New owner in SoCal

[davidschap]

Hi guys.

Just priced up a 2000 8u for $2500 bucks here in San Diego. May have paid a little high for it but really wanted to be able to take my dog with me to the desert on some overnighters. I couldn't leave him in my truck tent while riding my quad so had to figure something out.

Maiden voyage was last weekend and minus a few quirks, all worked out legendary. Already created a to do list on what I would like to fix or work on.

I just wanted to say hello and I look forward to learning more out this wonderful little pop up. Wood and can as are in great shape which is 3/4 of the battle. Towing with my ranger and full load was a breeze up and over the grade to superstition mountain.

Only other camper I had prior was an aliner scout and although I dug it, the room in this little pop up is light years more than the aliner.

Thanx
David

Ps. I have a great pic of my new little bundle of joy in the desert from this weekend, but posting on my phone so will add when I get to work.

[Phar0e]

Welcome here! Looking forward to the pics!

[Tyreguy]

Welcome fellow pup and 8U owner! (I was beginning to think we were the only ones with an 8U.) We have the exact same year/model. And oddly enough...the asking price was $2500. My DW talked em' down to $2k (She's good like that).

Our bundle of joy is pictured on my avatar, and there are some pics in the pics forum as well.
If you have any questions about your 8U, I might be able to help- as I've done some 'catch up' maintenance on ours- as well as a few low-budget mods.

Welcome to the Jayco family!

[Quahog]

Welcome Davidschap... great to have you join us. Looking forward to the pics.

[SecretCoveDave]

Hello and welcome to the group.
Dave

[davidschap]

Thanx all. Here is one from this weekend... and that's my knuckleheaded dog in the doorway waiting for his food...

[davidschap]

Yeah good to know mr. tyreguy...

Some stuff I have to do is put a couple wall anchors in where the bed wooden flap ( that you place the bed on for support when traveling ) in to secure the screws as they pulled out.

I want to run a 12v power adapter from battery ( ie cig style plug ) for just charging my phone and not using the generator ( have a little 800 watt harbro freight one that works very well with this camper ) and looking for a good in. I think it would be by the power converter, but if anyone has an eaiser in, let me know please. Just positive & negative to inline fuse to entry point into camper & then secure.

Does anyone have a good resource for the propane quick connects? I like to run 2 stoves. The one inside the camper can connect via quick connect, but as you can see in the picture, I'm using the small propane bottle & would prefer to run off house propane. Not really sure which is the correct adapter so if anyone could help out in that, that would be great...

Also, any recomendations on greasing the line via the zerk ? Could really use a once over. Also, is it possible to grease the wheel bearings with the wheels on the trailer ? I've never removed the cups ( on any trailer ) before and not seeing any zerk fittings in there at all .

I've found that using foam tubing ( ie, like the foam you put around water heater pipes ) works great as an insulator for those spots where the weather stripping is older ( ie, under bed slides ). Was setting up camp, and saw some light through there, & always carry some ( as I use it for my surf racks as well ). Jammed in there & no more light or draft.

I really appreciate any help you guys could give me. It's an older trailer, with a few bangs and bruises, but I was thoroughly impressed with all this weekend. The canvas is in great shape & all the wood around the rood looks to be as well. Not pressure sports or softness anywhere.

Thank you,
David

[Tyreguy]

David,

It seems (no suprise) that our 8U's are sporting a few different options. You mentioned a battery- does your have one thats factory wired into your trailer? If so..I need a few pics of where the wiring goes into the converter (there are no exterior lugs for battery hookup on my converter, and I haven't removed the case yet to look on the inside).

The cable for the raising/lowering system (underneath the frame) have grease zerks on the sides of the tubes a few feet apart- a couple of squirts will do. I also put some grease on the crank gears.

Our 8U has an exterior stove hookup complete with a flexible gas line with a quick-connect just like the inside so our stove can be hooked up inside or outside. You can buy the connector, 6-8ft of hose and a propane tank conncector, all-one-piece for $30 from Camping World. If you're a handyman, you might be able to make that work for your stove (or at least use the parts to fab something). One of my low-buck mods was adding a 90* elbow before both connectors to aid in install/removal. If you have dual tanks like ours, you could connect each stove to its own tank using the all-in-one hose setup, and the main hardline already plumbed in.

Bearings- best thing you can do is repack them. I did mine before we ever took it anywhere. No simple way to grease them, and don't just slap 'bearing buddies' on there and pump em' full of grease and expect the bearings to last. Its time consuming and messy to repack, but easy.

