This is a new adventure for us, we recently acquired a 1963 Overlander, trading in our loyal (but small) Argosy 20 for it.
Our saga begins with a chat with a fellow forum member, richardt. I had been looking for a slightly larger trailer for a while now, and he thought he might have one (or two) that he would be willing to be talked out of. I made arrangements to go see the trailer, we loaded up the van, and the Argosy, and away we went.
The Argosy had new tires installed when we put a new axle in it, in October of 2003, the Overlander had last had tires when Jimmy Carter was President
. I ordered two Goodyear Marathon tires to install on the Overlander after we arrived, along with the two Cooper Travel-Trac tires from the Argosy.
The fun started a few miles North of Tampa. when I had to stop for traffic congestion. I looked in the mirror, and saw the Argosy bobbling around, up and down, as well as side-to-side. Since the axle came from Henschen at the time of the recall for bearing failure, my first thought was we had lost a bearing. Not so. The belts had separated on both tires, at the same time!
Fortunately, we had the two tires earmarked for the Overlander with us, and we were able to limp to a tire store, and get the Marathons installed.
After a two hour delay, we were back on the road, and headed for our overnight stop in Ocala, Florida.
The rest of the trip passed without incident, and we arrived Thursday afternoon.
Friday morning we removed the old tires and wheels to put new tires on the Overlander, and repack the wheel bearings, as well as check the brakes. This particular trailer has electric brakes on both axles, as opposed to one electric and one hydraulic, as found on other trailers of this vintage. I thought the trailer needed axles desperately because of how the wheelwell covered the entire top of the tires, and part of the wheels. It does need axles, but not as badly as I thought. The trailing arms are actually dead level, as opposed to an upturn in the arm that I expected. Something eles I noticed, this trailer has vertical shock absorbers, which was supposed to indicate the trailer came from California, but the straight wheel wells, as well as the VIN badge, say it came from Jackson Center. A mystery, right off the bat...
We got four more Marathons (Goodyear is having a good month becuase of us), and went in search of a shop to remove the 2 5/16" trailer ball the Argosy used, and install a 2" ball for the Overlander. The head we have came with the Argosy, and the ball was installed in 1972, at the time the Argosy was delivered. After trips to several different shops, one was able to finally burn off the bolt holding the ball on, and install the correct (8800#) 2" ball.
Everything was installed, and tested, and we were ready to leave the folowing morning.
The trip home was uneventful, although the first few miles were a bit nerve-wracking, since we are used to absolutely flat, straight road here in Florida, and we were hauling a 5000 pound trailer up winding, steep (5-7% grades), and the trailer was pushing us back down those same grades when we got to the top of the hills.
Now we are starting to tear out the asbestos-laced floor tiles, for replacing with vinyl flooring.
Ongoing projects are, in no particular order-
Patch two small areas of soft wood in the floor, and install vinyl flooring.
Install a dinette or gaucho in the front of the trailer.
Replace the replacement electric only refrigerator with a LP/electric unit.
Repair the old or replace with a new A/C unit.
Install a modern water heater.
Modernize the fresh water plumbing.
Install a grey water tank.
Replace the axles.
Replace the two window regulators on the upper left front window in the living area.
Replace the back bumper.
Remove the Mickey Mouse stabilizers that are on the trailer, and replace with something a little more mainstream.
Replace the skylight in the living area.
CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!!!
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