Custom build - 1982 grandby ghost

4 40” strips all in the living areas. The bed area still has the stock fittings that had incandescent bulbs originally. I put yellow led’s on one side of those fixtures for nighttime, and white ones on the other for reading.

The EShine lights are almost always dimmed a bit, but not toooo bright when doing detailed tasks. Don’t bother with the “wave” function. It got triggered too often by mistake, and would trigger with the top down too, so I removed the one “master” light with that feature and just use the dimmer.

I would get these again, although yours with the “red” feature would be nice.

200 AH LiFePo4 Battle Born batteries, 340W residential panel on the roof. 30A DCDC w 2 AWG wire to alternator. I am actively looking for 700W residential panels to replace the 340. So far I can’t get one unless I order a pallet full. If I was rebuilding today I’d go for more battery as well, since using our induction cooktop means always having to keep an eye on the SOC. Or drop induction….
 
4 40” strips all in the living areas. The bed area still has the stock fittings that had incandescent bulbs originally. I put yellow led’s on one side of those fixtures for nighttime, and white ones on the other for reading.

The EShine lights are almost always dimmed a bit, but not toooo bright when doing detailed tasks. Don’t bother with the “wave” function. It got triggered too often by mistake, and would trigger with the top down too, so I removed the one “master” light with that feature and just use the dimmer.

I would get these again, although yours with the “red” feature would be nice.

200 AH LiFePo4 Battle Born batteries, 340W residential panel on the roof. 30A DCDC w 2 AWG wire to alternator. I am actively looking for 700W residential panels to replace the 340. So far I can’t get one unless I order a pallet full. If I was rebuilding today I’d go for more battery as well, since using our induction cooktop means always having to keep an eye on the SOC. Or drop induction….
Have you tried running one or two strips at one? If so what was that lighting like? Yeah I wouldn't want hand wave.

Would you run the panel over you vents or something to fit such a large panel up there? In reference to your desire for that big ole 700w version?
 
all of the eshines are on one circuit, so they all dim at once.... is that what you mean b "running one or two strips at one?"

700W panel is not much physcially larger than the 340W I have. It sits on the driver's side and goes from the very front of the camper extending back nearly to the single fan cover on my Puma/Grandby.
 
all of the eshines are on one circuit, so they all dim at once.... is that what you mean b "running one or two strips at one?"

700W panel is not much physcially larger than the 340W I have. It sits on the driver's side and goes from the very front of the camper extending back nearly to the single fan cover on my Puma/Grandby.
I didn't know if you could run them individually or not was all. I was kinda curious how much light 800-1600 lumens was in these campers.

What one you looking at that is relatively the same size? I had quickly looked earlier and saw a canadian solar one that was 94" x 51" which would either go over the roof vent or hang off ~10" on the side assuming your roof vent is along the side of the center framing. Is your vent offset to the side further?
 
OK, that's bigger physically than I recall, but even so, I might consider hanging 5" off of each side instead (or if it would fit in the rear (which it doesn't because of the roof vent, which does sit to the rear and more to the driver's side) allow it to hang over the rear as a mini-awning. Now you have me wanting to dig into bigger panels again more seriously... :geek:(y)
 
Finished welding up the roof. Probably will be looking at lift hinges and sideline fab next.

Putting some thought into the front dinette, definitely no perfect answer on optimizing for regular use versus top down use in terms of seat height and width spacing. I'm thinking optimize for normal usage and when I am in top down mode solo and have half the bed set up if I have to I'll bring along a lower seat that I'll use off the floor perhaps.

Anyways here is one concept I was thinking about to make deploying for a bed (in halves) somewhat straight forward while providing a seat back normally with the plywood folded up using 3 hinges that then easily can be lifted and pulled forward onto the bed support 1"x2" when they're in place. Height from seat to floor might limit cushion thickness, @ski3pin said 2" cushions were working in his arrangement with seats this high which gives me some comfort.

Constructive discussion is welcomed, I'm not locked into anything yet. I've played around with some various configurations but feel like this might be a nice balance of user friendly, storage and accessibility (the turnbuckle ports are still readily accessible vs in a cabinet, etc).

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Do you need seating for 4? If not, make a single pair of seats wide enough for you to stealth sleep on. 24" should do it if you are used to using camping mattresses and sleeping bags. That's my thought, as I would reserve more space for counters, cabinets = storage.
 
Lift height / gas struts / sideliner musings:

Seems like the common ~36" gas struts limit lift height to around 25-26". Using longer 40" or 44" gas struts could probably get 29-30' or 32-33" respectively. However the sideliner fabric is commonly 61" wide. Cutting that in half and allowing for 3.5" loss for tucking in under the roof and bottom trim limits the sidewall height to 27" while still being efficient with the fabric.

Getting harder to find 40" shocks to gain 1" doesn't really seem worth while. Utilizing a longer shock effectively means ordering a fair bit more fabric and having waste. Also the bottom of my camper already has ~53" of height to it so the bottom already has 78-79" of headroom when utilizing the 36" gas struts.

My deeper cabover has 6" of space, assuming 4" of mattress that leaves 2" of height in addition to the lift height thus 27-28" of headroom with the 36" shocks.

Slightly leaning towards just going with 36" to make things simple. Anyone got a strong sales pitch why I should go for taller? Truly sitting up in the cabover would be nice but not sure its worth it and the overall camper would be like 7' tall at that point too.
 
Do you need seating for 4? If not, make a single pair of seats wide enough for you to stealth sleep on. 24" should do it if you are used to using camping mattresses and sleeping bags. That's my thought, as I would reserve more space for counters, cabinets = storage.
3 is the more likely case of why I'd not just have a pair of seats. We're technically a family of 5 but it would be rare I think we'd take this out as a family, we have a camping trailer for full family trips. This will see more action while out hunting/exploring that would tend to be solo or with 1-2 kids along and/or a hunting partner.

