Broken Springs

I bought a jet heater so I would be able to work on the camper through the winter without looking like Randy from the Christmas Story.  I decided I could test it out while I worked on the front lift strut springs.  We were hit with a snowstorm right after thanksgiving and then it got extremely cold.  The heater worked fairly well and allowed me to work in a light jacket.

  The wood that holds the fixed ends of the springs had broken and needed to be repaired.

I believe the original design was kind of poor, so I decided to change it.  I built two new spring supports out of square tube and angle iron for the springs to attach to instead of wood.  The square tubing actually came from the 'rafters' a previous owner had put in to support the sagging ceiling.  You can see one of them in the pictures from the previous posts.

 New steel spring support

I used carriage bolts to attach these to the plywood cross members at the front of the trailer.  The plywood was in very good shape, so I saw no need to change it.

New spring supports installed on front of camper

 After the new metal supports were installed, I tied them together with two pieces of ready-rod.  This should counteract the force of the springs on the supports, reducing the amount of force the plywood cross members see.  The original wood spring supports tied the cross members to the interior paneling of the camper.  The steel ones were too short to attach the paneling to, so I had to come up with something else.  I cut some pieces of 2X4 to tie the plywood to the interior paneling.  It took a few tries to get the angles right but it worked well.  This stiffened the front up quite a bit.

 Ready-Rod installed on spring supports

To attach the springs, I used a ratchet strap to pull the springs out far enough that I could get a nut on the eye bolts.  It worked quite well.  

 Using ratchet strap to install springs and eye bolts

All done!  I believe this will stand up to the load from the springs better than the original design.  Time will tell.

 Finished front spring system

All in all, the work took two days, and most of the components were leftovers from other projects, so I didn't spend any money.  I ordered some butyl tape online so I can re-attach the sheet metal and seal it up.  I still need to get the roof started too.  I have a good idea of what I'm going to do for the guts, thanks to this thread, but still haven't figured out the outer layer.  Originally it was vinyl/canvas, but I'd like to use either rubber or metal panels as I think they would be more durable.  Oh well, I've got some time before I have to commit to that.  If anybody has any input on roof materials let me know!

Thanks for reading!

Bill

Digging In

After I brought the camper home it sat in my driveway for about a month or so.  I was busy with hunting and work and never got a chance to start tearing into it.  After I got the garage cleaned out I brought it in and started working.  The following is from about the two weeks before Thanksgiving.  The first order of business was to remove the canvas.  I had to send it in to the outfit that was to build me a new canvas.  I used Canvas Replacements out of Wisconsin.  For anyone needing new canvas for their camper I would recommend them.  They were great to work with and happily answered all of my dumb questions.  The photo below shows some of the mildew and damage on the original canvas.

Taking the canvas out ended up being extremely easy.  There is a channel that the top of the canvas slides into from above and hangs.  To remove it, you just remove the three or four screws to make sure the canvas doesn't pop out and pull the canvas out.  I rolled up the canvas and boxed it up to be sent to Canvas Replacements.

Next step was the roof.  Originally I intended to just clean up the hack repair job the previous owners had done.  They told me the roof did not leak any more.  They lied.  I decided to go ahead and just rebuild the roof after coming across a few threads where people had done it before.  One was even a Bethany almost identical to the one I have. 

Getting the roof off proved to be a challenge.  It uses a bunch of springs to counteract the weight of the roof so you can lift it up easily with your hands.  The struts that link the roof/camper base/springs lock in place once the roof is all the way up so it doesn't fall down on you.  The struts are bolted to the corner brackets on the roof assembly, so there is no way to disassemble the roof without disconnecting these.  If the roof is lowered and the weight of the roof is removed from the struts, the force exerted by the helper springs on the struts makes them dangerous.  What I ended up doing was using a winch connected to the roof trusses of my garage to hold the roof up while I disconnected the struts. If you do this, don't do it like I did.  I disconnected the struts in the rear first and the roof slid rearward and into my head.  Thankfully no permanent damage to me or the roof, but it could have turned out bad.

Anyway, once I had the roof disconnected I used camlock straps to hold the struts down and out of the way while I worked.  You can see the straps in the picture below.

You can also see how hosed the roof was.  After removing the vinyl outer roof surface, I found water had completely delaminated the plywood underneath.  Each 'ply' just peeled off like a wet blanket.  It made for really easy disassembly.  At first I tried to salvage the steel sheet that was the inner 'ceiling' of the camper.  After looking at it the steel was corroded and in pretty rough shape so I'll have to get something else to make the ceiling when I rebuild the roof.

I also found the wooden boards the front springs attach to were broken  (see photo below). This is apparently a common problem with these.  The force of these springs is supported by a piece of 3/4" MDF and a strip of plywood, which broke in two.  With the amount of force exerted by the springs I'm surprised they have lasted this long.  I'll have to take care of this later as well.

At this point, I got pretty busy with Thanksgiving so I wasn't able to work on the camper for a while.  The last few weeks have been extremely cold, so I'm too much of a wuss to do much with the camper.  Once I have enough for another post, I'll update again.  Thank you for reading!

Bill

The New Camper

So, here it is.  Our new (to us) 1978 Bethany Citation 88 Pop-Up.  My wife has MS and a bad back, and I have a messed up disc as well, so camping on the ground has become tough.  We decided to get an RV.  We toyed with the idea of buying a new pop-up, but I didn't want to finance one.  Then we decided we wanted a hybrid, but they are much more expensive and I don't want to finance.  Eventually we decided to get an old camper that maybe needed some TLC.  This is the first time I've ever owned or been involved with RVs in any way, so I knew nothing about what I was getting into. A little internet research and some ad searching led us to the Bethany.


I stopped out to look at the camper and decided it would be best to talk to my wife before I committed to purchasing it.  Apparently they were using the camper, but the canvas was shot, as was the roof.  There was RTV gobbed on every seam on the roof.  Everything else was 70's ugly, but in good shape.  While talking with the wife I did some research on Bethany campers.  It turns out they have an interesting history.  They began in 1945, as a business venture to fund Bethany International, a Christian ministry.  Bethany continued to make campers until 1978 when they were sold to another company.  More can be found about Bethany's history here.  I also found out they were very well built and worth restoring.  Given my affinity for old and/or odd items, I knew I had to have it.  We bought it for what I believe was a fair price and I towed it home.

I decided to start this blog to mostly document for myself how the project goes, and also for others who may find it interesting.  I also hope it will help anyone else attempting a similar project.  I know the information I find in various forums and websites will be invaluable, so in return for all of that help I hope to add something of value for someone else in the future.