Dale and Terry get a '66 Tradewind

[dbj216]

I believe those oblong holes in the cross members were there for the underfloor ducting Airstream ran back then. It was actually the cold air return lines to the furnace. I used them to reverse the flow and pump hot air from the new furnace in them and then let the furnace suck return air out of the trailer. Never tried it on a below freezing night, but I did get warm air to my tanks and the rear bath as well as the front seating area.

David

[Jeremy9107]

That's a unique idea Slats. Would be curious to know how those in slot tanks would all connect to drain. Would have to be creative in figuring out a tank level monitoring system. Guessing you could add a lot of water storage though, what did your calculations say?

[Slats]

Jeremy -


The general calculation for gallons in a cube is (in inches) width x height x depth divided by 231. Because oval tubes are not cubes, it was a little more problematic. So I started with the height (2.5") and width (12") of the tube, and knocked an inch off the width to compensate for the difference between a rectangle and an oval (no math involved in that, just a wild guess). I then figured that I wanted 12 foot tanks, so the calculation went 2.5 x 11 x 144 = 3960 divided by 231 = 17.14 gal. No doubt someone who got better than the occasional C+ that I got in math could come up with a more precise number. The tanks could be connected and could also be longer, but I am leaning towards 30 or so gallons of grey water capacity, so two of them ought to do it. I plan on sticking to my plan of having a 15 gal. plastic above-floor black water tank in the street side rear corner. But, as my plans are often but one step above pipe dreams, that is subject to change as well.


Anyway, for grins, I'm attaching a pic of yesterday's ingenuous coupling of two 24" clamps that were hurriedly conjoined after I had already fit my sink cabinet frame together and realized my long clamp was back at the house.


The other two pics are of my new bathroom shower wall, showing how the light from the bedroom bleeds through nicely to impart a light and airy effect.

[rmkrum]

Conjoined clamps are not all that unusual. I’ve found most of the clamps I have are usually an inch or two shorter than the project I’m trying to clamp up. Even my 4 foot long pipe clamps get this treatment. I think it’s part of the Murphy’s Law corollaries somewhere.

[Slats]

I'm with you on that. Joyflea, however, would never find himself in such a predicament. See http://www.airforums.com/forums/f363...184236-16.html at post #219.

[rmkrum]

Sadly, I don’t have Norm’s ‘New Yankee Workshop, router or clamp collection. I manage to make do with what I have—one garage bay that I store all the tools in, and setup in the driveway or park cars in the street. No more 1600 square foot basement shop like we had in Alabama.

[dbj216]

I like the way the light filters through your shower wall. Pretty. I do fear that if I turned on the bathroom light and stepped in the shower, would my silhouette be visible in the bedroom. Sleeping people in the bedroom would figure they are having nightmares.

David

[Atomic_13]

Dale, if I’m following your pipe based grey water idea correctly I believe you are proposing running several long pipes inside the four cutout ovals of the frame cross members.

Assuming your 2.5”x12” dimensions are from the inside of the ovals i believe you a could install four 2” ID (2.375” OD) schedule 40 PVC pipes in each of the slots. This would require capping both ends using two “waterway slip wye” connected together using standard PVC fittings. The slip wye minimize the space between each pipe compared to using four standard Ts which have broader shoulders. One end of each pipe would be for fill the other end would need to be vented.

One thing I’m not very sure of is how long of each pipe section would you be able to insert? If you could wrangle in 12’ long pipes you’d have about 8 gallons of storage per “bay” This was determined by taking 3.1415 * radius (1”)^2 * height (144”) * 4 pipes. I believe there are four bays so it’s possible to store 32 gallons using this system (assuming no frame obstructions were present in the frame). I do worry about the weight of all the PVC pipe, which will approximately be 140#s (this specific pipe weighs 0.68#/‘). Perhaps schedule 20 would be ok?

Personally, I’d go with the Vintage Trailer Supply tanks between the cross members.

[TouringDan]

Originally Posted by Atomic_13

Personally, I’d go with the Vintage Trailer Supply tanks between the cross members.

Dale

I completely agree with Atomic_13. One of my favorite sayings also comes to mind as a reason to go with the more standard grey water storage solution “ New solutions have new problems.”

This is one of those 3 am nights for me. You are not alone.

