Rebuild of front bunk end door

[Hemifish69]

I brought home a 2004 surveyor, and found on our 1st trip that the door had rotted out. Here's the rebuild so far. I sawed out the remaining plywood and foam, and welded in a 2x2 aluminum frame. This will be covered both sides by fiberglass reinforced paneling and styrene foam inside.

[Hemifish69]

Btw, this is the bunk end door on the the front. It looks like this will end up about 12 lbs heavier than original. Also having bear creek do a new tent, as the old one tears if you look at it wrong.

[vinmaker]

Wow. You do good work. That is gonna be one nice strong bunk end.

[harderd]

You need to remove the outer trim and the filon and luan from the outer frame. after laminating new filon and luan, trim down to the frame with a router then re-install trim and seal.

I had to do one on a Kodiac 23TT. Mine had a very good internal aluminum frame already.

[Hemifish69]

There won't be any Luan going back in. This will be only aluminum/ styrene foam/and fiberglass reinforced paneling. The remnants of the Luan are there because there was just enough of the resin/glue to make me worry about deforming the frame trying to get it out. The frp paneling will be flush with the original frame on top of the remaining Luan.

[Hemifish69]

The smaller 1" tunes are offset to the inside to support the paneling/mattress. 1" thick blue styrene will be cut to fill in the gaps and make a 2" total thickness . Still have some welding to do. I didn't have the money to buy a water cooled torch, so it goes a little slower.

[rockfordroo]

You might want to shoot some spray-on foam into any of the aluminum tubes you can access (once you're done welding, of course).

[Hemifish69]

I had considered the foam, but all of the ends are closed and welded up. There was always the option of drilling each end and injecting until it came out the other end, but I'm still debating that one

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by Hemifish69

... I didn't have the money to buy a water cooled torch, so it goes a little slower.

We have the same problem with the Lincoln Square Wave Tig 175. About 30 minutes max before cooling it.

[Hemifish69]

I've got the tig Eastwood sells. Bought it to do a project car, and I wasn't ready to drop the coin on a miller. Pretty good unit. Does the Lincoln have hi freq for aluminum?

[Hemifish69]

Welding on frame done. Foam on outboard side is in, and what's left is to weld bottom original frame on and to attach outside paneling. Caulk too.
I've only got one day off before we go camping next weekend, and the outside will be waterproof. Since bear creek won't have our new tent for 8 weeks, even after they have the original (we'll at least look done on outside. )

[Hemifish69]

Mounted to trailer

[Hemifish69]

Closed and latched

[Hemifish69]

View from inside. Will insert foam in rectangular sections, bringing total thickness to 2" , same as big aluminum sections. Lay the fiberglass panel over it and be done.


Sometime before the 2 or 3 months before I get my new tent, I'll open the door and be able to work just like it was on my work bench

Ready for jellystone six flags sat

[Uncle Buck]

Really nice! I need to replace my tent on mine, any help? Advice?

[Hemifish69]

Bear creek quoted $375, and 8 wks. I also have to send my old one in as a template.

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by Hemifish69

I've got the tig Eastwood sells. Bought it to do a project car, and I wasn't ready to drop the coin on a miller. Pretty good unit. Does the Lincoln have hi freq for aluminum?

Yes, aluminum is all we use that machine for. It got pretty hot after welding the rug cutting alum circles on 50 awning poles. But that was about 30 minutes of constant welding with only about 5-10 sec interruptions between poles.

[Hemifish69]

Installed my new tent that was reverse engineered by Bear Creek Canvas.
To say I'm happy with the quality of their work would be an understatement. They made a BEAUTIFUL replacement, and it actually improved on the original because they modified it by adding the rubber beading to both sides in addition to the original a cross the top. This beading slides into aluminum channel, and by adding this to the sides, improved the factory style by eliminating the need to cut and glue the tent to the trailer pics to follow