1968 Avion C11 Truck Camper restoration

[BillTex]

Originally Posted by Milanodan

Been trying to sort out the elect. wiring. The camper came with a 7-round pin connector, which are not supposed to be common. The 7 terminal flat blade type is widely used, and the functions of each pin are different from the round pin type.

The orig. Avion wiring diagram shows only 6 active pins, with #2 left blank (probably used for a trailer brake controller). Unfortunately someone has changed things around so the pin functions are different from orig. There are so many different pin function diagrams I don't know which one to use, so I'm stumped at the moment.

Sounds like someone may have put a Lance (proprietary) plug on there,
read up here for more details; RV.Net Open Roads Forum: Search .
No one knows why Lance did their own thing with the plug...it drives every one nuts...but this MAY be your answer.

B

[Milanodan]

Originally Posted by BillTex

Sounds like someone may have put a Lance (proprietary) plug on there,---

I'm going to replace it with a 7 pin, flat blade RV connector. Here's what will be going on the front of the truck--all 350 lb plus the carrier. But I'll be cutting the heavy front bumper off first, so the weight gain will not be too bad. Just the bike on the right!

[ticki2]

Milanodan , welcome to the club . I carry mine on a flatbed also , great extra storage . The cab/chassis duallies all come with the narrow frame and axle as opposed to a dually pickup. Let us know how the progress goes .

[Milanodan]

Originally Posted by ticki2

Milanodan , welcome to the club . I carry mine on a flatbed also , great extra storage . The cab/chassis duallies all come with the narrow frame and axle as opposed to a dually pickup. Let us know how the progress goes .

Thanks. Finally got the electrics fixed. It now has a "normal" 7 blade-style RV connector, with the backup lights (black wire) in the center round contact. Turns out the camper uses a blue wire for the +12V.

Put some water in the plastic water tank, opened the faucets and ran the pump. No joy. Spotted a leak at the front right side/corner of the tank, where the rubber hoses are. Think I'll replace the hoses and the pump, but first I have to remove the horizontal wood panel above the right side of the tank, and there's no obvious way to remove it.

Any hints? HELP!

[tinman54]

Great looking truck camper, are you going to polish it?
Doug

[Milanodan]

Originally Posted by tinman54

Great looking truck camper, are you going to polish it?Doug

Going to clean and wax it, but not polish it--it's anodized. But first I have to attempt to replace a broken plastic fitting at the lower right front corner of the fresh water tank. Guess I pulled a bit to hard on the pump trying to get the rubber hoses off.

I tried to unscrew the weird-shaped plastic nut on there, but it's stuck tight and access is very tight. Looks like I'll have to bore a hole thru the lower right side to get to it. There's some kind of vent hole already thru the left side up front, so it's no big deal.

[ticki2]

Originally Posted by Milanodan

Thanks. Finally got the electrics fixed. It now has a "normal" 7 blade-style RV connector, with the backup lights (black wire) in the center round contact. Turns out the camper uses a blue wire for the +12V.

Put some water in the plastic water tank, opened the faucets and ran the pump. No joy. Spotted a leak at the front right side/corner of the tank, where the rubber hoses are. Think I'll replace the hoses and the pump, but first I have to remove the horizontal wood panel above the right side of the tank, and there's no obvious way to remove it.

Any hints? HELP!

There are a few screws holding that hrizontal panel down , unfortunately you can't see them because they are under the vinyl flooring . If you take off the aluminum angle on the front right and the hinge for the battery cover you can lift the vinyl enough to get to the screws on the front . After removing them pry up on the front and you will be able to locate the rear ones ( along the back wall) . You can either peel the vinyl back to expose the screws or what I did was pop a hole just the size of the screw , I only had two on the back . Everything fit so snug I never did put the screws back in .

On the 12+ blue wire , are you sure ? The 12v wire diagram for mine shows a 6 wire plug with : green = clerance
black=back up
red= L turn
yellow= R turn
white = ground
blue = ground

Then a seperate charge line outside the plug . This is the camper side .

[Milanodan]

Looks like the tank itself is fine, so the panel can stay put. I bored a 2" hole in line with the tank outlet fitting. I'm going to try to thread in a brass fitting (nat'l pipe thread) with teflon tape into the fitting. I cannot tell if the funny-looking nut is supposed to turn or not, but I can see the shallow female threads which were left by the broken male fitting.

In any event, the weird nut is too tight to turn, so it may be molded right with the tank itself. Hard to believe anyone would make a tank like that!

Yes, the Avion diagram does call for two ground wires (white and blue), and there is also a brown wire in my camper's wire bundle-7 wires. But when I hook up +12 v to the blue wire, everything works. I'll see if I can figure out what the brown wire does.

Originally Posted by ticki2

There are a few screws holding that hrizontal panel down , unfortunately you can't see them because they are under the vinyl flooring . If you take off the aluminum angle on the front right and the hinge for the battery cover you can lift the vinyl enough to get to the screws on the front . After removing them pry up on the front and you will be able to locate the rear ones ( along the back wall) . You can either peel the vinyl back to expose the screws or what I did was pop a hole just the size of the screw , I only had two on the back . Everything fit so snug I never did put the screws back in .

