1967 Overlander black tank troubles

[franko]

Hi I am new to the forum and not familiar on how to use it, so first asking direction from some helpful member. I resently bought a 1967 Overlander with the hopes of restoring it. Im 64 years old and worked in home renovation busness all my life.That statement was supposed to make people aware that I am a handy guy.I removed the rear bath real carefully and broke or cracked nothing.I am proud of that because that was a victory unto itself. The floor under the bath is gone. then I got to the black tank and discovered some interesting things. the grey water runs on the ground behind the black flush valve. NICE! but not by todays standards. There is also a vent on top of that black tank that would spil liquids onto the ground if the tank overfilled. What have I gotten myself into?

[DremStremer]

There is nothing unusual about your trailer. Airstreams of that era did not have grey tanks because it was common practice to allow grey water to run on the ground. Airstream did not add grey tanks until the mid '70s. Many folks install grey tanks when doing a renovation of their trailers. There are tanks available that will fit within the frame. The other option is to use a portable waste tank outside the trailer to collect the grey water.

As for the vent pipe, I'm guessing it is broken. The vent should be sealed from the tank to the outlet on the roof. Liquids should not be able to leak out of it when the tank is full.

[Minno]

I suggest you read some restoration threads in this forum related to your year of trailer or thereabouts. Our trailer is a '72, so a little different and longer than yours. We successfully gutted and fully renovated ours as have others, so it can be done! We received much help from the Forums for our renovation, and try to help others to give back.

Sounds like your black tank vent pipe has indeed developed a leak of some type. Easy fix so to speak. We fabricated our own grey tanks that fit over and behind our axles (2 ganged together), but we have a longer trailer than yours, so you may only be able to get one in there.... Our resto thread is "Little Girl Refurb" in the '70's section of the Forums if you're interested in some of it.

Good Luck!


Kay

[mrdes8]

Welcome... on my '68 there were several issues with drain and vent lines they often come undone at the tank or other joints. The bath is out, have you removed the inner skins? Also, look outside the trailer on the roof to see where the vent stacks come out for clues where to look inside. There is usually an unreal mess of drain and vent pipes which can be simplified. The tank question is one of the biggest you will face, it affects many other parts of the trailer. One option I have gone to several times is to remove the black tank, replace it with the largest tank I can fit in the rear frame bay, usually 35 gallons. That is for gray water. I then use a different style toilet like composting or "Curve". Works for us, maybe not for everyone. Lots of possible discussion around the whole tank topic.
Good luck, Mark D

[dbj216]

Welcome from Colorado and to the vintage Airstream hobby. A 67 Overlander is a very worthy renovation project. They were well built in my view. I renovated a 66 Trade Wind 24', one year older and 2' shorter than yours. However, there was a major design change in 67 and you have the redesigned bath which is much nicer than the one in my trailer.

The 1966 black tank was woefully inadequate. It was only 3" deep. That old clap trap toilet was also a nightmare. And my bath floor was also rotted out. So I rebuilt the bath.

Plastic RV waste water tanks are readily available. Inca Plastics in California is the source I use. I don't know the Canadian market. So as mrdes8 said, make your design and then shop for a tank that will fit. Guess what, the toilet needs to be over the black tank, and there is little room under the bath floor for a adequate black tank. Or you can use a bucket with kitty litter in it. I know nothing about composting toilets but I do like flush toilets.

Here is a photo of the two new tanks from Inca Plastics that I installed in my fromer Trade Wind. I moved the new toilet forward and the new black tank in the next to rear frame bay. I also drained my new tanks under the frame rail on the port side kinda like newer Airstreams. That way I could install a larger tank. And here is a photo of the resultant bath layout. At least it functioned much better than the old one.

You can go to the Forums Knowledge Base at the bottom of the Forums page to learn all about your 67 Overlander 26'. Click on Overlander and click on your year range. Then start reading what others have done. You might enjoy starting a project thread so others can follow along with your project one step at a time.

David

[franko]

Hey thanks guys for your responses. Iam hoping to figure out the forums and follow previously posted threads. So thanks for info on that too. I also bought a 1975 Argosy together with my oldest boy, ''Christian school teacher'. Not alot of money in that. So we are going from 0 to 2.
Years ago I had a 1995 front kitchen 34 ft. I didnt know that you needed a diesel powered dually 3500 to tow that so I sold it back to the dealer I bought it from BEFORE any accident happened. We call that a life lesson.
Only 1 year from retirement!
More time to restore!
God is good all the time.
Franko