The next morning I arrived back at the shop, and immediately went into a little bit of panic mode. The sides of the camper above the cab of the truck had completely bulged out! I could see a good inch of gapping from the front at the peaks of curve where the paneling was sticking out. I seriously should have stopped to take a picture here, and I am working on getting better at it, but I was in reactive “Quick, Fix It!” Mode. Mike came in at that time, and we talked about the best way to remedy the bulges. He began with some good news, letting me know he wouldn’t need the shop until at least until after tomorrow! He recommended putting a relief cut in the panel, then lapping the panel at the top of the cut over the bottom. That sounded like a good plan, so I was on it.
A little bit later the cuts were done. A few seconds with my panel saw had taken care of that. I overlapped the panel, then used a wide clamps linked together to span the whole width of the camper to pinch the panels into place.
I then went along the cut and sealed it with Lexel. I went around all the edges along the front camper and filled them, knowing that this portion of the camper wasn’t going to get Gaco treated until we could take care of the window in the spring. And trust me, we could not wait until we could properly clean up and Gaco treat this girl like she deserved!
Once the Lexel was applied I made sure the camper was properly re-set into place with the jacks and tubes.
I headed to the roof for a little bit more touch up, and then Mike came back in and we discussed the camper bracing. We looked through his aluminum stock and decided we could run a 3″ x 1″ U-Bracket facing downward over the plates at the top of the original bracing. The plates fit perfectly inside, then we would weld them to the bracket. We decided rather than having anything mount directly into the camper, we would weld dog-ears onto the ends of the bracket. This would allow the camper to shift a little as needed while still supporting it up. My job was fabricate the pieces so Mike could do the welding. We took measurements and scrawled some templating. Then for a good portion of the day I was back to work, cutting the aluminum with a grinder or band-saw. Then I went over the pieces, smoothing the corners and edges with a grinder with a wire wheel attachment.
The plan had been to perhaps get the welding done that night- but it was contingent on how a job went that Mike was doing out on The Spit. (The Spit you ask? It’s Homer’s most prominent landmark feature. I will attach and site one photo, otherwise I am just going to copy and paste a link to the Wikipedia entry about it if you are further thirsty for information. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Spit )
Mike did not make it back in time that day, but RJ was able to meet up with me when she got off work and help me get the aluminum pieces in prime placement and clamped for perhaps welding the next day. Meanwhile, I had decided it was time for the moment of truth…
I didn’t want to just pop the ratchet strap loose all at once. I ran a second ratchet strap up and pinched the roof rack down a second time, just slightly a little less tight than the original. Then I went up and popped the original strap loose. Then tightened it down slightly less tight than the new one. A few times of back and forth and she was free! The Gaco held the roof in place solid, she didn’t move at all! It was perfect!!!! We could call this experiment a complete success!
With that another day was done, Our Ohana was so much happier now that she was being protected from the rain, and getting a chance to dry inside and out.
Geoff Murphy 4/10/2020