Body Mods - Interior

A/C Cabinet

The cabinet to the left of the door, in front of the A/C, came equipped with a hinged door above 2 drawers. The cabinet door was almost unusable because it was hinged at the bottom and would bind against the drawer hardware when opened. I removed it and found a plastic 4-drawer cabinet that I screwed in place in the open space. That gave better ventilation for the A/C, and left a small space to the side that became our "library" for dictionary, field guides, and cookbook. For a finished look, I used a utility knife to cut fake oak trim (from Lowe's) to fit, nailed it in place, and filled the nail holes with colored putty. I added small screw eyes to the underside of the countertop where we hook bungees to hold the plastic drawers closed during travel.The drawers below the plastic unit had plastic drawer stops that kept them from opening all the way, making it difficult to use the whole drawer. I cut them off and fashioned new stops from small strips of aluminum screwed to the back of the drawers. When turned upright, the strips catch on the cabinet face and stop the drawer; when they're turned sideways, the drawer can be removed from the cabinet.

Side Tables

Our camper came with little hinged side tables over the wheel well storage areas. Very convenient, but we found that they were too big to put up or down when the rear bed was made up. I removed them, took off the hinges, and pulled out the plastic gold trim (which was just pressed into a groove routed around the edge). A cabinetmaker cut both tables down, as narrow as the hinges would allow, and re-routed the groove for the trim (which I shortened with scissors). Afterwards, we were able leave the bed made up and still have room to raise and lower the tables.

Porta-Potty Cabinet

The storage opening to the right of the door was barely tall enough to accommodate the porta-potty. I removed the cabinet door (which was just in the way) and filed the top of the opening as much as I could. Since there was no room to trim the raw edges with corner molding, I glued oak-patterned contact paper along the sides of the opening, covering it with pieces of clear plastic wallpaper corner protector (the top doesn't show), and used Lowe's fake flat oak trim all around the face, mitering the corners. It looked good and held up well. We stored the potty supplies (paper and chemical) in the back of that space, and a piece of 1" PVC pipe just fit inside the frame to secure the potty during travel.

Door Threshold

This very nice, finished threshold, purchased at a rally from another Aliner owner, meant we could sweep right out the door - no edge to catch the dirt!

Hinged Front Shelf

Since we left the rear bed made up, the shelf that was originally designed to hold the sofa-back cushions was in the way. To remodel it as a hinged shelf in the front of the camper, I used:

• (2) 30" piano hinges
• 3' of 1/16" wire cable
• (4) 1/16" ferrules (metal thingies to fasten wire cable)
• (4) flexible plastic #10 screw protectors
• (2) 16-14 AWG ring terminals (electrical supplies)
• (2) small turnbuckles with hook & eye
• (1) butterfly catch (see photo) - I think they're kind of old-fashioned; we had a couple in the basement. I didn't know what they're called, and Lowe's didn't carry them. If you don't have "butterfly thingies" in your basement, you can probably improvise with a piece of aluminum
• (1) 8x2 flathead metal screw for the butterfly catch
• misc nuts & washers to raise the stem of the butterfly catch

After taking off the original shelf brace, I screwed the piano hinges to the bottom of the shelf, with the hinge pin butted to the unfinished shelf edge, leaving 3" to 4" in the middle between the hinges. Laying the hinges open flat, I centered the shelf and marked every other screw hole on top of the trailer box.

Wire Hangers: 

I cut the cable in half and drilled a 1/8" hole in the end of each screw protector. I threaded 2 protectors on each cable, so that the point ends met in the middle. I threaded a ferrule on one cable end, looped the cable through the shank of the ring terminal (shank end first) and back through the ferrule. I clamped the ferrule with a vice or crimper AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO THE RING TERMINAL. Then I trimmed off the extra wire and shoved the screw protector up over the cut end and ferrule. The screw protector covered the cut wire and protected the shelf edge. I did the same with the other cable. I screwed the eye of the ring terminal underneath the side of the shelf, toward the front, and close enough to the edge that the screw protector padded the gold trim.

When unhooked, the shelf hung straight down, but I used the butterfly catch (on one side only) to hold it farther back out of the way. I was able to remove the middle screw of the trailer corner bracket and use that screw hole. NO DRILLING! It took a 2" screw, 3 nuts and a couple of washers before I had the butterfly at the right height to grab the side of the shelf.

Carpeted Roof Ledges

Another clever Aliner owner came up with this idea. It helps prevent condensation and provided a

ledge for holding small items like glasses, book or watch. I used sheet metal screws to attach lengths of 1" aluminum angle to both front and rear of the camper body, just below the brown roof hinge. In the rear, I notched the aluminum so that it didn't pinch the electric wire when the roof was lowered. I covered the whole area with thin, rubber-backed carpet (the more flexible the better), fastening it with double-stick carpet tape. It softened the camper interior, and the ledges proved to be very handy.

Built-in Toilet Paper Holder

I don't like looking at a roll of toilet paper, but there was no place to keep it out of sight and within reach - until I designed a recessed holder to use the wasted space behind our "library". The first step was finding a small door to cover the opening, without having to make and finish my own. I bought a small louvered oak air-vent cover from Lowe's, took off the plastic box on the back, and had a perfect pre-finished door. I cut an access hole in the side of the cabinet and finished the rough edges with pieces of panel trim covered in oak contact paper. Notice the mitered corners in the photo. Cabinet hinges and a "magic touch" magnetic latch finished the access door. The toilet paper holder is a white plastic Dollar Tree model mounted ion the underside of the countertop. As a finishing touch, I added a glow-in-the-dark crescent moon on the TP door.

Holes in Paneling

I'm not handy with woodworking, and found it very difficult to cut neat holes in the thin Aliner paneling. Without a Dremel tool, what worked best for me was to first "perforate" the paneling by drilling a line of small holes, and then cut out the piece with a utility knife. The results weren't perfect, but good enough to camouflage with some fake oak trim and oak contact paper.

Hinged Bed Platform

Initially, we left the rear gaucho sofa made up as a double bed, but the bed platform "bit" me as I was trying to scrounge underneath it, taking a sizable chunk out of my thumb. After that, I sawed the 2 biggest pieces of plywood (back sections) apart and reconnected them with piano hinge. That, of course, made the platform weaker I didn't want to go to heavier plywood, so I hung a piece of aluminum pipe across the space, with a wood strip to brace the largest piece. It did the trick, and was a whole lot easier to lift a section of bed than the whole darn thing! (In the pictures, you see white twill tape glued over the hinges to protect the mattress, and twill-tape lifts for each plywood section.) The exposed space in one of the photos is behind the water tank - where I  later hung a mesh clothes hamper. It was easy to lift the corner of the mattress, then lift that small lid to drop dirty clothes in. It also took advantage of space that was wasted, since there was no baggage door on that side.