Aluminum wings

If you’ve been reading all along you’ll know that I replaced the wings and cabover with wood, then went back and redid the cabover with aluminum after finding a leak. After finding more leaks over the wings I tore out the new wood and replaced it with aluminum in a similar method as with the cabover. I think it’s best just to assume that old campers will leak!

After tearing out the old wood, I used 1-1/2″ square aluminum tubing with 1/8″ wall to go from the 3/4″ plywood walls of the box to the outside edge of the wings. Would 1/16″ wall tubing be strong enough? Maybe, but I didn’t want to take a chance on it.

I started by clamping a piece of 1-1/2″ x 1/8″ angle aluminum to the plywood. The lower skin sits on top of this. If any water gets into the wing it will be directed away from the plywood by the angle. The lower skin has a row of 1/8″ holes about 2″ apart for drainage and ventilation. The square tubing is not evenly spaced because I matched it to the holes that were already in the StableLift which had been previously installed on another camper.

The end of each aluminum tube is fastened to the channel at the bottom of the wall with a 1/4″ stainless steel bolt. I cut back the ends of the tubing to allow me to get the nut on the bolt and tighten it. The other bolts you see in a row about 6″ from the wall are keeping the Stable Lift in place. On the near edge of the aluminum sheet you can see the row of drainage/ventilation holes. Here is a MacDraft drawing of the wing in cross-section.

Other wing with insulation mostly installed. The red and brown wires coming out of the wall are for the Stable Lift motor. The two pieces of aluminum angle at the top of the plywood wall are bolted together through the plywood.

I added a piece of angle aluminum (0.032 aluminum sheet bent on a brake) at the bottom of the wall to better tie the wall into the wing. The Milwaukee cordless riveter at the bottom left of the photo is a real time saver! It also makes it easy to apply lots of pressure while the rivet it squeezed. I should have bought one sooner.