A few problems w/ my CCD

[PunkZTT]

I recently purchased an 03' CCD from a private party. The unit has been great thus far, but I have had a few problems.

First off, when I flush the toilet the water does not stop running into the bowl. It just keeps filling up. I have to turn the H20 valve off that supplies the toilet everytime I flush it.
Is this a common problem? Any ideas on how to fix it?

Secondly, I was filling the fresh water tank today and started to hear a loud popping sound when it was full. I pulled the hose out of the fill hole and went inside. To my suprise, I saw a big bump sticking up in my vinyl floor (in the middle of the walkway in front of the oven on my model). Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was a bolt. I think the tank got overfilled and forced the floor up off of the frame of the trailer, causing the bolt to strip itself. When I looked at the bolt under the trailer, I could see that there was no nut. In fact, none of the bolts that held the floor to the frame of the camper had nuts on them. They were just threaded into the frame. Unfortunately, when the bolt popped up out of the floor it stripped itself and then there was a little lump in my floor because I couldn't tighten it up. So I had to cut the vinyl floor around the head of the bolt with a razorblade in order to put my phillips screwdriver on the head. Then I had to have my friend tighten a nut onto the bolt under the trailer while I held it from inside the camper. The problem has been fixed, but now I have a circle (roughly the size of a nickel) on my nice vinyl floor. UGH - I just know that this little vinyl piece is going to get pulled off and I will have an ugly bolt sicking out of my vinyl floor.
So I have been a little dissapointed thus far.

I went through the trailer and perfomed a lot of maintinence too. I lubricated all of the joints, re-caulked parts of the shower and kitchen, and cleaned every nook and cranny possible. The trailer looks like a million bucks and I am very proud of it!

I will have to post some pictures
-James

[jordandvm]

Welcome PKZTT,
We had a 2004 22' CCD.....had a few problems.....but never had that problem (thank god!). I remember we did place a small carpet in that area to stand on when cooking and to absorb spills in the kitchen area........... that could cover and possibly protect the repair you made until you think of a permanent fix!
BTW.....Welcome to the forums!

[lewster]

James,

Sounds like the valve in the pedal (assuming that you have a pedal flush toilet) is bad and needs to be replaced. If you do replace it, get a new vacuum breaker as well as a PM measure.

[Silvertwinkie]

In terms of over filling the tank, it's been suggested that the tank be filled slowly. I've filled my tank several times where water spit out and haven't had an issue, but I've always filled the tanks slowly FWIW. I guess the issue is that air displacement of the tank as the tank is filled. More water can be pushed into the tank than the air bleeder hose can let out.

On a side note, I had so many issue with our 2003, I started an annual QC thread to track the build QC after ordering our 2004.

[PunkZTT]

Yeah I have read the quality control thread and the list goes on and on!
UGH!

As far as the floor goes, I had the hose on full blast going into the trailer. When it was full the vent pipe was gushing and water was coming out of the fill hole for a couple seconds after I pulled the hose out. At the time I did not know the ramifications of this, but for everyone's future reference...Don't overfill!!!! Unless of course you want your floor to look like a 16 year old Burger King employee's face.

The design and platform of the trailer is solid, but it seems like Thor cut way to many corners for the price point. They could have put an extra $500 worth of hardware and design into it to increase the longevity tenfold. My guess is that they have a business major w/ no experience with trailers deciding which options to keep and what to take out in order to meet a certain price point.
Ohh well..I'll order the parts for the toilet pedal and see how that works.


One More Thing
-Has anyone made their own curtains for thr trailer (the ones that go around the front vista view window?) The previous owner removed the curtain and now I have no privacy! Are there any plans out on the net that I could use to make some new ones? Are the replacement ones from airstream suitable for the CCD interior?
Thanks Guys
-James

[Turtle]

What length is your CCD? Jamie

[PunkZTT]

wow I forgot to post that

Its a 2003 22' CCD With the Kaleidescope interior
I tow it with my 2005 Nissan Frontier. Its a lovely rig!

[PunkZTT]

Here is a pic of the floor where the bolt popped up :-/

......and a pic of the rig

[clancy_boy]

Looks like a very nice combo. I know that the little things are what bother most of us but in time only you will notice the floor damage.

BTW - I am on the opposite side of the earth and have a reason to be up at this time - WHY ARE YOU UP POSTING??????

Mike

[flyfisher]

Hi -

Sorry to hear about your problems.

I have had a couple problems with the floor and vinly in my '04 Classic and am taking it back to the factory this weekend for them to fix - mine is still under warranty.

I have big time squeaks in my floor in a couple places. Others have had the same problem. Since I never had this problem with the prior SOB trailers I owned, I suspect it is either due to poor design or poor manufacture, or both. I don't know if my floor was built the same as yours or not.

Also, when we purchased our trailer new, there were several holes, cuts and burns in the vinyl. I took it to the factory in June 2004, right after we bought it, and they cut out sections of the vinyl in 2 areas, assuring me that I'd never see the repairs. Before the end of the year, the vinyl had shrunk, leaving about 1/16" gap around the cutout area, making the repairs look 10 times worse than it had originally. Although from you picture it looks like you have a different vinyl than we do, I hope you don't have the same shrinking as we did/do.

(This is our 5th trip back to the factory for repairs, all under warranty, at our own expense - a 1000 mile round trip from our home - Airstream management won't even reimburse us our travel cost, and claim they do not have dealers nearby us who are willing or able to replace vinyl, and tell me I have to bring it back to the factory for repair - needless to say, I'm not a happy camper.)

John

[PunkZTT]

I feel your pain. It seems like the construction methods on the newer airstreams are identical to those of the SOB's, but airstream just uses better, sturdier materials. In my opnion, that is great! But why raise the price and utilize premium materials if you are going to fail on the manufacturing end.
UGH!
I wish there was a list of things to fix that airstream decided to leave out. IE - More screws here, a few muts there, caulk there, rivets here, etc.
I wager that about $400 in hardware would increase ythe durability and reliability of the new A/S's tenfold.
Damn Thor