"Bullwinkle" - Rocky's 1996 Starcraft Camper companion

Starting a thread on the camper Rocky (https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Rocky-1981-F250-Restoration-tp108765.html) will be carrying 90% of the time. These are a matched pair (hence the fun names) and I expect Bullwinkle to be hanging out with Rocky 95% of the time.

The late-90's Starcraft can't be found any longer. The company still exists as Starcraft RV, but the truck camper division was sold, I think in 2001 to Jayco. But I've managed to find a few resources online including the manual which is a big deal to me because it gave me the specs, which are super hard to find official numbers for elsewhere (especially in older campers):



As you can see this camper does require an 8' bed which is good for interior space, which tended to be tight on these older models. (This does not have a bathroom, for instance, which is very rare in campers now.) At the same time, despite heavy use of pretty crappy materials like particle board for the cabinets and doors and OSB for the bottoms of the "wings", it clocks in at 1559lbs dry. That's also pretty unheard of these days - the mid 2000's is much more common. (You can still get ultralights but they're very limited and tend to be "tent" style campers.

Here are a few more pics, I'll post more as I get started:








Currently the plan for the first phase is as follows:

- Remove exterior siding to access frame, and repair crushed/rotten corners of the "wings".

- Remove canvas, crank mechanism, and related hardware/trim. Convert it to a fixed-height hard-sided unit by extending/replacing studs in the side walls and re-siding it with fiberglass.

- Replace all cushions, they're nasty.

- Change layout of rear storage "closet" area to have a drawer underneath for a cassette toilet. In phase 1 privacy isn't a big deal, it'll just be my wife and I (or maybe me alone) half the time.

- Stretch goal: If the fridge is not functional, replace it with a cooler-style electric chest fridge/freezer like the van life folks use. Add solar and battery capacity to run same.

- Stretch goal: rebuild and simplify cabinets with a higher grade, painted plywood setup to spruce up the appearance and save a few more pounds.

- Stretch goal: Add a drop-down bunk above the current bunk/dinette area. It's a good spot to sleep "one more in a pinch".

The goal in these things isn't comfort per se, it's to be "better than being outside in a tent when it's -10F out". That said you'd be surprised how nice they can be even in the cramped older models that don't make use of space like the wheel wells. Being warm and having a place to sit and play cards while having a sandwich has a big impact on a grueling week-long hunt...

I'm following this.  Am interested in how you do it.  But you are covering it with fiberglass?  Hand laid or sheets?

And yes, I'm aware of how cozy these can be.  As said, we had a 9 1/2' self-contained and took it to Colorado several times, California, the Tetons, etc.  Far, far better than tent camping.

A lot of work! I like these pop up campers. That is light. Interesting to see what it weighs when your done.

Rocky and Bullwinkle, funny. “Hey Rocky watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!”

Gary Lewis wrote

I'm following this.  Am interested in how you do it.  But you are covering it with fiberglass?  Hand laid or sheets?

With fiberglass, yes. I actually have a lot of experience fiberglassing in general but for this I'll be using the typical RV industry stuff like https://www.amazon.com/Arctic-White-Fiberglass-Filon-Siding/dp/B01M3V344U. It's just too easy not to. It comes in 102" wide rolls at any 5' increment you want to buy. It seems a little expensive but since this is one of the only major expenses I'll have in Phase 1 (most of the rest is labor, or cheap stuff like 2x2's) it's worth it to get a quick-install-perfectly-sealed-exterior.

It doesn't take that much, actually. The only part that gets this siding is the "wing" walls - the lower in-bed portion isn't visible/worth redoing, and is in OK shape anyway.

Actually, the hard part will be working on it in the first place. I've been working on Rocky in my driveway, which works because it's a truck and trucks live outside. Campers sort of do too but not with their siding ripped off in Colorado, where it's always windy and about to get wet (Gary, I'm sure you know all about "mud season"!) and in a community with a touchy HOA. So the plan is to get it into my garage on some low furniture dollies, repair it there and raise the roof basically as high as I can while still getting it back out! Once I have the structural/siding stuff done I can bring it back to the storage unit and finish the interior there.

grumpin wrote

Rocky and Bullwinkle, funny. “Hey Rocky watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!”

