Can of beans Sovereign 1972

[Can of beans]

I replaced mine when we first got the trailer, and I put in the 10 gallon Atwood because it was a direct fit. I got the gas/electric, but not the auto lighting. the DSI option was a lot more, and I figured once a trip I could light the water heater when we didn't have hookups. I've since made a aluminum cover to go over the white door, because the burner is in a different spot and the original stainless door won't line up. the water heater holds hot water for a long time, it takes a while to warm up the first time, but after that I forget it's there. We didn't have a chance to use our trailer a lot yet though before I tore it apart. The alternate trailer we use has the 6 gallon version and it seemed fine as well.

[Can of beans]

Originally Posted by Camper Crazy

Wow, that has come together very nicely. I have an affinity for the tambour doors and you’re right, it is hard to see that it’s not original. Will you post a final pictorial tour?
CC

After we get the mattresses back in the back and the rest of the curtains back in, I'll take some panorama shots. we're really happy with how it turned out. The girls brought out their coloring books and put them in the credenza, and insisted we eat dinner in there last night. the ottoman Elizabeth got made a perfect bench for them at the table.

[dbj216]

Well, you should now be able to answer the questions "Daddy, when is the trailer going to be finished?"

Your front room looks fantastic. The credenza you built looks very original. Happy the tambour roll I sent worked for you. They can be sticky buggers at times.

It will be interesting to see how the rock guard turns out. I bet it will look great also.

David

[Can of beans]

Here are some interior pictures, they have some splicing aberrations from the stitching my phone did, but it gives a wider shot.

[Minno]

Looks very very nice!

Kay

[amigaman]

Love to see what you did for an outdoor shower!

Originally Posted by Can of beans

New
Axles
Pex plumbing
Water Heater (with Electric option)
Furnace
Front and rear floor plywood
Outdoor Shower
Inverter
Battery
Curtains
Gaucho Upholstery
Water pump
Light Covers
LED lighting (in Process)
propane tanks recertified and a new Regulator
1 vista view reworked
new roll pin for KT door lock (it's scary how close it was to locking me out forever)

Things on the list to Do
Black tank drain valve and plumbing
Kitchen Countertop (oven is slowly falling in)
Oven gas valves
Bathroom sink and counter
finish new weatherstripping for windows and door
Fix all the windows :{
re-string the awning
following the perpetual leaks around and find all those spots i missed when i resealed the exterior.

[Can of beans]

I have a picture of the shower from the inside,

it's the generic plastic outdoor shower, but I cut off the door and part of the flange so I could insert it through that aluminum sheet.

my center bath has the hatch next to the water heater that didn't seem to have much purpose, so I put it there.

The other trailer we use has one that worked great for washing the sand off the girls at the beach.

[dbj216]

It looks great and maybe ready for the maiden voyage if you find a place where you feel safe from the covid. We're staying home this travel season as we are "at risk" grandparents.

I'm real sure your better half had great influence on the interior design. Engineers aren't well known for artistic skills. It's a left brain, right brain thing.
So you don't feel bad, the water tanks you installed look great too.

David

[Can of beans]

I'll have you know that the farm equipment I design are some of the most aesthetic products we build, but yes Elizabeth makes the design decisions.



We have a mini goal to go camping in it next weekend at the beach. but there's still several details to wrap up.


The big goal is we have reservations for Yellowstone August 2021

[dbj216]

I worked in ag and construction equipment industry for 25 years. We built hydraulic components for the equipment manufacturers. I never saw a combine I didn't like. But Elizabeth would not be keen on the overall appearance of the thing. Your Airstream looks much better than the cab of a combine.

Yellowstone is a beautiful park. I remember my trip there as a kid. Your kids will remember it forever. Trigger warning, it is very crowded. Your Oregon coast is also very beautiful.

David

[Can of beans]

I cut and installed the polycarbonate yesterday, the polycarbonate is definitely easier to cut than acrylic. I used my circular saw for all the cuts and had no problems.

The frame is from DuncanS trailer the Pheonix, I pulled off the burned parts and trimmed it down for our narrower shell, I'm sure I could do it better if I did it again, but it looks pretty good to me, cutting such a awkward shape was definitely difficult to lay out. cutting the polycarbonate was easier, I traced the shape from the inner profile and then offset it out 3/8" each side.

The color is Gray#7130 vs the the dark gray 7135, Elizabeth wanted to be able to see through the trailer while towing. In the past we have been able to see that the Fridge door catch wasn't locked, so it seems like a good idea.

I think from the Airstream they bed the acrylic in caulk, but I had some gasket I had bought from vintage trailer to try and use on the stack windows (it didn't fit) but it did fit the rock guard, and gives a nice beveled edge and some float.
I will need to make up some support arms some day, I haven't found any for what I consider a reasonable price yet online. I've also misplaced my bag of quarter turn fasteners, so I'm short one. I know they're around here somewhere.

[Can of beans]

Some more Items I've worked on this weekend,

I installed all the stabilizers and patches on the belly pan, they didn't get my parts formed by the time I left on Thursday, so I wasn't able to install the end caps on the lifted section, but they were cut. They're also going to form my new aluminum Trunk tray. it will allow me to reuse the factory lid but keep the trunk from funneling water under the rear plywood. hopefully it slides right in and just needs the hinge attached. Because I moved my power cord, when I replaced the rear crossmember for one with no holes at all, I've also removed the cord dropout from the trunk. It's going to have to hold the slinky and the power cord for now.



I installed a propane/CO detector and wired it to the fuse panel, better safe than sorry. Now I can rivet the magazine rack in place, I also installed a smoke detector in the hallway.



The towel bar had cracked out the door in the pantry, so I took the chance to put a steel plate behind it, now we have a place to put the magnets from our trips.