Dan

[Slats]

Hmmm, the two guys I most respect throwing cold water on my flight of fancy. Food for thought. Stay tuned.


So here's another one for comment. I can get a Truma tankless water heater with a $300 rebate if I send them a picture of the water heater I'm replacing and purchase the Truma by July 19. The rv dealer in Olathe that is the Truma source around these parts will install it for (drum roll) $300. So, what's not to like?

[Jeremy9107]

Slats. Have you looked at Excel tankless heaters yet? Price tag is cheaper. Don’t need a professional to install.

[TouringDan]

Slats

Does your water heater need replacement? Is it not working? We have a regular water heater and really can’t figure out why anyone would install a tankless model. Ours works just fine. It is simple, cheap and very reliable. Another saying comes to mind- “If it is not necessary to change then it is necessary not to change”. Boy, I guess I must really sound like an old fart.

To me this is more of a personal preference decision. Whatever works best for you.

Dan

[rmkrum]

Tankless water heater is very much a personal preference. I have tankless water heaters at home and in our Airstream because DW prefers endless hot water for her showers or baths. I prefer the peace and quiet because DW doesn’t complain about a lack of hot water in either location.

Wasn’t a particularly hard install on either one, but the first time DW didn’t run out of hot water for her bath made it priceless...well worth the money.

Wives, in my experience, do not like to take Navy showers on the road either.

[dbj216]

We had a good brand of tankless water heater here in our Conifer home. The dumb thing was a maintenance nightmare. The heat exchanger would soot up due to the frequent burner ignitions running on propane. The igniters failed twice. The unit had to be descaled every year with a vinegar soak. There are flow sensors and electronics to tell the thing someone wants a little hot water to wash his hands. It took longer to get hot water at the faucet.

So I installed an old fashioned tank heater. The insulation around it is better than 10 years ago. It is reliable as an anvil, no problems to report. We get hot water at the faucet sooner. And it was significantly less than the tankless job.

Not a fan of tankless even with the promise of endless hot showers. At 4 gpm, a ten minute shower will fill a grey tank. The next thing you know, we will want hot tubs in our trailers.

David

[Jeremy9107]

Might as well add my 2 cents as counterpoint to David (who I respect greatly). My original hot water heater was cracked when I bought the trailer so I took it out and opened it up. It was full of minerals and sediment. Gross to think that people were drinking water that came through it. Nonetheless I replaced it with another tank heater. To get it going had to go outside the trailer, open the vent door, turn propane on and ignite. If the wind blew strong the pilot would blow out. Had to replace some regulator doo-dad component a year into it too.

Replaced with tankless now. Have access to everything inside trailer. No sediment build up. Much easier to drain. Lighter weight sealed up that big vent opening that the wasps were nesting in. I’m not much for endless showers but if I ever install a hot tub I’ll have endless hot water to fill it with!

[Slats]

Thanks to all for their water heater advice. Now I'm totally confused. So I'm procrastinating by continuing with my cabinet rebuilds. I figure that by the time I get the tanks and plumbing in I'll have the interior components all sitting outside the trailer ready to install. As an aside, I answered one of my own questions the other day. I have asked myself from time to time why I removed and kept the mahogany veneer door panel from my old refrigerator before I took it to the scrap metal yard. My answer to myself the other day was, "Because it would come in handy to replace the formica top of the bedroom dresser." Below is a picture of the old formica top and its replacement, along with the as-yet-unfinished dresser frame with the new dry fitted top (with only the first coat of polyurethane). Of course, I'll have to live with the fact that the grain does not run the same way.

[dbj216]

Our water heater discussion is what these Forums are all about. Airstreamers giving their experiences with this and that. I appreciate all the good advice I've been given in my project.

Slats, pick a water heater and install it. You won't be disappointed either way.

David

[Slats]

Well, Truma seems to be awfully picky. They won’t sell the Comfort Plus model to end users unless they install it at their facility in Elkhart, Indiana. So looks like I’ll buy down a notch.

On another note, while walking through Costco (a sometimes financially dangerous thing to do), I picked up a wireless backup camera for the Tradewind. Works great and the built-in solar charger is a nifty feature.

[Slats]

Here it is.

[Slats]

Here is the old bedroom dresser with the stripped, sanded and polyurethaned doors and hardware back on it.