On the 12+ blue wire , are you sure ? The 12v wire diagram for mine shows a 6 wire plug with : green = clerance
black=back up
red= L turn
yellow= R turn
white = ground
blue = ground

Then a seperate charge line outside the plug . This is the camper side .

[Milanodan]

Update:

Brown wire appears to do nothing. Got the water tank problem fixed. Managed to screw a brass fitting in the weird nut (threads well wrapped with teflon tape), 3/8" NPT. Bought some 1/2" car heater hose and with some difficulty managed to get it all together, with a good teflon-ball valve before the pump.

NO leaks!

Called Jabsco Pumps and ordered two new valves for the pump. They told me that's the usual problem for no output, and if the diaphram was leaking the pump would leak--which it didn't.

[ticki2]

Originally Posted by Milanodan

Update:

Brown wire appears to do nothing. Got the water tank problem fixed. Managed to screw a brass fitting in the weird nut (threads well wrapped with teflon tape), 3/8" NPT. Bought some 1/2" car heater hose and with some difficulty managed to get it all together, with a good teflon-ball valve before the pump.

NO leaks!

Called Jabsco Pumps and ordered two new valves for the pump. They told me that's the usual problem for no output, and if the diaphram was leaking the pump would leak--which it didn't.

The weird nut is built into the tank to put a wrench on so you don't strain the tank when threading in the nipple . The toilet valve will have the same thing. Good progress , keep it going .

[Milanodan]

Found a small dripping leak from the fitting this morning--after I thought it was sealed up tight. Will have to remove the fitting and wrap it with more teflon tape, or maybe just tighten it a bit more.

[Milanodan]

OK, got the leak stopped and the pump working. Ran water thru everything and found water dripping out all over the left rear underside.

I assume the sink drains and shower drain are piped into the drain pipe that comes from the black water tank--there is no grey water tank on these campers.

So, for anyone who has done any drain line work, is it easier to remove aluminum panels from below or take up some flooring from above?

[ticki2]

Take off the 2 aluminum panels under the rear overhang and you can access most of the waste plumbing . No need to remove any floor . The rest of the waste plumbing is either under kit sink ,bath sink.

[Milanodan]

Thanks, Ticki
Found the source of the leak. It wasn't the drain piping, some of which is visible from the outside by opening the hang-down door at the bottom left rear of the camper. No, the leak was from an untightened plug in the water hose attachment point at the lower left rear. Real dumb!

Filled the water tank about half full, then found a small leak on the lower left side of the tank. After draining it and getting things moved out of the way, I got the tank out. Now to find a real good tank that won't leak.

[Milanodan]

Set the removed tank on a concrete slab and filled it up. Only leak was from the large fill/vent elbow while filling it. THAT was where the water was coming from that I found leaking from the left front side.

I'll put the tank back in the camper, but set it on a piece of 1" thick styrofoam I have. I removed the old linoleum where the tank goes and will treat the bare wood (very good cond.) with wood preservative, then coat the area with an epoxy resin.

Also replaced the "cold water only" cheap 5/8" rubber hose (now hard) with some good auto heater hose--good for long periods of 250+ deg.

[BillTex]

Originally Posted by Milanodan

Also replaced the "cold water only" cheap 5/8" rubber hose (now hard) with some good auto heater hose--good for long periods of 250+ deg.

Is that for potable water?

[Milanodan]

Yes. Heater hose is EPDM rubber, and should be harmless. Total length is approx. 5'.

[Milanodan]

Update Time:

Tried cleaning the outside with some Extreme Simple Green. Doesn't do much, just like soap and water. What's the next step up in a more aggressive cleaner--Bon Ami?

Gave up trying to remove the glued down green vinyl backing on the floor where the fresh water tank goes. Tried everything from coarse sanding disks to wire wheels. Only thing that really got it off was a 40 grit flapper wheel in my 7" grinder, but that immediately filled the camper with tiny pieces of it and the smell of burned adhesive.

Think I'll just paint over it and get the tank installed. Removed the horizontal ASME propane tanks. One was still full (very heavy). Took the other to my local propane filling/welding supply store. No problem, hydro'd it and put 5.5 gal in it. Wire-brushed the tanks and repainted them.

I'm getting a Marshall propane "T" and a 5' high pressure hose so I can add a big aluminum tank I have when I'm in the camper. The T has a ball check valve, so when I leave I'll open one of the horizontal tanks, shut off the alum. one, disconnect the hose and lock the alum. cyl. inside the camper. That way I won't have to relight stuff.

[slowmover]

Anodized Cleaners?

I never got too far with what is in thread, but was encouraged that further cleaning would a surface good enough for EVERBRITE or some other owner-applied product (as in thread). There are those who also have their anodized coaches clear-coated.

[sailor305]

Hi everybody,

interesting thread.

I'd like to have such a cabin. however, they are hard to find.
Any suggestions?

Thanks