APACHE POP UP CAMPER FIRST TRIP + EASY CANOPY IDEA A VIDEO ABOUT OUR FIRST CAMPING TRIP IN OUR 1978 APACHE RAMADA POP UP CAMPER AND A FEW THINGS WE FIGURED OUT DURING THE TRIP. *FACEBOOK* / badluckgarage *TWITTER* / badluck_garage
Thanks for all your Apache uploads! I am thinking of getting one this weekend and now I know what to look out for before buying one. Keep those video's coming!!! Cheers
I appreciate that greatly, ❤️but these videos were made to help people. I have a day job. So please feel free to skip all the ads you like to get to the parts you need to see! 👍
I know this video is 3 years old but maybe this will help for future viewers who read the comments. This is what I did to make an inexpensive awning. Right where the previous awning strip was I drilled 4 evenly spaced holes and bolted electrical conduit brackets loosely. I then put a piece of conduit through the brackets and tightened them down. I bought a medium to heavy duty tarp. Silver on top and brown on the bottom. I use zip ties to secure the tarp to the conduit. I bought 4 tent poles at a yard sale for 10 bucks. I put them up 10 feet away from the camper hooked through the eyelets of the tarp. I bought the rope and pegs to secure the poles on ebay. I forget the price but they were cheap. I forgot to mention I filled the holes I drilled with silicone before running the bolts through. This is the 4th year we've used this setup and I have no desire to change it. It works awesome! Holds up to wind, rain, and me being clumsy around it. I think I might have 60 to 70 bucks into it so anyone could do it for under 100. Even today. We also have a 10x10 we set in front of or behind the awning (depending on the campsite) which gives us that much more covered space. Hope this will help someone. I know when people see ours at a campground, they always ask how we built it. Next time we see them they have the same thing on theirs lol.
I have same camper. (1975) orange in color. I bought in 1979 from the the original owner. We have loved this Camper for decades. Today, I still use in our local State Park. Best regards with yours.
I had a little time on my hands, so thought I`d re-view this video. I purchased a 1978 Apache Ranger in April 2018 and have been enjoying it ever since ( same interior/exterior color scheme as yours - plaid green, it`s coming back into fashion, man ! Lol ! ) While it is in remarkably good shape for it`s age, there are some age-related issues. There have been some leak issues mostly due to extremely heavy rains. I, also, have resorted to using 5`x7` tarps over the bed roof panels, the same as depicted in this video. I will be `upgrading` to 7`x9` tarps just so that the 7` side drapes over the lower window sill. I haven`t had any leakage from the smaller tarps, but that may be due to using home-made props under the bottom edge of the tarps to `bridge` it out away from the bottom edge of the window sill so any water does not drip directly onto the sill. Eventually, I may spray-can some of that Flex Seal on the top and end panels of the slide-out beds. My Ranger has a different set-up for a front-door side awning than yours. There is a rail system similar to the interior window curtains I fashioned some home-made clips out of coat hanger wire to both slide in the rail and hook through the grommets of a tarp. On the far side of the awning tarp, I used 2 cut-to-length pieces of metal conduit, drilled two opposing holes in the top ends and hooked two s-hooks ( per pole ) from bungee cords into the holes - one to hold the corner grommet of the awning tarp/ the other to attach a guy-rope. My awning set-up is not perfect but works well. I have had to disassemble the awning set-up when the wind got too aggressive, but most other camping trailer owners have admitted to having to retract their built-in awnings, too. I also purchased a 10x10 pop-up canopy from Walmart ( got mine on sale for $40 ). I replaced the old fridge and a/c with newer units and both work fine. However, I do need to re-install the 12-volt battery. The wires are there, but when I hooked up a battery nothing worked - so need to go through the wiring harness. I will go through your videos to see if you uploaded one concerning hooking up yours. Thanks for your repair videos on your trailer. I watched the one where you replaced the interior bed panels with FRP panels, and I am going to do the same to mine. I really enjoy camping in my Ranger, and I hope you 7 your family have done the same !
Thanks for sharing all your projects and experiences! We've got a 76 Royal and have done a lot of work - I'm looking forward to seeing your bed end ceiling panel replacement - I definitely need to do those! Thanks again!
Thank you Amy. Im trying to get time to do more Apache videos but this time of year is very busy for me as my primary job is pest control. Today was actually my first day off in 15 days and Ive got a honey-do list a mile long,lol. -Robert
Bad Luck Garage, I hear that! There's only so many hours in the day! Hopefully you get to have more camping adventures this summer-your progress has been inspirational. I'll try to share our projects as they happen on the Preservation Group, and we're looking forward to the MO roundup later this month. Enjoy your down time!
