Little Girl Refurb 1972

[Aage]

Chris, I think that you and Kay were wise to line the new plenum with the aluminum. Suburban's documents seem to indicate that while uncovered carpet is a no-no, plain wood or wood over carpet is acceptable. But having just replaced our 38-year-old NT-32 with a brand-new NT-30, I can tell you that the air that the furnace outputs to the room is H-O-T as it leaves the furnace!

As usual, great work!

[Minno]

2Rhinos and Aage - thanks for the compliments!

The furnace is a Suburban NT-40 that we purchased from Vintage Trailer Supply. We also bought the bottom plenum kit and the plugs to cover the four duct openings on the sides. The box under the furnace is needed to raise it high enough to line up with the original air intake and exhaust vents on the side of the airstream. I think the box is 5 1/4" tall total. Since I needed to raise the furnace, we decided to use the box as a plenum. Somewhere in the installation instructions I think I read that the first 3 or 4 feet of ducting needed to be non-combustible, so lining the wooden box was a requirement in my mind.

Chris

[2Rhinos]

OK, I get it now........thanks for the explanation.

[Minno]

Today’s projects:



Ran the wiring for the furnace thermostat and water monitor panel inside the ceiling and down through holes that will be inside the wall between the kitchen and bedroom.



Built a frame to hold the new roof a/c. Made it out of 2x4’s cut down to the thickness I needed.



Here’s the frame in place in the ceiling, held up with a clamp for now. I’ll install it with screws once we get the old a/c off the roof. It slips into the rib channel at the rear, and I’ll use several #10 stainless screws with locktite & lock washers to attach it to the rib in the front (where the clamp is). Thought I’d post some pics of the frame now, because I’ll probably forget to take pictures of it during the a/c installation.



While I was working on the a/c frame, Kay covered 3 more valances.



Here’s the first valance installed.

[Minno]

Spent most of the day doing prep work for the a/c swap we'll hopefully do tomorrow.


About the only thing to show for that is the shroud is now off of the a/c. It came off in pieces as it was really brittle, and would fracture apart just by looking at it cross-eyed. Man, what a mess there was under the cover! Leaves, twigs, paper wasps nests, mud dauber nests, dirt, etc, etc. The leaves and stuff must have been at least 5 inches thick along the sides. Used a hose and a jet spray setting on the nozzle to blast all the gunk out of the a/c. Then I hosed off the entire trailer. In hind sight, I should have re-connected the a/c drain hose inside the trailer. Discovered a big puddle on the floor after I was done hosing off the a/c. Oh well, no harm done and it was fairly clean water.



Later in the afternoon, I did start working on installing new side wraps. I drilled out the rivets along the bottom of the shell that holds it and the top of the side wrap to the c-channel on the section in front of the door. I used the old wrap as a template to make a new one. Installation went pretty smooth. Olympic rivets into the c-channel area and the large belly pan rivets underneath into the outriggers and frame. One section down, four more to go…

[wasagachris]

Looking good MC. Not only does the little girl have some new shoes but now a brand new set of underwear.. She's almost all dressed up and ready to take anywhere.

[Minno]

Well, you know my mother always said to make sure you have clean underwear in cae you get in an accident. Hopefully no accidents but she WILL have clean underwear! (It isn't all in yet, so Chris says it's only a thong so far.)

Kay

[wasagachris]

Hi Kay I never understood that saying because if the accident was bad enough would not your underwear be a mess anyway?

A thong you thay. Can you thing a thong for me?

[Minno]

Hi WC,
Mine would, I think (don't want to test that theory).
I don't think you would really appreciate my thinging a thong - voice is not what it used to be!

Kay

[Minno]

Yesterday, the weather did not cooperate for replacing the roof a/c, so we focused on replacing the flexible duct we installed with galvanized smooth duct. A couple of forum friends raised a couple of valid concerns with the flex duct we installed, so after thinking about it overnight, we bit the bullet and replaced it all. Didn’t think it would be an all day job, but it pretty much was. We added foil faced insulation around the duct as well. All the joints are screwed together as well as foil taped, so it’s not coming apart any time soon. We will add a layer of insulation on top of the exposed ducts in the picture below before we enclose them in the base of the kitchen cabinets.




Today, the weather did cooperate enough that we did get the a/c replaced. Getting the old one off was quite the task. First dig through 1/2” or more of old vulkum, remove the screws that haven’t rusted in place, grind off the remaining rusted in place screws (8 of ‘em), and then try to muscle the a/c out of the roof opening. I got smart and used a 2x4 with a bottle jack inside to break the a/c free from the roof. I swear, they used 6 full tubes of vulkum to seal that puppy to the roof and cover all the screw heads. Never leaked, so they did a good job from that aspect. But what a pain to get off.

