To accomplish my task of finding the right camper, I religiously browsed Craigslist, and a candidate popped up on Monday. It was a 1978 8' NCO. After a few phone calls, I was off to Idaho to purchase, sight unseen. With no good pictures of the interior, I had to rely upon the owners word. The only "problem" the camper had, I was told, was paint falling off. No rot, no leaks, and very nice shape asking $1100.
Upon arrival, and inspection, I did notice some very minor water stains on the back wall upper corner. There was also an ever so slight discoloration below one of the windows, too, but no rot anywhere, with much of the wood looking absolutely beautiful, especially the ceiling. There was some wear on the lower cabinets, probably from shoes over the 30+ years, but the upholstery and cushions looked very good. The entry flooring had been replaced at some point with square peel and stick tiles which were cupping a bit- no big deal. The only "damage" I could find was on the passenger side exterior below the window where a careless owner and jack bent the metal up, and the current owner told me the previous owner did that when they were loading it. Still, nothing major. So, I asked about the price, and he was firm. He stated he had many calls, and I had no reason to doubt him. Considering it fell well within my budget, I paid full price, unaware of what I had just signed up for...
I have a 1992 Dodge Cummins dually 4x4. I have never loaded a camper on ANY truck, let alone my dually. I know that traditional campers need swing out jacks to clear dual wheels, so in anticipation of such, I had called Alaskan Camper prior to my trip, who referred me to Rieco-Titan who makes their tripod jacks. Rieco-Titan sells extensions for roughly $175, but the week shipping time from the midwest to the west coast did not fit into my "NOW!" time frame, and this was assuming the extensions would be compatible with jacks I had not yet even seen with my own eyes, so I opted to just wing it with the hopes of hitting up a metal fabricator in a tiny town I had never been to.
Having bill of sale in hand, I proceeded with jacks in hand to find someone to weld extensions onto the collars. It was now noon, and time was of the essence. First place I stopped- no way. Younger guy, didn't look confident, wanted to charge me some outrageous price and take a whole day. Forget that. Next place there was a sign on the door "out to lunch" so I waited what ended up being nearly an hour for him to return. Rich guy, not interested in small jobs that are beneath him, but recommended a good ol' boy in town who would "take care of me." On the way to good 'ol boy's place, it's now almost two in the afternoon, I just so happened upon a metal fabricator who specializes in custom fencing and gates, so I swung into his parking lot. NICE GUY, does beautiful work. I explained to him what I needed, he said "no problem, I'll do right away." I gave him a few hours, and when I showed back up at shortly after four, he was done and it was EXACTLY what I wanted, how I wanted it. 18" extension off collar to allow rear wheels and fenders to clear jack stand. $40. Great deal, and just a good guy, period. Talked to him for a 1/2 hour about the economy, etc., and made a new friend who I'll remember if I'm ever in the area again.
I called to see about getting back to the camper, but had to wait until seven-thirty for the owner to return. It was at that time I took the new jacks back to the camper, and the fun began. The camper sat on a concrete pad, at the top of a gently sloped dirt drive. We lifted it with the newly extended jacks, which did their job, but not without the poles bowing due to the increased strain from the extra 18" of leverage the camper now had. Stressful. Then, upon backing the truck up, I noticed that there was no way my bed would clear even though the jacks were all the way extended. My Dodge sits tall, and the jacks were not made for such a high vehicle. This problem was compounded by the fact that the camper sat on a fairly level pad while my truck was backing up a slight hill, and I could not get all the way on the pad before my bed met the camper. No go. Then, when we tried to lower the camper back down, the jacks were stuck in the "up" position due to binding on the bent poles. Greeaaaaaat. We had to take anything we could find- wood scraps, hay bales, speaker box, etc. to build up a platform for the camper to sit on in this very high position, so we could get the pressure off the jacks and release them. When we finally accomplished that, I decided I would need to build some platforms for the jacks so we could start at a much higher position, and not even have to extend the jacks all the way, decreasing the amount of stress on the poles. It was now eleven at night, and the owner was in a BAD mood. I can't say mine was much better, but I wasn't showing it. I used his shop and built two platforms three feet by three feet and seven inches tall to gain height for jacking. It was then that I measured my truck bed and became worried the camper was not going to clear the bed rails, and would rub all the paint off over time- NOT an option since my truck has brand new paint. I needed a piece of plywood, and we had none. It was now after one in the morning, and I asked if I could come back later in the am after some sleep. My poor pup had been alone in the motel room with air conditioning on high for six hours, and I was worried about him. We agreed upon ten am the next morning.
Ten am came way too soon after a third night of little sleep. I have to admit I was really worried about things. The bent jacks, the camper swaying in the breezes, and the possibility that we might not only drop the camper, but that my newly painted truck might be part of the carnage if such an event happened at the wrong time caused me great concern. I really didn't like these jacks, especially since they were bowing, and I had noted and pointed out a frayed strand of cable on the passenger side one which the owner was cranking the previous day. I pondered all of this as I purchased a sheet of 4' x 8' plywood on my way to the camper.
Upon arrival, I got things set up fairly quickly, and we started cranking her up. Shortly thereafter, there was an unsettling noise followed by the owner screaming "the cable's breaking!" The passenger cable was, indeed, snapping. CRAP. Luckily, half was still holding as it looked like only the frayed section gave out, but there were no guarantees it wouldn't all give way at any moment. We were out of material to build up the safety platform under camper any higher, and the jacks were bound as usual due to the 18" of leverage which was clearly not the greatest engineering on my part. We needed new cable, and immediately. I screamed down to the hardware store- a ten mile round trip- and picked up some new 3/16" cable.
In the meantime, the owner had dumped all of his lumber off of some cheap sawhorses, and started removing hay, etc., to use the sawhorses instead. They had barely the capacity to hold the camper, but they would buy us the added height we needed. We re-built the entire safety platform for the camper, were able to lower it down onto it by tapping the jacks lightly with a hammer as we took pressure off the cables. Finally, the camper sat soundly upon the new, higher platform. We then replaced the broken cable with new cable, and got set up to try to lift the thing for what was now the third or fourth time. It was now after one in the afternoon.
I got my truck positioned, and we started cranking while holding our breath, the jack poles both bending inwards from the weight and leverage of the camper. It seemed like an eternity but finally, it seemed it would clear the truck bed. Now, we would need to remove the safety platform as I backed up under the camper. He guided me, and as soon as my tailgate cleared that camper I let out the biggest sigh of relief I can remember. The camper falling over was no longer a possibility. With barely an inch to spare on either side, the jacks cleared the dually tires and fenders, and in moments I was all the way underneath her. The Alaskan survived intact, and so did everything else. There was one last problem- removing the tension from the jacks with damaging the truck since we had to pound on them with a hammer due to the binding. With great care, we were able to do so, and the camper was now sitting 100% in the truck. All that was left to do was secure it, which I did later with several temporary heavy duty ratchet tie downs for the trip home. And we made it safe and sound, and she's now mine. Wooohoooo!
