New Mexico Winter Sunset

Here is a great picture a day after some heavy snowfall. This picture is of the Sandia Mountains at sunset and shows both the snow and the pink mountain sunset we are always accustomed to seeing.

Sandia Mountains Winter Sunset

A very peaceful site to come home to after a long day at work.

Lots of Snow Today in New Mexico

I took that picture of the upcoming weather in the mountains a couple of days ago only to wake up to this a few days later.

Snow Covered Subaru in New Mexico

Lots of people think that New Mexico is a dry and barren wasteland but as you can see it has a lot more to offer.

Beautiful December Morning near the Sandia Mountains

I woke up to a different site this morning of the Sandia Mountains. I am usually greeted in the morning with a big bright view of the Sandias but this morning shows that we do experience the seasons here in Northern New Mexico. Notice the low lying cloud cover or fog in the valley.

Winter in New Mexico

Yellowstone National Park in our Skamper Pop Up, 2000 mile Trip

Most people would like to take a test trip in their newly renovated pop up camper, somewhere close so that if anything goes wrong then you can get it fixed quickly and cheaply. We ran out of time on our renovation so we loaded up our Skamper and then drove 1,000+ miles to Yellowstone National Park for a nine day trip! We had a wonderful trip with only a few problems that surfaced from our camper.

• 22 year old roof vent leaked a little - We had planned to replace this but we ran out of time. Fortunately the leak was minimal and was mitigated with a pot.
• A crappy weld from the previous owner on the back bumper broke - The upper part of the weld broke which was fixed with some Walmart small corner brackets and self drilling screws. I have a new found love of self drilling screws. 

Everything else went great! Our new canvas performed wonderfully during its first rain and also during the 35 degree nights in Wyoming. We did make sure that we purchased new tires for our trip and also replaced the seals, bearings, and grease on the trailer axles. I also knocked out the old bearing races and pressed in the new bearing races as well. This was key for a worry-free pulling camper. At every gas up I got out to check the tire and hub temperatures with the back of my hand and they were barely warm even in the 100 degree heat. Check out the cool picture of our Skamper in Yellowstone!

Our Skamper Pop Up in Yellowstone

Skamper in Yellowstone

New Pop Up Camper Canvas from Bear Creek has Arrived

When we bought our project pop up camper we knew that we were going to have to replace the canvas. From far away the exterior of our old canvas did not look too bad but once you got close you could see how old our canvas was. First off there were quite a few patches on the wing sections of the canvas. We also noticed some water damage on the inside corners as well which told us they were leaking. The interior portion of the canvas is what made us decide to replace it. None of the windows were working. All the zippers were either sewn or silicon sealed shut. The corners were also sewn together where the Velcro started to fail. The canvas was old, stiff and smelled funny from probably from being 22 years old.

We checked the internet for replacement canvases and all good reviews pointed to Bear Creek Canvas of Spencer, Wisconsin. We spoke to the folks from Bear Creek weeks before our purchase. We had lots of questions and they did not hesitate to answer any of them via phone or email. Bear Creek did not have a pattern for our camper but that didn't stop them. We shipped our old canvas off to them and in less than the 10 week quoted delivery time we had our new canvas back.

I was very excited to receive our new canvas and get it unpacked. The same day we got it, I already had it hanging in our camper and it fit great. I need to stop and say the money we spent on getting a new canvas was well worth it and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again on any future pop up projects. Here are some of the features to upgrading your canvas:

• The new canvas was lighter in weight but just as strong.
• The wings are covered in vinyl instead of coated canvas.
• The canvas is pretreated and requires no additional waterproofing.
• The corner seams were changed from Velcro to heavy duty zippers.
• The wing side tie downs are bungee cords instead of string.
• It came with new metal snaps and an installation tool.
• Windows are triple pane (canvas cover, tinted plastic, and screen) with straps for keeping them in place when unzipped.

Needless to say I am very happy with my new canvas and am looking forward getting out there and camping. Here are some great before and after pictures. Our pop up still needs a little work but we are going to enjoy it some this season and look to finish it in the fall. Luckily our fall season lasts until November in the desert Southwest. Check out these pictures.

Old Skamper Pop Up Canvas-1

Old Skamper Pop Up Canvas-2

Old Skamper Interior-1

As you can see the exterior did not look to bad except for the multiple screen repairs and cuts. That brown stuff on the windows is the spray adhesive that was used to seal extra plastic to the windows. Here are the new canvas pictures.

New Skamper Canvas from Bear Creek-1

New Skamper Canvas from Bear Creek-2

New Skamper Interior

New Pictures of Skamper Pop Up Camper Restoration

It's been a little while since we last posted but we have been busy with the rebuild. The cabinet resurfacing is complete. All that is left to do for the cabinets is to cut out a few openings and install cabinet doors. I really like the dark stain with the light floors and walls. It took three sheets of stain grade beaded plywood to rebuild the cabinet faces. Some of the cabinets have a new face over the old face. Pieces that needed to be totally replaced were created by screwing two pieces of 3/8" thick beaded plywood back to back to create a 3/4" piece with the texture on both sides.

Old Cabinets & Floor

New Cabinets, Floor, & Paint

 We also were contacted by Bear Creek Canvas of Spencer, Wisconsin and notified that our canvas is ready and is now being delivered almost a week ahead of schedule. We are very excited to receive our new canvas and get it on our Skamper. Stay tuned for pictures of the new canvas.

How to Renovate your Pop Up Trailer Cabinets

So we are continuing along with our 1989 Skamper 240C Pop Up camper restoration. The heat of summer is now on us and it makes going out to work on the camper a little harder. This weekend we decided to tackle how we were going to upgrade (renovate) the cabinets. As most people know the cabinets in pop up campers are not very substantial. They are made from a 3/4" x 1" skeleton wood frame with a thin veneer stapled over the frame. I believe this was done by the camper companies for two reasons. First was to save money and second was to save on weight. You could easily add 500 pounds to your camper by install heavy wood cabinets in place of the thin style that are in there. The thin veneer is 3/16" thick plywood with an almost paper like wood grain veneer covering it. After 22 years the veneer has started to wear off and almost start peeling in places. This made painting the existing cabinets out of the questions. We are doing a bootstrap renovation but we don't want it to look bad. Here is a picture of one of the cabinets that I started with.

Skamper Cabinet

So we took a walk through the wood department of Lowes and Home Depot and found stain grade bead board plywood. We also had to replace the cabinet doors which were of the same construction. For the doors we took a trip to our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The ReStore is a great resource for good priced building materials and other odds and end that end up getting donated to them that they resell for their charity. We knew that they had two aisles of cabinets doors for $5 - $15 each. We ended up buying five of the $5 doors for our camper that happened to have the vertical bead board pattern as well. Our idea was to "re-skin" the existing cabinets with the bead board. The new bead board is 3/8" thick so we will lose some interior space but not much. Here are some pictures of the same cabinet as above with its new bead board skin and a close up up the sandwiched assembly.

The addition of the 3/8" bead board will increase the weight of our trailer some but I estimate maybe only 50 pounds. It is well worth it because now the cabinets are extra sturdy and will last another 20 years. Here is a picture with the old pinkish colored counter top and the door with the stain that we will have to match. Counter tops will have to be changed after the summer camping season.

New Skamper Cabinet