1959 Tradewind, the trip home

[mercury7]

I picked up my Tradewind today, I had it towed to a tire shop down the road to have the bearings repacked and put new tires on it. I was planning to have the brakes done but the magnets were not working and so that repair was saved for another day. Which caused a great amount of anxiety on my part because I had several unknowns working against me.
first, I have never towed anything other than a small boat once and so I did not know what to expect.
second, a few weeks ago I purchased a honda ridgeline which alot of truck owners don't respect because it has an independent rear suspension and a vtec v6....this particularly worried me, I was worried about the tongue weight and not having a weight distibution hitch.
third....a biggie...given my inexperience and my unknown experince with the honda, when I found out I was going to tow with no brakes...or brakelights for that matter , I was scared to death

so on to the adventure Took me about 5 minutes to finally center the ball onder the hitch, then I slowly cranked her down, I kept waiting for the ridgeline to take a dive but it only moved about a half inch....I backed up and inspected the rigging and the airstream was completely level....I measured to the top of the ball before I start and it was about 21 inches, did'nt measure afterwards but everything was completely straight. although my airstream was gutted already, all the wood, two hot waterheater were stacked inside, the only missing pieces were the fridge and stove.

So on to the driving....I kept it around 40 on the drive home, did'nt notice any sway at all, and I was looking for it too, especially when big semis passed, actually I did'nt really feel like I was towing anything except when going over really ruff road, kind of a clunking sound and movement in the truck....I watched my rpms and going up steep hills I was pushing about 2800 rpms, never went over 3000...but like I said 40 was the max I went.
it was also comforting to be able to see all the way through the trailer from the front to back window...I was creating some traffic back there but I guess I was going fast enough to not be too annoying.

I never braked hard but the ridgeline had no trouble coming to a stop, never felt pushed.
So the bottem line is I love my airstream and have found new respect for my truck... I sweated the whole thing for nothing...it was easy....I will be adding several hundred pounds to it for the science center and so I will have to evaluate again but for now I am one happy camper

[Sugarfoot]

Good job on getting home, mercury7. I know you are relieved. I too was on pins and needles the 150 mile first tow with mine. Nor did I have brakes even though I had a new brake controller installed prior. For some reason the trailer brake wiring had been left out of a rewired 7-pin connector. So I understand your angst. Isn't amazing that even with a less than ideal situation these old Tradewinds tow so well? So now your serious work begins!

[mercury7]

Thanks sugarfoot, I am really looking forward to it....it is a very neat thing and although it is officially owned by the science center I am feeling very happy having something that has such history....almost 50 years old...wow

[Mark Wiltrakis]

Mercury7 -

Hope your adrenalin level is back toward the normal range. Sounds like a positive experience despite the concerns for disaster.
Imagine how well she'll tow with working brakes, a weight distribution hitch and sway control, and a spiffed up exterior and interior.
Best of luck!

Mark

[MarkR]

good job getting it home.
can we some "8x10 color glossies" . . . or did you already post pictures on another thread?
look forward to hearing about and seeing your progress.

[scottanlily]

Mercury 7 glad it went well ,very good news .You may not have as much
trouble if the trailer is kept light as it was (gutted) if its a display rig and not setup with the normal weights most of us have you may be ok .certainly not 4000 # I have in my trdwnd goin on a trip ,thats a whole different story. Id get some 4000# behind you and see what it does.

Scott

[mercury7]

Your right of course, no idea what it weighs now but it will be getting heavier and so I need to be careful how to design the interior, a local company donated some old computers but they are really heavy crt's and so I will probably need to liquidate those and get some lcd's....one possibility I was thinking of was to build an aluminum column ...appox 2 x2 inline with the airvents and mount the monitors flush....would really maximize space and would probably look good......You'll have to use your imagination on that one lol

[flyfshr]

Merc ~

Glad to hear of your safe trip home. My first tow was really scary and in the end, all the anxiety was not necessary. Remember when rebuilding out your interior to keep the heavier items over the axle and some thaty are slightly less in weight up front. Keep the original layout in mind as to where the heavier components were from the factory and follow thier lead as where to distribute the weight.

Keep us up to date with your progress and post pix when you can.

Brad
FF

[mercury7]

Thanks, I will do my best to document the process with pics etc...I hope that as yall see it coming together all my new found friends here will chime in with suggestions and ideas....my only regret is that yall all don't live next door to help me do it haha

[scottanlily]

Ive been thinking about the trdwnd NASA idea and its pretty exciting !
I watched the lunar landings on the old magnavox console my parents had
and saw one of the Apollo capsules out at meteor crator in Arizona ,Brads probably been there .A great exibit of NASA space program stuff. Ill always remember that velcro was not new back in the 80s as we thought ,it was part of the spacesuits in the 60s ,cool stuff ,can't wait to see your trdwnd come to life here mercury 7 .

Scott

[CanoeStream]

flamingo-kid1 says her '67 Ambassador is the only space-themed Airstream she's seen (uh, space aliens too). I've toured through it and I think any Mercury or Gemini era "kid" would recognize a lot. There aren't a lot of inside pics in her gallery except this one of her Jack Russell: http://www.airforums.com/photo...00&userid=2810

There is no copyright on the idea though ...

[mercury7]

I like her NASA sign

[robandzoe]

I have been updating my blog lately.. I have some 60 Trade Wind photos there, plus my new 59 Buick addition. Http://sweetsovereign.blogspot.com

Rob