May 12, 2006 at 11:12 pm · Filed under Tips & Ideas
It has been a long day at Roger Williams Airstream but a rewarding one. I am more impressed than ever with these guys. David and Denver work hard and do great stuff.
Yesterday afternoon they weren’t able to install a solar panel, but the hard work on the Vista View window was done and it was a real pleasure to wake up to all the cheery morning light coming in through it. Because we need to get going on Saturday, I asked them to get on the solar panel install rather than doing the second Vista View.
In case you are wondering how it works, having guys tear up our home while we are living in it, I’ll explain the process. Eleanor and I have been getting up around 7 a.m. this week, and getting ourselves ready for the day. When we’ve finished with showers and dressing, we open the door and let Denver know we are ready to go. They hitch the trailer to their forklift and slowly tow it into the shop. Emma sleeps right through this process and wakes up later to the sound of air tools.
Today the guys got right on the solar panel job, but it took a long time. David likes to fabricate a mounting for each panel that will survive the hurricane-force winds it will encounter during towing. The aluminum mounting frames he made are riveted and screwed, as well as thoroughly caulked. These mountings get the solar panels off the roof for better cooling, which improves their efficiency.
One of the reasons it took all day was that there was a snafu involving the solar pre-wiring installed by Airstream. The wires weren’t where we expected them to be (in the refrigerator cabinet). David, Denver, and Bob were tearing out their hair trying to deduce where those wires were, when Eleanor suddenly volunteered that she’d seen them buried in a lower cabinet during one of her periodic searches for more storage space. That saved the day, because we were about to concede defeat and start running new wires, which would have made it impossible to complete the job today.
In the midst of installation
So the solar system is now operational. It was 7:30 by the time we wheeled the trailer back out into the parking lot, too late for good testing, but the system seems to be working. Even with the sun nearly set, it generated 0.4 amps.
For the record, we installed two Evergreen Solar 115 watt panels, each measuring about 63″ long. The rear one had to be installed sideways, which looks a bit odd, but it will work just the same. With the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) Blue Sky controller we installed previously, we are hoping for up to 20 amps of power in ideal conditions. This ties into the four Optima batteries and the Tri-Metric. The next step is to take it out west and test it in a National Park!
Rich C got a bit of service today too. His rear window was leaking, and in between tasks on our solar panels David got over there to replace the seal. Rich also got a power hitch jack and some accessories. He’s a happy camper now. We just have to throw a gadget his way every once in a while.
If you’re wondering what Emma does while all this is going on, here’s an example.
So we’ve completed almost everything we came for. The second Vista View will have to wait until we come back again, but otherwise we have completed quite a list: disc brakes, two windows, two solar panels. David will come back to the shop tomorrow to tie up a few loose ends and then we plan to head off to west Texas. We’re going to meet Rich C at Caprock Canyon State Park. There won’t be any Internet service there — probably no phone either — so I may have to catch up on the blog from the highway later.
May 11, 2006 at 3:58 pm · Filed under Tips & Ideas
We broke for lunch and a break for everyone, after the new window was installed. Emma, Eleanor, David, and I all piled into Rich C’s trailer and had a lively discussion about pretty much everything. Then Eleanor, Emma, and Rich played Uno while I caught up on some email.
If yesterday’s window installation wasn’t enough to curdle my blood, you should have seen me watching the process of installing the Vista View windows. Denver and David believe in “measure twice, cut once” but still it was disconcerting to see Denver finally take an air-powered tool to the pristine skin of our Airstream and slice it open.
In fact, you can see some of my reaction on Rich C’s video blog. Click on the “VIDEO MOV” link on Rich’s post if you have broadband. Denver pulled away a piece of the aluminum and found he’d sliced right through the TV antenna cable. Rich caught the whole thing on video. Oh well, the antenna cable is fixable.
Right now they are just about done cutting. The first Vista View should be going in shortly. Meanwhile, David is working on the mounts for the solar panels. Hopefully one of them will go up on the roof before the end of the working day.
Blog reader Mark W asked for a photo of our flagpole holder. It’s made of 4″ PVC Schedule 40 pipe with female screw-threaded couplings and screw-in caps on each end. It is big enough to hold all three of the 1.5″ diameter collapsable flagpoles we carry.
We used plastic “plumbers tape” (vinyl strapping) double-riveted to the frame, to mount it. Since it could wiggle a bit even with the strapping tight, I also bonded it to the belly pan with Sikaflex caulk. Now it does not move at all. If you do this, be sure to clean the belly pan beforehand.
In the photo you can see a hole drilled in the cap. The threads on these plastic caps tend to stick in place, so the hole is there to allow me to insert a tool (the same one I use for the Rotochoks) and get leverage to remove the caps.
