Hi again.
In spite of the ol' Funometer pegging out early in the weeekend, and staying there until late this afternoon, I was able to get the onboard fresh water system hooked up and working this evening.
I managed to get two nonfunctional Par water pumps, and remove the working motor from the leaking pump assembly, and install it on the working pump. Two more trips to Ace Hardware netted me all the stuff I needed to make this happen. This was kind of important since we are now a month into Hurricane Season, and I remember the last two years' worth of storms we had. Out fresh water tank is only about 15 gallons, but that is enough to get by for a couple of days' careful use, provided we omit showers for a while. It works out to a black water tank, plus about 5 gallons to use for hand washing and tooth brushing.
The pump is mounted under the streetside bed, along with the water tank, water heater, and pipes.
The pump works well, although seems to be about as quiet as a cement truck. Here are a few photos of the latest adventure in plumbing:
This weekend we actually got to use our trailer, instead of just working on it! Wahoo!
The new water pump worked as intended, nothing leaked, in spite of a deluge nearly washing us out of the campground, and causing the evening movie to be cancelled. We even ran into another Airstream product owner while we were there. It wasn't a coincidence, as we had arranged to camp there at the same time as fellow forum member Brett (thenewkid64).
Our newbie camping friends and relatives that joined us had a good time, in spite of the rain we had. One set of campers found out why they couldn't take 20 minute per person showers while using a grey water tank , and had to borrow our blue wastewater tote to empty their tank.
Here are a few photos of our coach, Brett's Argosy, and a photo of what the state of the art looks like in SOB trailers :
Not much has been doen to Goliath lately, as I have been concentrating my resources on modifying out "new" tow vehicle for regular use. There are not many people that can say they acquired an antique truck to pull their antique Airstream, and the antique truck is less than half the age of their trailer.
We are now the proud owners of a 1986 Ford F250 diesel, long bed, extended cab pickup. It is in remarkably good condition for its age, in fact, it is cleaner than many trucks I looked at ten years newer. The color leaves something to be desired, but if that is all I can complain about, it is a minor thing.
I spent a weekend removing some wierd brackets off the bed, and wiring the trailer connector plug for something approaching industry standard to match Goliath, then adjusted the hitch so the trailer sat level when hooked to the truck, and with WD bars cinched up. I also removed several funny brackets for the rearview mirrors on the doors so it looks a bit less like the Beverly Hillbillies just rolled into town. A short trip to Myakka River State Park campground was uneventful, although on the return trip a suicidal bird decided to use our windshield as his final resting place... "Hello, Geico?" We now have a brand-new windshield in our 21 year old truck.
I took several photos of the camping trip, and campground, but I used a friend's camera, and took the pictures too large for the forum. You will have to take my word for it, it was a cool place to camp.
Here is a photo of the newest addition to the fleet, a replacement for the Chevy conversion van: (bear in mind the mirror brackets shown are already gone)
Terry, looks like a brute! Judging from the tailgate, this truck might have experience towing a 5th wheel. Congrats on the new-to-you truck!
Thanks, Uwe. It had the brackets for the fifth wheel still in the bed, which partly explains the odd mirror arrangement. The wiring connector was mounted in the bed as well. It also has twin US Gear overdrive units in it, so fuel mileage on the road while towing rivals that of newer trucks. One thing I noticed soon after picking the truck up, it doesn't do U-turns very well, unless you are in an open field. I have already purchased a solid replacement tailgate, as the iopen gate looks a bit too, umm, err, "country"..Yeah, that's it! It looks too "country" for me...
Also, somewhere along the way we started naming our equipment. Since the truck is large, brown, hulking, and graceless (imagine driving a slalom course with it!), it has been christened Moose. It seems to fit.
I am able to run away from traffic at traffic lights, while towing Goliath.
Thanks, Uwe. It had the brackets for the fifth wheel still in the bed, which partly explains the odd mirror arrangement. The wiring connector was mounted in the bed as well. It also has twin US Gear overdrive units in it, so fuel mileage on the road while towing rivals that of newer trucks. One thing I noticed soon after picking the truck up, it doesn't do U-turns very well, unless you are in an open field. I have already purchased a solid replacement tailgate, as the iopen gate looks a bit too, umm, err, "country"..Yeah, that's it! It looks too "country" for me...
Also, somewhere along the way we started naming our equipment. Since the truck is large, brown, hulking, and graceless (imagine driving a slalom course with it!), it has been christened Moose. It seems to fit.
Moose seems appropriate.
I remember Ford's lousy turning radius from owning an 89 Econoline delivery van. Took a football field to turn the thing.
Sounds like you made a good find with this, very suitable for towing.
I will go for something like this once I can get a dedicated tow vehicle, which would be used for not much else. Right now I still need the wagon style vehicle for business and family.
Are you all done, Terry? I haven't seen an update in a while.
Tom
No, Tom, it is far from done. We have been busy with career changes, a new house, a new tow vehicle, and a host of other projects. I am also waiting for the weather to turn a bit cooler, it is still in the 90's here daily. I tried to pick up Goliath last night to bring home and test the new 30 amp outlet in the new garage, but for reasons unknown the coach battery was dead, and the charge line into the trailer doesn't seem to be working, so I had to take the battery out, and charge it overnight so the electric jack would work. If it is dead again when I go back to pick it up for camping this weekend, I will have to do some detective work. I made sure nothing was left on before I parked Goliath this time, we will see what happens.
