Well, here's my summer side job (camper) - Page 4

I had to do a slide in truck camper a few weeks ago. I was actually going to use it, but when we lowered it onto the trailer to take it home, it sort of imploded. I ended up dismantling it at my grandparents' farm. My 80 year old grandpa was still out there kicking butt helping to strip it, but my grandma has alzheimer's and she thought it was hers! My God, was that a mess. Thankfully she forgot about it the next day.



If I had a rewind button, I would take it out to the middle of a field, dump some kerosene on it, and nail it with a flare.

Ok, so I commandeered one brother and a son to help today because I am SICK. OF. THIS. THING already. I can't sleep thinking about this dang camper. My plan *was* - and dang if I didnt think I'd be totally finished with this thing today, was to have it all cut and the engine and tranny out and ready to be sold. Ha. Jokes on me today. We moved it up out of the trees, had to take out 2 trees and I think it was one stump or it could have been two - I'm so tired and this point I can't even remember. I used my side grinder to finish the roof and used the torches to cut the frame. Moved the torches over to the camper, got both bumpers off and wouldn't ya know we are out of oxygen .
So, outside gas tank got cut off (two straps and two bolts held it on, yeah that was weird), we emptied and removed the radiator, lights and all wiring left that we could get to. had to pull the flooring off in sections with the tractor after we loosened it up with crow bars and a pick ax (gotta use whats available!) and spent hours just cleaning up after ourselves and burning the garbage. I swear todays pile was taller than me and I'm 5 foot tall and I have no idea how that happened with it just the floor and some other random garbage tossed on the burn pile. So, oxygen tank will be exchanged Weds and Saturday we plan to finish torching it and having the motor and tranny ready to be picked up by buyer. Never freaking again folks, never again. . One gas tank left to cut off, LP tank left to remove and then the frame and drop the engine and tranny. guy was gonna buy the drive shaft if it was one piece but its 2 piece so he doesn't want it. Fine by me, I'm ready to push this thing over the cliff and thats probably the tired talking but thats what I'm feeling right now considering 90% of this was done by hand- a drill, an ax and finally a side grinder once I got electric back there.

The rear end could net you some serious cash.

You think so biscuit? I have no idea about these things. Maybe i'll list it on CL and if anyone wants to buy it they can come look at it and pick it up themselves. Do you know how I would go about figuring out a value for it?

To date scrap run turn ins on this thing:


Steel: 2098 lbs

sheet aluminum: 121 lbs

Extrusion: 80 lbs

Contractor wire: 24 lbs

#2 wire: 82 lbs

301 SS: 24 lbs

Al/Cu Rads: 13 lbs (from AC)

Transformers: 26 lbs

Die cast: 20 lbs

Electric motors: 27 lbs

I'll do a final tally after its totally finished but I wont have the weight on the engine and tranny since thats being sold but I'm guessing those two items together = between 700lbs to 800 lbs.

If your rims are not of the split type they'll have good resale value. Check the tire size 16 inch or 16.5

Split rims have been outlawed and guys are always looking for the non split to replace their outlawed rims.

Here's an excample of a split rim.

Thanks newattitude! You have given me inspiration too embark on a similiar journey...Of not one, but two motor homes! They are 1978's Dodge concords....Here we go!

Originally Posted by ripitapart

Thanks newattitude! You have given me inspiration too embark on a similiar journey...Of not one, but two motor homes! They are 1978's Dodge concords....Here we go!

Good luck! If you learned anything from my experience I hope you have bigger and better tools than I do/did! If you can, keep us posted how yours are going along!

Mechanic, you are NOT kidding!!

Well, my mom was crabbing about it sitting and I couldn't get to it because of rain so what you see in the last picture at the 40 hour mark got hauled away for $225.00 smackeroo's minus one gas tank and the rest of the wiring and some other stuff I managed to get off. I'm posting total weights of everything else I turned in and if anyone can guess the weight of whats left you can get a pretty good idea of it it's worth it for you to do if you are so inclined . Right now if anyone said to me ''You wanna scrap a camper?'' my answer would be NOOOOOO!! Lol. I might change my mind once the ''Holy friggin cow'' mentality wears off .

I figured for my first time I learned a lot and I didn't do too bad considering I had baby tools (no big munching machines lol) and no electric for the first 3/4's of the job.

The keys are in my tool box at my dads for souvenir and to admire every once in a while and to say ''I actually scrapped a vehicle!''

I want to thank everyone that gave me advice and answered all my questions - you all ROCK!!!! *Blows kisses* Thanks for following my progress and I hope this helps someone down the line.

Out of the original 11,000 lbs of weight for this thing I am shocked at how much was garbage, a LOT of it was burned or taken to the street and I never knew fiberglass was so heavy!

The only metal I might be off on is a piece of the metal flooring that got hauled to the fire pile to burn the subflooring off. I pulled out one of the pieces but the burn remnant pile is so big and it was still hot at the time I can't find it and my dad already pushed the pile over with the tractor to tighten it up (thanks dad!).


Steel - 3124 lbs

sheet aluminum: 268 lbs

Extrusion: 102 lbs

Contractor wire: 40 lbs

#2 wire: 82 lbs

#2 Copper: 8 lbs (I was kinda shocked on that one)

Faucets: 2 lbs

301 SS: 24 lbs

Al/Cu Rads: 13 lbs (from AC)

Radiator from engine: 28 lbs

Transformers: 26 lbs

Die cast: 20 lbs

Old Cast: 34 lbs

Electric motors: 27 lbs

Romex: 15 lbs

Brass: 8 lbs

Batteries: (2)


Garbage = all wood framing and 2 x 4's, subflooring, foam insulation, some type of plastic (?) / rock composite that was the counter tops in kitchen area (Lots of it and it was heavy as heck), wood doors, paneling, all fiberglass from the body - front and back, tub, potty, carpet, window curtains, mattresses from couch and bunk bed above cab and any foam and coverings on the captains chair of which there were four.

Oh, wanted to tell you all how I dealt with the window glass too. I had to bust the glass out since it just wouldn't come out of the framing even with taking the screws out and the frames were all once piece shaped in the window shape. I had saved a couple of the nicer, thicker umbrella coverings when I took them apart - the ones you see on peoples decks in the middle of the tables. Well, I didn't have anything big enough to set some of the larger windows in so what I did was set the umbrella covering on the floor opened up and put a window on one half of it and then folded the cloth over the window and busted the glass with a hammer through the cloth. Any shards were also scraped out over the cloth. Once all the windows were done I then folded the cloth up like a burrito and put it all into a box which I taped real good before putting out to the road. This worked perfectly, the glass stayed contained and no shards went flying to possibly get into someones eyes and clean up was easy as pie to roll it all up! now, it was heavy as heck and I had to use a dolly to wheel it to the road but I thought it was an ingenious way to use something I got from scrapping to help with another scrapping project!