I bought a new truck and wanted to keep it under cover in the barn, so I built a (10×15) shed for the Alaskan. It now awaits its next excursion on its dedicated trailer in its dedicated shed.
And here’s why the Alaskan had to leave the comfort of the barn…
In May, we took a trip out west for a little sight-seeing. We made reservations for the trip out, but stayed at some non-reservable park campgrounds once we got out there. Our cheapest site was Desert View Campground at Grand Canyon National Park – $6/night (with our America the Beautiful pass).
Meteor Crater, AZ
Grand Canyon from Desert View
Got snowed in one day at the Grand Canyon
Monument Valley, AZ
A look back, leaving Monument Valley
Goose Island Campground on the Colorado River, Moab, UT
Heading into Arches National Park – get there early to avoid the crowds. That holds true for just about everything.
Dead Horse State Park, UT
A view of the Tetons from the Gros Ventre Campground outside of Jackson Hole, WY.
All of these pictures were taken with a cell phone!
We took a trip up to Acadia National Park by way of Niagara Falls with some stops in between.
We loaded up some campers and some grandkids and took off for Hunting Island State park for 4 days. Our little convoy prompted a few smiles along the road. This was the Alaskan camper’s first trip out since I bought it, and it worked great.
For our maiden voyage, we went all the way to the end of the road…
US 1 that is – Mile Marker Zero – Key West, Florida.
Our first stop was at Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine, FL where we were met with curiosity,
but later found the natives to be quite friendly.
Our next stop was at John Pennakamp State Park in Key Largo, and our final destination was Bahia Honda State Park – 35 miles from Key West.
In all, we traveled 1600 miles with no problems. The weather was great, the seafood excellent, and it’s good to be back home.
I recently bought a made in America dowel jig at a yard sale for $3.00 and wanted to try it out. Since I had a 6 foot piece of 1×8 poplar laying around, I decided to rip it down to 2” widths and build a screen door for the 1956 Shasta. Here’s a picture of it before assembly with all the dowels ready for glue up. The dowel jig is the black and aluminum piece with the T handle on it.
I ran screws through the bottom and top pieces to clamp everything into place after I glued the dowels. Here it is glued up, stained and poly’ed.
The handle access is covered with a piece of birch plywood with an aluminum slider and the screen molding is made from fir, so there’s a little color difference in the wood.
Back to the 1956 Shasta page: 1956 Shasta
Here’s a before, during and after look at the modifications that I made to the bottom section of my Alaskan camper so that it would fit into my truck bed.
Curbside: the box is now 3″ thinner than before
Roadside: the box was completely removed
I added electrical inlets and outlets, plus moved the water inlet from the overhang along the bedrail to the back of the camper.
Looks like somebody found a new vintage camper!
Here’s a link to the new page: 1978 Alaskan Truck Camper
We had a couple of 6” thick latex foam twin mattresses that weren’t being used and were in pretty good condition, and since I needed 39” wide cushions for the dinette benches in the 1956 Shasta, I decided to cut the ends off of the mattresses and use them as my cushion bases.
I cut the mattress fabric long enough to wrap the exposed end and slid a piece of ¼” plywood under the fabric and against the foam.
A few staples later, I was ready to start covering my cushions.
I put some thin batting over the cushions and stapled the seat covers to the plywood, too.
Back to the 1956 Shasta page: 1956 Shasta
I got my tires and rims as a set by mail-order and they arrived ready to install, except that they hadn’t been balanced. The tire places that I have talked to said that they don’t balance trailer tires and that it isn’t necessary. It may not be necessary, but it couldn’t hurt, so I decided to do it myself. I had heard about Centramatic wheel balancers, but I wasn’t sure if they would fit my hub/drums, so I’m going to use ceramic beads. The beads are a little bigger than grains of sand and they pour into the tire through the valve stem. For my 15” tires, I’m using 3 ounces per tire. Here’s a link to a site that will explain everything a whole lot better than I can: http://www.innovativebalancing.com/HowItWorks.htm
This should help keep my campers from getting pounded by wobbly wheels as they roll down the highway.
