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CanoeStream · 05-22-2007, 07:30 AM

Marie (or Terry) -- Seat of my pants I recall initial plans to house-sit a friend's place on some lake until fall. Is that still the plan while Terry rehabs? Then if all is steady would that be when you hit the road?

overlander63 · 05-22-2007, 10:25 AM

Yes. We have until sometime in October before we will need to be on the road. We're trying to get as much done as possible as soon as possible, hurricane season starts in 9 days, and we want Bertha to be ready to at least use for emergency camping by then. The biggest thing is to get the frame issues taken care of. It has a sag the thickness of my index finger between the rear frame and the bottom of the body shell. It isn't severe, but the sooner it is fixed, the better. I have an appointment for a friend that owns a trailer repair shop take a look at it, with any luck he will be able to take care of it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CanoeStream

Marie (or Terry) -- Seat of my pants I recall initial plans to house-sit a friend's place on some lake until fall. Is that still the plan while Terry rehabs? Then if all is steady would that be when you hit the road?

overlander63 · 05-22-2007, 10:35 AM

I was able to get the wheel bearing issue taken care of this morning. The outer bearing had chunks missing from the roller surfaces. A new bearing and race put everything right in that wheel's world again.
The new fridge is cooling, a good thing. Now all I will have to do is install some kind of cover over the 2x4 shims we used to bring the fridge up to the proper level. It's strange the new fridge is shorter than the old one, but has more cubic feet inside.
I installed the LP line to the water heater, and the water lines will be installed later this afternoon, when someone is here to assist me in regaining my feet inside the trailer. I can get up when outside, or in a not-so-confined space, but when there is no room for me to manuever around, someone has to help.
I get frustrated, since I am used to being able to do all my own stunts

, but it is a vast improvement over where I was only a couple of weeks ago.

maxandgeorgia · 05-22-2007, 10:53 AM

Your progress is mindboggling! We can muddle and stew for weeks/months, but you two have hit the floor "running" with this decision for full timing and revamping of "Bertha." You really are an inspiration. I may even iron my old but now clean drapes and get them hung today in Gypsy in honor of the two of you! ~G

sd90mac · 05-22-2007, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxandgeorgia

Your progress is mindboggling! We can muddle and stew for weeks/months, but you two have hit the floor "running" with this decision for full timing and revamping of "Bertha." You really are an inspiration. I may even iron my old but now clean drapes and get them hung today in Gypsy in honor of the two of you! ~G

MaxandGeorgia,

Come hang around us for A few weeks and we'll get ya motivated. When we make a decision like the full timing, grab a score card and hang on, we let no grass grow under our feet.

Marie

sd90mac · 05-22-2007, 07:56 PM

Ok,

I went for lunch and the massage then came home and ripped the smelly carpet off the bathroom walls and floor. Then washed the whole area with bleach water. The smell may be a little better, but I feel better that the nasty stuff is gone. I think it was the original carpet and they used heavy duty staples to put it down.

I pulled the cover off the goucho and got it ready to send out in the am to be used for the pattern for the new one.

Swept and cleaned out the trash from the fridge instalation.

Then I neatened up the house, cooked dinner, the went out and helped Terry came in and did the dishes.

When my sister sees me in the am, she'll kill me. My right shoulder aches and so does my back. Knees always hurt. The massage was great until I got home and proceeded to work. I wonder if I can get another one tomorrow.

Marie

overlander63 · 05-22-2007, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxandgeorgia

Your progress is mindboggling! We can muddle and stew for weeks/months, but you two have hit the floor "running" with this decision for full timing and revamping of "Bertha." You really are an inspiration. I may even iron my old but now clean drapes and get them hung today in Gypsy in honor of the two of you! ~G

Anyone that knows me, or has the misfortune to have to work with me, knows I am a slavedriver, even to myself, and drag everyone kicking and screaming along with me. (hurry up, and swallow that hamburger, we've got work to do!)
I am by no means running, or even walking fast, but I am moving at a brisk shuffle.

C'mon down, we'll have you polishing your trailer before you know it...

overlander63 · 05-24-2007, 07:31 PM

Yesterday I borrowed a small 120 volt mini welder to weld up a stringer that had cracked in the right front wheelwell. Not a problem, Marie helped me lie down on a special pad I had gotten a couple of years ago, and brought the welder over. She plugged it in, and I hooked the ground clamp to the frame of Bertha. For those of you that don't know, arc welders use a circuit of high-amp electricity to generate heat to melt the steel together. Therein was the problem. Marie plugged the welder in, and I donned my gloves and welder's helmet, and flipped the power switch to "on". Bear in mind the other, "welding" end of the welder is still in my hand, and nowhere near the Airstream. When I flipped on the switch, I got a huge shower of spaks from the clamp on the frame, and a small cloud of smoke billowed forth from the interior of the welder. Then silence. The lights had gone out in the garage, and half the house as well. After unplugging the welder, we discovered several breakers tripped in the breaker box, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. I reset the breakers, and everything in the house came back to life. A check of the trailer (plugged in, but on a different circuit) showed the "wrong polarity" light glowing brightly. Yikes!