Our zinc door striker had cracked out long ago and the replacements don't fit the same, so I had one laser cut from 18ga stainless, I beveled the front edge on the grinder a bit and installed it, it works even better than I expected, so win. I made a few spares in case that front edge wants to bow in, but it seems to be fine. it's symmetric, so I could always flip it over, or upside down in a pinch for a new wear surface. the door latch is in the bottom 3rd of the opening. With no pocket, I just filled and made a cavity with some Vulkem I had handy.

[dbj216]

Wow, that front window rock guard looks great, better than new. I read Wally Byam insisted on a big front window and a big back window so the driver of the tow vehicle could see through the trailer. I suppose rear view mirrors weren't so hot back in the sixties. Anyway, very nice job on the rock guard.

And ditto on the other tasks you got done this weekend. Press on...almost there.

David

[Can of beans]

Elizabeth and our youngest daughter brought a common cold home from their rush trip, I caught it, and it slowed me a bit this week, but I feel much better today. We decided to keep this cold to ourselves and not go camping this weekend and that gave me time to finish up some more details.
I got my laser part this week from work, and I was able to close in the ends of my lift kit with aluminum Z's , that way I could rivet the belly pan to something sturdy, and close up around the gray tank drain. where it goes out to the valve. I also had a new trunk made that I riveted the old door to. it looks like it should, but it has a back wall separate from the cross member to allow water to drain through to the ground. it looks better than the old partial wood version I made when I fixed the rear floor previously.


I also bought a portable propane detector from the amazon, and tracked down my leak to the connection to the refrigerator, I cut off and re-flared the tube this morning, and it seems to be good now, so hopefully that's fixed.

After that we started to load all the accoutrements from the stand in trailer back into the Airstream. Blankets and flashlights and dishes and such.



I broke down and got a Costco membership today for the first time in my life at age 41 to buy the batteries cheaper. I quoted them through work, and they were $63 more for the same thing with my markup, so it seemed to make sense to get a membership. I got two group 27 batteries, that pretty much fill my battery box. hopefully that means we can run the furnace at night occasionally, sometimes it gets cold up in the high desert.

The next thing up is to get tires, and it looks like I can get those from Discount auto, I'm going to get the Goodyear Endurance in the factory size, people seem to like them so far. I think I'll keep on of the current tires for a spare, I don't think they have 2000 miles on them.


Evelyn actually seems to think the trailer will be done sometime next week maybe, but kids are optimists. I tell her that the trailer is never really done, just maybe usable.

[dbj216]

Thank goodness it was a cold and wasn't covid. I bet you were all concerned, although the symptoms are not the same so I read. We humans sure spread illnesses around.

The bumper trunk compartment looks very professionally done. And you have allowed rain water to run to the ground, and not into the subfloor. That is key.

My Overlander may be on its way to Nebraska tomorrow. My son wants to take it out. We shall see how well it performs for him. It is still unsure about going due to the pandemic.

I had to fabricate aluminum "Z" shaped members also to get the belly pan around my new grey tank.

David

[Minno]

I like the lift kit for your rear bumper storage. Will be showing that to Chris!

Kay

[Can of beans]

We took the trip over to my wife's parents Friday night to try out the trailer.

overall I it went well, the campground is beautiful, and we got a spot right on the creek . Very exclusive place.


Overall the trailer worked great, although something seems to be unhappy with my water pump, lucky the campground had water hookups. At low flow through the kitchen faucet, the pump wants to shudder, rather than cycle on and off. We took out the flow limiter from the faucet and it didn't help much. I'm not quite sure what's going on, because if I turned on multiple faucets it would run fine, but it seemed to have lower flow. probably one of the checks is stuck, or the membrane has a hole in it. the pump did sit for 5 years.

I'm also a bit worried that the suction elbow fell off on the inside of the tank, it seems like I used to be able to suck the tank dry with the pump, and now it says 19% on my gauge, it could be I installed the gauge strip too low, but I don't think so.

[Can of beans]

I pulled the pump apart, and it seemed to be fine, so I tightened the pressure switch screw and bumped up the pressure till it quit fluttering,
now it turns on and stays on while the faucet is on. The super short cold water line still has some pulsing from the pump. but it's not bad.
I also drilled out the flow restrictor to work with the lower pressure pump also.
good to go.

[dbj216]

Our new water pump required 18" of flex hose between the pump and the water distribution system to "reduce noise". I wonder if that is a factor.

Doesn't matter if you are satisfied with the pump performance now that you have made some changes.

David

[Can of beans]

Yesterday the trailer got some brand new tires. I went with the Goodyear Endurance in the factory 225/75R15 size. I bought them from Discount tire, as they are closer than the Goodyear store, and relatively convenient to get to from my house. Seeing as the tires that were on the trailer had only around 1000 miles on them, and had been stored inside, I asked them to put two of them on new steel wheels for spares, but when they got the wheels off they noticed they were over 10 years old and wouldn't remount them. It hadn't been one of my favorite decisions, so I asked somewhat offhand if they would trade one of the new wheels for a new GYE tire instead, and they agreed. I'm thinking that since I opted for the warranty, that they figured they had made up the difference between the tire and wheel anyway, but it felt like a win to me.

I do feel better about having a spare with the same tire on it, I'm not sure I've ever owned a matching spare before, it feels like one of those adult things they tell you about on TV.
Currently the idea is to take the trailer up to Suttle lake next weekend, or somewhere thereabouts. I have fond memories of that lake, I was in my first powerboat capsizing there.

While they had the trailer jacked up and the tires off I was able to get a better shot from the outside of the lift kit I made. So far it tows just fine, and we can now make it off our lane onto the highway without dragging the back end of the trailer.