Can of beans Sovereign 1972

[Can of beans]

The awning is original to the trailer. I had Salem Tent and Awning repair it.
the repair ended up being around $240 I think. They replaced the cotton rope with a new plastic cord and re-stitched that. they fixed a tear or two, and re-waterproofed the first couple feet that didn't shed water anymore. they did great work, and they had "Pacific Fancy" material in stock, so the patch matches.

By far the hardest part of re-installing the awning was getting the fabric back into the strip, I did this in the driveway with it off the trailer, but until I carefully opened up the gap again it went poorly. What I finally figured out was I had a piece of UHMW that happened to be the right thickness, and I could put a small bevel on one end then drive it down the length of the opening, this gently opened the gap without kinking or cracking the aluminum. the piece was 6 or 8 inches long, so even as the front edge wore away, by the time the back went through the gap was consistent.

Then the fabric slipped right in, and I was able to go back with a block of wood on top and bottom and close the gap up a bit again to make sure the cord couldn't ever come out.


I have the rear awning and opposite side awnings also that need some repair, but Elizabeth thinks she would like to redo the awnings in one of the new Sunbrella fabrics from the Pendleton Woolen Mills line they have now, so we aren't mounting them for now.

[Can of beans]

We had a trip scheduled to the beach for February, but the ice storm came and took out or power for over a week, so we couldn't leave, someone had to keep the generator going for the fish and fridge.

I'm going to take a moment and say I really like our generator, I got a predator 2000 watt inverter for Christmas, and shortly after we had a windstorm that took out our power for a couple days. the generator, "Genny" ran 24 hours a day for 4 days with not a hiccup. after the first day, we didn't bother shutting it off to fill it. We ran extension cords in the house and that worked really well.

After they fixed our power, I wanted to get rid of the extension cords, so I rigged a generator outlet in my Barn and put the generator away, then came the ice storm, and there was so much damage here in the valley it didn't look promising for us to get our power back. The generator then ran for another 7 days straight before I did an oil change, and then it ran for another day before our power came back.

It's pretty amazing how much you can run off such a small generator, and the best part is it runs for 12 hours on a tank of fuel, about 2 gallons per 24 hours of running.

Part way through the storm, I bought a 200 gallon tank from work and a small 12volt pump, and connected that to the house, and voila we had running water again also.
I also designed a fireplace heat exchanger for our fireplace, but I got that done the day after our power came back on. We tried it out anyway, and it works much better than just the fireplace, 130cfm of 100+ degree air coming out actually brought the house temperature up a degree. it got a bit cold in the house without power, so we'll definitely use that next time.

[dbj216]

Wow, you guys are strong. You dodge wildfires during the summer, and fight to survive during winter ice storms. You are very resourceful to keep your family safe during such weather events. The Texas winter freeze certainly got me thinking about a backup generator. I have a Honda 3000i for the Airstream which would certainly run the water pump and fridge, but maybe not the hot water heat in the house. I should add up my power requirements. My house is wired for a generator hook up. Maybe I should have something in the 10k watt range that ran on propane, and would fire up with the transfer switch in case we are out traveling in the winter when the power goes out. With more and more of the power supply grid dependent on wind and solar, which are dependent on unpredictable weather, a generator would be good insurance against frozen pipes.

Happy to hear the crisis has past and wishing you folks better times ahead.

David

[Can of beans]

It's been busy, we've done a few trips.



In May we went to the beach and stayed at South Beach State park.
Lots of rain, but no leaks.


In July we went to Suttle Lake and stayed at Link Creek, we hiked the loop of Canyon creek meadows, and went to Skylight caves, very cool looking.


The next weekend we stayed at Garibaldi on the coast, and did the interpretive walk around Kilchis point, before we went home we stopped at Cape lookout and played on the beach. We agreed we want to go back there and stay, it's a beautiful beach, and a nice state campground.

[Can of beans]

In August we took our big trip to Yellowstone, super fun, 2 weeks with my family was great.

We had a big group, Elizabeth's parents, My parents, and my Sister and her two children, all went in separate trailers, and my parents RV.

Elizabeth and her Dad picked the routes we were taking, and they did an excellent job, we saw beautiful sights every day and all the campgrounds worked out well. We chose to stick to campgrounds with reservations, and she kept the mileage under 300 miles a day. There was no stress about getting anywhere or having to get there early enough for first come first serve sites.

Our first night was at Union creek Campground, this is a great campground, paved sites with power. Unfortunately the reservoir appears to only be full for about 2 months out of the year without snow and that didn't include when we were there. The campground is very large, so someone is enjoying it I hope.