Okay, it's late, it's dark, and I'm tired. So, after much of the proverbial cursing and gnashing of teeth, I decided to call it a noght, and we'd try again tomorrow.
By the cold light of day, it turned out every fuse (including that big 50 amp ground fuse) had been blown, and one of the wires to the fuse panel had been burned off. When I break 'em, I do a good job! A trip to Napa netted me a box of new fuses, including 2 of the big 50 amp ones. I installed all the fuses, stripped and reinstalled the burned off wire, hooked the battery back up, and thoroughly tested all the 12v stuff before plugging in the trailer again (that red light on the side of the trailer made me very cautious). Everything sprang back to life, including the new converter I installed yesterday.
All these repairs left me with the original problem, which was the craxcked stringer. I went to a newfound friend's shop that exclusively repairs and rebuilds trailers, and asked him to weld it back up for me. 30 minutes and $37 later, it was a done deal. Makes me wonder why I bothered trying to fix it myself...

Later this afternoon, we went over to Ace Hardware (I really should buy stock in this place), and picked up all the brass fittings and adapters needed to hook the water to our water heater. It seems that the new ones don't come with the fittings, most people are replacing an existing unit, so they don't need the parts. We got home, I got out the liquid teflon tape, and started assembling parts. Of course, the guy that helped us (new guy) sold us the wrong size adapter, so in the morning, it's off to Ace again.

overlander63 · 05-24-2007, 07:47 PM

I installed the "newsed" converter I got from a fellow forums member yesterday, and forgot to mention it in the previous post. So far, it is working as intended, a good thing.
I think after the upcoming trip for Memorial Day, we are going to slow down on the rehab of the trailer. I liquidated my toy train collection in order to finance the new trailer, and proceeds from the sale of Goliath will help get it roadworthy. There are a few things we will want to do "down the road", like remove the front awning and replace it with a rock guard (anyone have a spare sitting around?), aluminum wheels (for appearance, the steel wheels work fine), or hubcaps, LED clearance lights, draining the aquarium in the left wing window, new blue rub rail inserts, new ivory interior inserts, and repair of the fresh water tank (leaks somewhere undetermined). A major issue that I will be addressing is the sag in the frame. It is behind the reinforcement plates, and ahead of the holding tanks. Either I or someone I can "volunteer" will need to remove the belly pan and see what repairs are needed. The sag, again, is about the thickness of my index finger across the nail. Not bad, yet, but I am aware of it, and it bugs me. Also, the sooner it gets fixed, the less further damage will occur.

silver 67 · 05-24-2007, 10:36 PM

Gosh, Terry and Marie, I am overwhelmed at the intensity of your lives right now. Heck, David and I stood for what seemed like eternity a couple nights ago and figured out just where we wanted the first seam in the tile floor. Of course, we are not on quite as short a time table as you all. I did notice in your pictures that the floor rot was in exactly the same place as in our Sovereign.

I'm happy Marie that you actually have a gaucho left in your Sovereign. Ours was missing. We still haven't figured out for sure what we will be sitting on, much less who will cover it. I did find a place called foamorder.com that seemed to be the cheapest for custom cuts of foam. They also wrap it in dacron for a more "sofa like" quality.

Please know that you are always welcome here in the Heartland. We'll feed you full of great Kansas City barbeque.

overlander63 · 05-25-2007, 04:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silver 67

I'm happy Marie that you actually have a gaucho left in your Sovereign. Ours was missing. We still haven't figured out for sure what we will be sitting on, much less who will cover it. I did find a place called foamorder.com that seemed to be the cheapest for custom cuts of foam. They also wrap it in dacron for a more "sofa like" quality.

Please know that you are always welcome here in the Heartland. We'll feed you full of great Kansas City barbeque.

Beth, have you tried Colaw RV Salvage in Carthage, Mo? They may have a gaucho that will fit. We put a walkover gaucho in our Overlander, and it fit well, with minor modification to the arms.
Thanks for the invite, we'll have to make a list and get directions of all the people that would like for us to visit before we leave.

sd90mac · 05-25-2007, 05:09 AM

Good morning,

The big push right now is to get her ready for the weekend. My sister has convinced us to go camping with her and her family (SOB) owners. We're almost there.

