Noob! - 1967 Overlander

[jhenschen]

Hello from the newest newbie on the site. We just bought our 1967 Overlander a couple of weeks ago and we're just starting to find the time to get working on her. I just posted a question on how to charge the batteries, so hopefully that will get answered soon.
I'm sure I will have lots of questions, as this is our first trailer ever and she needs some work.

John
Bettendorf, IA

[rebelstand]

Welcome! You have come to a great place for answers. They are really helpful on the site! How much work will you need to do?

[jhenschen]

Originally Posted by rebelstand

Welcome! You have come to a great place for answers. They are really helpful on the site! How much work will you need to do?

1. Well, my wife and a friend are out stripping off the clearcoat right now, then try to remove as many blemishes as possible.
2. I'm not sure if the batteries are supposed to charge automatically when you plug in the trailer - they're not currently - so I may have to fix that.
3. The water pump works, but cycles off and on ever second or so. My guess it that's a leak somewhere... I dunno. If there's a connection for city/camp water, I can't find it, so I'll need to locate it. I can only find where to fill up the tank.
4. The fridge door seal needs replaced. I just need to get the dimensions and profile etc. to get the info to the cooler-gaskets.com people.
5. The underside needs some/most rivets replaced.
6. Need to add some flashing around where the black water tank/bathroom area is.
7. Need to replace window seals all around and a latch on the front window.
8. Need to figure out how to update the propane tank valves.
9. grease the wheel bearings
10. Install a new stereo and maybe new speakers.
11. Install a new wire harness to connect to my vehicle. It works sporadically. Pretty rusted out internally.
12. Deal with the rusted chromed or stainless stove cover. Dunno what I'm gonna do about that yet. Maybe I'll make a new stainless one... hmm... of does that have a built in piano hinge? I'll have to check it out.
13. A couple of light fixtures need repaired.

That's all that comes to mind at the moment. Internally it looks pretty darn good though.

[Minno]

If batteries aren't charging with the trailer plugged in, you might need new batteries - how old are they? Or you might need a new charger, or wiring might be corroded. A couple of things to check out.....
Congrats and good luck! And Welcome!

Kay

[jhenschen]

I actually have a professional battery tester I can use to determine if the batteries are good or not. I'll be doing that in about 45 minutes when I'm technically done with work. I can't find my voltmeter unfortunately. Although my wife's superpower is finding things I swear are nowhere in the house, so I'll get her on it. What's weird is that when we went to pick it up, the batteries were working, the lights were bright, the stereo worked, etc. Maybe he charged up the batteries manually before we got there. *shrug*

[pinktrailer]

Originally Posted by jhenschen

Hello from the newest newbie on the site. We just bought our 1967 Overlander a couple of weeks ago and we're just starting to find the time to get working on her. I just posted a question on how to charge the batteries, so hopefully that will get answered soon.
I'm sure I will have lots of questions, as this is our first trailer ever and she needs some work.

John
Bettendorf, IA

Hi Noob--Welcome. It sounds like you don't have to do alot of work. I own a '67 Overlander as well. I will look forward to seeing some pictures.

[jdalrymple]

Welcome to the Forums. Lots of good folks and info too. Best of Luck!

[rebelstand]

Originally Posted by jhenschen

3. The water pump works, but cycles off and on ever second or so. My guess it that's a leak somewhere... I dunno. If there's a connection for city/camp water, I can't find it, so I'll need to locate it. I can only find where to fill up the tank.

7. Need to replace window seals all around and a latch on the front window.
8. Need to figure out how to update the propane tank valves.
9. grease the wheel bearings
11. Install a new wire harness to connect to my vehicle. It works sporadically. Pretty rusted out internally.
12. Deal with the rusted chromed or stainless stove cover. Dunno what I'm gonna do about that yet. Maybe I'll make a new stainless one... hmm... of does that have a built in piano hinge? I'll have to check it out.
13. A couple of light fixtures need repaired.

It all sounds so similar-
Our water pump did the same thing and my husband found a leak in the bathroom plumbing. PO had tried to seal it with electrical tape. Shawn applied some more tape to test the line (it sealed it long enough for the test) the cycling stopped. We still have to really fix that.

My husband has done the wiring to the TV, but it wasn't fun. He had to search the forums.. something about the wires not being the same color today as they were in 1970. He found a diagram that shows how to do it.

We had to caulk and seal the entire outside. Our trailer leaked like a colander when we got it.. which was the week the remnants of a tropical storm planted itself over OK!

We also need to replace window seals.

We have the original propane tanks with overfill protection valves, but the regulator is original.
The wheels need to be done.
He's already worked on some of the lights (loose wire).
We also have a rusted stove plate.

Have you pulled up the carpet/flooring? We found one place that we are going to have to fix... right by the door! Hope you are lucky enough to have missed that one.

[jhenschen]

The flooring is pretty good so we're not going to mess with it right now.

It does turn out that I can't adapt my new 4pin wiring to the 7pin that I need so I'm getting that installed tomorrow. I'm also told that I need to get a brake controller, so I'm getting that installed next Thursday. Looks like about $500 for both. Its amazing how much this stuff adds up.

I decided to replace the front panel of the fridge with a thin sheet of stainless steel. I think I'm going to just brush the surface and call it good.

Still at a loss as to how to refinish the stovetop cover. Its like someone cleaned it with something corrosive and its rusting where they tried to wipe it clean. I'm afraid that if I sand/grind the surface, it will just rust more unless I coat it with something. But if I coat it with something, I don't want the heat from the stove to melt or discolor it. Building a new cover wouldn't be hard, but that piano hinge on there is a problem.