I'll see if I can get some pics of the cable housing zerks and the exterior gas line this evening for you, and show you a dual-stove option using the parts mentioned above.

[davidschap]

Nice, thanx bro.

Yeah, I have a battery & it's all wired up. So that's good to go. What I want to do is run a new positive & negative wire from the battery to the compartment where all the fridge power options are ( propane, 12v or 120ac ). then just find an out "towards" the inverter, not into it. I will then just simply drill a hole in the wood and mount the 12v recpeptacle. There are flush ones for sale on amazon which would be perfect. Just want one so I could have a 12v outlet for quick cell phone charges or to fun my little 200 watt inverter off the battery vice using my generator.

I saw the zerks there already so good to go on that.

I'm a handy as well as a jewish man, so i'm all about working and making things better on the cheap. My trailer did come with another hose for the stove as well, but looking at it, couldn't figure the hookup. I have a stansport poratble stove ( disposable bottle connector ) that I like to use outside and dont want to pernanenly flip over, as i take that stove tent camping as well ( pickup tent ), so some pix of that would rule.

Never did the bearings before but have the axle manual ( the guy I bought from kept everything ) so I guess i'll have to man up & work it out.

How'd you know I was thinking of bearing buddies lol

Thanx for the help, much appreciated... I worked 13 hours on this thing last weekend, installing carpet ( love when work throws away 2x2 shares of low pile ) and cleaning like crazy. Also saw a couple roof spots that were fixed by previous owner so sealed up even better using Solarez. It's a quick Epoxy resin I use on my surfboards & fills cracks or hacks like no other.

David

[Tyreguy]

If you get the time, shoot me a few pics of the battery wiring, more specifically, where it runs into the converter. I would love to have 12v juice when I need it.

The axle/bearing repack is easy, with simple hand tools, a roll/box of shop towels, and a $3 tube of high temp grease. I was able to reuse my old seals, I took them out gently, cleaned and reused them. The book should walk you through it. If you get lost- youtube a bearing repack, I found a vid there.

I got some pics showing the outdoor stove hookup, the port where the hose and coupler are stored, and the coupler itself. I added the elbow to the assembly because the coupler was a b***h to get hooked/unhooked from the stove when it was set up on the outside. That one inch of extra length makes it a breeze to use now.
I also took a pic of the propane tanks (ours is set up for, and came with, two- but I only have one mounted). You'll also see a hose assembly that connects a stove like yours (that uses the small cylinders) to the large 20lb tanks- and I showed it hooked up to one tank with the other tank being hooked to the hard line thats always there. That should give you a starting point for ideas on how to run a dual-stove setup you mentioned.

[davidschap]

I may just solar power the phone brother. Was at harbor freight today and saw there panels which, cost wise, might make more sense. Not sure on this one yet. More to follow.

I figured that was the hose I needed. Thanx for the confirm. Now can you hook your stove up to the propane coming out of the side of the camper or do you have to hook straight to the bottle? I want to hook up into the camper side if possible. In cleaning my trailer , I forgot to look at the hoses and they are all packed up. There is an extra hose and I forgot to look at it. Was knee deep in dirt from the desert.

Thanx again tyre. I really appreciate your help in this.

Thanx
David

[Tyreguy]

Yes- the hose (coming out of the side of my camper) is already plumbed into the main gas line underneath my camper. The hard line comes up through the floor and into the cavity below the seat where it connects to the flexible line that goes outside. It came from the factory that way (outside stove option) and has the same quick-connect as the inside.

However, you probably could tap into the hard line under your camper and make a similar setup for your 'outside' stove. OR, see if Coleman (check Camping World online too) makes a longer hose assembly (10+ feet?) and just zip-tie it to the camper frame to go from the tank to where you need it. Many options are possible depending on your skill level and budget.

As far as a solar phone charger- check this out. I've had one for many years (it was gift), and used the hell out of it. They're inexpensive, they come with 6-or-so different connectors (they have as list of all the phones that their product hooks to) and it works **** good.
They sell them on Amazon. The site I provided is the manufacturers site that gives specifics on the device.

http://shop.soldiussales.com/

[davidschap]

Yep, that is basically the same one harbor freight sells. It's between 25 & 45 bucks depending on your solar wattage & what you want.

I think I can find the line for the hoses at camping world, just haven't had time to go over there and look really. Online, I have found the lines for disposable propane containers to bulk, and they are not too pricey. I'm lucky as I still have a bunch of small propanes left, and just need time to research a little. You figure they would make a quick connect to disposable, and they very well may, but i'm just not using the proper verbage...

Thanx again bro...
David