About five minutes later, I get the dreaded smell of ammonia. Something is wrong. Turns out there is a small pin hole leak in the pipes just to the right of the element. See that little white spot at the end of the screw driver? That is apparently what caused the corrosion in the wires in the first place. Things are really bad all of a sudden. Looks like it’s time for a new one.
So, the ugly is that refers are really, REALLY, expensive. From what I have read, once the pipes are perforated and the ammonia starts to leak, hang it up. It costs more to repair than they are worth. Couple that with the fact that this fridge has other “issues” and I guess it’s time to for a new one.
A local junk yard has an SOB in the back that doesn’t look too old and has a “Norcold” brand refer in it that doesn’t look too bad (at least that’s what I think it is). Anybody had any experience with that brand? I think I’ve seen that name brand on the forum before, but I’m not sure if that is the proper brand name. There is a stove/oven combination in there, too, and they are the cool looking black finish. I think they would look nice in the new interior (that we have planned but have done no work on, yet).
Anybody want to help me make this decision? Anybody want a broken down Vintage Dometic?
Sorry about the fridge. I don't know about the replacement you are looking at. Hope someone else will give you information. My fridge works however I ended up doing a lot of repair on the box itself. I do have a request. If your Dometic badge on the front is like the picture attached, I would be interested in it. Also there is a small door that goes over the Ice tray in mine that is missing. I don't know if yours would be the same. See attached picture.
Thanks Don
Sorry, Don. Mine is a 1973 RM-75. Totally different from yours. I'll post a couple of full length pictures in case I do decide to let it go. Right now I'm thinking it's not worth repairing (looks rough and something else may break).
Well, summer heat or not, I've been working the last few days. Dad and my brother came over Saturday and we got a few things done, but nothing completed, dang it.
The water tank, now freshly cleaned up thanks to Chuck and 59, is installed back in the belly.
Now I'm trying to finish with the last few frame issues. The bottoms of several of the outriggers and one of the cross members were rusted so badly that I had to cut the bottom and fashion new pieces. Here's a before of the cross member; the outriggers looked basically the same.
What I did was cut the bottom rusted stuff off (pic one) and am now making a piece to bolt onto the bottom the outrigger. We had some shipping materials that I fished out of the trash at work that was just about the correct guage steel and already had an angle on two edges. I simply cut these down to about 1.5" tall by about 10" long. I'll get those POR-15'd over the next couple of days and bolt them on to the bottom of the outrigger.
Luckily, the outriggers are otherwise in good shape. Only the bottom of several had rusted enough to need repair. Pic two shows the the cut pieces ready to be painted (the silver looking steel). At the bottom of the pic is an intact packing brace before being cut. It's amazing what is used as shipping material these days. These were used as braces on some computer racks we recently purchaced.
Back when we were "painting" the frame, we decided to use POR-15 on the main frame and Eastwoods Silver rust encapsulator on the tongue as well as any other exposed areas of the frame. From the reading I had done on the boards here, I figured the two were of about the same quality.
I'm having a few second thoughts about the Eastwood. There are several areas where rust is forming on the Eastwood painted areas. No problems with the POR to date. A couple of pics below. I applied both coatings according to the instructions, i.e., proper prep work, correct outside temp, etc.
Hummmm, for some reason the pics are attaching as files instead of pics. Let me try that again.
Here's what the Black Water Tank assembly looks like ready to go back in. Three pieces, tank, styro pedistal, steel box to hold it all.
Rats, let's try again.
Well, I figured it out. I have to actually save the file using my photo editing software first, rather than just using the format the camera supplies. Weird
On the very back of the main rails there a couple of drop down extensions welded on there to hold the frame for the black water tank. The bottom of these extensions were almost completely rusted away on the very bottom. We cut out the rusted parts and bolted some L-angle in its place. That’s Dad helping pose this pic. A little gutter seal and another coat of Eastwoods and this is done.
All of these rust issues are due to the fact that this area of the trailer LEAKS LIKE A SEIVE! All these issues with rear frame/floor rot are completely clear to me now.
Reason one for the rear end problems is leaks. It would appear that it was designed to leak. Everything leaks. I will have more on this when I seal everything up.
Reason two is the extended length behind the wheels and lesser gauge steel used in the main frame rails. I have a bit of tail sag here, but I hope it is properly fastened now. I have used 16 bolts in this area to bolt the floor/shell/frame back together. All of these are reinforced in some way.
Reason three is the sway back there. Too much weight and not enough “umph” in the frame behind the wheels.
We had a bit of a problem getting the supporting L-angle steel that holds up the black water tank to align properly. One reason is that we had to replace one of the really wimpy brackets that holds these L-angle pieces in place. It is about ¼” off true. The big problem is that the steel “bows” in the middle of the tank (where you see my finger). But I don’t understand completely why the bow is there. The solution to this issue is to bolt in a couple of steel straps running lengthwise between the front and rear L-angle. I haven’t exactly figured out how to do this, but it’s gotta be done. That tank won’t last ten minutes at highway speeds with that bow in there.
We had a bit of a problem getting the supporting L-angle steel that holds up the black water tank to align properly. One reason is that we had to replace one of the really wimpy brackets that holds these L-angle pieces in place. It is about ¼” off true. The big problem is that the steel “bows” in the middle of the tank (where you see my finger). But I don’t understand completely why the bow is there. The solution to this issue is to bolt in a couple of steel straps running lengthwise between the front and rear L-angle. I haven’t exactly figured out how to do this, but it’s gotta be done. That tank won’t last ten minutes at highway speeds with that bow in there.
I put a sheet of 1" thick plywood with another sheet of 1/4" thick aluminum underneath my holding tanks. I glued the aluminum to the plywood. The aluminum is on the bottom side, of course. This was all bolted to the L-angle using about 80 3/4" self-tapping bolts. This makes for a pretty solid support for the tank. Have you considered doing something like this to hold the bottom of your tank in place?
Thanks for the kind words, guys. The only real problem I'm have is GETTING IT DONE! Man it takes so much time, and I seem to have so little of it.
Ank, my era trailer has that wimpy rear frame problem, so I'm a little affraid to put too much more weight back there. In fact, I've removed somewhere between 150 to 200 lbs back there. I just picked up some bracing on Friday to strengthen the frame behind the wheels, but didn't get a chance to install it over the weekend. Hopefully, this week......
Ank, my era trailer has that wimpy rear frame problem, so I'm a little affraid to put too much more weight back there. In fact, I've removed somewhere between 150 to 200 lbs back there. I just picked up some bracing on Friday to strengthen the frame behind the wheels, but didn't get a chance to install it over the weekend. Hopefully, this week......
Jim
Ahhh... I see. I guess my main worry would be something cruching the tank from underneath, but I suppose that is pretty unlikely.
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