The fulltiming adventure begins

[sd90mac]

Yes, Sophie had a great time at Pismo rally.

We are very happy to have brought Bertha back from the brink. We debated long and hard about what to do, and finally decided to go for it.
It was very hard work, but the end result was great. We worked every weekend for 6-8 weeks to do the job, and now she is back!

We plan on more outings to see the west coast, but it has to wait until.....Well it just has to. All good things in time.

Marie

[Aage]

Congrats to you, Terry and Marie. Very gratifying to hear that your trailer gets a new lease on life!

[overlander63]

For the promised picture of the interior of Bertha, post repair:

[overlander63]

When we went to Pismo with Bertha, it rained a bit. Normally, it wouldn't be a problem, but this time I discovered a leak coming from the front Fantastic Vent. I put it on my list of things to fix, and today I decided to scratch it off the list. Several months ago, I got a 6600 Fantastic from another forums member, as he swapped out his 6600 for a Maxx Air vent. I decided to replace the 4000R that is located in the front living area of Bertha with the 6600. It was something of a challenge, as there are class A motor homes on both sides, but I was able to put the ladder up, against the window awning cover, and squirm up between Bertha and the motor home next to the trailer.
First, I removed the interior garnish from the ceiling, and snipped the two wires going to the 4000R.
Then I went on the roof, and removed the Maxx-Air vent cover, the mounting screws, and cut the Vulkem off the trailer, around the vent. I pulled the vent out of the hole, and lowered it through the hole, onto the gaucho. I then cleaned the roof where the old Vulkem and other gasket materials were, laid down a fresh bead of Vulkem, and dropped the new vent into the hole. The new Fantastic uses different mounting hole locations (naturally, doesn't everybody want an extra 24 holes in their roof?), so I screwed the new vent in place with new holes. I then ran a second bead of Vulkem around the perimeter of the vent, and smoothed the bead with a small putty knife. I climbed off the roof, cleaned up all the carnage, and went inside to finish wiring the Fantastic. It was a simple matter of a couple of connectors crimped in place, and re-attaching the inside garnish to the ceiling. Here are a couple of photos, if you didn't know better, you'd swear I knew what I was doing...

[overlander63]

Now I have a Fantastic 4000R, with a brand-new motor to go in it (the other reason to remove the vent, the old motor was squealing like a stuck pig). I'm going to lop off the rear vent, and install the 4000R in the rear vent location. We'll then have three Fantastic Vents installed in Bertha. If we're not careful, the trailer may implode if I run all of them on "exhaust" at once.
I'm still working on what to do to take the place of the original lights around the rear vent. If I simply remove them, the dressing room area will be too dark. I am currently considering a single 8" fluorescent tube in a fixture, either in front or behind the vent. It should be more than ample light, but we'll be able to tell more after it's done.

[vswingfield]

Hi Terry,

I'm not ready to do Fantaxtics yet, but I have been considering the problem with the loss of lighting in my Excella. I have been considering the Mushroom Fixtures at Lighting. You'll have to scroll down a few to see the Mushroom Fixtures.

Best to Marie and Sophie.

[Sugarfoot]

I'm just now catching up starting with the "Swiss cheese" frame unveiling. I'm absolutely amazed. You two are fortunate things didn't go south earlier. Bertha did right by you getting you as far out west as she could on her very last breath.

And now with your resuscitation efforts she's back on the road again. AWESOME! Even rallying. I'm impressed.

Originally Posted by overlander63

. . . I hauled Bertha over, around, up down, and anywhere else I could think of for a torture test. Railroad tracks, dips, bumps, curves, even the 11% hill we found shortly after we got here. I was backing Bertha into her spot when Marie finally caught up...
. . . Other than a glitch in the GPS that had us leaving the main highway and going over and through the mountains from Santa Barbara to Los Olivos (reminded me of US 64 in Georgia, without as many trees), everything went well. . . .

Whoa, Terry . . . You believe in baptism by fire. Glad you and Marie are back in business with Bertha. Give Sophie a biscuit from me.

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by Sugarfoot

Whoa, Terry . . . You believe in baptism by fire.

If it was going to break, I wanted to know it NOW, not on mile 247 of a 500 mile trip. So far, so good, though Bertha now has a new trick to confound me... The deadbolt only locks in the morning. If I lock the door before noon, it locks like it should. If I wait until 3 PM, the deadbolt won't go into the door.

[Gene]

It's an early riser?

Is it facing the sun—expansion makes it not fit?

Take your pick of the answers.

Gene

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

It's an early riser?

Is it facing the sun—expansion makes it not fit?

Take your pick of the answers.

