Erod's 02' Eagle

[erod]

View attachment 18398Well, we are back! We had our eagle delivered on Tuesday! I was very impressed with the shipping service located in SOCAL, he picked up the camper Sat am and was in my driveway Tues am! If anyone else, not in Cali, ever needs a transport we've got a guy!

Anyway, always a bit nerve racking when buying something 1200 mi away sight unseen but sometimes you just gotta go for it! Overall I would say we are very happy with the camper and the condition it arrived in. We are slowly detailing it and will have it on the truck soon for its maiden voyage…It appears this camper was simply a shell model with a few extras including a furnace, marine battery, inverter, yakima rack and fold out bed. Other then that its pretty simple, the way we wanted i!.

We are starting with some of the basics, fantastic fan, LED's, arctic pack, and some storage modifications…having gone through this once before with our 92' Ranger I am pretty optimistic on our future mods.

This forum is great and I have appreciated everyones insight for a number of years so its nice to be back and be an active member again! Our truck has also received a few mods since I was last here so I will be starting the new thread shortly.

Thanks in advance for any insight. Cheers!


erod

 

[ski3pin]

The truck to camper connector is from marinco, a three wire trolling motor connect, although usually only two wires used for campers.

Link

Congrats on your new camper and best of luck!

 

[ski3pin]

Sounds like somethimg simple is amiss with the wiring. It does not sound like the camper battery is properly wired to the camper 12V system. Fuse blown or wire disconnected?

 

[Ted]

Erod? He' Alive!!!

Welcome back to the forum Erod. Congrats on the new to you camper. I do have one note to add as to the arctic pack. FWC now builds their campers with a 2" higher section above the bed which leads to 2" more canvas. We purchased an arctic pack a couple of years ago for our 2003 camper. Even though I pointed out we had the old height roof, the new arctic packs are designed for the new roof only. It fit but there was a bit of excess that was sloppy. You may prefer to go with ATC if you plan to purchase as theirs are still built with the roof height of your 2002 camper.

 

[erod]

Thanks ski3 and ted! good stuff! the marineco adaptor has to be special ordered and is 40 bucks…wondering if its easier to just cut it off and add a different plug seeing as that 4WC doesn't use it anymore. Anyone done this or ran into this issue?

Ted, great point on the arctic pack! seems like since 4WC is making each one individually they could account for that increased roof height? talked to ATC and they are happy to do it but…no holes for the D rings and it sounds like a fairly thin material. I've never actually seen now of these in person honestly…wonder how the two arctic packs differ ATC vs FWC.

erod

 

[ski3pin]

erod, I might have a spare plug. I'll look through the pile of spare parts.

 

[DLN]

erod,

Welcome back. You were always a great member here and I'll look forward to following your progress on the new camper.

 

[erod]

[SIZE=14pt]Thanks guys, ski3, I ordered the atwood plug and receptacle from amazon. Got started on a few things this in-between rain storms...[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14pt]I pulled out the linoleum floor and added some insulating material i pulled out of one of our home[/SIZE][SIZE=14pt] remodels. It seemed similar in weight but a little nicer on the feet! I also pulled the battery completely out to charge and test. I tested it quickly a day ago but i have yet to get the electrical to work in the camper so I'm starting from scratch…I am sure everything works I just think either the battery is dead or there is a wire mixed up somewhere. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14pt]Fantastic fan should be here this week and we are ready to pull the trigger on a thermal pack as well. we are going to try to keep this build fairly simple and low weight…no sink, fridge or stove. we would however like to get a small toilet for the lady and it would be sweet if i could find one that would slide under the bench seat with a slight modification…anyone know of a small one that would fit in the eagle?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14pt]Here are some pics of the camper and my truck…really stoked on this set up! Just put brand new Cooper AT-3's on the truck on Friday! [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14pt]Cheers![/SIZE]

[SIZE=14pt]erod[/SIZE]

 

[SunMan]

Good to see the Tacoma is still kickin!

 

[rotti]

[SIZE=14pt]we would however like to get a small toilet for the lady and it would be sweet if i could find one that would slide under the bench seat with a slight modification…anyone know of a small one that would fit in the eagle?[/SIZE]

This: http://beprepared.com/tote-able-toilet-seat-lid.html?sc=GOOGLELA&oc=GOOGLELA&gclid=CO7o3IOo6r0CFbFFMgodIS8A5g and a Lowes 5 gallon bucket and some cat litter fits under the seat in my Hawk.

My wife likes it better than my previous solution.

 

[JaSAn]

erod or anyone else that would like to chime in: What insulation are you are using on your floor?

rotti: Love the 'Strap & Crap'

 

[takesiteasy]

This: http://beprepared.com/tote-able-toilet-seat-lid.html?sc=GOOGLELA&oc=GOOGLELA&gclid=CO7o3IOo6r0CFbFFMgodIS8A5g and a Lowes 5 gallon bucket and some cat litter fits under the seat in my Hawk.

My wife likes it better than my previous solution.

We use the seat and bucket system too. Have considered the Pett toilet since it folds up even smaller but it costs more and the bucket works well. We store the supplies (bags, powder) in the bucket under the bench by the door.

 

[camper101]

Congrats on the setup.

We also use a 5 gal. bucket (Restop 2) and poo bags. If a bucket is too big for you, you could try something similar to this, and just let the bags hang. I like the sealing bucket though to keep any smell contained if it'll be a few days before you get to a trash can. Plus bags can leak if they freeze/thaw and you don't want that.

