I bought my 1976 31" Sovereign International on June 24, 2010 about two miles from my home.
It's going to be a work in progress. I'll uncover, discover, and recover. It has some old leaks. I suspect the TV antenna and the skylights. I believe the leakage is minimal but I'll see.
We began by removing the living area builtins.
sofa out
Both sofas out along with the mickey mouse corner table and the finger pinch table.
Before removing the rotted floor sections under the window and by the door, I'll remove those nice blue floor tiles.
They appear to be original because the floor is like new under the tiles and the tiles go under the builtins. They come up like they were never glued with a heat gun.
The whole tile comes up in one piece. Unfortunately the glue stays down and stays sticky. Some comes up with Krud Kutter.
I removed the drapes. The end caps come off and there's a screw in the bottom track to remove and the drapes just run out the end.
It's going to be a work in progress. I'll uncover, discover, and recover. It has some old leaks. I suspect the TV antenna and the skylights. I believe the leakage is minimal but I'll see.
We began by removing the living area builtins.
sofa out
Both sofas out along with the mickey mouse corner table and the finger pinch table.
Before removing the rotted floor sections under the window and by the door, I'll remove those nice blue floor tiles.
They appear to be original because the floor is like new under the tiles and the tiles go under the builtins. They come up like they were never glued with a heat gun.
The whole tile comes up in one piece. Unfortunately the glue stays down and stays sticky. Some comes up with Krud Kutter.
I removed the drapes. The end caps come off and there's a screw in the bottom track to remove and the drapes just run out the end.
Air conditioner
Posted 07-16-2010 at 01:34 PM by Splitrock
To get on the roof $400
The ladder didn't work beacuse my arms are 5' too short.
I got both leaking vents patched till I get new ones.
Ladder and platform tied off.
The work platfrom lays on a carpet covered 2X4 to protect the trailer top.
The OEM air conditioner was screwed to the top of the trailer.
Vulkem old, hard, and dry, over 15 screws on each tab.
I waited until the heat of the day to remove the screws. Nice!
I cut the edge loose and then went inside and jacked it up.
The jack is a load stabilizer from a truck. I zip tied it to a board so it wouldn't fall over and scab up the floor.
When I went back up top, the unit was balanced on the jack and floating 1 inch above the trailer top. I rolled it onto the slab door I'm using as an auxiliary work platform without damaging the unit. When my son came to pick up his two sons from grandma day-care, he helped me set the unit in the tractor bucket. I strapped it in the bucket and stored it inside. The unit is all there and the fan runs. The shroud is good but it needs to be cleaned and painted. I didn't bang anything up taking it down.
The weight of the old unit is at the front of the hole and about 2 feet back from the front of the hole. The hole itself is not supported at all on three sides.
The new unit sets in the hole but it has weight distribution pads in addition to the seal. The new unit is just held by 4 long bolts installed from the inside. The new unit is a DuTherm 13.5. I picked it up from a dealer yesterday for $540 including 4% tax. The RV dealer quoted me 700 for this unit and 300 to install it. I doubt he'd install it for 300 after he saw those cemented in 60 screws.
The new unit came with the inside trim designed for a flat ceiling. I expect I'll just make a couple nice fillers.
Before I install the new unit I'll reinforce the hole and extend my support to all 4 neighboring ribs. It looks like the back of the unit will set on the rear rib, so the reinforced hole will have the job of compacting the seal and keeping the water out. If I live long enough to ever change this unit out, next time it'll take a couple hours . . . maybe.
I left the job season overnight with a nice tarp covering the roof.
The new air conditioner is installed and test running. I got the old one loose and on the scaffold by myself and my son helped me gently lay it in the tractor dirt bucket. The new one, I got installed by myself. I blanket wrapped the new one and tied it in the bucket, removed the scaffold side stabilizers at the top level and laid the new unit on the scaffold deck with the loader.
Then I just lifted it onto the old hole that I reinforced with 1 1/2" dried untreated ribs and cross supports. I cut the ribs to the profile of the old air conditioner trim. They were 1 3/4" thick and 20" long. I installed three hoops and two lateral roof supports, so the roof is supported back to the first body rib behind the air conditioner. From the top, the body has a nice visual radius under the new unit. The gasket compressed more than in half in the center and not as much on the sides. I installed a car windshield seal under the gasket, so we'll see how well I did.
The original roof hole was off center by about 3/4" to the curb side when measured by the interior roof panel trim strips. Maybe the trim strips are not equally spaced. Whatever . . . It's not going to bother me if the unit is leak free and it cools. There was no insulation in the roof center section. I guess that surprised me a little. No problem, I'da had to remove it anyway to add my support system.
This is my major deal for a while. Now, I'll repair a few floor boards after I get the leaking windows and ? fixed.
Total Comments 9
Comments
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Nice trailer. Just read your thread on the a/c replacement. Mine is a 78 Ambassador, the a/c was srecently recplacced with a coleman (which at some point I will replace with the OEM), in the interim, the condensate drainage is treaming down the outside of the trailer. I suspect there should be some kind of condensate drainage PVC line and how it should install? Can you let me know,
Qratio@gmail.com
Any help appreciate.Posted 09-27-2010 at 01:31 PM by qratio 
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Mine drains down the side:-) That's the way I want it for now. There's enough water inside this thing now the way it is:-)Quote:Originally Posted by qratioNice trailer. Just read your thread on the a/c replacement. Mine is a 78 Ambassador, the a/c was srecently recplacced with a coleman (which at some point I will replace with the OEM), in the interim, the condensate drainage is treaming down the outside of the trailer. I suspect there should be some kind of condensate drainage PVC line and how it should install? Can you let me know,
Qratio@gmail.com
Any help appreciate.Posted 09-27-2010 at 09:09 PM by Splitrock
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Wow, you have done a lot of work! I was holding my breath as I read the AC story! Great job.Posted 10-29-2010 at 04:54 PM by Peggy Wilson
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Quote:Originally Posted by Peggy WilsonWow, you have done a lot of work! I was holding my breath as I read the AC story! Great job.
Hi Peggy,
The new AC worked very well. After a few hours it felt like a meat cooler in there. A pleasant bonus was the benefit that the new air conditioner didn't leak, and it was tested with record setting rains here.
I like the new FanTastic fans too. I think those were well worth the effort to install.
GaryPosted 10-29-2010 at 06:45 PM by Splitrock
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wow thank you for posting just what i was looking for
replacing my unit with a 13.5 duo therm with heat strip
lots of screws on old unit. my son will come over with his
boom truck pick old unit out and sit my new one in when
i'm ready so that will help a lot. thanks aginPosted 08-16-2012 at 11:50 AM by r.swanson
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what did you do about the drain ??????
Posted 08-16-2012 at 12:07 PM by r.swanson
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The water just drains outside over the skin. I'm not a fan of the inside water collection pans with inside hit or miss drains.Quote:Originally Posted by r.swansonwhat did you do about the drain ??????
Posted 08-16-2012 at 01:10 PM by Splitrock
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Thanks for all the pictures, info, and laughs! (Just reading "How do you get on the roof?")
Posted 12-01-2013 at 05:11 PM by truffles
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Let me know if you come up with any new ideas . . .Quote:Originally Posted by trufflesThanks for all the pictures, info, and laughs! (Just reading "How do you get on the roof?")
:-)Posted 12-01-2013 at 09:42 PM by Splitrock
