Interior+36+SMD+LED+Bulb+Light+Panel+White+%2BAdapter&_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A5521&rt=nc&_dmpt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=15&_sc=1 I swapped out every single bulb. Including tail lights. Ed

 

[bunker]

work work

well you guys can have that snow camping, ill stick to my weather down here in GA, the only thing good about winter is no bugs lol.

I replaced part of the floor this past week in my camper, so im starting slowly. now have to work on my dodge truck, found the ujoint on the frt axle (dvr side) lost the bearings out of one of the caps, so have to fix that soon. where going camping in 3 weeks.

 

[88gmctruck]

He is not the only one who likes snow camping. Nice work on the trailer. If I had the know how I would have gone that route and saved a lot of money. View attachment 32538 Instead we bought an 08 a couple years ago. Needed more room for the wife and dogs than the camper gave me. And you think you got mud, View attachment 32539 That's the new trailer. If you ever get a chance to come up to Canada I'll show you a nice lake. Google "Adams river salmon run". This lake is not too far away from it. Both are spectacular to see.

For those interested in LED lighting, I point you to a thread I started in March 2010. I have had no bulb problems with any of the LED's I bought. http://www.bcrvforum.com/led-lighting-t126.html You can buy LED's cheap on Ebay. I realize some of the links in the post are now dead but if you use search terms like "LED panel" or things along that line you can get results. http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_nkw=Car+Interior+36+SMD+LED+Bulb+Light+Panel+White+%2BAdapter&_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A5521&rt=nc&_dmpt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=15&_sc=1 I swapped out every single bulb. Including tail lights. Ed

Nice looking trailer, and beautiful looking lake. I checked your link, the LEDs work out nice don't they?

well you guys can have that snow camping, ill stick to my weather down here in GA, the only thing good about winter is no bugs lol.

I replaced part of the floor this past week in my camper, so im starting slowly. now have to work on my dodge truck, found the ujoint on the frt axle (dvr side) lost the bearings out of one of the caps, so have to fix that soon. where going camping in 3 weeks.View attachment 32540

Good looking camper. I have a few friends who moved to GA for similar weather related reasons.

 

[Edzzed]

For what I paid for the led's on the thread I started, yep. worth every penny in battery consumption. One of the biggest problems with incandescent bulbs is the filament. They get brittle over time and roads tend to break them with bumps. that does not happen with led's. You should also get 20-50,000 hours out of them so should easily outlast the trailer. I have even converted some of the house lighting over to led 110 volt. when you look at one house led using 2 watts vs 40 watts and getting the same light it's a no brainer. Just get the smd ones. And only buy one to check to see if you like. I bought 5 led's non smd and they are junk.

 

[88gmctruck]

Nothing new to report on the trailer front. Been too pre-occupied with work, the 454 swap and the quads to go camping yet this summer. I have a trip planned in July, basically I have to get the truck done, quads running well and the trailer all sealed up by then.

I have to install the LED tails and re-seal the trailer before anything can really happen, and I'd like to get curtains/blinds in the thing at some point.

 

[BIGR]

You can only do so much. You will have it ready for the trip in July and will be able to enjoy some leisure time.

With these cool nights I have been wanting to go camping, but its not going to happen for a while (October?). I am already keeping up two places and just took in a third one since my sisters husband had shoulder surgery. That along with working 40 or more hours a week has killed my leisure time.
With all the rain we have been getting I have weedeated and mowed so much I have begun to dislike green grass.

 

[88gmctruck]

It's been particularly and unusually nice here for this time of year. For whatever reason, it seems to rain during the week and get nice for the weekends.

Been wanting to go camp, but mostly since the trans in the 88 has a bad syncro I've decided not to.

 

[88gmctruck]

Time for an update! Those who haven't followed my "never ending 88 GMC build thread", I've been doing some upgrades on the truck side of things. After some part collecting, planning, and a great deal of work, I have removed the 200,000 mile, untouched TBI 350 in favor of a freshly rebuilt 454. I purchased a TBI 454 w/76k on the odometer from a 1990 C3500. I lucked out even more than I thought I could have, the motor ended up having ~10k on it was was a GM replacement Gen 6 block. After ditching the peanut port heads, flat tappet cam and boat anchor intake, it was fitted to roller mercruiser vortec cam, vortec heads, and edelbrock intake with built TBI on top. After all said and done, it's about 385HP 500FT/LB. During this swap the NV4500 got a new set of syncros, and the truck got full stainless 3" dual exhaust.

