M1088 camper conversion

[ckouba]

Had an opportunity to grab a set of A1R doors with much better handles, and managed to get a grille in the process. Pretty happy with the new look:

Still have a shimmy around 58 MPH, and spent a few days trying to remedy by balancing the brake drums (starting with the front 2). Despite getting them fairly well balanced, still wasn't able to eliminate the shimmy. I have another idea or two, but not looking forward to the effort to implement,

 

[hike]

Still have a shimmy around 58 MPH, and spent a few days trying to remedy by balancing the brake drums (starting with the front 2). Despite getting them fairly well balanced, still wasn't able to eliminate the shimmy. I have another idea or two, but not looking forward to the effort to implement,

We added Hutchinson rubber beadlocks, stainless steel ball bearings and fish weights opposite the CTIS valves to all our tires and wheels as suggested by @Gunny 0369, Made a huge difference in our ride: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/threads/whos-running-dynamic-tire-balancing-beads.186801/post-2575708 <fixed link>

 

[ckouba]

We added Hutchinson rubber beadlocks, stainless steel ball bearings and fish weights opposite the CTIS valves to all our tires and wheels as suggested by @Gunny 0369, Made a huge difference in our ride: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/threads/whos-running-dynamic-tire-balancing-beads.186801/post-2575708—

Interesting. Are they these:

Hutchinson 8" x 20" Tire Beadlock for M939A1 M939A2 Series 5 ton Trucks

Hutchinson 8" x 20" Tire Beadlock for M939A1 M939A2 M923A1 M923A2 M925A1 M925A2 M927A1 M927A2 M929A1 M929A2 M930A1 M930A2 M931A1 M931A2 5-Ton Trucks equipped with 14.00R20 Tires NSN 2530012118405 PN 12301119 D45393

www.easternsurplus.net

NSN #:
2530-01-211-8405
Part #:
12301119 D4539-3

 

[Gunny 0369]

Interesting. Are they these:

Hutchinson 8" x 20" Tire Beadlock for M939A1 M939A2 Series 5 ton Trucks

Hutchinson 8" x 20" Tire Beadlock for M939A1 M939A2 M923A1 M923A2 M925A1 M925A2 M927A1 M927A2 M929A1 M929A2 M930A1 M930A2 M931A1 M931A2 5-Ton Trucks equipped with 14.00R20 Tires NSN 2530012118405 PN 12301119 D45393

www.easternsurplus.net

NSN #:
2530-01-211-8405
Part #:
12301119 D4539-3

that is them,
they’re quieter with those ball bearings, and they do not wear on the rubber locks as they would to steel bead lock.
There’s a great trick to installing them in the tires, collapse them down, tie them together, put them in sideways, then release the string holding them collapsed.
A scissor jack on the inside of the tire widening the beads further apart also helps tremendously on installing these.
.

 

[hike]

Interesting. Are they these:

Hutchinson 8" x 20" Tire Beadlock for M939A1 M939A2 Series 5 ton Trucks

Hutchinson 8" x 20" Tire Beadlock for M939A1 M939A2 M923A1 M923A2 M925A1 M925A2 M927A1 M927A2 M929A1 M929A2 M930A1 M930A2 M931A1 M931A2 5-Ton Trucks equipped with 14.00R20 Tires NSN 2530012118405 PN 12301119 D45393

www.easternsurplus.net

NSN #:
2530-01-211-8405
Part #:
12301119 D4539-3

Yes. Dave was very helpful at helping get 5 used pull outs to match closely.

Make sure you get the right size, we saw some with other vendors that were not the right width—

 

[ckouba]

Thanks gents!

 

[ckouba]

Cleaned the windshield and had another excellent weekend with the wife, dog, and truck. Headed over to central OR for hiking, biking, boating, and fishing.

At the trailhead:


Hiking near Tam Mac Arthur Rim:


Three Creeks Lake:


Getting around Three Creeks Lake:


Biking with some buddies on the McKenzie River area:


Rowing on Clear Lake:


Sunset near Santiam Pass, happy dog!!!:


McKenzie River (no fish but beats a great day at work!):


Last campsite of the (5 day) weekend:


Took the liberty of knocking my stair, which bent it, so... need to rebuild that. Otherwise a fantastic week in the woods. Looks like it might have been our last sunny trip of the summer. The rain is back starting this week and my calendar is a bit booked up for the next month and a half. Was a great five days though!