Thank you for making the video ,like anything else you have to do a lot of research, I will be applying some of your suggestions and will be going over it with a garden hose to make sure it is water tight. I will have a grand in mine by the time I get done. I wish I would have taken videos before the claen up,the counter tops and seats are made of chip board and disintegrated.2 sheets fo ply wood or so should take care of the tops,at least it saved the floor.
Good luck with it brother. 👍🏻 In the end we sold ours and went back to a big tent, lol. It was a neat little camper but it got to the point that the money we were gonna have to keep throwing at it far exceeded its value and that’s why we got rid of it while we could still break even. In the real world these things are only worth a few hundred dollars now unless you find an Apache enthusiast. We got lucky and was able to sell ours for what we had in it (about $900 if I remember correctly).
Just a note regarding the 4 corners with daylight showing through. Originally, the corners were fitted with foam; so, cut some small squares of foam and put in the corners. The bed ends should be snug and they look like they are. Being level in all directions is critical to shedding water in the right direction. The old joke is that Apaches live in a perfect world. Make sure you have bulb seal along the top and sloping edges of the side walls; I'm sure you do, or there would be daylight showing through the gaps. Oh, yes, take a look at the windows and see if any weep holes are encrusted with dirt. Could be that they need new rubber seals. Also, there is a strip of bushy stuff that fits into the window groves on the outside. I have no idea what it's for, but it needs to be there. So sorry you had such a wet camping experience. You sound like a problem solver, so I'm sure you'll get the camping experience sorted out for future trips. I just acquired an Apache from a man who said it leaked too much, but after I properly put together the bed ends and made sure it was perfectly level front to back and side to side, it is now a dry camper. Yes, I even put tape in a few places. Also, you cannot tuck a tarp underneath the bed ends. It will block the flow of water and push it into the camper. A lot of folks will put a strip of clear tape on the corner, where the back bed wall goes over the bed end cap. I did it and I don't have to worry about sideways rain blowing into the corners.
Thank you for the input. The bed ends arent leaking from the corners.Camper was also perfectly level. The water is not leaking from the window frames but was gushing in through the window panels themselves. It appears the previous owner stuck pieces of plexiglass into the window channels but did not actually attach them to the aluminum "sleeves" so the water is free to waterfall in. Now that I have the tarps more secure it has been through several heavy storms with no leakage. Tucking them under the bed ends actually works perfectly if the camper is level since it slopes down starting at the buckles. Ill be redoing the windows properly when I get the time though. ;)
Apaches often develop leaks from small cracks under the frames around the edges, usually hard to see because of paneling. Lots of info on the facebook Apache Preservation society site about it. Just in case that doesn't do it for you. Also, take heat shrink tape, comes in white, 20x more durable than duct tape, uv resistant, and doesn't look horrible 10 days later.
Hey brother, I have a question if you can help me with this. I have a Mesa model and I am restoring it but I noticed that the beds have issues with staying stable with those two support poles it comes with. Could it just be a leveling issue or is it just how it is? When you slept in yours did you feel like the bed was just going to collapse? Thanks in advance
If the wood is solid and the pole bolts on the bottom of the camper frame are tight and adjusted properly, the only other thing I could think that would cause the bed to feel shaky is if one or more of the rollers that go in the channel the bed slides in and out of may be missing or not aligned properly. Both my bed ends felt pretty solid once set up and I weight 280lbs.
Ours is a Ramada. The vin is supposed to be located on the driver side of the tongue but it was pitted so badly I wasn't able to recover it. Luckily these dont have to be registered or tagged here in Tennessee so I didnt worry about it. I just sanded the tongue and painted it with bedcoating which is in another video.
Thanks for the info, my apache is exactly the same rite down to the linoleum on the floor but it says Royal Solid State on the side.I am on Long Island and there are not to many Apache's around here. VERY COOL!!!
#StephenFusco On my `78 Ranger, the VIN# was on a sticker halfway down the driver`s side of the camper ( I looked all over the frame and saw no #s ). I also found the # on a paper sticker that is glued to the inside of the access drawer/door under the sink. The paper sticker is the Recreational Vehicle Data Sheet that the manufacturer has to put in the trailer when they register it with the state before it leaves the factory/ gets sold. On my paper sticker were two numbers, the top number was the State Seal # , underneath that was the Unit Serial # ( which was also the VIN # ). On my trailer, the outside VIN sticker was almost entirely unreadable. The previous two owners did not have the original title from the original owner, and when the previous owner tried to title it in Nebraska, she used the State Seal # ( which evidently was good enough for Nebraska ), but when I tried to have the title transferred to my state ( Iowa ) , they caught the error and would not transfer the title until I had it investigated/inspected by IDOT. After discovering the unreadable outside VIN sticker, I took a picture of the inside paper sticker to show to the Inspector. He ran the Unit Serial # through the database and found that the Unit Serial # was indeed the VIN # as well.
