from 3 to 4 Jacks

Like many truck campers of this vintage our Avion only has 3 jack stands instead of 4 as is more common today.  My guess is that cost and weight were two reasons why only 3, but if you look at photos of 60's & 70's truck campers you'll notice that many have at least a slight "crinkle" in the side wall just above the single-side jack. The jacks are intended for use when loading and unloading, but not as the sole support for long-term storage or habitation when off of a truck.  My assumption is that the "crinkles" happen when there is too much activity inside the camper when it's off the truck, or maybe the structure just gives way over time from too much stress on that one point, maybe even from extra load from wind gusts during storms.  I've also seen several photos where it's obvious that a camper was mounted to a truck and had its jacks down when the truck moved.  Our C10 has one of these "slight" crinkles, and while it seems structurally OK, we've decided to add a 4th jack and relocate the one thats there now. I've also noticed from photos that most other Avion's have the jacks mounted farther outward, so that when the jack is swung up for traveling it sits outside the exterior wall of the camper. On ours, the jacks are flush with the outer wall when swung to the up position. I don't know if this was a "running change" in Avion production but am pretty sure that we will want to (or maybe have to) move our jacks out further to have better clearance for a truck bed. This is a little complicated since our brackets have a flange that extends outward which may need to be cut, or I may end up replacing the brackets with new ones that don't have that flange. Our jacks themselves clean-up very well and function fine, so at the moment I'm thinking that I'll try to find a matching 4th vintage jack and bracket.

Turning the Bed

We've been making plans about what to restore and what we might modify with the Avion. In general we are thinking that we will restore the outside to preserve it's vintage appearance, but for the interior we are considering some changes to improve its function specific to how we think will use it. One major element we have been working on is turning the bed 90 degrees so either one us can get in and out without climbing over the other. The cab-over area on Avion C-10's & C-11's is pretty short which makes turning the bed fairly complicated. The folks over at RoamLab did an amazing job extending the cab-over of their C-11, but we are looking at a way to do this without modifying the structure.

I drew up a bunch concepts, then built a simple full-size cardboard mock-up of an approach that I think will work. The bed basically overhangs the dinette by about 24" and likely will need to be supported by two legs that can attach to the dinette seat base.  If I keep the bed length to around 75" (same as a Full size mattress) there is just enough room for two to sit at the un-covered portion of the dinette. When we want to use the full dinette, the 24" section of mattress lifts up and slides over the main mattress into the cab-over area, and the 24" support panel slides-in under the main section of mattress. Our thought is that when traveling and just stopping for one night we'd likely leave the bed "out", but when camping in one place for a while we would put the bed in if we wanted to hang-out inside the camper due to weather or whatever. This design also lets us keep the existing cab-over storage cabinet for clothes) and we can add another storage area of similar size on the opposite side while still having ample room around the bed. To ease getting in & out of the bed I'm thinking about a plank-style step thats supported by the dinette base. I've got a couple of ideas for how this plank step can stow away when not in use, and also some ideas for tricks with the dinette table that will help with all this come together. I'll have to get into actually building it to work out a bunch of details, but I am feeling good that this approach.