197 replies to this topic

[Manfred65]

Hi Linda,

thank you very much for your nice comment. We are also glad to know you in person at Alaskan-Campers!

Yes it was a hard piece of work and one year of planning and thinking about options and solutions to find the best way between restoring it for practical use with some modern improvements and leaving it as original as possible. I think we did well!

 

The upholstery is a great work of Viola. Very well thought out! They can be turned to the other side and all the colours are matching again... The front window to the truck is original and we replaced it exactly to the original place.

 

We got a lot of attention from the guys and ladies of our german www.wohnkabinenforum.de.

If we would like to sell it it´s only a question of minutes....but listening to Viola´s comment this will cause a divorce.....

 

The main problem was: after one year of repair we started to our first Truck-Camper-Rally at the "Holy Mountain of Andechs Monastery"  to present the camper and one mile from our home the truck break down. We arrived at the Meeting by car, without truck and camper.....and we had to deliver and show our work  later in 2015.

 

We stay in touch until our next USA-trip

 

Manfred

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Woo Hoo!

There's a nice article in Truck Camper Magazine that has Manfred and Viola's Jayco as one of the featured camper restorations!

http://www.truckcamp...r-restorations/

Congratulations Manfred and Viola!!!!!

[Manfred65]

I am glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for your comment and for following our thread.

[Lanefj40]

Manfred, great work! We are working on a 97 Sporster 8 like yours. Lots of great pics and it has been very helpful for me. One question, where did you mount your battery and how did you wire it up?  Thanks!

[Manfred65]

Hi,

it was my intention to post the restauration not only for show but also to help others.   

 

I mounted the battery ( 12 V 120 Ah AGM ) in the front seat of the camper to keep weight more in the front. No need for this on a longbed Truck like ours. If you need to keep the battery in a vented box i would recommend to install it in the rear seat to line the vent hose out through the back wall. 

 

How to wire the battery :

 

Generally i will ask you to checkout other threads for this because some of my installations are specific european and to me...

 

My wiring is very special. Why ?

I removed the original 110V/12V converter charger and placed a 220V/ 16 Amp-Fi-Breaker in it´s place.

 

Breaker integrated in original cover of 1992 charger

 

Than i installed 3x 220V sockets ( 110V in your case ). I need these sockets only to plug in Violas Hoover when we are back home and the charger (Italian model works on 220V/ 12V from truck and up to 240 Watt Solar ) to charge the battery when the camper is stored in the garage.

 

Charger

 

I never needed shore power on our trips. The 120 Ah AGM + 2x 100 Watts of Eco-Worthy-Flat Solar-Panels on the roof keep us independent. The entire lighting is done as LED and the fridge is a Engel-CK85 Compressor-Fridge. Very quiet, low Amp-drag, good insulation and needs only thin cables ( 2,5 mm² which mean AWG 13) to get enough electric power to start.

 

Solar:

 

To watch the battery we installed a NASA Clipper BM-1 Battery monitor. At the shunt of the BM-1 all the ground cables come together.

If there are too much ground cables you should use a distributor for this.

 

Battery monitor:

Groundcable-distributor,  barn-find ;-)   

 

 

Between battery and all the electric components i installed a 12V fuse box with plug-infuses, like you can buy in the car department at Walmart or Home Depot. At the Fuse box all the +- cables come together and then are connected to the battery. I would also recommend a "Quick-Disconnect" at one of the battery poles or as a separate switch.

 

Fuse box:

 

I hope my english is good enough to describe what i mean.

[Lanefj40]

Thanks! Very good information!

[biggb]

Jawohl Manfred!

 

I recently owned this exact same camper ... albeit in much better condition than what you started with. 

 

I am not nearly as industrious as you so I sold it and purchased a FWC. 

 

Well done. I'm amazed. 

[Manfred65]

Hi biggb,

thank you! We love this product of our hands and brain. We had never owned a TruckCamper before and it was our first build!

 

It was our first step into TruckCampers !

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Hi biggb,
thank you! We love this product of our hands and brain. We had never owned a TruckCamper before and it was our first build!
 
It was our first step into TruckCampers !

Hi Manfred,

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from you. Hopefully you’ve had a good winter and are getting ready for a season of camping.

Regards,

Steve

[Manfred65]

Hi Steve,

 

i would love to have more time to go camping with our Jayco.

 

We will start  the weekend after easter with the first meeting at the Andechs Monastery in Bavaria.

http://andechs.de/en/

 

There will be 40+ TruckCampers

 

 

 

We started a TruckCamper-Import Business last fall and hope to start selling right now. Therefor we have a small regional Car and Truck Exhibition next week, a local fair and the

http://adventuresouthside.com

 

in July.

 

A lot of work waiting as a "side job" until it will allow to do this business full-time.