And the restoration begins - looking for ideas and guidance!

[andymeyer]

Minno, I hadn't thought about weight until you mentioned it. Great point and those are heavy cabinets. I think I may build my own cabinet frames from 1x3 hardwood. I'll have drawer boxes made online. Then I just need to figure out cabinet and drawer faces - those can be had online too. I think I'll save a ton of weight for a little more labor and a better quality cabinet.

Been beating my head over electrical tonight. I was thinking I had 2 phase power coming into an RV - turns out I only have single phase, 30 Amp. Now, I got my Boondocker 1260PC sitting here. It has a backplane that connects 4 breakers to a bus, but I can't figure out how to connect that bus to 120V incoming - there is no other connection point besides the 4 pins for 4 breakers. And how to I tie into the additional 2 breakers??? Phone call to the folks at BestConverters unless someone here can explain this better. My original setup only had 2 breakers for the whole unit.

I will have a breaker box (for all of 1 breaker) at the back of the trailer where the power comes in, along with a surge protector...

Breaker plan was to put both AC and microwave on a single 20 Amp breaker. Those two on at the same time take me north of 20 amps anyways and I don't want to take the whole dang trailer down if someone runs both at the same time. I'd rather just pop the breaker. Is my thinking sound? I burned my brain out today trying to solve a control theory problem for an engine.

DC will be limited to 10 amps per circuit with 15 amp breakers on 14AWG wire. Is that wire fat enough? I rarely will be pulling all 10 amps either... That's based on everything being on. Do I need fat feeders run?

Also need to disassemble our door a bit and tweak the top of the frame inward about 5/8". It leaks around the seal pretty good. Might need a new piece of interior Al as well - the one there is wrinkled from someone trying to fix without removing that interior Al.

Thanks!

[Minno]

Hubby used basswood for the frames of our cabinets, and red alder for faces. Basswood doesn't show on the outside. Red alder boards are cheap but the plywood was not. It's a nice look, though and not heavy. Birch is another nice look, and light weight.
You might keep in mind, too, that you want to try to balance the trailer side to side. If you're moving heavier components (like a frig or furnace) from one area to another, you need to keep balance between the sides of the trailer.
I can't help you with electrical, except to say that we got stuff from Best Converter, and they were great with help on questions he had.
Chris tweaked our door, and built a jig for doing it. It's on our "Little Girl Refurb" thread if you need to see.

Kay

[dbj216]

My 86 Limited has a "either / or" switch for the microwave or AC. Both can not be on at the same time. It is a simple 120v switch mounted in a cabinet. I did run a dedicated circuit for the microwave in the Overlander. I did not install a "either / or" switch as the wiring for the AC is buried under the interior skins. I am very aware we can't run both at once.

I prefer 12ga wire for the 12v wiring. There is a significant "resistance" in smaller gauge wires that 12 volts has a hard time overcoming.

I've never installed a "power center" for 120v and 12v combined. I'm no help.

David

[wcronin4]

I'm not sure whether your question about what to do with all the holes in the walls ever got answered. Perhaps it did and I didn't see it.

I asked the same question and it was suggested that rivets could be used. There are so may in the inner skin already and few more would not be noticed.

Another thought I had related to applying panels over certain sections to hide the places where holes are plentiful.

For instance in my Sovereign, over the twin beds, AS installed these fabric covered appliques or panels. The fabric was a 70s looking plaid, but it dressed up the wall. I am considering using them in strategic locations to cover some of the damage to the inner skin. The original was cardboard backed and riveted to the wall.

Also, AS made a mistake when they cut a hole in the inner skin for cabling and covered it with aluminum to match. I didn't even see the patch until I started to disassemble the interior. The tambour cabinets I had in my AS are cracked and I will probably go a different direction with cabinets. The tambour cabinets used sheet aluminum that matches the walls, so plan B is to repurpose the cabinet aluminum as wall patches where needed.

Hope this gets your creative juices going.

Bill
wcronin4

[andymeyer]

Bill, Thanks! Working the walls soon - Laura cleaned the first one today and will tackle the rest soon.

David, Didn't have to read your idea about the switch for AC / Micro twice - already in the plan - Great idea!

Minno, Plan is similar for the cabinets - 1x3" Not sure of the species yet.

my3sonsdad, Went to Ikea yesterday. Worth the trip. Plus, we stopped at the MD RV show. Mostly new stuff for sale and campground info. But, worth the trip.

So... We have lights! At least in the front half. They are up and working - I'll have pictures soon. 12 5W LED fixtures on touch dimmers in the front half of the trailer. Still need to add 4 over the kitchen counter, 2 in front of the bathroom, 2 on our street side sleeper, 2 or 3 in the bathroom, and 4 in the rear bedroom.

