Bob the Builder

Thanks very much WME. Terrific site for what I plan to do. Looking at some of these tells me I'm on the right track. All I have to do now is make it happen.

Phase 2 is to get the trailer lined out to go under the shell. Any suggestions as to the best thing to use for flooring? Thinking marine plywood? How thick.? Trailer frame will be exactly long enough and is within an inch down both sides and I have to pinch the last 14 inches at the rear by 1/2 inch on both sides so plenty of support. Only want to do this one time. All ideas appreciated.

Thanks extech and linda s. It is the good rear end. I made what I think was a good deal with the previous owner as long as he got the rear end back. He is a younger person, but he and a friend are really into Toyota trucks, so he gets the chassis back. I don't have to scrap it, and I keep the title for the Sunrader and Indiana BMV will repurpose it as a Sunrader camping trailer. I was going to post some more pics, but they turn out upside down. I'll try to figure that out.

Thanks MaineJed. Hopefully it will be worth the effort. So after I had the floor cut all the way around and I was sure that nothing was "hanging on", I took the back duals off of the chassis and slowly lowered the rear end down onto a 4-wheel tire dolly rolling on some plywood. I took the blocks out from the front and let it down on the front tires and then slowly pulled the chassis out from under the shell. Put the rear singles on and we were free. Now I can finally get rid of the chassis and get to work on the shell. I used a sawsall and an air disc cutter to trim the rest of the floor out up close to the wall. I still have to sand off the remaining ridge from where the old floor was glassed in. The plan is to back the trailer into place under the shell with the floor already on it, jack it up into the desired height and then glass around the exterior. I am setting the floor height even with the door well which will give me an additional 5 inches of headroom thank goodness,( I'm 6ft).

Here are some pics as described so far.

Started my new project recently, a 1982 Sunrader that I am going to build into a gooseneck camper that I can tow behind my 1936 Ford and my other project, a 1938 Diamond T pickup. Figured I would try to post progress on here as I go. I checked out a lot of things on this website for inspiration and some practical knowledge before I started. Hopefully I can figure out the picture thing and post some as I go along. Phase 1: separating from the chassis without having to cut all the steel floor bracing and framework. Starting off with my (fully gutted) shell and chassis, I jacked up the entire chassis and camper and blocked them it about 12 inches or so off the ground. I built four columns out of wood with feet facing front and back and open space between the feet at the bottom. I built a rafter to go across thru the large window openings side to side and match up to the corners of the interior ceiling and across the roof to support the middle with a column on either side on the outside. Then I put a 2x8 across under the overhang just in front of the cab glass and supported it with the other two columns. At the rear I built up cribbing and supported the two rear corners where they tuck under. After I removed about a zillion screws from the cab and cut all that sealer between I put scissors jacks in the middle opening on my four columns. moving side to side I was able to slowly jack the columns up putting more support under them and relieving the weight of the camper from the chassis. Every 1 1/2 inches up I could slip another board under the feet of my columns for stability. As I jacked up the middle and the front, the opening between the cab and the overhang grew, and I placed more weight on the cribbing at the rear to support the back which made the rear more stable. When I could tell that I was supporting the camper enough, I used my circular saw and cut through the floor outside where the bracing underneath was bolted to the frame. It took a while, but I could tell that the floor in the middle was sagging down with the chassis weight and the floor around the perimeter was staying higher supported by the columns,etc. I realize this is a long post, but I wanted to describe this part in detail in case someone else used my method. Go slow and easy and the scissors jacks made it very easy to control the height and to keep the same pressure everywhere. I will try to post some pics now in my next entry since this is so long.

I just lifted my entire shell off of the chassis.{1982 Sunrader). I can get pretty much whatever bare interior coach measurements you need. Just let me know.

We'll see if this works or not. Pics of the tow vehicle. This is what I'm starting with for a Sunrader gooseneck.

extech, I will try to figure out how to do pics. Like I stated, the Diamond T is a project also. I think I bit off quite a bit with these two projects at the same time. I'm going to try to get the gooseneck up and going so we can tow it behind our 1936 Ford which is already done, then the Diamond T.

I have been looking at Sunraders for quite a while as I'm getting too old to fold up in our old homemade liftup camper project anymore. Looking forward to being able to just walk in and go to bed instead of all the set up. Purchased a 1982 Sunrader (for the shell) this past fall and started my latest project which, hopefully will become a mini-gooseneck to tow behind my also recently purchased 1938 Diamond T pickup. Will try add posts and pics as I go along. Right now, I just removed the shell and it is totally bare, so if anyone needs measurements, etc., I should be able to help you out. looking forward to a lot of discussion in the future. Thanks