Gene

The Sun rises to the right front corner, and sets to the left rear corner. It is shaded on the sides most of the day by the two monster class A's on either side. The lot is at a slight angle, grade-wise, with the right rear corner at the lowest point. It may be a combination of grade, Sun, new, thinner floor, or it may be just that Bertha is lonely...

[richinny]

running gear balance? sorry, andy made me say it.

[Sky]

Originally Posted by overlander63

... The deadbolt only locks in the morning. If I lock the door before noon, it locks like it should. If I wait until 3 PM, the deadbolt won't go into the door.

Its an operator problem. Lets see, 3pm on west coast is cocktail hour on east coast.
You just haven't switched time zones yet Terry.

[overlander63]

And now, the rear Fantastic installation...
And I didn't fall off the ladder!
I pulled up to install the rear Fantastic, and noticed the motor home on one side of Bertha was not there, so I had an area to place the ladder (yay!). It made it a lot easier to climb while carrying stuff.
I went up, removed the Maxx-Air vent cover, then the SolarDome cover I got from Inland Andy a couple of years ago, then took a sharp chisel and hammer to the rivets holding the old OEM vent in place. After I got the rivets off, I gently pried the vent out of hte hole, and left it on the roof temporarily. I then went inside and removed the inside vent cover/light fixture, and inner vent screen. The I unplugged the light fixture, and stuck it in a box.
I went back up on the roof, and lowered the vent, and took my tin snips to the radiused corners of the vent hole. The Fantastic has square corners, and the old vent had rounded corners. I learned long ago you can't fit a square vent in a round hole. I also found out the old vent is slightly smaller than 14" square, so I had to do a little judicous trimming of the roof to get the Fantastic to drop into the hole. I laid down a good bead of Vulkem, dropped the Fantastic in, and screwed it to the roof. Next, I went inside, and performed the same trimming I did on the roof to the ceiling panel. I wired the positive wire from the trailer to the black power wire on the Fantastic, and ran a new ground wire from the white lead on the Fantastic to a spot on the ceiling panel that would be covered by the interior garnish. I installed the garnish, and tried the fan. Success! It was then I noticed it was kind of dark in that area, a situation I commented on before. Since I didn't have the single tube flourescent light fixture I wanted to put there, I scrounged up a small two tube light, and fudged it into place. It doesn't look bad, but I feel it looks "rigged", so it will probably get replaced with a more suitable fixture as finances allow. Here are a couple of photos of the latest project:

[Aage]

Look super, Terry. I've never seen a Fantastic fan up close, but I gather from your photos that even the outer cover on it is clear? What a great idea, lets light in all the time.

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by Aage

Look super, Terry. I've never seen a Fantastic fan up close, but I gather from your photos that even the outer cover on it is clear? What a great idea, lets light in all the time.

The cover is smoke grey. There are several colors to choose from, in both flat and domed shapes. You can get solid white, transluscent white, solid grey (flat) and smoke grey. The sun was so bright, it looks like there is no cover in the photos.

[Lily&Me]

Looks very nice, and we are always impressed with the technological expertise of the DIY folks on this forum. We are learning, however, and are pleased with our DIY progress. We have a Fantastic Fan, like it fine.

[overlander63]

As those who have been following our misadventures from the beginning, we had a problem with bertha's OEM Armstrong air conditioner way back (blow the dust off some of the older posts, and you'll find the description, or just click this link: http://www.airforums.com/forums/show...&postcount=106 .
I made a temporary repair, which, surprisingly, has worked up till now: http://www.airforums.com/forums/show...&postcount=110 .

I've managed to acquire a slightly used Dometic Penguin a/c, with drain pan (needed some minor repairs), and decided to swap it with the Armstrong unit. Even though the Armstrong is still working, it is:
1- only 12,000 btu, not nearly enough for 100+ degree heat here in California, and
2- the Armstrong sounds like an idling big rig when running.