120V is all stubbed in. 2 outlets up by the dinette, 1 for the Micro or AC (switched), 1 for the fridge, 1 in the Kitchen, 1 in the bath, 1 curb side mid trailer outside, 1 curb side bumper, and 1 in the master. Any other 120 I'm forgetting or should add?

Need to add the Inverter to transfer switch line. (Inverter will live up front by the converter, transfer switch will be by the street side rear hatch where my breaker panel is.) Not sure when we'll put an inverter in, but we'll be ready for it - 20 amps worth. (Is that enough?) Or, do I run a second 12/2 cable to support?

What else am I forgetting before we start hanging insulation and interior skins?

[dbj216]

I added a second outlet in my galley as there seems to be a need for more power there with all the kitchen gadgets we drag along. We use an electric heater of about 1200 watts on cool mornings. I bet you can tell we don't boondock much.

David

[andymeyer]

Quick question before I do it wrong...
I replaced the steel angle iron across the rear of the trailer with an aluminum piece. My steel one was completely gone, non-existent except for what was between the skin and the U Channel. Does the steel angle sit between the floorboard and the U Channel, or does it extend below the floorboards and sandwich the floorboard between the u channel and the steel angle?

[dbj216]

That is a good question worth discussing. The photo below of old nasty rusty parts shows it sandwiched around the subfloor and between the bottom of the subfloor and the rear frame crossmember.

The purpose of the "rear body mount" is a solid surface to attach the rear of the body to the frame. I did it differently. The stack up of parts between the frame rails back there from the bottom up includes the rear most crossmember, then the subfloor, then the rear body mount, and then the c channel. There is the infamous aluminum sheet piece between the bumper storage door assembly and the body that slips under the subfloor.

There are depictions of this stack up here on Air Forums posted in other project threads.

I made a new rear body mount out of steel. It is firmly bolted through the c channel, subfloor and to the rear frame crossmember. The rear crossmember is steel and welded to the frame rails. The new rear body mount sits tight under the rear compartment door frame. I elected to mount it on top of the subfloor instead of underneath of it. I am hopeful it will tend to trap less water. I will not use the aluminum sheet between the bumper storage door and the body. I will have an ugly gap that allows rainwater to fall off the rear of the body and into the "holding tank drain manifold" and then onto the ground.

Here are some photos of what I did. 1. New parts 2. Rear crossmember welded to the frame rails 3. Rear body plate under the rear compartment door frame and bolted to the subfloor and rear cross member (c channel not installed yet) 4. The old stuff showing the rear body plate under the rotted out subfloor.

Hope this helps some

David

[andymeyer]

Been terrible about updating here, but here goes...

Rear end is bolted together. 1/8” Al angle sandwiched between c channel and sub floor. Had it bent to 80 degrees which was about perfect. Put 3/32” plates in c channel to distribute the bolt load. The rear end seems solid now. Hopefully I didn’t just move the stresses to a bad spot. Still need to rivet the rear skin back on, but it appears in good shape.

Fresh tank is in place - side bolts holding it in. Put XPS insulation under / around with a wrap of the foil bubble wrap to seal it up a bit better. Going all PEX for the new plumbing. Any problems going all sharkbite?

Tank monitoring... I’m an Arduino / Raspberry Pi geek. Built up a capacitive tank monitoring system... big copper foil pads on each tank. Now to see if it works as well as my experiment. An Arduino pings the tank and then measures the voltage response on an analog line. Spits the data across USB to a Raspberry Pi running a python program to display tank, pressure, voltage, current and temperature data. All displayed on a 7” touchscreen.

Most of the insulation is in... Roxul rock wool. Layers split in half. Making new sections of wall where ours were too torn up. I can get 4x10 sheets of 0.032 locally. Trying to figure out where my holes for wiring exits are...

Belly is covered in 2” XPS. Probably overkill, but... debating on squirt foam sealing every gap to preclude bug intrusion, but also worried about trapping water. Thoughts? Think we can salvage the belly pans. Not sure whether to salvage the rub strips or replace with new. I’ll have to see how ours clean up. Scotchbrite?

Also replacing all of the bananas... Do I go to 0.032 , or stick with the 0.025”?
We got all new ABS corners for the corner panels. Any tricks for rolling the banana aluminum to shape?

New waste valves are coming together. Got a new Valterra T with 2 valves. Need to slightly turn down some 3” PVC to fit in my tanks... doesn’t quite slide in. Any other suggestions on how better to do this?

Replacing all of my exterior lighting with LED. Need to do a full checkout before the walls are sealed up.