The next morning we explored the Sumpter Dredge before moving on nice to see a dredge all in one piece, it helps explain the landscape in that area.

[Can of beans]

After visiting the Dredge, we drove through Burns and into Idaho. This was before we met up with Dave and Susan. Elizabeth and I chose to follow the Payette river up to Stanley, passing Hot Springs, and enjoying a very nice drive on excellent roads following the river. That day it reached 104 degrees outside, so we stopped at the hot springs, but no one wanted to get in.

Our truck moved off the thermostat temperature for the first time that I've ever noticed climbing up the 6% grades in that temperature, it made me a bit nervous at first, but it seemed to stop climbing around 225 if I kept the rpm down around 2000. We both had concerns about our truck making the trip, it's up around 175,000 miles at this point.

My parents and sister chose to go down the freeway and come up to our campground through Ketchum, we expected them to beat us to the campground, but apparently they were stuck in traffic and construction. Scenic bypass for the win.

We stayed 2 nights at North Fork campground, just north of Ketchum, that area is beautiful. We used the time to visit Redfish Lake, Stanley, and Alturas Lakes. Elizabeth, Hazel and I stopped at the top of Galena pass on the way back to the campground and hike into Titus Lake, an easy trail except you start at 8000 feet and go up over 9000.
North Fork Campground is quite nice, and as a bonus across the road from the campsite a mile or 2 away is a RV dump site run by the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, I believe it was 5 dollars.

[Can of beans]

We left North Fork in the morning, and traveled down through Ketchum, and turned east toward toward our next campsite. We stopped at Craters of the moon, but it was still extremely hot, the visitors center was closed for Covid, and it was extremely hot, so we drove through the loop drive and left. Craters of the Moon is very similar to various places inside the Newberry Crater here in Oregon, so we didn't feel too cheated by missing out. Our next campsite was Teton Canyon campground, quite near to Grand Targhee resort.

The drive into the campground starts out nicely, but the 7 miles of washboard gravel road sort of ruins the charm, it's also far enough into the canyon that you lose sight of the mountains. This is where we met up with Dave and Susan, so we could hike into the Canyon the next morning. that's also where I realized I hadn't hooked up the 7 pin connector when we left North Fork, the road was flat and there wasn't much traffic, so I doubt anyone really noticed though, I hadn't missed the trailer brakes either.

We spent 2 nights here, the campground is nice, but next to it is one of the major trailheads for the Teton's, so early in the morning there was a rush of people each day driving as fast as possible up the gravel road. the reserveable sites were mostly the less desirable sites(less level,nearer the road) and the campground was mostly empty.

The trail was broad and flat, we did see a moose by the trail, but he was deep in the willows so it was difficult to get a picture. The girls grew tired(bored) and complained to turn around before we got the the Devil's staircase, but the Valley was quite nice anyway. The trail is definitely heavily used, but we expected that, everyone was very friendly.

We went into Driggs and Victor the rest of the afternoon, and the girls played in a nice public park in Victor, and we drove up to see Grand Targhee before going back to camp.

The next day we were headed to Yellowstone. I had been having a debate mostly with my self about taking the pass into Jackson, or going south and following the Snake River around, my interest in seeing how bad it would be, and my desire to avoid the long detour won out. climbing the pass from the Victor side was very short, descending the other side was quite a bit longer, both sides have 10% grades, and we spent a lot of the time in 1st gear descending the other side, that way I could spare the brakes, and easily maintain control. The trip is quick though.

My parents and sister elected to go north and enter the park from the West entrance to Yellowstone, and ended up waiting in over an hours worth of construction,traffic and Buffalo backups. They had stayed in Reunion flats Campground farther closer to Driggs, but they didn't care for that campground too much. it was a group site parking lot style campground near right off the same busy gravel road our campground was on.

The smoke had started as we drove across Idaho, and there was a lot of haze obscuring the Grand Tetons as we drove in and around the Jenny Lake loop. My phones filter was able to "pretty up the pictures a bit, but it isn't magic. That was a bit disappointing, but we had been expecting it.

[Can of beans]

We had 4 nights in Grant Village Campground, we dumped our tanks on the way into the park, and were able to also do laundry at the large laundromat.

Yellowstone is the same Yellowstone every one see's. I will say that we were there in apparently a record attendance month, and it was strange to see the hotels mostly empty, lots of open spaces in the campground, and for the most part parking every where we went. They sure planned for a lot of people there.

I'm quite grateful to my parents, as they tow a 4 door jeep behind their RV, and to my sister who tow's with her Expedition. My parents and our older daughter Evelyn rode with my sister and her children in the Expedition, and Elizabeth, Hazel, her parents and I drove my Dad's jeep. This meant we didn't have to drive the larger trucks and try to find parking for them everywhere, the smaller vehicles were definitely more nimble.