That's exactly where it's from! I always liked Rocky and Bullwinkle when I was younger and thought it would be fun. They always got into hijinks, the truck is definitely "squirrely" and the camper is definitely a big dumb moose of a thing.

Interesting siding.  I wasn't aware of that stuff.  I'll be curious to see how you apply it, what you coat it with, etc.

As for mud season, we weren't aware of it until we were in Leadville during it a couple of years ago.  We asked where everyone was and they looked at us like we had three heads.  Apparently everyone else knew.

But there wasn't any mud, and the weather was enjoyable.  

Gary Lewis wrote

Interesting siding.  I wasn't aware of that stuff.  I'll be curious to see how you apply it, what you coat it with, etc.

Well if all goes according to plan, I believe my center box section is in good shape because it's actually a welded steel frame with plywood box sides. If you look at this photo here's somebody that has the skin off one (and partly restored already - most of these don't have insulation at all).



If you look closely the "wings" actually get very little structural support in most setups. It's just a 1x3 cantilevered over the sides, with the rear wall adding a lot of the stiffness just like drywall does in a house. The outermost walls are just 1x3 or 2x2 studs up to the roof. Not very sturdy.

My plan is to change this a little bit to make it stronger. I want to replace whatever my equivalent is of that horizontal, cantilevered 1x3 with some square tubing welded to the bottom frame. Then I'll replace my rotted outer-wall structure with good 2x2 studs and insulate more or less as you see in this picture.

The siding is easy then. You just use construction adhesive and brad nails to attach 1/8" luan to the outside and then use contact adhesive to attach the Filon siding to that. They sell a specific product for it. Roll it on and you have a strong, smooth, watertight exterior wall. The one thing you don't get is what modern RV makers promise with Azdel siding - "never delaminate". This can still delaminate if it gets water behind it so it needs good trim/caulking but I think I can do that properly.

A few mods I forgot to mention. This model has a power input for a typical camp-site 30A power pole but no provisions for anything else. I'm going to add a trailer plug at the rear to tie into Rocky (with an isolator of course). That way I won't use battery power to keep the fridge cold while driving. (I'll also add solar for power while camping.)

Another crazy-idea thing I may add is something the van-lifers do. There's a ton of room in Rocky's engine bay up near the heater core. Well, they sell a heat exchanger designed to tie into a vehicle's heat system there. You plumb that back to a water port on the side of the truck, usually under the truck bed, and you can use a compact setup with a 5 gallon bucket, pump, hose, and mini shower head to get a hot shower in the back-country. Colorado has tons of streams so you can usually find water instead of having to carry it everywhere.

Hopes and dreams...

Very Cool. I may have a vaguely similar project coming up soon after I get the bronco back on the road. following eagerly.

Wellllll.... this project may take a different direction. I went through the whole analysis of what would be required to fix up the Starcraft and while it was very doable it was going to be a lot of work tearing down and redoing the rotten parts of the structure. It was definitely possible, just obvious that it was also worth "evaluating my options".

Some thoughts here to set the stage. Truck campers are VERY scarce right now. Regular campers are getting snapped up left and right as well but there was a big supply of those. Finding reasonably priced used truck campers is much harder. What makes it worse is I want to keep the weight as low as possible - the camper Rocky was carrying until now had a dry weight of 1559lbs, which is a feather compared to modern campers with their permanently-attached electric jacks, microwaves, furnaces, water heaters, slideouts, and everything else. A lot of "basic" campers weigh in around 2500lbs with the nicer ones regularly pushing 3500. Too much for a 40-yr-old SRW climbing mountains even with a V8...

The first option I considered was building a new frame and transplanting the guts over to it. I went so far as to design the skeleton in SketchApp:



At first blush this looked like an attractive option. This stuff is structural but not "load bearing" the way welding your own trailer or truck frame is, and simple butt joints on square tubing is pretty easy with a MIG, even for a shade-tree hack like me. The estimate weighed in at 461lbs which is heavy (I'd guess about 100lbs heavier than the current frame, just a guess) but much stronger because the old one was wood everywhere except the bottom box. (That's why it was rotting.) Since it's all just cut-to-length stuff I could probably have done the frame in a weekend, then spent a few weeks more skinning it and installing stuff from the old camper.