Now, back to what this thread is about. The trailer has also been getting some loving. Over the last few weeks I have sealed up the entire trailer, and finished the LED taillights.

I also found some cheap fabric, and borrowed mom's sewing machine and made up some simple curtains. One of these days I'll be dying or recovering the cushions as well.

After selling the 99 diesel I've severely decreased the amount of storage space, even though it's what I started with. However with the purchase of the quads, I've created a problem. Hauling 2 quads in the bed of the truck causes me to remove my toolbox, spare tire and well, creates a condition of me not hauling ANYTHING back there except the quads. My first solution was to build a quad rack over the bedrails, similar to a sleddeck for snowmobiles. After measuring everything, with the height of the truck I'd be hitting the front of the trailer. So, another solution ensued.

I had the toolbox from the 99 diesel still, and figured putting it on the trailer tongue would regain a decent amount of lost bed storage, give me more trailer storage, help add a bit more tongue weight and lengthen it a bit which will help in the handling department. I couldn't just add this huge toolbox as is, so the original coupler was cut off, and a piece of 3x3x1/4 box was used to add 2.5' to the tongue. The propane tanks were moved forward, and the wiring was entirely re-worked.

After it was all painted, the toolbox was added. It has mercury lights on the lid, some misc tools, onboard air, and hold the batteries. There is also plans for some anchors and a tray of sorts for fuel cans/cooler on the lid.

 

[btfarm]

Nicely done David! :thumbsup:

 

[88gmctruck]

Finished up some stuff with the truck and the trailer prior to the trip.

Batteries secured to the box with a simple bracket I made

Put a vent in the back of the box for the batteries.

Made a fuel rack on the toolbox lid from aluminum angle. The cans will stay empty 98% of the time, seeing as the extra weight isn't needed when I can fill them up when i'm close to my destination.

I then got the quads in the truck, trailer loaded and everything hooked together.

Truck ran great. It pulls, so much torque. I had no problem keeping speed everywhere.... At least for the first two hours. At some point it started hesitating, coughing and would give me no power.... So I pulled over and swapped back to the last chip. It ran fine a few more miles then again did was running poorly. Pulled off, multimetered a few sensors, checked connections etc, and hooked the laptop up. Ran fine a few miles, then again it started acting up. So, over on the side of the road again. After a bit of a cooldown period (for me) the data was looked at and it looked as if the oxygen sensor (which was new) was reading high voltage, above the norm which indicated it was likely failing, and making the truck think it was running rich, thus cutting fuel. being it was now about 11PM, I was in the middle of BFE and had 4+ hours of driving left, I unplugged the sensor and ran with the base fuel map and the SES light on. Truck ran without major issue after, unfortunately netting me about 5.5MPG...... But I made it. Next morning a stop at Napa and a new sensor was installed and it ran great after.


Here is the sand camp. All my toys in one spot!

Next to my buddy's 89 K5

Few shots out in the sand. This thing hauls out there. 454 sounds nice revved up around 5-6k.

Packed up, heading home. Running properly, I netted about 8.1MPG doing about 70MPH most of the way.

 

[Edzzed]

what you might need is a quad loader http://www.loadit.com/atv-quad-loader.html If you watch his vid, I'm sure you could figure out some way to load both atv's, one in the bed, one over the cab.

 

[88gmctruck]

I've see that style rack and many similar. I have a plan in my head that I want to execute at some point, that would be very similar, although much lighter and simpler in scale. My quads weigh ~300lbs each, and if I were to build something so they sat perpendicular to the bed (like that rack does) my rack would only hang over the tailgate about 10". The reason nothing happened before is the trailer was too close to the truck and would hit the quads/rack, however with the tongue extended, this is not the case anymore.

 

[ak diesel driver]

I bet you noticed a nice change with that extended tongue.

 

[88gmctruck]

Oh definitely. The added tongue weight plus the wheelbase really made the difference in stability. I was actually able to tow it home without fresh water in the tank without any handling issues or sway, something not possible before.

Originally the trailer was almost balanced front to rear; to get the tongue weight where it needed to be, I needed to have the fresh water tank full, which is 40 gallons. Being able to drop nearly 400lbs from the trailer makes some instances of towing much more versatile. I don't use a weight distributing hitch or sway control, and that is due to the size of the trailer and that I can simply rely on proper loading of the trailer instead.