Airstream Gremlins!

[Cracker]

Airstream Gremlins: Those little creatures that cause all manner of strange and generally unexplainable happenings relative to our Airstreams.

I'll start with a wood screw that is backed out a quarter inch or so after every trip. This is the little screw in our bathroom, at the upper edge of the partition behind the toilet, and near the pocket door opening. It has a chrome finishing washer, there is no obvious sign of any looseness between the partition and the ceiling, and I can tighten it down just right every time. I've threatened to squirt epoxy in the hole, but, it has become so "personally" amusing to me that I haven't bothered (---at 69 I'm easily amused!) I've also considered simply removing it - but there is an underlying fear that, if I did, something bad might happen like the trailer breaking in half or the wheels falling off!

Do others have similar Airstream Gremlins?

[rickandsandi]

We too have had a few screws which are never happy unless on the floor or the inside of a cabinet shelf.

Loctite!

[jcanavera]

Yeah, I have one also right on the bedroom wall that encompasses the pocket door on our Classic. About 3 times a year I have to take the screwdriver and screw it back in tight.

Jack

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Cracker

Airstream Gremlins: Those little creatures that cause all manner of strange and generally unexplainable happenings relative to our Airstreams.

I'll start with a wood screw that is backed out a quarter inch or so after every trip. This is the little screw in our bathroom, at the upper edge of the partition behind the toilet, and near the pocket door opening. It has a chrome finishing washer, there is no obvious sign of any looseness between the partition and the ceiling, and I can tighten it down just right every time. I've threatened to squirt epoxy in the hole, but, it has become so "personally" amusing to me that I haven't bothered (---at 69 I'm easily amused!) I've also considered simply removing it - but there is an underlying fear that, if I did, something bad might happen like the trailer breaking in half or the wheels falling off!

Do others have similar Airstream Gremlins?

Those gremlins, and many others, do crazy things.

Strange thing though, it only happens when you tow the trailer.

99.9 percent of the time, those gremlins are easily activated when the trailer "does not" have properly balanced running gear.

Andy

[345bill]

Cracker.... you gotta love it how that works and i totally agree with you on that underlying fear that comes along with it. Airstreaming is new to us but as i'm learning my motorhome those gremlins i'm also finding. Really reminds me of my Harley, had it since 1969, and always carry a can of bolts and nuts along with my tools. Glad others find this amusing too.

[fotochop]

I wish my current 'gremlin' was as simple as a screw! unfortunately for the 'electrically challenged' like me it involves 12 and 120 volts...

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f449...hts-40863.html

any engineering advice appreciated!

[Kevin245]

Personally I like having a screw loose. It let's me get away with odd behavior, like those pink flamingos and campfires in my boxers.

[SteveH]

Originally Posted by Kevin245

Personally I like having a screw loose. It let's me get away with odd behavior, like those pink flamingos and campfires in my boxers.

So you are the one I heard about!

[SilverToy]

Yo brother - There are WAAAAYYYYY MORE THAN ONE of us with an AS screw loose..... and LOVIN' .... EVERY !!!!..... minute of it!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, we 'all' have bit of a different perspective on the world when we are viewing things thru the prism of 'Aluminitis'.... and well, it..... is ..... GOOD!!!!!! Let's go camping....

Gotta love that AirStreaming spirit!!!!!!!!!!

Axel
SilverToy

[Cracker]

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

Those gremlins, and many others, do crazy things.

Strange thing though, it only happens when you tow the trailer.

99.9 percent of the time, those gremlins are easily activated when the trailer "does not" have properly balanced running gear.

Andy

IMHO I don't think that it's the running gear in this case Andy. On a trip last summer we stopped for lunch at a tourist hang out in Vermont where My wife left a half-filled cup of coke on the dinette table in a plastic cup. We didn't re-enter the AS until we arrived home in Maine where we found the cup still sitting there half full. Now, there's probably not three or four stoplights for that whole 250 mile section of the trip - but there are some rough roads going over the Green Mountains in Vermont - plus between Keene, NH and Concord, NH. The rest is either good highways or Interstate, such as 150 miles on
I-95 in Maine going North from Portsmouth, NH. I did have the axles aligned at the mothership in Jackson, and all four new tires were static balanced - but that's it. Just as a further note, the 3500 Dually has been modified and sports much softer springs for a 2,000 lb reduction in rear axle capacity. Nope, that particular screw has it's own gremlin-driven agenda!!!

[jcanavera]

Originally Posted by Cracker

IMHO I don't think that it's the running gear in this case Andy. On a trip last summer we stopped for lunch at a tourist hang out in Vermont where My wife left a half-filled cup of coke on the dinette table in a plastic cup.

I can probably guarantee you that there is some road shock being transmitted through that chasis no matter what the state of the wheel balance is. Most likely enough to cause a screw to turn. On some of the roads we have around here, vibration due to road surfaces and pavement patches can cause all kinds gremlins. The quest to find a spin on the hub wheel balancing provider is like looking for a needle in a haystack in this day and age.

Jack

[mistral blue]

Have you asked your wife if she's just messin' with ya?

[Cracker]

Originally Posted by mistral blue

Have you asked your wife if she's just messin' with ya?

Nah! I'm the one that gets stuck with unloading the Airstream when we get home - which is where we wound up. Her job is to provide a kick-a-poo-joy-juice from the house as quickly as possible - so she seldom goes back inside the trailer until "scrub down" the next morning! The half-filled cup was the first thing I spotted - and there was nary a drop of spattered coke on the table. Maybe the Gremlins held on to it???

[Wabbiteer]

From my 1st post...

Somewhat sleep deprived my drive went well untill I was forced off westbound I-94 onto 'Lakeshore Detour' in Chicago, then found my detours' IDOT-signed on-ramp "CLOSED" - I knew two things, where the lake was and where Midway Airport was from flying jets so we headed away away from the lake... Took trailer through 1890's underpasses w/ near-zero clearance, felt like a cabbie in NYC! Emergency stops from pedestrians, double-parking, vehicle traffic merges, odd divided cross street traffic signals - this rig stopped from 25mph in length of city bus using the Prodigy Controller! (well bus was moving very slowly, HE had seen the red light) - plus some drive-way-direct action cutting through some rough looking neighborhoods... Other then that the trip was uneventful, though just now eyelid is merrily tic-ing away at the thought of it.

I'd left an EMPTY plastic bottle of water on the kitchen counter fifty miles into the trip - when I got home and trailer positioned and unhooked the bottle was where I left it on the kitchen counter. 1000 miles and it didn't move more than a couple of inches....