The Ski3piners and the Barking Spiders undertook the project of building our own Arctic – Cold Weather Packs.
Much information we got through searching the forum posts here although photos of the finished product were hard to come by. I found four small photos on FWC’s website which I cannot find now to provide a link for you.
Many thanks to Marty at ATC for answering my questions and happily providing much helpful information. As always, the guys at ATC are great! I will provide photos and details here but not a complete set of directions. You will have to do your own measurements, layout, and assessment of your own abilities to tackle this project. This post is meant only as an aid and all the possible disclaimers we can all think of apply.
As with other projects posted here, I expect that many will come up with suggestions for improvements both in materials and designs - great!
Car cover fabric is used to create an insulating dead air space between the interior of the side liner and the interior of your camper.
Here is the materials list and cost. This is the same for our old Ranger II and the Spiders’ Hawk.
You will need a long straight edge, and backing board, and a proper rotary cutter.
Mrs. Spider is the experienced sew machine operator in our group. It had been a long time since I had seen one in service!
The material
Although the info at Seattle Fabrics states 54” wide, it came 55” wide. This allowed a ¾” wide hem on both the top and bottom edges leaving an overall finished width of 26”, perfect! The vertical edges are not hemmed. The fabric has two sides, a brushed and one slightly smoother side. We put the smother side to the living space of the camper.
I should cover some terminology so we have a common language here.
Interior will be the fabric side to the camper side liner.
Front will be the overhead cab side of the camper.
Back will be to the entry door of the camper.
Center panel will be the space between your windows
Window panels will be the covers over your sideliner windows.
Fuzzy Velcro is loop and hard Velcro is hook.
The sideliner attaches on the top to the 2” loop Velcro strip sewn along the top of most sideliners. I believe most newer ATCs and FWCs come this way. Our sideliner was replaced by ATC and has the strip. The bottom of the sideliner attaches to a strip of 1” loop adhesive backed Velcro that must be added to the top of the hard edge of your camper interior.
I elected to move along the edge and individually remove the hex head screws, find their hole with an awl, and then replace the screw.
The arctic – cold weather pack is build in five panels, the center panel between the windows, the two window panels, and the back panel and the front panel. The front and back panels tuck behind your lift panel assemblies for the roof, but not too much to interfere with your sideliner attachment points behind the lift assemblies.
Our building process was cutting the fabric length wise down the center, cutting the individual panels, folding the hem and sewing on 2” hook Velcro along the interior bottom of each panel, sewing hook 1” hook Velcro to both outside vertical edges (length based on your needs) of the center panel and window sides of both the back and front panels, sewing 1” loop Velcro strips to the inside edges of all window panels, sewing the five panels together, folding the hem and sewing on 2”wide hook Velcro to interior top edge of assembled side, sewing on four 2” Velcro hook squares to outside top edge to hold window panels up in rolled position, and doing button holes for the four d rings on side liner window flaps.
This is probably getting confusing. Pictures will help.
Sewing on the bottom 2” wide Velcro hook strip. We folded over and pinned the ¾” hem, stapled the Velcro in place, sewed the bottom seam pulling pins along the way, sewed the top seam, and then pulled the staples.
Here the panels are completed.
The hard part was sewing the panels together.
We kept the assembly square by lining the panel bottom edges up along the edge of our table top, overlapping the Velcro, and then sewing down from the top with the seam end across the top of both vertical Velcro strips.
Here is the assembled panels (interior view). The top edge hem is being folded and pinned with 2” hook Velcro strip ready to be temporarily stapled in place.
Here is a finished button hole.
Much information we got through searching the forum posts here although photos of the finished product were hard to come by. I found four small photos on FWC’s website which I cannot find now to provide a link for you.
Many thanks to Marty at ATC for answering my questions and happily providing much helpful information. As always, the guys at ATC are great! I will provide photos and details here but not a complete set of directions. You will have to do your own measurements, layout, and assessment of your own abilities to tackle this project. This post is meant only as an aid and all the possible disclaimers we can all think of apply.
As with other projects posted here, I expect that many will come up with suggestions for improvements both in materials and designs - great!
Car cover fabric is used to create an insulating dead air space between the interior of the side liner and the interior of your camper.
Here is the materials list and cost. This is the same for our old Ranger II and the Spiders’ Hawk.
You will need a long straight edge, and backing board, and a proper rotary cutter.
Mrs. Spider is the experienced sew machine operator in our group. It had been a long time since I had seen one in service!
The material
Although the info at Seattle Fabrics states 54” wide, it came 55” wide. This allowed a ¾” wide hem on both the top and bottom edges leaving an overall finished width of 26”, perfect! The vertical edges are not hemmed. The fabric has two sides, a brushed and one slightly smoother side. We put the smother side to the living space of the camper.
I should cover some terminology so we have a common language here.
Interior will be the fabric side to the camper side liner.
Front will be the overhead cab side of the camper.
Back will be to the entry door of the camper.
Center panel will be the space between your windows
Window panels will be the covers over your sideliner windows.
Fuzzy Velcro is loop and hard Velcro is hook.
The sideliner attaches on the top to the 2” loop Velcro strip sewn along the top of most sideliners. I believe most newer ATCs and FWCs come this way. Our sideliner was replaced by ATC and has the strip. The bottom of the sideliner attaches to a strip of 1” loop adhesive backed Velcro that must be added to the top of the hard edge of your camper interior.
I elected to move along the edge and individually remove the hex head screws, find their hole with an awl, and then replace the screw.
The arctic – cold weather pack is build in five panels, the center panel between the windows, the two window panels, and the back panel and the front panel. The front and back panels tuck behind your lift panel assemblies for the roof, but not too much to interfere with your sideliner attachment points behind the lift assemblies.
Our building process was cutting the fabric length wise down the center, cutting the individual panels, folding the hem and sewing on 2” hook Velcro along the interior bottom of each panel, sewing hook 1” hook Velcro to both outside vertical edges (length based on your needs) of the center panel and window sides of both the back and front panels, sewing 1” loop Velcro strips to the inside edges of all window panels, sewing the five panels together, folding the hem and sewing on 2”wide hook Velcro to interior top edge of assembled side, sewing on four 2” Velcro hook squares to outside top edge to hold window panels up in rolled position, and doing button holes for the four d rings on side liner window flaps.
This is probably getting confusing. Pictures will help.
Sewing on the bottom 2” wide Velcro hook strip. We folded over and pinned the ¾” hem, stapled the Velcro in place, sewed the bottom seam pulling pins along the way, sewed the top seam, and then pulled the staples.
Here the panels are completed.
The hard part was sewing the panels together.
We kept the assembly square by lining the panel bottom edges up along the edge of our table top, overlapping the Velcro, and then sewing down from the top with the seam end across the top of both vertical Velcro strips.
Here is the assembled panels (interior view). The top edge hem is being folded and pinned with 2” hook Velcro strip ready to be temporarily stapled in place.
Here is a finished button hole.
