Camper modifications

Camper is a 1991 Lance 11'3" truck camper. It has a 2500 Watt Onan generator, dual propane tanks, hydraulic jacks, fridge/freezer, 6 gal water heater, Coleman a/c, heater, dual stainless sinks, "dry" bathroom (separate shower/toilet), 40 gal fresh water tank, queen bed, lots of closet space, microwave, etc.

Getting the camper home was interesting since I assumed the tie-downs would be part of the package. The previous owner had torque-lift tie-downs for his ford and I have an 01 Chevy dually. It wasn't going to happen. I used a couple of 2000 lb ratcheting tow straps for the front and back to secure the camper to the truck and also bolted the hitch extension to a custom mounting plate that was installed under the camper bumper. It made everyone else nervous but I thought it should be fine. It worked better than fine, it worked great. Not a permanent solution but it worked better than I thought. I figured I might end up with rub marks on the truck finish in a small spot but it came out with absolutely no damage.

Being old, I expected a few glitches. First things first, I almost lost the camper. The guy I bought it from told me one of the jacks was acting up and needed rebuilding but it would hold pressure, it just didn't crank very well. I was lifting the camper to load it and had just backed my truck under it when the jack decided to slowly fail. I was on the other side of the camper so I let off the jack on my side so at least the camper would land square in the bed of the truck. It worked out fine, just not a fun experience. I spent the rest of the evening rebuilding the jack, since that guy already had the rebuild kits. It's not that hard, once you get the rusted threads to break free.

I looked at tiedowns online and checked out the forums for 2 weeks. I am never going to be caught paying almost $500 for fancy tie-downs that aren't worth half that. For those of you who can afford it, enjoy. I'd rather build better ones for a quarter of the cost. A trip to the steel yard later, I had all of my pieces to build my own tiedowns.


I had the generator start acting up. Not wanting to shell out too much money, I researched the heck out it. I narrowed the problem down to the starter motor. I disassembled the generator and gave all of the parts a good cleaning. That's all it needed! The centrifugal clutch was stuck on some gunk and not engaging. Easy fix.

Next, we were camping in Sequoia National Forest (the maiden voyage for the camper)

and turned on the water pump. It worked fine in the driveway at home but on the trip it decided to pump water out of the hose connection valve on the camper exterior. Not able to reset the valve, I hooked up the water hose and crimped it with a set of vice clamps. That worked fine for the weekend. I replaced the valve when I got home.

After the Sequioa trip, I was charging the battery and noticing the "charge" indicator light fluttering. Soon, it was out completely, the battery still not charged. Further research and inspection proved to be a worn-out power converter. The original Magnetek 6300 was apparently not a good converter, so I guess I should be impressed it lasted as long as it did in an 18 year old camper. I considered the upgrade 7300 converter until I found the Progressive Dynamics Intelli-power P9140A converter. This 40 Amp converter was a little more power than the old one (32 amps) but not so much as to charge the battery too fast and burn it up. It fit into the old Magnetek housing so I didn't have to alter any of the camper interior. For an install link look here: http://home.comcast.net/~rabarber/magnetek.htm

I put the camper in the truck for a few days so I could take off the jacks to sand and paint them. While I had the paint out, I also repainted the compartment doors and plastic covers on the exterior. Next, I thought I would sand off a couple rust spots on the camper bumper, just under the door. When I started sanding with a flap disk on the angle grinder, I started to smell something odd. Pinning the smell to electrical, and just finishing the power converter mod, I thought the camper was on fire. I opened the door and the air was just fine. Close inspection of the power converter proved nothing. Outside the smell had dispersed. I unplugged the camper and threw the fuses anyway. Not finding anything, I went back to sanding and smelled it again. This time, a bit of bondo started to show. Maybe the bumper wasn't so clean and straight afterall. I sanded the whole thing, finding lots of pitting in the metal. Structurally, it seemed fine for a while, until I can build a new one. I primed and painted it, then (not wanting to bondo back over it) covered the entire top surface with 3M grip tape. I actually looks great, is more functional, and I can build the new bumper later on.

I also found out that the propane tanks are only about 8 years out of date. The guy at Suburban Propane told me replacement tanks ran about $252.00 each. No way.

I took out the bottom of the interior closet to access the top of the poly propane compartment. I cut the top of the compartment out, built a 6" tall box around the edge to raise the height of the compartment and attached the piece of removed poly back on top. I sealed the seams, inside and out. Using the same hoses and regulator, I traded in some old bbq propane tanks for new bbq tanks and was able to slide them in the original compartment door sideways and stand them up straight. (Yes I knew this would work. Measure twice, cut once). Now I have room to install a small compressor. I only lost a few inches in the floor of the closet (not noticable) and gained the ability to get propane refilled or tanks swapped almost anywhere.