We saw sights, we waited for bison to cross roads, we took the obligatory photo's and watched Old Faithful blow again. It was most surprising how much our children were enjoying the trip, they're still young, so I guess there's time for them to get tired of us.

The second night in the park it started to rain, and we found out we had sprung a bit of a leak on the trip that next morning, Hazel had a dream her hand was wet, and it turned out to not be a dream. one of the rivets above the rear vista views must be leaking a bit. By opening the vista view shade, it dripped off of rather than running down the wall, and we were able to catch it in a frying pan. I'm quite glad I used Rockwool insulation, and now that that the trailer is dry, no real harm was done. I'll dose the rivets up there with some captain Tolley's and see how that goes.

It rained the rest of the time we were in Yellowstone, not as much, but it did dampen the trip

After 3+ days of sitting in the rain, I started up our truck then night before we were to leave, and had a noticeable belt squeal, I thought rusty pulleys and put it out of mind for the moment. The next day Elizabeth was driving us out to the west entrance and out of Yellowstone, and a horrible squealing accompanied any high throttle situation, a quick check under the hood and I thought, maybe the alternator bearing, and the belt idler bearing had started to go.

We made it to West Yellowstone and parked on a quiet street near the Napa, and I did some investigating. before we left, the AC belt had flipped off it's pulleys, I replaced the idler pulley, and belt before we left along with the main belt. When I moved some things out of the way to check the main idler pulley, I could see down below that the AC belt had flipped down below the tensioner arm and was running in the wrong spot, it had been wearing against the body of the tensioner and making all the racket.


I bought a new tensioner arm this time instead of just the pulley, luckily I had brought the old belt, as the Napa didn't have a new one, and I put that belt and the new arm on, and swapped the main belt tensioner pulley for good measure.This took an hour or so by the road, but we didn't have any trouble the rest of the trip.

I've replaced this pulley before on this truck, but the TSB included in the box with the new tensioner arm clued me into why. It read something like " we here at GM designed the location of AC compressor poorly, and because of that it sometimes draws liquid into the compressor and hammers, this often destroys the tensioner and the belt, we recommend you check and change these parts often" this to me sounds like the fix they recommended for the slapping loose pistons in this same engine that basically said " It's OK, it's supposed to do that" and it has for the last 80K miles.

They did seem to mean it when they said a GM will run poorly longer than most cars will run.


This wasn't such a big deal, and other than that our truck worked fine for the trip. We put our hundred dollars in on a Cybertruck, so we don't really want to replace it with an interim truck for now.

[Can of beans]

Out of West Yellowstone, we drove out across Montana. We stopped and saw the Tilted lake, and the landslide and it's new Earthquake lake, a very nice visitor center to stop for lunch if you need. From there we drove through Virginia city (junk shops and Boardwalks) and on through Dillon, a very nice Safeway that had dairy free donuts in the freezer case for Hazel, it was a nice town.

As an Oregonian I can't say I'm used to 85mph freeways, but I'm glad we had good tires all around to acommodate it, that was only for a short distance and we then turned off to head toward Bannack State Park. The highlight of the trip for Elizabeth was that we were to go dig crystals at Crystal park up the pioneer pass valley. This whole area of Beaverhead County is very scenic, and we had thoughts of "Maybe we want to retire out here instead."

We spent the next morning digging for crystals up at Crystal park, and found a few nice pieces. there are lots of little crystals everywhere, and everyone found several little pieces. On the way back we drove up to the local ski lift to check it out it looked like it could be fun and not crowded.


Back at Bannack we went and toured the Ghost town the park is named for. As a bonus down at the end of the street the park guides were teaching people to pan for gold and Garnets from a pile of paydirt from a local mine. We all got lots of little garnets, and some got a few tiny specs of gold. it sprinkled a bit at the campsite that evening, but up in the hills where we had thought to stay at the other campgrounds it, it looked like it had snowed a bit. the next morning we left and headed north towards Lolo Pass, as we passed Chief Joseph pass Dave and Susan turned off and headed towards Stanley again and back to Oregon through Idaho. it was an easy climb up to Chief Joseph pass from where we were, but a long fall down along the Bitterroot's to Lolo, I'd rather not take that drive going the opposite direction.

[Can of beans]

Crossing Lolo pass is a pretty drive, and much less dramatic and lower than most of the passes we had done already. The campground had power and flush toilets which was nice and we were able to get a full charge on the trailer again. Our site was so large here that we had our truck and trailer about centered, parked my dad's jeep behind our trailer and were still able to set up a full badminton game behind the jeep. It was just that particular pull-thru site, but I think it's length was something over 100'. We attempted to hit up another public rockhounding site up near the pass, but the area was closed for somewhat nearby fires, so we left disappointed.