Once we got the a/c free, Kay and I used a ladder to slide the old unit off the roof. I stayed up on the roof, and lowered it with a rope while Kay guided it down the ladder from the ground. Worked pretty well actually.

While I was working on prepping the roof for the new drip pan, Kay heard an updated weather report, and our partly cloudy afternoon forecast had changed to a rainy afternoon forecast. Sure enough, 30 minutes later is started to rain. Fortunately, we had a tarp ready (just in case), so we duct taped it over the hole in the roof, and went inside to grab lunch and wait out the rain.

After the rain stopped, our local son and I went out, removed the tarp, installed the 2nd gasket into the drip pan (one comes attached to the bottom of the a/c, and the 2nd one is needed because of the thickness of the drip pan), and then installed the drip pan on the roof by putting a couple of good beads of vulkum around the opening and setting it in place.



We set up my folding ladder on top of my scaffold and hoisted the new a/c first up to the scaffold platform, and then up on top of the ladder. Then, while Kay was inside to guide us and my son and I were both on the roof, we lifted the a/c off the ladder and onto the drip pan, centering it over the opening in the drip pan and the roof. That was much, much easier than I expected. I like it when things go well!



Then it was a simple matter of installing the bolts inside to clamp the a/c to the roof. Right now, I have the 3 bolts it came with installed, but will buy two more and add them since there are places for 5 bolts (2 in the front and 3 in the back). I still need to hook up the drip line and 110 VAC, but the unit itself is installed. You may notice in the two pictures above that we cut the center ceiling piece. We split it into 3 sections to make it easier to re-install, so this is the middle section that extends from the a/c forward to the middle roof vent.



Finally, here’s the a/c sitting on the roof with the cover in place. We painted the cover gray because we like the look if it better than the stark white cover. Blends in with the black and smoke colored roof vents better too.

The airstream drip pan raises the a/c unit about a half inch, so not bad at all. It’s black, and blends in with the dark gray bottom of the a/c fairly well I think. The one thing I do notice is the white caulk they used to seal the drip pan on the sides, so I covered the white caulk with gray vulkum, so it doesn’t stand out quite as much. It has drain holes every 4 or 5 inches around the outside perimeter, so any water that might collect in the drip pan from rain can find its way out. The a/c drip area is completely separate from the rest of the drip pan, so a/c condensate will all flow into the drain tube and not down the outside of the trailer.

Chris

[Minno]

Finally, the a/c is fully installed and operational! If you are in the market for a Dometic Penguin or Penguin 2, be aware that there are many different roof units and inside air distribution boards (ADBs as Dometic calls them), as well as digital, analog, and manual thermostats, and there are combinations of them that will not work together. And even experienced Airstream dealers can get it wrong sometimes. But, it was a very happy ending, so all is well.

Last weekend, we installed the Penguin 2 roof unit and the ADB board, but just to clamp the roof unit to the Airstream. On Monday, I tried to hook up the ADB to the roof unit, and discovered that the roof unit has many more wires coming out of it than the installation instructions say should be there. And the connector needed to plug the roof unit into the ADB was not there.

The ADB we installed has a circuit board with a manual thermostat and integral controls to operate the a/c. The controls are on the ceiling unit. After checking Dometic’s web site (which has no detailed information on the Penguin 2 btw ), I figured out that the roof unit we had requires the Climate Control Center (CCC) thermostat. So, the manual thermostat ADB will not work with it. Tuesday, I called the local Airstream dealer, and explained it all to the parts guy. He took my information and the models numbers of the roof unit and ADB board, and called Dometic. When he called me back, he told me what was wrong, and how he was going to fix it.

The 15K BTU roof unit we have requires the CCC. No Penguin 2 15K roof units will work with the ADB that has the manual thermostat. So, rather than replace the roof unit with a 13.5 K unit, he did a swap on the ADB and we bought the CCC thermostat. Another hundred bucks, but that sure beat taking the roof unit off the trailer and installing a different less powerful one. The replacement parts came in on Thursday, so I picked them up and completed the installation Thursday and Friday evenings. Went really well once I had the correct parts! Pictures below show the new ADB on the ceiling and the fancy dancy thermostat to control it.



We ran the a/c Friday evening to make sure it works, and it cools the trailer quite well. The fan has 3 speeds. On low and medium, the a/c is much quieter than the a/c’s we’ve had in other trailers. Even on high, it’s quieter than the old Armstrong unit we took off.


Today, we installed the rest of the side wraps. That was quite a project. Took us pretty much all day to install them, and I’m glad that step is behind us now.



