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Archive for the ‘Utilities’ Category

Leak patrol (again) and next steps

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

I know spring has arrived – the peepers are peeping!  Better weather means I can work on a few exterior issues – more window sealing and leak patrol.  For my birthday present to myself, I took Rosie to Fletch’s to order parts for the awning repair – glad to know ZipDee is still in business.  I have the 110 wiring (12/2+ground) planned out and working on the 12V fine tuning.  The Progressive Inteli-Power 4060 converter has arrived along with the circuit breakers (30 amp main with 4-20 amp circuits) and a 30′ shore power cable/plug.

 

 

Cleanup and camping

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

I camped in the trailer at Robert H. Treman State Park with a couple other trailer folks this weekend.  Robin, Mark, and I took a field trip to Fletch’s and then spent a quiet afternoon hanging out with Robin and mom.  On Sunday, the crew took a hike up the gorge to the upper falls. There was a nice campfire thanks to Mick.  It was such a joy to talk trailers with kindred souls.

I was waiting for Mark's photos since his are so wonderful, but I'll post my crappy one for now.

Last weekend, I finished cleaning off the inside of the exterior walls.  I also finished sorting out the wires so now the only ones running across the ceiling are the exterior lights.  The 12 volt is all removed and the gauge wires are all wrapped up in a bag.  I feel badly that I did not do this before taking it down to Frank, he should not have had to fight with my tangled mess.

I sealed up the front window and I’m still working on the window gaskets for the side windows and adding the fuzzy weatherstripping to the screens as I go.

Summer breeze makes me feel fine

Friday, August 20th, 2010

It’s been great being off work this week.  It’s been warm and sunny, but with cool sleeping weather.  I haven’t gotten as much done as I had hoped.  It seemed that every job required a missing tool or supply or my back wouldn’t hold up.  So I have several started, unfinished jobs.

  • I documented and ripped out the wires for the four main 12 volt circuits.  I’m still trying to sort out the monitoring/console wires.
  • Scraped and scrubbed the inside of exterior walls in the back third of the trailer, removing residual pink and broken wire holders in preparation for reflective insulation installation.
  • Jig sawed 4 feet of insulation foam board into 1 inch strips (Thanks for the loan on the jig saw Marc).
  • Removed and replaced the rubber seal on the back window and did a test run of reflective film on the glass.  Having trouble getting the window back on the trailer.  We need a third person to push in the lip or more finesse on the angle.
  • Prepped and sealed two thirds of the exterior seams and lights with Acryl-R (Thanks for info Frank!).  The other third is prepped.

Left to do before I start insulating:

  • Four new window latch replacements and the fuzzy weather stripping for the window screens arrived, need to take them back off and apply that.
  • Finish removing wires, cleaning up inside of exterior walls, sealing seams, attach window.
  • Seal the interior seams with automotive undercoating or Sikaflex® 221?
  • Leak test

Fred watching me strip the back window.

I started on the top to practice sealing the seams as Frank suggested, but I didn’t get much better by the time I moved down.

Jade would like to thank Frank for putting on the new axles and making the trailer high enough that she can hang out under it now while I work.

“Jerry-rigging” the backup lights

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

For the OCD or purists in the crowd, you may not want to read this post. It may even be illegal. As I mentioned before, the backup lights had no socket left to replace the bulb into and the canister in the mounting base was so rusted there was nothing to screw the lens onto. I searched the local auto and tractor stores and online sites with no luck finding a replacement. So in the spirit of my enterprising father, I used some things not meant for the job, including a tuna fish can. See the step-by-step process in my web album.

New backup light

Lights, action, camera

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

I’m still working on the back up lights dilemna, but I did get 10 marker lights replaced with new LED lights this weekend. There were many challenges with getting the old ones off and the new ones on due to rusted, broken screws and rivets and inexperience. The good news was that they all tested positive for voltage.

The LED lights are not as easy to mount as the old style ones, especially since I was going to do it with connectors or twisted wire caps, but there’s NO space behind the flush mounted ones. The lower ones have a mount, so four of them were done nicely, the rest were wired with electrical tape and heat shrink tubes. You can see the pictures from the 1970’s Airstream type marker lights installation if you’re interested.

Night lights

Preparing for inspection

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

The trailer has not been plugged into a vehicle since Fletch delivered it 3 years ago. I guess its not surprising that only 4 of the 20 running lights work. The left blinker and tail light works, but not the right. The backup lights didn’t work at all. The picture below is how I found it when I took off the lense – do’ya think thats why? There is no socket remaining on either side. I’m debating whether to jerry-rig (as opposed to jimmy-rig) a closed unit that I found at Northern Tool or re-wire a socket.
Backup lights

I made a list of the bulb numbers based on the owners manual for running, tail/blinker, backup, and license plate lights. I was able to find them all at Advance Auto (bought a few at Camping World since I bought out the entire stock of running light bulbs at Advance).
Exteriour lights

Solar links and cosmic links

Sunday, April 1st, 2007

sun.gifCraig finally found a blog that overlaps our obsessions, his being gardens and mine being Airstreams, and the irony is the title of the blog is not related to either topic: Tales from the Microbial Laboratory. It sounds like Pam is using her trailer as temporary housing and might just get the Airstream bug. She had a couple of good solar links which encouraged me to consolidate my solar resources:

It also reminded me that I hadn’t received my Srping ’07 issue of Airstream Life. I think I let my subscription expire. OH NO! I’ll be taking care of that ASAP.


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