Also with the width of this dinette it still works as a 2 person dinette with a 20" bed extension pulled out.
 
for the occasional 3rd person, I'd consider seating them at the "end" with a camp chair or bucket. That's a lot of room to set aside for a "just in case"
 
for the occasional 3rd person, I'd consider seating them at the "end" with a camp chair or bucket. That's a lot of room to set aside for a "just in case"
Fixed storage vs adjustable storage. With those board arrangements I showed for the seat bottom the front piece can be folded back over to make a platform and bins/duffles/etc. can all be set there. Heck could even build a removable cabinet or such. With the way I'll camp with this more of my stuff will be temporary for a trip vs needing to be stowed away in cabinets.

Also in the long run nothing prevents a remodel of portions of the interior. :)
 
Ordered fabric and mulling over the lift mechanism, I flip flopped on my prior though after sitting under my adjustable height desk at various heights and ordered extra fabric to allow for a taller pop up than 26ish". Leaning towards the 40" struts and ~30" lift (that'd give 32" in the cabover with a 4" mattress). I'd really have liked 33" lift (35" inside, using 44" struts) in an ideal world but am hesitant as that is just getting tall overall, it'd be like 7'-3" interior at that point.

Also in the meantime I decided to make some snap together wire grommets for routing wires through the tubing. I got a 3d printer so may as well have fun and use it. ;) It requires a 1/2" hole in the tube and I believe will fit a pair of wires up to about 10ga in this oval version.

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I didn't drill this test hole straight so pardon the fact it didn't seat flush.

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The VCP fabric arrived over the weekend so I cut out it down in width to sidewall height and also a 4" strip for the upper perimeter velcro, I also laid out the windows and cut those openings. Ideally the velcro, thread, etc. arrive today. I still haven't settled on a height yet, I'm making this a little taller than needed at the moment and will trim some off the top edge as desired to center up window placement once I make a decision there, the bottom excess gets trimmed at installation as we all know.

I picked up some roof trim from phoenix, its a slightly different profile (doesn't flare out at the bottom, I built my roof 3/8" larger on each side so ideally that is enough) but they're local (vs shipping some in from FWC), it seems more robust in terms of helping to stiffen the roof sides some, and being it takes a vinly insert it'll help shield the screws from weather a bit more.

Current musing, I've considered welding lift panels but at the moment leaning towards making them out of ACM like others have.
-I have one old lift panel with 3 hinges on hand which raises the question in my head whether 3 spring loaded hinges per panel are really needed, esp when paired with external gas struts. Seems like making the center hinge spring loaded would accomplish much of the goal of making the panel want to open up? From there the panels are secured in place with a tether/latch/etc. Its easier/cheaper to get more normal piano hinges and that would also mean installation wouldn't be fighting against springs. Am I overlooking something here?

-Panel width, I was questioning the width of the original panels needing to be so wide and wanting to make them narrower. @ski3pin noted in his long term review of his camper that it caused wear on the sides of the sidewall fabric due to folding interference. Folks installing EMT lifts have already shown a wide support width isn't needed. Glancing at more recent FWC photos it seems they've narrowed up the panels (visually in the 60ish" range) which is in alignment with the thought process.
 

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i never understood the spring hinge bit. They certainly don't seem to help much with lifting the top. I'd go piano hinges.

I've also thought of putting in linear actuators and reducing the end panels to a simple "hold my beer" function rather than being so integral to getting the top up/down and folding well.

I also recall seeing a picture of another brand of camper here - all composite I think - that used an aluminum mechanism that works like the EMT setups but was much more compact. Can't remember the brand though...
 
I've also thought of putting in linear actuators and reducing the end panels to a simple "hold my beer" function rather than being so integral to getting the top up/down and folding well.
I'll use a linear actuator inside like the speaker lift setup as needed. I definitely pondered over a way to have something installed in place but the dimensions / usability don't work for my desires. For instance based on the height of the sidewall I want the actuators couldn't fit in the area above the bed rails, they'd need to be down at the portion above the wheel wells but in my layout that would be in the way of the bed pullout king size bed, etc. At the end of the day while nifty to be installed in place its not hard to have a portable one.
 
First full window done, I'll try to do the corners of the bottom seam a little cleaner on the next 3 in terms of my stitching path.

I had to pull some seams on the privacy flap for the next window because when I switched thread colors it didn't get captured right in the thread tension so the thread was pulled too far through on one side. Luckily that isn't an external surface so the extra needle holes aren't additional leak points, even though I'll seam seal the outside. I have black and silver thread and am switching top/bottom thread colors as needed to best blend in to the VCP and Velcro. It would have drove me nuts looking at silver thread on black velcro versus spending a few extra dollars/minutes to run black thread when needed.

The basting tape @PokyBro mentioned in his thread is awesome when assembling all this stuff.

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Windows are all done, corners patched and seam sealed the external stitches (did the inside of the bottom stitches). I’ll take some measurements on the camper and sew up 3 of 4 of the perimeter seams, I’ll leave the final one till I can verify dimensions right before install.
 

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I'm penciling out dimensions for my lift panels. I'm planning to use 8-32 rivnuts on the top and bottom where it connects to the camper making the lift panels serviceable/replaceable easily if needed versus drilling rivets. To account for this I'll order a top hinge with a 1/4" pin diameter so there is space for the screw head. I can order a normal 1/8" pin diameter hinge for the bottom because that one doesn't fold flat on itself.

I'm not really sure why the original hinges were drilled with the holes lined up on each side, even with low profile rivets and pounding the rear side flat that just adds to interference in the original design. I'm ordering undrilled hinges so I can place the holes offset.
 

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