Port (street) side wraps. The orange wire behind the axels is for the dump station light.



Starboard (curb) side wraps. The red and blue pex lines are the low point drains.

Tomorrow we’ll install the banana wraps.



Finally, this evening after dinner, I installed the first half of the wall between the galley and the bedroom. We’ve had this wall put together for a few weeks now, but I was waiting until the a/c was finished before installing this wall. Now I can run the wiring in it for the water monitor panel, and both the furnace and a/c thermostats, and then install the other skin on the wall.

Chris

[nmbosa]

Great write up on the AC install Chris. I'll be looking to this for advice when we get around to buying an AC for our trailer.

[Minno]

Thanks Norm or Mary. If you or anyone else has any questions about the a/c install, feel free to PM us or ask in this thread. Always happy to help fellow streamers.

Today, we finished her undies by installing the banana wraps. With Kip’s advice and roller tool, we got them to look fairly respectable, especially considering what they looked like when we started. We also vulkumed around the top of each wrap to help ensure no water gets to the plywood.






Kay shaved rivets all around the perimeter of the trailer from the side wrap installation yesterday while I fiddled with the belly pan a bit more and started working on the dump drains. Figured out we need more plumbing parts, so we decided to call it a day.

Next comes the banding around the lower part of the trailer (or lace for the undies), finishing the rear bumper storage, and repainting the tongue after sandblasting. THEN we will be done with the outside, for now. We feel pretty good (and a little sore) about what we accomplished this weekend.

Chris

[r.swanson]

i have a 1971 29 ft can i put 235 70 15 10 ply tires on it?????

[Minno]

Originally Posted by r.swanson

i have a 1971 29 ft can i put 235 70 15 10 ply tires on it?????

No idea, but 10 ply seems kinda stiff. You'd probably get a better response if you started a new thread with your tire question in the Tires forum: Tires - Airstream Forums

Chris

[Minno]

Tank drains are installed now!



The black water dump leaves the black tank via two 45’s hidden inside the cover we made and installed this evening. The fitting pokes out from the cover at the right of the black drain pipe in the two pictures above. The cover hides the hole I left in the belly pan so I could install these fittings for the black tank drain. The drain pipe runs forward at a 45 degree angle, and then turns with another 45 to run straight out to the dump valve. Even though the pictures dn not show it very well, there is a downward slope to the dump valve all the way from the black tank.




The gray water tanks drain runs aft from the two gray tanks and out toward the side to the dump valve. Used 45's again to allow for the best flow while dumping. Again, the drain does slope down all the way even though the pictures do not show that slope very well. Hard to see in the first picture, but if you look close, you can see the drain coming down from the forward gray tank and tying into the drain from the aft gray tank. Doing the drain like this allow the two tanks to be ganged together, so that as one tank fills, the water level will equalize in both tanks.


We still need to attach the black drain pipe and dump valve to the trailer with strapping. I’m thinking of using the gray nylon strapping, but I’m not sure it would be strong enough to handle road vibrations under the trailer. I could make aluminum strapping out of leftover belly pan. Any thoughts?

Chris

[Bauxter]

Chris, i have hot water heat in the house, and the pipes have solid metal bar hangers holding the pipes. At the end of each bar is a 3" circle that goes around the pipes. If that setup is still out there, it might be a good application for it. I know I will be looking at that on mine...about 2 months from now.
And by the way I was rereading this page...a dump valve light...really? What's next for the dump valve area, cat5, speaker outlets, and a beer tap?....just kidding. . man I wish I had your's and Kay's energy!

[Minno]

Our last two SOB trailers had dump lights. Most new airstreams have them too from what we've seen. I've never used the dump light, but figured what the heck, it's easy enough to add while building everything in case we ever visit a dump station at night. A beer tap might be overkill, but Kay suggested a Bailey's tap instead.

Energy? We flop into bed exhausted most nights, especially on the weekends after working on the trailer all day. We're not 20 or 30 or 40 something anymore...

I did make a couple of straps from left over belly pan. I'll post pictures later today.

[Minno]

DUDE!! The jacks are right side up now!


While it was still relatively cool this morning, I did some outside work. Installed the new stabilizer jacks.



Also installed strapping for the dump valve and black drain line. Made from scrap belly pan. This is actually strap number 2, as I wasn’t happy with the first strap I made and installed yesterday by the valve. It held the valve just a tad too high, and there wasn’t anything over the top of the pipe, so it could bounce in the strap going down the road. This strap is the correct length, plus it holds the pipe on the top too. I also added a reinforcing piece under the rivets at the top.

Back to inside work again, and test out the new a/c.

Chris

[desertair27]

Really nice work! I like the straps you made. Pro caliber work