For those who use a toilet seat, does it have a lip that specifically fits your 5 gallon bucket? We tried a Luggable Loo seat because our foam seat that came with the Restop is breaking down. But the LL seat fits a non-sealing bucket and doesn't sit well on a bucket with a "gamma seal."

JaSAn I've put 1/2" foamular on the floor and covered it with carpet. It keeps my feet nice and warm, but it's not built-in (just cut more or less to size). It sounds like erod did a more thorough job.

 

[erod]

Hey guys, been out in the camper for a few days now and been getting some great ideas for future mods. Been raining for essentially the last 3 days so we have spent a lot of time in the camper and are happy with how it held up to all the moisture recently. Were gonna take the couch out...wasn't originally planning in it but after spending all the recent time in there we have decided the extra floor space would be great or us and the dog! Fantastic-fan goes in first thing when we get back. Good thing i already have one waiting in the garage because the old vent cover is broken already. Lastly, awning. maybe over the rear door so we can have it open even when its raining.

JaSAn, I had a surplus of this material that was laid under some laminate flooring in our house left over from a remodel so I used it. Its like a rubbery fabric with one side having a metallic wrap. Im guessing its original purpose was to provide some insulation as well as dealing wiith the creeking of the 100 year old wood floor beneath it. Its nice on the feet and feels warmer then the original. i have a bunch of the material if anyone is interested...its a little heavy though so would mayb cost a bit to ship.

Thanks for all the insight on the toilet! I wonder if there is a low profile cassete toilet of some sort available. Locally our RV stores carry some but they are pretty tall...not a huge deal as we are already having room issues with a 13 year old newfoundland but Im gonna stay on the lookout for the smallest one possible.

Ill be searching the awning and dinette threads for the next few days for ideas...so many great mods out there on the forum! Cheers!

 

[erod]

Also, wanted to add we did figure out the wiring...The thermal breaker was blown. So while the camper would work while plugged into the truck it was dead electrically when not. But now we have power! Also, the furnace works great!

photo-2.JPG

Also, wanted to add we did figure out the wiring...The thermal breaker was blown. So while the camper would work while plugged into the truck it was dead electrically when not. But now we have power! Also, the furnace works great! Here a pic of our rig on the way up to the Flathead last week, 3 days straight of rain and the camper did great!



Heres a quick shot of the interior, I installed the fantastic fan yesterday and it is sweet! Easy install. You can get an ice for the interior layout from the picture. We are thinking of shortening the couch or a possible from dinette and reconfiguring the shelves. It works the way it is but there is some unused space that we would like to utilize...



Heres a shot of our old dog barely fitting on the couch…he was comfortable enough though!



Cheers!

 

[erod]

Well, go tout camping last weekend and was able to get a few things down on the camper as well. Its moving slow so far but we are so stoked to be back in a FWC. We removed the couch completely…similar to what many others have done due to its large size and blocking the windows. The size was the biggest issue as there was very little room for our dog and at 13 yrs old he had a really hard time getting on and off the couch itself…he's much happier with it out of there. That being said I would like to modify the old couch and maybe cut it down a few feet to make a smaller chair toward the front of the camper. Similar to a from dinette…i've read many of the posts here regarding this conversion but has anyone actually cut down and modified the original couch? maybe i missed the details somewhere?

I installed the lower velcro for the arctic pack today. was really straight foreword and clean…I am essential following ski3's lead on the arctic pack build.


lastly, i outfitted the camper with some new carpet since there was a larch space left with the couch being gone.

heres a picture of us on the lower madison river last weekend. the weather here has been unseasonably nice and fairly dry this spring…fingers crossed our fire season isn't as bad as some years past.

cheers

erod

 

[erod]

couch mod completed…we will use the old cushion cover for the foam. nice little place to sit, look out the window and store the battery and a few other things. most importantly lots of floor space left for the dog! cheers!

erod

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Front couch is a good idea Erod.
Doing whatever improvemnts your doing to an Eagle and still have enough room for 2 people and a dog to function in it is an art of careful planning and organization.

 

[erod]

Thanks Jim, right you are!

Here are a couple new improvements we have made in the last week or so...

We feel like we still have plenty of storage without the couch and really appreciate the gain in floor space. We also have a rocket box for the top we haven't even installed yet. The new couch is perfect for the 2 of us and the dog seems much happier now. I ran into a few snags with the new couch design…one main one was clearing the turnbuckle hatches, the other making it flush with the side rails while still string to reuse all the old material. We kept the original height and are happy with it, we lost the extra bed but rarely have guests in the camper so we are good with that for now as well. In hind sight I may have kept the old couch for resale purposes and just bought a small amt of new material for the new couch but selling this unit is nowhere in sight and we already have to much #$%@ in our garage as is so out with the old couch!

I cut down the cabinets that were previously installed to just two bays and put a door and some trim on them. The height is great for our cooler. Also, added some mesh netting for quick storage and a few bungies.

Found a Yakima swing away rack on CL and really like the swing feature for accessing the camper.

For now the toilet is a no go…have looked at many models and will stick with the woods for now...

Excited about this design mainly for its simplicity and comfort and definitely happy with the changes we have made thus far. Our water can ended up fitting nicely in the wheel well notch to the right of the back door…sweet! Cheers!

 

[ski3pin]

Looking good!