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mandolindave · 02-29-2004, 04:01 PM

I just got back from visiting my trailer at an airstream hospital
in New Jersey.
In the bay next to mine was a cool vintage unit that was stripped naked. It had no chassis and the roof was hanging from a truss. The new plastic web floor was there , which weighed next to nothing. ( tricky to attach things to it tho)
Silly me asks the technicians why they cut the trailer in half
( horizontally ). They told me that the owner was quite tall
and they were raising the roof seven inches. BTW the owner is having a custom chassis made.....in England.
I want to make my trailer a half inch taller, in case I ever want to wear a really big hat.......... But don't we all?
Mandolin Dave

jaco · 03-01-2004, 09:44 AM

This is an interesting factoid.
I wonder if they are documenting any of the work with photos?
And if they would ever share them?
Is this a regular RV sales/service place or a special RV chop shop?

When I find interesting threads, clips about total remakes I file them in a folder called "The Full Monty". This is that plus. Maybe a fools full monty, but I hope it works.
How high up the side skin was the split? Course with no chassis there'd be nothing to hold the lower split section..

Mighty wierd. Might be cheaper to have your legs shortened.

markdoane · 03-01-2004, 11:55 AM

I think Inland RV did something like this for a movie star.
Of course it totally upsets the center of gravity and roll-over coefficient and pitch/yaw equations. . . . yada, yada, yada.
Sounds like a fun project!

mandolindave · 03-01-2004, 08:20 PM

Hey Jaco,
I know the gentleman is documenting the project.
Heck , he photo documented my black tank replacement. ewww
I don't know how he feels about proproetary secrets.
But they are not a regular R.V. place and they are not a chop
shop, and most certainly not fools. But yeah it seems to me to be a scary undertaking.
Lastly , you don't need a chassis to build or work on a shell.
The airstream Corporate site has pics of two guys carrying just the shell. They hang them.

jaco · 03-01-2004, 09:16 PM

Uh.... the guy doing the work wouldn't be the fool in my tongue-in-cheek stab, it would be the guy paying the bill. The guy who sold him on the idea is a marketing genius!

And I hope a mighty fine Airstream Body man!

You implied (in my minds eye) that they had horizontally sliced the shell. The upper portion (including the roof) would be hanging from the ceiling as you described. I just wondered what became of the lower slice of the shell? and how high up it was sliced.

Apparently the joke is on me, as I suppose the raising the height story was them pulling your leg and me falling for it.

Obviously they just removed the shell and did not slice anything horizontally

markdoane · 03-02-2004, 06:52 AM

Dave,

I don't think raising the roof by 7" is anything at all, compared to a 52 foot stretch job.
Is he the same guy who put the extra center section in yours?
How long does it take you to walk from front to back? Is there an intercom? Do you have any problems with tunnel vision? What is the turning radius?

mandolindave · 03-02-2004, 11:58 AM

The guy who stretched my 52' was a Nasa Rocket Scientist.
However he did it in Photo Shop. He also made an 8 foot
Argosy( in Photo shop). If I saw it for sale I would buy it,
in a New York minute.
I was also kidding about wanting to raise mine a half of an inch.
But the raising of the roof was a true deal ...I saw it.
Honest true! The " cut " was actually where the old seam was.
They had built a platform for the bottom to rest on
The owner is 6' 7" and would appear to be well off in his station in life. ( and maybe wears a big hat ) If I had millions,
I for one, would most certainly have the Airstream of my dreams.
Wait....I already do! I guess I don't need no stinking millions

jaco · 03-02-2004, 02:59 PM

OK dave you have gone to the well calling wolf once two often.

It is now clear you are in the Witness Protection Program.

MandolinDave my foot. I think its lyreDave Out from under the Walbyam Steamroller now appearing in nu-Joise as D-Flat. Not to be confused with Phil Gramm's infamous Dickie Flatt.

mandolindave · 03-02-2004, 04:22 PM

Jaco,
Lolololololololololololololololololololololol
chuckle lolololol snicker .

You surely win the funny contest today.

Could it be that you are waiting for Spring have nothing better to do, but pick on defenseless mandolin playing Newbies.
Or are you just bucking for that third Rivet. I hope you get
tons of rivets, cause you quack me up

Inland RV Center, In · 03-02-2004, 05:48 PM

markdoane

I find it difficult to understand your statement as to our modification, that you say "upsets the center of gravity and roll-over coefficient and pitch/yaw equations."