Two new MAXXFans installed and working. Debating whether we still need the center vent near the kitchen... it’s worn and I don’t have any nice trim to salvage for it... it could’ve be sealed up and left covered in case I want it later.

All ( I think) electrical is in place for now except for stubbing in the solar for the future. Just need to run the thermostat wires and USB. Going with an AC / Microwave select switch.

That’s about it for now, I’ll try to update more soon.

[andymeyer]

The interior as of now, and my Arduino / Raspberry Pi experiment.

[dbj216]

Hi, you have been busy!

PEX is a great plumbing material. Sharkbite connectors work, I have a couple of them in my trailer when I went from copper to PEX. However, PEX cinch clamps work too and a much lower cost. I'm cheap.

I like nice and airy in the belly area. Drying out is better. Perfect, air tight insulation below the subfloor isn't really all that necessary in my view. I'm a fair weather Airstreamer. I used duct tape to seal my gaps in the foam insulation.

.025 is easier to work with when using manual labor. I found a large diameter piece of sewer pipe (like 6" in diameter), and then a lightly rolled the aluminum over the pipe to start to form the radius. It worked pretty good.

You might try your heat gun or a good hair dryer on the molded plastic boss that your valve is supposed to fit into. If you heat it to say 170 to 200 degrees F, the plastic will expand quite a bit. This may allow the parts to fit together.

David

[Minno]

We eventually eliminated the center vent in our trailer. We have Maxxair at front and back, and a bullet fan in the bathroom. Never used the center vent.

Kay

[andymeyer]

Busy day after being gone for 5 on vacation with family in GA... Back at it, but almost hit the ground hard... Was standing on the A frame of the trailer looking at running lights when one of my feet felt that it no longer needed to keep mother earth at bay and went sliding off into the wild blue. As my gravitational attraction suddenly started pulling the earth towards me at 32ft/s^2, I figured this was gonna hurt. Somehow my left leg hooked around the A-frame, slowed my fall, and somehow didn't DPT (destructively physical test) my left leg or knee. My wife thought as I was standing up there with mud on my shoes that this wasn't a good idea - something that didn't cross my soon to be accelerating mind, but refrained. Back at it, no more mud on shoes.

I think we are going to leave the center vent installed, but close and seal off for now. If we want it later, we can open up the ceiling in that area and put an appropriate trim around it.

Banana Panels... I got the new ABS ones for the corners, but debating what to do for the sides. Can't source 14' .025 or .032 around here - I can get 10 foot lengths... Considering going to .019 instead of the stock .025. I can get it inexpensively, and it'll be a lot easier to manage / install. Whole trailer new bananas will run me around $100 vs. double that in .032, and a lot easier to bend to shape. Is the .019 going to be too thin?

Original belly pan will be re-used, but I'm planning on 1.5"x1/8" bar stock along each of the rivet lines to support and preclude the rivets working through. Thoughts here? Went back and forth on replacing the belly pan, but can't justify the cost of 7 sheets of aluminum to do it... The original has some wear, but it certainly serviceable. Maybe a couple of years down the road we may replace if it asks for it.

Never tried any of the "chrome" spray paint - looking to use it for the tail light bezels that are ABS?. Not sure what other color would look right on those. Any thoughts here? Going all LED for the tail lamps and running lights... Make it look and work nice.

Two layers of 3" wide glass on one of the inside end caps along the rivet lines... Hoping that'll be enough to preclude further cracking after MEKing the cracks back together. Debating on stop drilling and filling the end of those cracks - or does the MEK soften and destress the plastic sufficiently at the end of the cracks?

Andy

[andymeyer]

Making progress...

Last week I picked up 5 sheets of 4x10x.032 aluminum for interior wall replacement, and a 50' roll of .018x24" aluminum for the banana panels.

Most of the electrical is done, back up camera is installed (don't measure from the center of the window, lest you'll be off center of the running lights by about an inch. Adding a few more wires for various things and trying to figure out where everything will end up.
Laura found 2 sconces for the bedroom and an overhead light for the dinette last night. Now to install when they get here.

Yesterday and today, we cut the replacement walls that we needed from the sheet, got them primed (SEM grey self etching primer) and painted with a Sherwin Williams grey that she likes. A few other walls still need a coat of paint. Plan is to start installing from the bottom up, then a coat of paint after install as well. Not sure if I'm going to put J-Trim on everything or not - any thoughts here? Learning to paint earlier in the day (well, we didn't learn yet - had to bring everything in in a hurry as the dew set before we ended up with a soupy mess.)