The flooring and curtains will not be ready, and onboard water tank leaks but, hey, we'll be roughing it.

I saw a picture of the curtains and boy are they beautiful!! Fabric has been ordered for the gaucho and will be there shortly.

All we have to do today is get the dog groomed, both have therapy, finish install on hot water heater, re- clean after items were fixed, find temporary rug for bathroom floor, and go to the grocery store for pic nic items, install mattresses, make beds, etc, etc, etc. I hope Cookie can remember the way to the groomer since she may have to take herself.

Have a great day.

Marie

Ps: also have to get truck serviced

Jim & Susan · 05-25-2007, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlander63

.......draining the aquarium in the left wing window..... water tank (leaks somewhere undetermined). A major issue that I will be addressing is the sag in the frame. It is behind the reinforcement plates, and ahead of the holding tanks. Either I or someone I can "volunteer" will need to remove the belly pan and see what repairs are needed. The sag, again, is about the thickness of my index finger across the nail. Not bad, yet, but I am aware of it, and it bugs me. Also, the sooner it gets fixed, the less further damage will occur.

Terry, how are going to repair that window? Pleeeeze let us know. Everything I read says not to take them apart, but I can't figure any other way to do it. Frame issues: Take a look at my Full Monty thread to see how I did it. Basically, I had a small amout of sag, so I had some steel inserts made to go back there to reinforce the frame. Water leak: I bet you find it is associated with the fresh water inlet or the pipe from the inlet to the tank. Maybe one of the smaller pipes around the inlet side of the tank (just a guess based on what I've read and encountered on mine).

Jim

overlander63 · 05-29-2007, 06:45 PM

Repair of the window is easy, drill a small hole in the base of the windowframe near the bottom of the glass, then use a similar size diamond tipped drill bit to drill through the first pane of glass.
Our brother in law is going to assist with the frame droop, it is behind the area where most frames sagged. We will jack up the area, and weld reinforcing pieces on the frame.
I haven't chased the fresh water tank leak yet, I was too busy chasing the hot water tnk inlet line leak. It is no longer leaking (yay!), and one of the tv's is mounted on the forward bulkhead in the bedroom.
Here are a couple of photos from the adventure this weekend, astute observers may notice further changes than have been previously related:

sd90mac · 05-29-2007, 07:29 PM

Please pardon the mess in the inside of the coach, but the 3 year old visited and we had not gotten it put back together before Terry took the picture. Actually we are still in the process of learning where we will be putting stuff in the coach and of course, no floor covering will make it look messy.
The "cool Silver" towels and floor mats for the bathroom from Penney's came in today, and for the price, they are very nice. I did keep to much out for the kitchen and had to cut back even more, but pretty much every thing else was a good guess.

Marie

sd90mac · 06-04-2007, 05:29 PM

Hi,

Tammy, silver threads, did a beautiful job on the curtains. They came today and are perfect. I can't wait to get them hung up in Bertha.

Marie

Boondocker · 06-04-2007, 05:55 PM

How does the SOTR fit after the Overlander? Does it seem big?

overlander63 · 06-04-2007, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gen Disarray

How does the SOTR fit after the Overlander? Does it seem big?

We are thinking about scheduling shuttle flights from the living room to the bathroom...

overlander63 · 06-08-2007, 05:42 PM

Since I was told I was not to install the new TV antenna, I stopped by our local Airstream dealer to see how much it would cost to have it done "professionally". They told me it would take about a half hour, and $45 labor. "Are you sure? You'll have to pull off an interior panel to route the cable."
"yes. that's standard charge for replacing a tv antenna."
Okay, sign me up, it's not worth falling off the roof for less than $50. So at the appointed time this afternoon, I showed up with Bertha in tow, and dropped it off. A couple of hours later, I was informed that it would take 4 hours, and over $400, to install the antenna, because they had to pull off an interior skin (hello, I told 'em that) and run 12v to the antenna (what's wrong with the 12v power that is hooked to the antenna that's there?)
I know I can install the antenna in an hour and a half, and I'm a cripple!

I know they have to make money, but that's a bit much.
I guess I will wait until I can get on the roof and do it myself. $400. Sheesh.

sd90mac · 06-09-2007, 03:38 AM

Let's see now,

The curtains are here, the gaucho cover is on the way, bought a silver trash can for the kitchen, linens for the beds, bathrooms and kitchen. So far so good.

We started putting down the floor tiles yesterday and will be going to Home Depot today to get a few more, then we will install the carpet, curtains, and gaucho cover.

Full timing is getting closer and I can't wait.

Marie