[68 TWind]

Welcome,

You will get a lot of Overlander specific info from this site that TomW put together as he restored his 67 Overlander.
1967 Airstream Overlander

[jhenschen]

Originally Posted by 68 TWind

Welcome,

You will get a lot of Overlander specific info from this site that TomW put together as he restored his 67 Overlander.
1967 Airstream Overlander

Thanks. I actually found that site and read it over after we found ours, but before we purchased it. I've actually emailed Tom a couple of times. He's been great. The first thing I had to clarify with him is that while my last name is Henschen, there's no relation to the Henschen Industries that made the axles for the Airstreams for years and years.

[BIGED52]

Originally Posted by jhenschen

Thanks. I actually found that site and read it over after we found ours, but before we purchased it. I've actually emailed Tom a couple of times. He's been great. The first thing I had to clarify with him is that while my last name is Henschen, there's no relation to the Henschen Industries that made the axles for the Airstreams for years and years.

Did you by chance get your trailer from a boat storage yard in Rock Island?

[jhenschen]

Originally Posted by BIGED52

Did you by chance get your trailer from a boat storage yard in Rock Island?

I did indeed. Do you know this one? Anything I should be worried about? I see you're from Milan, did you look at it while it was for sale?

[Aage]

Hello, John, and welcome to airforums.com!

Great photos, and the trailer looks fabulous! Plus, I absolutely LOVE your tow vehicle (TV). I think that vehicle is a winner on any front.

We tow our trailer with a 2007 Ford Freestar, and it does a great job too. We put 4,000 miles on it last November chasing the sun pulling Henri around with nary a problem. Well, except the water heater, which decided to give up the ghost in Navarre, FL.

Good luck with finding the answer to the first of many mysteries I am sure you will find, having become the owner of a vintage AS...

Fair winds and following seas!

[jhenschen]

Thanks, Emily. We're taking her out this weekend so I'm sure we'll discover several things we didn't know about. I still need to take the time to discover where the inlet for the water is. I see where you put the water in the front tank, but where you hook up the hose... is a mystery.

[BIGED52]

Originally Posted by jhenschen

I did indeed. Do you know this one? Anything I should be worried about? I see you're from Milan, did you look at it while it was for sale?

John, I look at every one I see! It is 5 feet longer than mine so I stopped to ask about it 2 years ago. At the time the father who runs the boat storage yard said his son in Iowa was using it and it wasn't going to be sold. Guess the son had a newer trailer in mind! His loss your gain! I walked thru it back then and every thing worked so I think you have a good unit there! If the batteries aren't holding a charge it could be they aren't being charged by the Univolt (converter) If it is still onboard. You might want to replace it as they are notorious for boiling batteries! I did add you to my friends list. PM me with a phone number when you are available and we can talk. Happy Trails, Ed

[Aage]

Originally Posted by jhenschen

I see where you put the water in the front tank, but where you hook up the hose... is a mystery.

Well, yours may be different than mine, but a lot of the AS trailers have a garden hose-type connector for fresh water input at the rear streetside of the trailer.

Get down and look around the corner from the left side (as you face the back of the trailer) from the bumper.

Have a great trip!

[jhenschen]

Originally Posted by Aage

Well, yours may be different than mine, but a lot of the AS trailers have a garden hose-type connector for fresh water input at the rear streetside of the trailer.

Get down and look around the corner from the left side (as you face the back of the trailer) from the bumper.

Have a great trip!

Thanks for the advice. Okay, here's my experience with the water systen thus far. I plugged in electricity to the trailer. I put water in the tank up front. I went inside and turned on the faucet. The waterpump turned on and spewed out some water and air, then just water. I turned off the water because I suddenly wondered where the water might be exiting from. SO I go outside and see that underneath near the rear of the AS there was a gardenhose like connector with a plug in it spraying water everywhere. I unplug the thing and water starts exiting. Its then that I notice that the water pump is going brrrrrrrrrr... brrrrrrrrrrrr... brrrrrrrrrrr... even when the faucet isn't on. It looks like a PO redid the plumbing so... *shrug* Is this where I should connect the fresh water? I does seem to have that kind of connector. but if that's where the fresh water goes in, where does the gray water come out? Hrm. I'll need to do some serious poking around there today since we're taking it out camping this weekend.

[jhenschen]

I've got a call into the PO to see if he can help me out with this. I just took a look again and I still can't find ANYwhere to connect a fresh water line. Its all been redone... I wonder if they just decided to make it easy on themselves and made it a tank only system. That would suck.

[Aage]

Highly unlikely it's tank only. There IS going to be a water connection. Try looking on the "streetside" (the side that's in traffic when your trailer is pulled to the side of the road) and look near that tire on the frame. I'm goning to bet that the water inlet and waste outlet are close together, and probably somewhere between the streetside tire and the rear bumper, jsut under the body.

First off, unless someone has added it, you do not have a grey water tank. That didn't happen until the 1974 models.

And the exit for the tanks is a much larger connection (~3" in diameter), often in the same general area, with a twist on/off cover.

But what it contains is the BLACK water exit, so be sure you have a correct drain to dump black water into, and of course, the "stinky slinky" to connect it to your trailer BEFORE you fiddle with that opening. Trust me, it's important to have that operation down cold before experimenting. Did you see the movie with Robin Williams called "RV"?

You really should get either the owner's manual and do a quick cover to cover read (all you need to know is there) or get someone that knows trailers to spend a couple of hours with you to walk around it and explain the various things you'll need to know...