I've been stuck in a rut trying to figure out where the switches and wiring goes through the walls and have had a hard time making progress in that area, but I better figure it out quick. I've been stewing long enough on this one. I'm really tempted to utilize a REAL battery charger for charging my batteries and use the converter for powering everything else when I'm on shore power - Just takes a diode drop from the battery and an installed smart charger for the battery. If the converter can't handle a heavy load and the converter voltage drops below the battery by more than 0.7 volts, the battery (and charger) will take the load, then recharge when the load goes away, without any mindless charging algorithms like I've seen on the best converters. (The 1 hour of this and 2 hours of that is not ideal if your battery isn't at that level of charge that needs exactly 1 hour of this and 2 hours of that.) Thoughts?

Waste tanks are about ready to go in. I have my copper pads for my capacitive tank measurement sensing installed. (~6x12" each) Copper tape started peeling - no surprise, nothing sticks to PE. So, piece of soft foam with a layer of gorilla tape around the tank to hold the pads in place. Not the prettiest solution, but I've got the old sensors as backup if needed (hopefully not). The tape is primarily bonded to itself, not the tank. Ugly, but functional. Capacitive measuring software works. 1 Arduino down by the tanks powered by USB from the Raspberry Pi that's running the display. One more Arduino by the batteries to send all of the power information to the Pi. Pi will also manage my thermostat (heater) and display the current temp and humidity. What else do I make this thing do?

Replaced all of the running lights with LED along with the rear Grote lights... Everything is LED and working now. Any idea on how to get the plastic frames re-chromed without spending a fortune?

Backup camera is in. I have a transmitter that I haven't placed yet... Do I put the antenna hanging down by one of the front windows? Is just behind the fiberglass end shell sufficient? Any thoughts on where best to place this? Don't want to poke an antenna through the exterior wall anywhere, but an aluminum faraday cage isn't ideal either.

I'm hoping to start on the bananananananana panels tomorrow after getting the waste tanks hung. I'm hoping the ABS corners go on without a big fuss - even though they are thicker than my old aluminum ones. Any suggestions on cleaning up the extruded aluminum band that goes around the trailer - mine is dingy, but in good shape otherwise. Scotchbrite and oil it down? Scotchbrite and clearcoat? Clean it up when I polish up the exterior (3 years from now) and not worry about it?

I'm terrible about pictures! Sorry. I'll see what Laura captured today and add soon.

This is fun!

[dbj216]

You guys are making progress and at an expert level to boot. I'm not familiar with the components you are installing. Pictures are always nice.

David

[andymeyer]

More work today, thought it was raining, and raining, and raining. Did some more cleanup of the electrical. Got wires closer to final location, added some convolute to protect them in a few areas, added some 8AWG leads for solar in the future, etc...

Built a new frame to support the AC. The old frame was four 2x2's jammed between the skin and the AC frame. Much more solid and stopped the introduction of fresh drinking water right in the middle of the trailer. The frame is oak 1x2's from frame member to frame member with 1x2 oka cross bars - curved on top to match the body shape. The frame was screwed into the cross members to keep it from moving.

There was a drain line when she came apart. I put a new drain line is. WHERE DOES IT GO? I can't find a fitting or place for it anywhere? Where does an Advent AC135P drain it condensate? Can I add a 120V heater to this thing?

Also cleaned the garage (some) so that I can get some more work done.

Okay, need to send Laura out there with the camera - I stink at it. What do y'all want to see?

[wcronin4]

Andy - I’ve seen pics somewhere on the forum that show the drain tube connect to a plastic cup that catches water from the AC.

I’ll look at mine today and see if I can get a pic for you.

[dbj216]

I should have mentioned the AC condensate drain tube in my trailer runs through the subfloor and onto the ground.

David

[andymeyer]

Starting to install walls... Hopefully we get those in right. Rear end cap and the rear corner walls are in. Gonna work our way forward as we pull electrical through in what we hope are the right places. We'll rivet as we run out of clecos...

Piece below the window was replaced and cut a hair too short. :/

Any suggestions for filling excess holes in the walls? Pain able caulk or JB Quik Weld to fill, then paint over? Dimple the holes a bit to get rid of bumps...

Any need for the J Channel that was used or do most skip that on the edges of the panels?

[Joyflea]

Sorry Andy ,can not find the pictures I took inside the skin of the line . Dominic (sp) makes a drain kit , two plastic cups to catch the water . They have a line between them with a tee in it . A line comes off the tee that runs in the skin to a termination point . On my 67 it goes between the ribs to the upper cabinets and then runs inside the cabinets down to the floor behind the oven and passes through the floor and bottom pan next to the gas line . Completely confused?
Good luck , Blue .