We are going camping in Wildwood, Florida (near Ocala), in one of our last camping outings before the snowbirds come back and clog up all the campgrounds in the state. We may be able to get one more weekend in for the forum rally at Fort DeSoto in Novemeber, if we are lucky.
It has been a while since we did anything to Goliath, except (gasp! ) going camping. We have moved, and had an interesting issue getting the Overlander in our driveway. The home we have moved into was built about 10 years ago, after new zoning regulations took effect. The street in front of our new house is the same elevation as the street in front of our old house, but the new code says the house must be built much higher in elevation. This leads to an issue that the builder chose to be cheap about, and that is to make a dip in the driveway where the ditch is, rather than a sluicepipe under the driveway. This is effective for moving rainwater, but makes the issue of the house (and garage) being higher, a real problem. The biggest problem is, when I tried backing Goliath into our new driveway, the back bumper dragged hard on the concrete.I knew this might happen, so I was going very, very slowly while backing, and had Marie watching the bumper to make sure it didn't drag. Only problem is, she was standing where I couldn't see her, and I couldn't hear her over the noise of the diesel engine in Moose. The end result was a couple of pretty deep gouges in the concrete where we bottomed out. Yikes!
Hmmm...
I went to our favorite lumber yard, and bought a 2x8x10, and had it cut in half (one half is 2" longer than the other half), and used the lumber as a bridge over the worst part of the dip in our driveway. The bumper now clears with an inch to spare. I painted marks on the driveway to show where the 2x8's should be placed to save time while backing in.
Here is a photo of Goliath in the driveway, the wooden bridge is visible by the tires of the truck:
And the reason I brought Goliath home was to replace the range. Those of you that attended the Forum rally in Fort DeSoto last September may remember we had a little problem with the oven, it was either "on" or "off", with nothing in between. After over a year of trying to bake with a blast furnace, I scored a lightly used range out of a 1965 Safari, and after modifying the hole it is supposed to go into, I worked it into the hole. The stove worked right away, but I had to take apart the gas valve for the oven, as it hadn't been used in so long it was stuck closed. I put the valve back together, and re-assembled the oven. It lit right away, and seems to be fairly accurate as far as thermostats go (about 25 degrees cooler indicated, than actual), and the important thing is, it shuts off on its own when tempurature is reached.
I found out that field mice had built a nest inside the oven, and after the oven cooled off, I cleaned out the stuff that didn't burn when the oven lit. There's nothing like the smell of burning mouse poop in the morning...
Here's a couple of photos of the old oven, and the "newsed" oven. The thermometer in the oven shows it is definately working well. The third picture also shows where I installed the converter:
Over the course of the last several trips back to the house, or outings camping, more than a few times the coach battery was dead, necessitating removal and recharging the battery. A pain in the dupa, to say the least.
I found the cause of our intermittant dead battery during our soon-to-be-infamous rally last weekend. I woke up at 2 o'clock Sunday morning to find the 12 volt overhead light in the kitchen area on. I thought maybe Marie had turned it on, for some reason, and forgotten to turn it off. This was highly unlikely, but within the realm of possibility. I found out when I turned it off, this was not the case. I turned it off, and about the time I got back into bed, it popped back on again. Cursing under my breath, I got up (again), and turned it off (again). Going back to bed, I stubbed my toe on the dog's food bowl, turning it over, and dumping dog food all over the floor. After more cursing, hopping one one foot and rubbing the affected toe, I cleaned up the dog food, and got almost back to bed when the light came on again.
Okay, I'm done. I got up, got out my pliers, unscrewed the cover, unscrewed the light bulb, and re-installed the cover. There! Now come back on, you rotten $%%^$%%^ light! Through all this, Marie slept blissfully on, unaware of the drama unfolding in our kitchen.
The rest of the night passed peacefully. Now all I have to do is find a new switch for the light.
Goliath has the old Bargman 99 taillights, and after 44 years they are showing their age. While I was perusing the forums the other day, I ran across a great deal on some lenses. $15.98 plus shipping later, I had ordered a pair of lenses from Dave here on the forums (user number99), who just happens to own Yankee lighting company. They arrived in the mail yesterday, and I pulled Goliath over to the house to install them, as well as take care of my "redneck engineered" sewer outlet pipe. I pulled the lenses out of the packages, and even though advertised as "seconds", they were in better shape then many lights that were supposed to be perfect. After a few minutes of close examination, I found one small mark on the edge of one lens. Here are a couple of before-and-after photos of the lenses. Replacement was simple as unscrewing the three screw that held the old lenses on, and screwing the new ones on, so I didn't bother with any mid-process photos:
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, and had to borrow our blue wastewater tote to empty their tank.
:
) going camping. We have moved, and had an interesting issue getting the Overlander in our driveway. The home we have moved into was built about 10 years ago, after new zoning regulations took effect. The street in front of our new house is the same elevation as the street in front of our old house, but the new code says the house must be built much higher in elevation. This leads to an issue that the builder chose to be cheap about, and that is to make a dip in the driveway where the ditch is, rather than a sluicepipe under the driveway. This is effective for moving rainwater, but makes the issue of the house (and garage) being higher, a real problem. The biggest problem is, when I tried backing Goliath into our new driveway, the back bumper dragged hard on the concrete.I knew this might happen, so I was going very, very slowly while backing, and had Marie watching the bumper to make sure it didn't drag. Only problem is, she was standing where I couldn't see her, and I couldn't hear her over the noise of the diesel engine in Moose. The end result was a couple of pretty deep gouges in the concrete where we bottomed out. Yikes!