But this plan fell through because of cost. The problem is that to really do this on a budget you NEED a "donor." Just a single RV door is like $750 + $150 shipping. And while I technically have a donor it's not ideal. Popups like the Starcraft have very few windows because they're sewn into the canvas, and their doors are cut in half horizontally - the top part folds down. Not what you want in a hard-side unit if you can help it. But finally the steel itself would have cost over $3000! I'm not one of those guys with a pile of scrap steel in the back yard waiting for an excuse to live in a project. This was turning into a $10k project.

For that price...

Back to rvtrader. Back to Craigslist. Nada. A few possible options but all not ideal - too heavy, too expensive, too old, too ... something.

Now I'm not a big fan of Facebook myself (and I'm a software engineer so this is based on actual knowledge and experience - I know "why" they're "bad".) BUT Marketplace has definitely been used a lot by folks that want to sell something quickly without hassle. A big point for them is that they have a much easier interface than Craigslist (which is daunting if you don't know how to use it right) and no listing fee unlike rvtrader. Wy not have a look?

Bingo bango. I found this. These aren't the exact pictures because I already hustled down and put a deposit on it, and the guy took down the listing and photos. But:




So this is a 2017 Travel Lite 840SBRX. It's an interesting unit because it's sort of a "purple shamrock" in several ways. It's an ultra-light, but still has a bathroom (with shower), room to sleep a third (folding couch), grey water tank (many ultra-lights skip this), furnace (ditto), hot water heater (ditto) and so on. However, it manages to provide all this while still being <2000lbs AND just about fitting a 6.5' bed. That means Rocky can carry it for sure, but the short bed RAM we own can do it as well.

That turns out to be a really important detail. I love Rocky and in an ideal world would keep him forever. But... Rocky is only a 4x2. And this is a hunt rig for Colorado. In fair weather during the warm seasons it's just perfect, and also for things like scouting sketchy forest service roads (the RAM is a "pretty truck" if you know what I mean - can't get scratched). Rocky is perfect for that.

Until the snow hits. I'm going to have a winch in this thing but that's for emergencies, not crawling up slick snowy roads one winch-point at a time... Snow and mud season in CO are no time to be out in a 4x2. I've researched every locker add-on and other alternative and none are really ideal. Rocky's days were a little questionable.

RAM, I shall dub thee "Mr. Peabody". The RAM is a 4x4. The week or two a year where snow is a risk, now I have a secondary option and I also (fingers crossed the purchase goes well) now have a camper that can fit both trucks! For summer camping trips or just scouting new/unknown areas, Rocky can carry Bullwinkle (the new camper). For the odd weekend or two where snow is a risk, Mr. Peabody can help out.

So it's the Starcraft's days that are numbered, and all is well in the world, Rocky's place is assured.

Since the new camper is, well, new, I don't have too much to do to it, but I'll share a few mods here just for general interest. There will be a few minor things like replacing the fold-out couch (which makes a very tiny bed) with something simpler that makes up into a bunk that will fit an adult. Another is definitely relevant to Rocky - adding some wiring. Since Rocky only has one battery I want to give it a backup. And since Bullwinkle will has a battery, instead of adding a third battery to Rocky I can set up an isolator-controlled connection between the two where in an emergency, Bullwinkle can help recharge Rocky. (Bullwinkle will have solar and a small generator, as well.)

Fingers crossed.

Nice! Man, that’s light even for a short bed truck camper. Especially with all those amenities.

I’m interested to see how it works for you. I have never even considered a SB camper for a LB truck.

Keep your tailgate on and you have a porch!

Wow!  That's going to be nice!  

You are probably going to save money, and will certainly save a lot of time.  Well done!

On the battery isolator, I like the Cole Hersee Smart Battery Isolators.  They make an 85A and a 200A.  I had the smaller one on our boat and the bigger one is on Big Blue.  One of the beauties of them is that they don't parallel the batteries until the charging system has brought the voltage of one of the batteries up, and then they wait 2 minutes more.  That proves the charging system is working and allows the starting battery to get some charge before paralleling with the aux battery.