The next morning we drove off towards Lewiston driving across Idaho there is interesting, not much going on but trees and the river. I was getting a bit nervous about fuel before we got to Kamiah, realistically we can probably get close to 300 miles range on that more level ground, but I don't like to go much over 200-230 before filling up just in case.

Leaving Lewiston we opted to take the road less traveled and went south to Asotin and onto highway 129. I highly recommend this route if you don't have a fear of heights, car sickness, or lack of pulling power. The road is fascinating as it winds up and down and around the barren steep hills, down to the river and back up again and then does it all over again. There were times when we could see my Dad 20 minutes ahead of us on the road, but only hundreds of feet away. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. As the highway leaves the canyons, you enter into Oregon again, and follow a ridge down into Enterprise passed the Joseph Canyon viewpoint.

From there we drove into our campsite at Wallowa lake state park. I've stayed here before, but It is a great family campground, many sites have full hookups, there are family shower rooms at the bathrooms, where we could finally have a shower longer than a minute with all the hot water we wanted. My parents had gotten a site at a local RV park because the website for the park labels most sites as tent sites and many a lot of them are first come first serve. They pulled into their RV park and weren't able to fit into the first spot they were assigned(low branches) the next site was next to the go-kart track across from the horse stables, so restful.


It turned out that right in front of the sites we and my sister had though there was a open full hookup site, and they quickly traded to that. He was thrilled, and was able to run his washer and dryer take showers fire up both heat pumps, and watch movies on all the TV's at once with his grandchildren.



That night being Elizabeth and my anniversary we went to dinner in Joseph and had most pleasant time.

[Can of beans]

The next day we drove home through Elgin and across the blue mountains into Pendleton, through dull wheat country and up the Columbia gorge.
Our house was still their, the fish were still alive. The trailer held up great, most days driving long distance was enough to charge the batteries up again every other day. and other than the useless KT door lock, and the leaking rivet we didn't have any problems. 4 nights at Yellowstone pretty much emptied our water tank although we made no special attempt to be conservative.

We did run our battery low once, as I forgot to run the generator during our long day's away from the trailer. we made it through the night, and I started our generator the next morning and it ran for 8 hours or so while we were away the next day. I could tuck it up under the rear bumper and chain it down to keep it mostly dry while it rained steadily. I had been pretty jealous of Dave's solar install until he told me they didn't charge at all during that cloudy rainy day either. That was the only time they had trouble on the trip though, so it still seemed like a good system.



My dad found out that if you accidentally kill power to your furnace while it's running, the blower fan quickly overheats and softens, and when it comes back on the fan comes apart. luckily he has two furnaces, and the other was fine. He replaced it with an aftermarket metal fan

My sister made it to Bannack before finding out a family of we hope only 5 mice moved into her Nash trailer during the night. Over the next few days she caught 5 in snap traps. Once at home dad found a few holes in the frame where they had torched them too large for the wire running through, that hopefully is a solved problem. They didn't find it funny to wake up with mice in the sink or looking at them from the stove vents.

I've ordered and gotten a newer style door lock for our entrance door, I'm just trying to decide what I want the patch to look like on the outside. I also got some velcro to hold our shower curtain in place a bit better.

[dbj216]

Thank you kindly for posting your "travel journal" of your Yellowstone trip. Was impressed that you repaired your truck's accessory belts and tensioner problems yourself by the side of the road. You are a very independent person and I like that.

For about 7 years in the seventies Airstream used the KT lock. My Sovereign friend had trouble with his and took it apart. He found the ball detent had come apart. He got it back together and was quite happy with himself that it now works well. I put a new Kohree RV lock on my 75 Overlander as it is a much more robust lock and less that $50. Yep, you gotta make a patch to cover the big hole of the KT lock. But few vintage Airstreams don't have patches somewhere. My Kohree lock works well. I like it has a built in deadbolt. KT locks are famous for locking you out of the trailer or locking you in the trailer. I didn't want that hassle.

Happy Anniversary.

David

[Burnside Bob]

It was a great trip and thanks for posting up some memories.

Originally Posted by Can of beans

The trail was broad and flat, we did see a moose by the trail, but he was deep in the willows so it was difficult to get a picture. The girls grew tired(bored) and complained to turn around before we got the the Devil's staircase

Here's that same moose. A little later his buddy popped out of the willows.