I was not aware that you were a part of the engineering team that designed that change, or that you "ever" saw any of the blue prints.

Since we can safely say "you were not," then please be advised that the center of gravity is considerably lower, after the shell height increase, than it was before.

How it was done is proprietary.

We take exception to the fact that "YOU" have implied that we created an unsafe travel trailer.

Or are you taking a wild guess, at our expense?

If so, it is not appreciated.

We don't attack what you have done, and therefore please don't attack what we have done, especially when you have "ZERO" information to base your comments on.

Andy

desi arnaz · 06-30-2005, 01:14 AM

lighten up andy................a little testy today?

bredlo · 06-30-2005, 08:46 AM

Andy, I think you should consider multiple avitars.
Some of your comments lose their effectiveness when every one has your warm smile next to them. May I suggest these?

Just kidding, man. You're the best!

driftwood · 06-30-2005, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

markdoane

Since we can safely say "you were not," then please be advised that the center of gravity is considerably lower, after the shell height increase, than it was before.

Andy

I don't think so ...

You can't mess with mother nature or physics ...

I realize that you are raising mostly air, assuming that the cabinets and other major fixtures are remaining in their original position. Therefore, the CG will be altered very slightly, it will be raised. (unless you have done something special or out of the ordinary that you haven't revealed) Any weight aloft will modify the CG unless there are alterations below center.

fireflyinva · 06-30-2005, 09:28 AM

Bear in mind, most of this conversation (including the angry rejoinder above) occured over a year ago.

The owner of the trailer is a member of WDCU and he showed me the blueprints at last year's (2004) Cherry Blossom Rally. I was new to trailering and really had no familiarity at the time with trailer design (nor am I much better now), but it appeared to be a pretty highly engineered set of plans. The work he was doing was intended to test out different design elements that might be incorporated in a newly constructed trailer--one, if I recall, could be sold in Europe. So, the trailer wasn't just chopped, it was completely redesigned from a structural perspective. Now Airstream is moving into the Europe market, so maybe concepts tested in this trailer are involved in the effort--I just don't know.

I'm not sure that this whole deal really should involve much passion from anyone, whether they are the New Jersey fabricators, the owner, other suppliers, or bystanders. For me, it just seemed like another ingenious addition to the mental category I have of "cool trailer mods."

Maybe other forum members who saw the plans at the rally can add more to this.

Mary

Inland RV Center, In · 06-30-2005, 09:30 AM

Taflocks.
Check the date of that post. it's MARCH 2, 2004. Thats a long way from today. Perhaps the post after yours, is more appropriate, if you wish.

Bredlo.
Love it. Thanks.

Driftwood.
We made many changes along with adding several hundred pounds to the chassis.

Therefore , in this instance, we stand on what we said. The center of gravity "ON THIS COACH" is lower. How, and why, and with what, is proprietary and is shared with the owner, "only".

Andy

driftwood · 06-30-2005, 09:33 AM

Andy,

I'll buy that!

Inland RV Center, In · 06-30-2005, 09:38 AM

Mary.

The Airstream trailer we modified, belongs to a movie director, who lives in southern California.

In fact, we modified three of them for him.

Andy

fireflyinva · 06-30-2005, 09:56 AM

Sounds like a different guy. The fellow at the Rally was not a movie star (at least that I know of), but he was an engineer, British and very tall. Apparently, he's also a long time VAC member, so I bet folks around here know him.

Mary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

Mary.

The Airstream trailer we modified, belongs to a movie director, who lives in southern California.

In fact, we modified three of them for him.

Andy

bredlo · 06-30-2005, 01:01 PM

Andy's stretch jobs were done for the very tall director Tim Burton, (of the original Batman, Nightmare Before Christmas, and the upcoming Charlie/Chocolate Factory films,) according to articles on his site and other places. "Unique" guy, from what I can tell.

I'd love if Andy could figure out if he's within his rights to show a few more photos of those jobs. (Dorsey has been showing off the trailer he did for Billy Campbell for years!) If Burton were amenable to this, I know I'd be thrilled to see more details, particularly more shots of the Clipper!! I realize the methods are proprietary, but certainly with the skin on, we could just enjoy the results.