Update : Finally

[Acts 2:38 girl]

boy, I wish we were going - only six hours for your travel time.  That's not bad!  I'll have him check on tonight just to let you know, but Lee never says things like that casually!

[birol]

Would they let us park two PU's in one spot ? We would pass ourselves as close relatives He typed in that message and left in his jeep, didn't he

I am going to steal that jeep he has ! Guys/gals you should see his jeep !!!! It is the jeep my wife has been bugging me for, for years now !

I might be able to get a cheap Hitch for your van from the junk yard, do you guys want me to check it out ? I sent so much stuff from that junkyard to a few friends in Norway, you won't believe it. It is not a problem at all.

boy, I wish we were going - only six hours for your travel time.  That's not bad!  I'll have him check on tonight just to let you know, but Lee never says things like that casually!

[Firefyter-Emt]

Well I would not of offered if I did not mean it.. From what I saw, we may very well be able to do it in just the one day.  I like to give it two just in case we run into anything strange. Are you planning on pulling the roof down before you come down? Do you plan on going to the rally after the stop here? As for my workload, It is pretty flexiable, you hit me on the worst day possiable last time. I never run around that far. Plus, We will at the very least have the entire evening to play with it. If I leave the house at 10am I am normaly back home before 4pm, Normaly 2-3p But you can not have my Jeep. It is too much fun! Here it is with the top & doors off playing with the big boys on one of the wheeling trails my club runs.. (4-Runner was not on the road..:mad: )

[birol]

To be honest I am afraid to pull the roof down, afraid that can't put it back together and can't take Finally to the rally. I was thinking maybe we would visit you the Saturday and Sunday after the rally, would that be good for you ? Do you get calls on weekends ? Would you rather spend the time with your family ? or a Turcanuck and his crazy broken PU ? Do you drink Beer ? in case this works out, I need to bribe you you know !

I showed your picture to the family, Two went Awesome, one went, why is he doing that  ?

[Firefyter-Emt]

That would be fine.. I do not work weekends. Your wife & kids are going to the rally, Right? My wife may be working Saturday and we might need a baby sitter to keep an eye on the crew here at the house. We will be at Church untill about noon on Sunday, but we may have it all done by Saturday. Maybe you could get there on Friday even and we could get it set up and torn down.. May be able to go and get the stuff at Home Depot Friday as well. That way we have all day Sat. to install a new roof. No, neither my wife or I drink btw..
 
That photo was taken on the one and only trip out with the jeep. I normaly wheel the 4Runner, but it is not on the road due to the motor problems.. So I said, the heck with it and wheeled the Jeep. It did pretty good for a pretty much stock Jeep. And yes.. I did get quite wet & muddy in that shot. If you note, the mud/water is over a foot over my head in that photo, and I was not stuck but still moving!  :p

[Firefyter-Emt]

I might be able to get a cheap Hitch for your van from the junk yard, do you guys want me to check it out ? I sent so much stuff from that junkyard to a few friends in Norway, you won't believe it. It is not a problem at all.

BTW.. if you see something decent and cheap let me know.. We need one for a Chevy van (94) without a rear step & tow bumper. The year range is 1978 to 1996. But, it must be a Class III or Class IV If you came across something and would be willing to bring it down, that would be sweet. I can get them new for about $125, but just have not had to get it on yet. My Jeep has a hitch, but it is not useable to tow the camper with. Thanks!

[birol]

If we leave around 7 am, we should be there around 2 pm .... Friday. We would come to your house directly and not loose time checking into a place, we could do that later. This way we would probably be able to leave Saturday night and save your Sunday.

Wife will not be coming with us as her mom and niece will be here when the rally takes place. My son is an experienced baby sitter though, and DD is a babysitter wannabee She is almost 12 and does a good job of it with minimal supervision, so if we need them we can used them

If the weekend after rally is not ok, we can do it some other time where I will drive down with the family and we do it during a week (Monday, Tuesday) and we will camp somewhere after the roof is done and then go back home.

Will check for the hitch when the weather gets nice and shiny once again ....It is raining once again

[Acts 2:38 girl]

in case this works out, I need to bribe you you know !

hmmm...  bribery you say??!!  Lets see if we can think up something good!  