This is an easy do-it-yourself project if you have the rivet tools, drill, jack, and materials. My total cost was about $35 for materials (pipe, pipe cement & primer, rivets, misc).
May 11, 2006 at 11:47 am · Filed under Tips & Ideas
Literally. The guys spent all day yesterday working out the details of how to install the new “International-style” window over our dinette table. As you may know, late-model Airstream Safaris come with Hehr windows that are, shall we say, lacking when it comes to ventilation. We have long planned to replace one or more of them with the far-superior windows that come on Airstream International and Classic models.
To do this particular window, we had to remove the double overhead locker above the dinette, which necessitated disconnecting my Internet In Motion box, so I’ve been borrowing Rich C’s Internet connection ever since.
Then we ran into a snag. Even though the new window is almost exactly the same size as the one it replaced, the corner radiuses are different. This required some careful work to put extra aluminum in behind the existing exterior sheet, in such a way that it would be hidden by the caulk when finished. David and Denver figured it out and their solution is guaranteed watertight.
The new window is frankly AWESOME. It is huge, opens completely, and looks great. Compare it to the weeny vent window to the left that it replaced.
I didn’t post to the blog last night because I left my computer in Rich’s trailer, and then we went out to have dinner with Paul and Annie Mayeux at their house. Emma adores their two daughters, having met them at the HOTC campout in Cleburne State Park last February. So while Eleanor and I toured their fascinating self-built home, Emma wore herself out keeping up with a 9 and 12-year-old. By the time we got back to the Airstream, it was 10:30 and Rich had gone to bed.
This morning David and Denver have finalized the window installation and put our overhead bin back together. I was underneath the trailer half the morning mounting up a flagpole carrier made from some PVC pipe — this will hold the three flagpoles Fred Ettline gave me back in Charleston, instead of having them ride on the bed.
Denver is already working on our first Vista View and I expect to post again tonight with pictures of that. We are going to stay through Saturday morning so there’s time to get the solar panels on, too, and hopefully Rich can get some work done on his rig as well before the weekend. Then, we’ll head west and try out all the new goodies.
May 9, 2006 at 7:48 pm · Filed under Tips & Ideas
HOT hot hot …. over 100 degrees today as Denver valiantly completed the disc brake installation. Eleanor and Emma went off to do laundry and ended up in a non-air conditioned laundromat, which was certainly a mistake. But we had no idea it was going to get this hot.
Even though the trailer was plugged in and the air was running, the best we could do was keep the interior in the low 80s because people were coming in and out all day. I was rushing in to check email and then rushing out to discuss Airstream stuff with Rich C, David Tidmore, Denver, and Paul Mayeux, so it was a sweaty day.
The Kodiak disc brakes were on both sides of the trailer at the end of the day yesterday, so today’s task was to install the Actibrake hydraulic actuator, the hydraulic lines, and the electrical connections. We decided to put the Actibrake in my bedroom closet. It was mounted up on the wall in a dead space. This keeps it clean and out of the weather, although the device is totally weatherproof so it doesn’t matter much.
The Actibrake is the thing that actually puts pressure in the hydraulic lines to activate the disc brakes. It connects to the brake wire from the tow vehicle just like the old drum brakes did. So we can keep the Prodigy brake controller we have always used. Even though the Prodigy instructions say it is not designed for hydraulic disc systems, the Actibrake people have designed it to work with the Prodigy and a number of other brake controllers.
Just when Denver was wrapping up the installation, Tootie showed up from Centramatic. Centramatic makes a very cool product. They are aluminum discs that balance the wheel/tire/brake assembly of your trailer. See, you can balance the wheels but it doesn’t do much good if the brake hub is out of balance. The Centramatic fixes that. You just drop it behind the wheel, and it automatically balances the assembly constantly as it is in motion. So, you never need to balance your wheels again!
You can see the Centramatic on the left wheel above. It’s the big aluminum disc that is blocking the view of our new brakes. A bunch of fine beads in a special lubricant spin around from centrifugal force and automatically compensate for unbalanced wheels. It’s so simple. What a great idea.
So now our disc brake installation is done and we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s upgrades. We’ll adjust and test the disc brakes on Thursday or Friday. I can’t wait to see how they perform.
Tomorrow, the plan is to start on the solar panels and windows. Tonight, I’ll be firing up the grill again for another dinner in the back lot of Roger Williams Airstream. (What strange places we find ourselves living!)
May 8, 2006 at 9:05 pm · Filed under Tips & Ideas
Finally, we’re at Roger Williams Airstream in Weatherford, TX, getting our long-awaited upgrades. We pulled in around 11 this morning and it wasn’t long before work began.