So, we loaded up Bertha and the newsed air conditioner, and drove to a friend's house, where they, coincidentally, also have a 1970's Sovereign with a 12,000 btu Armstrong air conditioner they have decided to replace. They, however, were able to afford a new Carrier 15,000 btu unit.
When we got to their house, and climbed on Bertha's roof, I made an important discovery, and remembered something I'd forgotten...The discovery is, the air conditioner on Bertha is NOT the original, even though it is an OEM unit. It had been replaced, and the new unit had been secured by screws and glue. This may be one of the spots the roof was leaking from, even though I couldn't see anywhere it may have been leaking. The second thing, which I rediscovered, is it gets very hot on the roof in direct sunlight. Marie says the burns should heal in a few days...
I remembered back when we had our Argosy, with the white-painted roof, how much cooler it was inside than a comparable Airstream when we were rallying. It was nearly 20 degrees cooler than a neighboring Globetrotter. And our roof leaks, from somewhere. (picture in your mind rusty wheels and gears slowly grinding into motion) So, I performed the sacrilige or slathering a gallon of white koolseal on the roof of Bertha, and was rewarded with an immediate 10 degree drop in temperature. The area I painted was equivalent to the area that Airstream currently paints their new coaches white, namely the center roof panel. After I did this, we went and removed the old Armstrong and installed the new Carrier on our friends' Sovereign while the paint was drying. Theirs had never been off, as evidenced by the seemingly hundreds of rivets securing theirs to the roof. After emulating cats on a hot tin roof, we got their old on off, and their new one on, hooked it up, and had it running.
By the time we got done with that, and eating lunch, the Koolseal was dry on Bertha, so we installed the Penguin on ours. Installation was pretty straightforward on both, requiring only a couple of 2x4's to brace the roofs, and keep the new units from crushing them.
Here are a few photos, of both trailers, as well as our latest victim, uhh, sucker, umm, volunteer...Yeah, that's it, volunteer! Seriously, he is our friends' kid, and by his helping, he saved the rest of us from keeling over with heat stroke. Thanks! Maybe they can rent him out for other Airstream projects...

The last two photos are of Bertha's "newsed" air conditioner:

[Sky]

Very cool

[sd90mac]

Originally Posted by Sky

Very cool

Yes it is!

Especially since we are planning a trip to Yosemite in the middle of August! Never been there so it seemed like the thing to do.

Can't wait, need a few days to clear cobwebs and relax.

Marie

[Maryw164]

Originally Posted by overlander63

As those who have been following our misadventures from the beginning, we had a problem with bertha's OEM Armstrong air conditioner way back (blow the dust off some of the older posts, and you'll find the description, or just click this link: http://www.airforums.com/forums/show...&postcount=106 .
I made a temporary repair, which, surprisingly, has worked up till now: http://www.airforums.com/forums/show...&postcount=110 .

I've managed to acquire a slightly used Dometic Penguin a/c, with drain pan (needed some minor repairs), and decided to swap it with the Armstrong unit. Even though the Armstrong is still working, it is:
1- only 12,000 btu, not nearly enough for 100+ degree heat here in California, and
2- the Armstrong sounds like an idling big rig when running.

So, we loaded up Bertha and the newsed air conditioner, and drove to a friend's house, where they, coincidentally, also have a 1970's Sovereign with a 12,000 btu Armstrong air conditioner they have decided to replace. They, however, were able to afford a new Carrier 15,000 btu unit.
When we got to their house, and climbed on Bertha's roof, I made an important discovery, and remembered something I'd forgotten...The discovery is, the air conditioner on Bertha is NOT the original, even though it is an OEM unit. It had been replaced, and the new unit had been secured by screws and glue. This may be one of the spots the roof was leaking from, even though I couldn't see anywhere it may have been leaking. The second thing, which I rediscovered, is it gets very hot on the roof in direct sunlight. Marie says the burns should heal in a few days...
I remembered back when we had our Argosy, with the white-painted roof, how much cooler it was inside than a comparable Airstream when we were rallying. It was nearly 20 degrees cooler than a neighboring Globetrotter. And our roof leaks, from somewhere. (picture in your mind rusty wheels and gears slowly grinding into motion) So, I performed the sacrilige or slathering a gallon of white koolseal on the roof of Bertha, and was rewarded with an immediate 10 degree drop in temperature. The area I painted was equivalent to the area that Airstream currently paints their new coaches white, namely the center roof panel. After I did this, we went and removed the old Armstrong and installed the new Carrier on our friends' Sovereign while the paint was drying. Theirs had never been off, as evidenced by the seemingly hundreds of rivets securing theirs to the roof. After emulating cats on a hot tin roof, we got their old on off, and their new one on, hooked it up, and had it running.
By the time we got done with that, and eating lunch, the Koolseal was dry on Bertha, so we installed the Penguin on ours. Installation was pretty straightforward on both, requiring only a couple of 2x4's to brace the roofs, and keep the new units from crushing them.
Here are a few photos, of both trailers, as well as our latest victim, uhh, sucker, umm, volunteer...Yeah, that's it, volunteer! Seriously, he is our friends' kid, and by his helping, he saved the rest of us from keeling over with heat stroke. Thanks! Maybe they can rent him out for other Airstream projects...

The last two photos are of Bertha's "newsed" air conditioner:

Hey guys,

Great pics. Thanks for all the help on the A/C job. It's a good thing we had Stephen (17 years young) to be your apprentice. He learned a lot from helping Terry & Steve out. We'll have to plan more future projects to do, but maybe when the weather cools down . FYI: we will be doing a spacer like the one that "Adonh aka Don" did. See link: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f427...n-40590-2.html post #25.

Mary