 

[ckouba]

Quick update with not much to show for it.

During our 2 month trip, we decided a minor reconfiguration of the sitting area in the back of the shelter would make things a little nicer. In addition, the interior is still raw lumber, so need to take care of that. We made a few executive decisions and have now progressed into the "make things inside look pretty" stage (or at least "prettier").

I framed the bench and before I started its final finish work, I accepted that it'd be best to have the floor done before that. To do the floor, it's obviously best to do that with nothing resting on it, so out came the dinette and other interior walls. Since the interior walls were out, it seemed like it'd be a good time to also do the finish work on the walls, so that's where the project eventually started. Pics follow below, in fairly random order, but the last pic is the current state of things.

The pic above shows the prototype drawer in place. There will be bin storage at the floor level, two 16" deep drawers stacked next, then two cabinets stack on top of those. On the right side will be a hanging closet with a modest cabinet above it. Should be a nice place to hang out if the weather turns to crap or when we're out in the winters and it's dark from 1630 to 0700.

Work will progress casually as always, but we are planning to head to the SW again this spring, but only for 2 weeks this time... maybe.

Merry Christmas all and may 2026 treat you well!

Chris

 

[ckouba]

It was a very productive weekend for me, lots more progress on the interior cabs and drawers. Eventually, all this will be filled, sanded, and painted.

Driver side - cabinet by the bed, two drawers with side access center and forward:

Side access drawers:

Cabinet:

Pass side drawers and cabs still in process:

Locking sliders on these:

Also had to move the ceiling lights to clear the swing up door for the cabinet on the aft pass side. Was dreading that but it went fairly well.

Making all this has been a monumental exercise. My ability to make a perfectly square anything is marginal at best, so it's been a lot of custom cuts to make it all fit well and maintain reasonably clean lines. Some of the gap work looks fantastic, some of it is amateur hour- can't say I'm going to care too much once we're back out on the road and using it again. Really looking forward to that!

These last few days of work on it have helped me around a massive mental corner. I can imagine there's an end to this step now. It's still a ways in the future, but it feels like I will actually get there eventually. I am actually even looking forward to knocking out the floor level drawers!

Happy New Year to all!

 

[Keith Knight]

Looking great, definitely a daunting task but so worth it. You’re almost there.

 

[hike]

Form follows function. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder—

 

[Sgt Jiggins]

Spotted one us headed south in an unaltered (from the outside anyhow) M1079 on i5 near Dunmuir,CA the other day. Oregon tags to boot. You know this guy @ckouba ?

 

[ckouba]

Hard to say... Might be Sean, but I only know of/about him from his Youtube work. Only local active member I know since Brandon sold his is Rick (The General). There is a MTVR local to me who I met through here, but I don't think he posts much, as well as another 1088 who isn't on the forum.

 

[serpico760]

Hard to say... Might be Sean, but I only know of/about him from his Youtube work. Only local active member I know since Brandon sold his is Rick (The General). There is a MTVR local to me who I met through here, but I don't think he posts much, as well as another 1088 who isn't on the forum.

Probably not Sean Filner, his is a tan M1078 with an S280 shelter chained down to the bed, not an M1079. I've only ever seen one fmtv out and about with the exception of at air shows and Army Trucks Inc

 

[Sgt Jiggins]

I wondered for a moment if it was an S280 but I'm pretty sure it was a full-on M1079. Wish I'd been traveling in the same direction so that I could've gotten photos. All I could do was smile and wave.

 

[ckouba]

Lacking paint, but making massive progress:

Hope to get the screw holes filled and sanded, and then get the whole thing painted over the weekend.

This has made a huge difference in the feel of the interior space!

 

[ckouba]

OMG, the work to get here...

And now moving on!

 

[ckouba]

Wife requested lower drawers get white instead:

I do like it better...


Moving on to galley area this week. Hope to make more strong progress this week, it's become a bit of a mission and I want to get through it!

 

[Keith Knight]

Happy wife….Happy life!

 

[ckouba]

Check out my drawers!!!

And more progress in the dinette area:

Building this crap is SO much work, but the results are very satisfying!

Also got more wall finishing done: