New Member/Looking for Vintage Trailer Service Provider

[UTDez23]

Hi All - New to the forums and first time posting. My wife & I are first time/new owners of a vintage 1969 27' Overlander, that we found used in New Mexico, and will be placing on some land we have on southern Utah as a tiny home. We are very excited!!!

The trailer has been mostly renovated, and is a good mix of new upgrades and vintage elements. One detail we need to address is to add a solar power system to the trailer as we will be fully off the grid and will have no shore power. While I consider myself a pretty handy guy, I do not have the time currently to do the work on adding a system myself, and we are looking to find a good service provider / RV shop to help us with this. Later improvements will mostly be us as we learn and have more time.

Question for the group - is anyone familiar with a good RV shop in Southern Utah (St George, Washington County) or somewhere in the Albuquerque, NM area that specializes or is good with vintage airstream power systems? The trailer is currently in transit to Albuquerque to get new tires installed and to be stored there for 2-3 months until we prep our land outside Kanab, UT to drop it on, so are looking for somewhere in that general area and close to the final landing zone. We are aware of Vintage Airstream Restoration (VARR) in Heber, UT but are looking to not transport it all the way up to Northern UT to then bring it back down to the Kanab area if we can avoid it.

We are very happy to be members on the site here and to have a great and knowledgeable group to help us learn. Thank you all in advance and appreciate your help!!

Best,
Jesse

[dbj216]

Hi and welcome from Colorado: I have a 75 Overlander twin bed that I have renovated. I think they are nice sized Airstreams.

I have read information here on Air Forums about solar systems installed on Airstreams. They are rather complex and expensive. You didn't mention, but I assume you want AC power to run the air conditioner. There are simpler systems that are portable and designed to charge the trailer's batteries only. Me, I like my 3000 watt generator that will drive the air conditioner, charge the batteries, and provide AC power for charging phones or running the microwave and the like. Then I turn it off for the night.

Here is a link to a vintage Airstream hobbyists who installed a big solar system on the Airstream he is renovating. At least you can see some of the components and wiring involved. Skip to post 274 on page 3 to read about his solar system. I would think a "solar shop" could do an Airstream as the wiring and electrical system is pretty standard RV fare.

David

[UTDez23]

Thanks David! Appreciate the input and links, will check that out. Yes, ideally we want a solar system to push AC, including the air conditioner if we can, but do realize that will have to be a high wattage system to store and re-charge enough juice to power it all. A standard genny is definitely way easier/affordable but unfortunately not an option we want to pursue. As you mentioned, the overall install seems more or less straightforward for any experienced RV dealer who also does solar systems, so will call around and see what I can find.. Thank you again and look forward to being in touch!

Cheers,
Jesse