We septuagenarian grandparents did make it to the Devil's Stairs. The arrow in the third photo points to the peak visible in the last photo, which we took in 2015. The smoke obscuring our views persisted most of the trip and originated over 1,000 miles away in Northern California.

Nonetheless, it was an uber cool trip with Can of Beans!!

Burnside

[Can of beans]

Thanks David,
that's the same door lock I bought. I finished up drawing of the patch plate, latch and reinforcement plates today. I'll see when they can get through laser.
my goal is to use as many of the original holes as possible, and cover up the old latch and striker pockets.

it does seem like a pretty nice latch so far.

[dbj216]

Drawing? Laser? Hole Pattern? Gee, your tools are a lot more sophisticated than my tape measure and tin snips. But I got it done and it doesn't look too bad. I suspect yours will look super.

The hard part for me was to position the lock and then figure out where the lock bolt will come through the door frame, and then engage the right depth in the door jam. That was a hit and miss for me. The KT lock bolt is further toward the inside where the Kohree is quite close to the edge of the door jam. I also had to make a spacer so the lock bolt got reasonable engagement.

You will enjoy the project, and feel confident you won't get locked out or locked in with a self disassembling KT lock.

David

[coloradoup]

Enjoyed reading about your trip. It's kind of like getting to camping without finishing our trailer. I am very familiar with those road side repairs!

[Shapmaui]

Originally Posted by Can of beans

Axles
Axles were easy, new Dexter tor-flex, I ordered from Six Roblee's through work with a 3500 lb rating, easy lube spindles, and nearly bolt in, I just had to slot the holes a bit on one side, and hook up the brakes. New 5/8" fine thread bolts finished it off. Any body need some low mileage sagging axles?

I am wondering how you find out if you need to replace the axles or just the suspension? I am not an expert or close to one for this area of the RV.
I own a 73 Sovereign and am starting my rehab....thanks!!!
Would you know how I would determine the replacement axles for my rig?
thanks again!

[dbj216]

The now Dexter axles are built with rubber rods that act as springs with the swing arm flexes over bumps or irregularities. It is a novel design for the 1950s. Airstream has been using them since 1961. The rubber rods get hard as hockey pucks over time and loose their elasticity. Many say about 30 years is the life of the rubber rods in the axle tube.

So jack up your trailer and remove the wheels. Look at the swing arm. If it is "horizontal" it means the swing arm is locked by the hard rubber rods. Time to replace the axles. Here is a photo of my 75 Overlander 27' with a horizontal swing arm. My trailer rides much better with new axles under it.

Let us see is can of beans agrees with my assessment.

David

[Can of beans]

I'd go so far as to say, your trailer is old, the axles have most likely sagged unless it was blocked off the tires. They should be replaced before your tires wear through the inner fenders, that's the real danger. I doubt the axles would come apart.



If your axles were like mine, Airstream did a hybrid type axle. they used the brakes and bearings from a #5000 lb axle on a 3400# rated tube. Dexter calls them 12x2" brakes and the axle a #10. I decided I was just going to use standard #3500 lb 10x1-1/2" brake axles. I figured if Dexter sells them that way they will be fine, and so far have been, Trucks have bigger better brakes now than old station wagons did. There's also Rockwell American around us, they're cheaper than Dexter and build equivalent axles. I probably would have used them if I was doing it now. your area will have a distributor to buy one of the brands locally, just check their websites, or look up trailer supply near you.


There's really only a couple measurements, wheel flange to wheel flange. outside of mounting bracket to outside of mounting bracket. the bracket type( I believe the standard hi profile mount was the right one for mine), and the angle down. I went with the standard 22.5 degree down, I might have gone with the 32 or 45 if I hadn't made a lift kit for the trailer. the bolt pattern should be 6 on 5.5" if you have 6 lug nuts.

The old Henschen axles had a slight different position for the rear bolt, so you need to file/die grind/drill that hole out a bit to get the bolt through. I used new 5/8" grade 8 fine thread bolts to reinstall them. then re-connect the brake wires.

You will lose the shocks, but torflex are naturally damping, so I've never gotten around to making that bolt on shock mount kit.

[Can of beans]

I've got the new door latch installed. I used the same Kohree latch David used. a bit of notching, and a few laser parts to simplify the install and it went fine.
I made the patch from .032 5052 aluminum, maybe I should have made it thicker, but it would have interfered with the fit a bit more.

The new latch plate is made from SS and seems to be working well. I made latch a bit tighter than the old setup, to pull the door in closer to flush, and that looks to be working well. I have a new original style door gasket to install, so I cut of the D shaped foam one I had previously put on, it was a bit too tall and pushed the door out. the gasket requires using contact cement rather than being self adhesive, so I've been putting that off.