Pulling off the old drum brakes and replacing them went pretty quickly. We found the cause of some issues we’ve been having lately, too. Twice in the past week our brake controller intermittently indicated a short in the wiring. It also has been pushing the Armada to the one side when we brake hard, which is an unsafe condition. If we hadn’t already been heading to the nearest Airstream dealer for a brake job, I would have immediately begun doing so.
Sure enough, the front left brake wiring had come loose inside the drum and got pinched. A spot of bare wire was visible, which caused the intermittent short. It also may have caused that brake to work intermittently.
With the new Kodiak disc brakes, wiring failures will be a thing of the past. It’s a hydraulic system, like your car. Our friend Paul Mayeux came by today to visit and told us that since he upgraded to discs on his Caravel, he can’t imagine having anything else.
I’ll have more pics of the installation tomorrow.
Rich Charpentier also caught up with us today. If you follow his blog, you know he’s been driving down from Massachusetts to meet us here in Texas. He’s in an Airstream Safari 25. We’ll be caravanning together, off and on, for the next couple of months. We’re all looking forward to heading into the desert as a caravan in a week or so.
Tonight we are both parked behind the dealership. Eleanor bought a disposable barbecue grill and we cooked up some steaks, and now she, Emma, and Rich are playing Uno in Rich’s trailer. I have a feeling everyone is going to get along just fine….
May 7, 2006 at 10:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
This morning I received an email from blog reader Steve, who has a bus conversion in progress. I’ve always thought a motorhome conversion from a vintage Greyhound bus would be very cool, so we arranged a meeting at the local Home Depot, and Stan came along, too.
The stats on a bus conversion are incredible. These aluminum bodies are built to last three milllion miles, and diesel engines that go hundreds of thousands of miles between overhauls. 179 gallons of diesel means you can buy fuel in Boston and drive to Chicago with 1/3 of a tank left over.
A 39,000 lb. GVWR means enough carrying capacity for a dozen full-grown moose and a German Shephard, should you be so inclined. The basement storage capacity gives Steve enough room for 100-gallon holding tanks, a mountain bike, and practically an entire garage of tools. In other words, no need to travel light.
Then we got on with the main event of the day. Stan and I wheeled out his vintage Cessna taildragger and
aimed it down the runway. It was a perfect day for flying… calm wind, warm air, not much turbulence, and surprisingly little air traffic for this busy place. There are bunch of small airports, plus DFW, within a few miles, but it seemed like hardly anyone else was up there with us.
Stan let me fly his Cessna for a while, which was a real pleasure. The plane handles beautifully with a light touch. It reminded me of what I liked about flying my own plane in the 1990s. After four landings, we parked it and headed back to the house and trailer for one last grilled dinner (tilapia, salad, asparagus, and cheesecake) by the pool. Yep, courtesy parking can be really nice.
Tomorrow we need to get over to Roger Williams Airstream for our big service appointment. Let us know if you can drop by! I am looking forward to documenting our disc brake conversion, solar panel installation, and other upgrades.
May 6, 2006 at 8:10 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Last night we kept Stan and Eileen up too late, talking after we’d grilled some steaks by the pool. But nonetheless, Stan knocked on our door this morning to invite us out for a day of exploring Grapevine. It’s actually quite an interesting town, with a historic downtown, a lake, and a very nice new city-run campground. Joe Moore, who oversaw the development of the Vineyards Campground, was there to give us a tour of the new facility, which just officially re-opened last week. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a nice place to stay conveniently close to DFW Airport and yet in a quiet suburban location.
It’s been unseasonably cool, with temps in the 70s and occasional thunderstorms roaming through, so my concern about no A/C at night has turned out to be needless. But next week it will be back in the 80s and 90s — more like what we’d expect from Texas this time of year. By then, we’ll be plugged into 30-amp power at Roger Williams Airstream, so no problem.
After a Texas bbq lunch (can’t resist the stuff) we headed over to a local airport hangar where Stan and Eileen keep their airplane and Airstream. It’s a lot of riveted aluminum under one roof. The Airstream is a ’67 Overlander, and the airplane is a 1946 Cessna 120 taildragger in absolutely cherry condition. I’m dying to get my hands on the yoke. If the thunderstorms are cleared out on Sunday, Stan will take me out for a ride.
While we were talking aluminum, Emma discovered a 4-year old girl on a bicycle and a friendly cat, so she was fully occupied. Turns out that people actually live in some of the airplane hangars. Hmmm… inexpensive and you get to keep your airplane and Airstream right in the living room! I like it.
Tonight’s plan is to just mellow out. We’re going to watch “The Emperor’s New Groove,” have a light dinner, and practice Uno and checkers. Rich C is arriving in his Airstream Safari 25 on Monday, and Emma wants to be ready for him. She’s getting pretty good at checkers … watch out Rich!
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