[Firefyter-Emt]

Nope that weekend seems just fine at this point. A like the Friday evening. I will be home at 4:30 as I do out drive in claim center on Friday.  But that way we can get the camper set up and ripped apart. You could get your room prior, but I would look for something closer to us.. There are a ton all around. Auburn, Mass is less than 30 min away and have a ton of places..

[birol]

You are right, Milford is soo far away, what was I thinking  :banghead:

This way we can arrive in time, with no hurry, check in somewhere, Bring the PU to you just in time, pop it up and rip it off !!!! Are you sure we can finish it on Saturday ? That would be awesome ! I gues Fridya we open it up, go buy the pieces, and transplant the panels on Saturday and close it up ? Man oh man how am I ever going to pay you back ? And I will also buy the bearing packer thingie magicie while there this time !!! I couldn't find it here at princess auto which sells this kind of stuff.

DS can help us with so much stuff, and DD can help Andrea ! She is a good helper and chatty to say the last .

Which reminds me , I need to troubleshoot the lights soon ..... I think I will have to fish new cables everywhere .......I do not think the original cable is in repairable shape, how do I get in between the wood frame and the outser skin

[Gone-Camping]

Not to throw a cog into the gear works or anything, but do you have a "Rain" plan by any chance? The PU without a roof on will make one very large rain bucket!!!

[birol]

He thinks it will fit his garage, and I think it would too ! His garage is HUMONGOUS !!!!!!

Not to throw a cog into the gear works or anything, but do you have a "Rain" plan by any chance? The PU without a roof on will make one very large rain bucket!!!

[Firefyter-Emt]

Yep it will fit into my garage just fine.. I am not 100% sure if the roof will go all the way up, but it does not need to. We are not taking the entire roof off. Just the inside for now. I am sreiously thinking that at the worst we have to make some new "studs" for the inside, glue the old skin to the insulation, and re-attach the new panels to the inside of the roof. Then a small ammount of 1/4 round to cap the edge seams and we will be done. I am pretty sure we can get it done Sat. But, keep sunday open just in case. There is that margin of "dang, what the heck???" that can lurk under there. But we will jsut have to take it one panel at a time. I think at the very worse, we could have problems getting the roof outter shin nice and flat. The interior panels are a simple job.
 
As for the lights, most of the wires run under the camper. You can use the old wire to fish a piece of string from the light out the the bottom of the camper and use the string to fish up the new wire. Not too hard at all. You can also work from that electrical box in the rear and pull them from there.

[birol]

I have a feeling that once we take one panel off, all will want to come down ..... We will see I guess when we are doing it. I am sure the roof will go high enough to make it comfortable enough to work under it in your garage, it sure looked high enough for me.

The wires are entering the PU right where the hitch attaches to the frame. And one of them broke there, I had to buy a crimper and thingie magicies to attach it to the wire continuing to the jack. I am sure I will find a way to fix it though. I was just curious if there was an easy way to access the wires easily. If I have to fish them, I will fish them ......Not a biggie, I am handy with that kind of stuff, Black was brass right ? hehehe I gotta get a water proof box for that outlet as well and take out the blue one you gave me. They cost an OUCH here, but who cares,  needs to be done and needs to be weather proof. Should I purchase a GFI one would it work ? or as the current is going in it would be useless ? I was going to purchase it yesterday and thought about asking it first here before spending the money.

[Firefyter-Emt]

Hmmm a GFI? I am not sure. Inside the camper, sure.. But keep in mind, you are really using that as an inlet for your power supply, not as an outlet. While it will work as an outlet if you plug something into the other socket, I am just not sure. I suppose it would work, but I would put it inside the camper. I think a real power coard would be the best, but I do not know if you could do away with that box in the rear and put a standard pull thru cord in it's place. Do you have some sort of a "box" the cord cold go into on the other side of the wall?? (Like in the dinette?) I would hold off, we may be able to find a better solution at home depot. Buy a standard house cover and 2 child proof plugs to keep the water out and we can revisit it. It needs a little work too. As for the wires, the wires rn inside the c-channel frame and are exposed under the camper. Now I know that you are hight chalanged and may not be able to get to them But they are outside the frame, inside that c-channel. (that make sence?) The wire only enters the camper way at the back about 1' inboard of the drivers side of the rear of the box. You could get your son to chace that wire thru the frame.