A 59 Airstream was equipped with a straight type axle and leaf springs.
You can, if you wish update the trailer by adding torsion axles, of your choice.
If you chose to upgrade you can weld the axle in place, or add a "axle mounting plate."
Upgrading would require a weight rating appropriate for the weight of your Airstream, including a reasonable payload.
Under rated will soon fail, over rated will lead to a harsch ride for the trailer.
Andy
I forgot how painful swapping out the axles was on my '64. My back hurt for a week! On my '54, though I've thought about upgrading the axles from the dual leaf springs. I guess the ride would be smoother, but I'm a little concerned about how adding duratorques will affect the frame, since the leafs distribute the load a lot further, and the old 29 footers do tend to sag a bit.
Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread, Jim! New axles (either way) are a must!
Next on the agenda is to get that stupid belly pan back on. I really expected to be way past this point by now and working on the interior.
The picture is of the pan that the black water tank sits in. I put a coat of Eastwood’s silver encapsulater on it (POR-15 like paint, it’s what I had left over from the tongue redo). The old one was very badly rusted and had to be replaced. Once this is in, then move forward the water tank (a whole ‘nuther story). A few outriggers need some work. Then button it all up.
Jim & Susan,
Where did you buy the Eastwood silver paint? I checked their website and I can't seem to find it. Did you prepare the tongue in any special way? Or use any other prep product before the Eastwood paint? We need to re-paint our tongue too.
The product we used is a one part epoxy paint made by Homax and is called “Tough as Tile” ($29.95 at Lowes). Many thanks to Brian and Adrianne (Lothlorian) for pointing me to it. It comes in a kit with most of the things you need to get everything done. The process is something like this:
Mix up a cleaner from the kit called “TSP substitute” and wash the items three times with the cleaner and 000 steel wool. Rinse and let dry. All of the items, paint, tub, brushes, etc, need to be at 72 degrees or above before and for three days after the paint is applied.
The pictures shown so far make things look pretty good, but a few close-ups tell a little different story. There are several areas that the paint wouldn’t adhere to for some reason. I suspect that the reason is that a PO had siliconed the crap out of some areas trying to stop leaks. I scraped and cleaned and was able to remove all of the silicone I could see. My guess is that there was some residue left over that really wasn’t removed even with all of the cleaning and “sanding” with the steel wool.
What I’m going to have to do at this point is to wait until the weather warms back up and try sanding these areas, then try to clean with acetone or some other solvent. The good news is that I can move on with bathroom redo. Many of the blemished spots are in areas that are hidden, so I won’t need to deal with then. I can simply focus on the more visible areas.
Where did you buy the Eastwood silver paint? I checked their website and I can't seem to find it. Did you prepare the tongue in any special way? Or use any other prep product before the Eastwood paint? We need to re-paint our tongue too.
Thanks, Mary
Mary, I bought the Eastwood silver from the company website. If you can't find it, call them and they can help you. They may have stopped making it for all I know. But....
I was not impressed with the Eastwood products. Within a couple of months of applying it, I had rust coming back thru. The POR company now sells a silver colored coating. I had very good results with the POR-15 product on the frame. At some point, I'm going to redo the tongue and tail with the POR silver.
Jim
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Can somebody remind Susan that I really do want bagpipes for Christmas?
It's holding up well in my camper, but it hasn't had much use, really. Brian and Adrian have had theirs on there for about a year and a half now and can probably give you better information. You might try PM'ing them for more info.
Jim
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Can somebody remind Susan that I really do want bagpipes for Christmas?
I forgot how painful swapping out the axles was on my '64. My back hurt for a week! On my '54, though I've thought about upgrading the axles from the dual leaf springs. I guess the ride would be smoother, but I'm a little concerned about how adding duratorques will affect the frame, since the leafs distribute the load a lot further, and the old 29 footers do tend to sag a bit.
Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread, Jim! New axles (either way) are a must!
JP
A week? I thought I was the old fart around here? Mine only lasted for a couple of days.
Hijack away, my friend. I've encouraged it here it this thread. We all learn something new from the ideas of others!
See you in a couple of weeks.
Jim
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Can somebody remind Susan that I really do want bagpipes for Christmas?
Mary, I bought the Eastwood silver from the company website. If you can't find it, call them and they can help you. They may have stopped making it for all I know. But....
I was not impressed with the Eastwood products. Within a couple of months of applying it, I had rust coming back thru. The POR company now sells a silver colored coating. I had very good results with the POR-15 product on the frame. At some point, I'm going to redo the tongue and tail with the POR silver.
Jim
Thanks, that s good to know. We'll probably go with the POR-15 then.
This is the Dometic Sealand Traveler Light 210 from Vintage Trailer Supply. Steve gave me a great deal on it because the box was open (20% off). What a great bunch they are to deal with. Fits perfectly with no modifications. When was the last time that happened?
Jim
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Can somebody remind Susan that I really do want bagpipes for Christmas?
The new foam for the beds came in. Now, if Susan will just make the covers for them...(don't dare tell her I said that). Of course, I had to try them out with a long afternoon nap, so I broke out the kids' old Harry Potter sheets from the back of the linen closet and commenced to a good snooze.
Got those at FoamDistributing.com. Many thanks, Mary for that tip. Total cost to the front door was $156. Great deal and a very comfortable. And that's saying a lot considering the disaster I've made of back over the years.
Jim
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Can somebody remind Susan that I really do want bagpipes for Christmas?
Jim, looks good, we had done ours through knox foam at the recommendation of forums folks but they've since closed down. What model and thickness of foam did you go with?
roof locker tracks (plastic) square cornered astrodome screen 63 refer, or at least the original door insert 2 12v hehr motors (working) w/ or w/o fan blade
The pictures for the next part are little strange because the camera started acting weird, but here goes. Finally got the old Univolt out of there and new battery installed. The rectifier (that's really the proper name, even tho the RV industry calls it a "converter") is an Iota 45 amp DLS 45 with IQ4. It's a 3 stage charger with that desulfinater gizmo. Supposed to better/easier on the battery. I bought this from Randy at Bestconverter.com. Randy is a great guy to deal with. I bought this one on his recommendation because of all the brands he sells, he's never had one of these returned due to failure (after several hundred sales). Randy also has the advantage, in my book, of being a 30 plus year US Army Warrant Officer, prior to selling RV stuff. Since I'm also one of those, it seemed a natural fit.
Pics to follow.
Jim
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Can somebody remind Susan that I really do want bagpipes for Christmas?
One of the things that I wanted to do from the outset was to get some of the weight off the tail of the camper. One way to do this was to move the battery and converter off the tail and under the bed. I lost storage under the bed, but it's probably worth it in the long run. The converter is mounted under the bed toward the back. No problem there because it only weighs about 3 pounds. Also, to get it off the floor, it was mounted vertically along the bed frame. Notice that I used a surge protector there because I couldn't afford a "whole house" surge protector for the camper. This also gives the advantage of being able to shut down the power to the thing when needed without "surging" the converter.
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Can somebody remind Susan that I really do want bagpipes for Christmas?
Here's where the pictures start getting stoooopid. I also bought the 9 postion fuse panel from Randy to feed the various 12v lines throughout the camper. It was $35 and may be the best money I've spent so far. Everything is laid out in that panel just as you need it with no guesswork, really straight forward. If anybody needs a blow-by-blow account of the fuse panel wiring, I'll gladly provide. But first I gotta work on the camera.
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Can somebody remind Susan that I really do want bagpipes for Christmas?
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New axles (either way) are a must!
Happy Trailering !
Mine only lasted for a couple of days.
63 PARTS NEEDED
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