SilverGate's Safari is Home at Last!

[SilverGate]

Larry found water in the trailer’s license plate light holder after I recently washed the trailer.

He then provided a weather seal to this holder in the form of self-sticking rubber foam tape from Home Depot:

[SilverGate]

(BTW... that License Plate light bulb will soon be replaced with a LED light!)

Raffia curtains from Party City add a festive, seasonal touch to the interior:

[SilverGate]

We really like the Rangoon Bamboo accent and runner rugs from Target ($20 each) placed over Target’s Rug Stay, a polyester fabric coated with PVC, that will not stain or discolor floor.

(And the drawers and dinette cabinet door clear the rugs):

[SilverGate]

Day of departure… or Extraction from Site Protocol!

After eating breakfast on our last day at Lake Jennings we prepared to leave.
I developed an Extraction Protocol (and added it to all of my other protocols).
Some of the highlights are:

1. Put rubber tire doormats in place and back truck to trailer and hitch up. (I now keep 4 large rubber doormats in the truck at all times. See photo of mat in post # 212 above).
2. Reduce or limit trailer weight, if possible. (Be creative and discreet).
3. Don’t put on Equal-i-zer bars until reaching level ground (where it will be easier).
4. Put F-250 PSD in 1st gear and Tow/Haul Mode.

Pull out slowly (and confidently because your PSD has the power)!

Well, I am happy to tell you that the truck pulled the trailer up to the camp road with ease and no spinning of the wheels (I had seen several smaller trucks spinning their wheels next door the day before).

So I have a renewed sense of confidence in the F-250 PSD.

And this Mid-Summer’s outing was a dream and not a nightmare!

Cheers!
SilverGate

07-07-07 (Rich L., Glad you also returned home safely!)

[SilverCabin]

A gorgeous view, but from the pictures of your Safari setting on the blocks and the downhill grade, kind of scary. In my early days with a camping trailer in New Mexico, we set-up on a site like that. It was only a few feet fortunately, but we took an E-Ticket ride in the middle of the night. Glad you got out of there.

BTW: My dealer fixed the Equal-i-zer installation last week. I’ll post pictures soon.

Randy

[SilverGate]

You're right, Randy, it was kind of scary, and I felt better once off of that slope and out of the heat. BTW, I like your new handle, "SilverCabin"!

We returned home near the coast, cooled off, and reevaluated our camping options. Larry and the dogs tolerate heat less than I do. But we all agreed that if we have to camp somewhere that requires us to spend the afternoon cooling off in an air-conditioned trailer, we’d have less risk of developing cabin fever in our air-conditioned house near the Pacific coast. That means that the only comfortable place for us to camp during the remaining summer in San Diego County is along the beach. But premium beachside camping sites are booked until after Labor Day.

Our best seasons for camping in San Diego County are fall through early summer. So this is actually a good time for us and the dogs to do house and health maintenance. It is also a perfect time to catch up on some good summer reading, like something almost as good as "Spooky Campfire Tales".
(http://www.airforums.com/forums/f396/silvergates-safari-home-last-29471-15.html)... So I chose The Airstream Owners Manual.

I re-opened the Airstream Owner’s Manual for the Safari and stumbled on some fascinating stuff, like the location of our water pump.
The water pump, that intermittent heartbeat of the trailer; we heard and felt it, but like our own hearts, have never actually seen it. The manual says that our 23’ Safari has the lower section of the roadside wardrobe face-panel hinged to open and expose the pump and filter! With excited curiosity and camera in hand, I entered the trailer and pondered about that lower wood panel that blended so well with the wardrobe door.

[SilverGate]

I opened the wardrobe door, and then gently pulled on the panel below, and it magically opened on two hinges. This was one item they sure didn’t show us during the delivery walk-through!

[SilverGate]

What I saw next made me want to jump back.
What lay inside looked like an octopus ready to flail out its many tentacles.

But I was actually looking at the water pump along with a bunch of hoses and wires and/or wires bundled in hoses!

[SilverGate]

I then poked my head in and looked toward the front.
I saw a mass of wires, some of them going into the nearby electrical panel.

[SilverGate]

And further back... there was the furnace box under the refrigerator!

[SilverGate]

I then looked back toward the octopus tentacles…

[SilverGate]

And I saw more wires and hoses going through a small opening leading into a space under the Vanity Sink.
Some force pulled my hand clutching my camera into the space. So all I could do was to push the shutter button to eventually see what only my camera could see at that moment:
The secret space, there it was with a cross-section view of the vinyl tile and plywood floor.

And then the most exciting discovery: on the panel just below the Vanity Sink cabinet was a magnet bracket holding the panel in place!

Further back is the space under the commode and beyond!

[SilverGate]

From the outside it looked like baseboard under the Vanity Sink Cabinet, but it was actually a secret panel.

For it to fully open, the Vanity Sink Cabinet doors would need to be removed.

[SilverGate]

I pulled my hand with camera out, but a tentacle pulled it into another hole, this one was in the floor just forward of the water pump.

Now my camera was in the inner sanctum of the trailer that few get to see: the space between the belly-pan and floorboard, the under-floor chassis.

I was now looking at wires passing through one of the black painted steel outriggers welded onto the box channel steel!

[SilverGate]

BTW, to see the construction steps and details of this chassis along with the rest of the Airstream trailer, see the photos and commentary at:
http://www.airstream.com/product_line/factory_tour/tour_01.html

[SilverGate]

After coming up for air, I couldn’t wait to get back to that summer reading.

It wasn’t long before I read about something else that I did not know: my Moen water filter under the Lobster sink comes with a battery!
(This will enable a light in the base of the filtered water faucet to blink when it is time to change the filter.)

So now my curiosity led me back out for another field trip in the trailer. I found that the battery is held in the filter-mounting bracket under the sink. And the electrical wire runs up with the plumbing to the faucet.

[SilverGate]

Moen faucet

[SilverGate]

Plumbing to faucet

[SilverGate]

I checked out the battery and turned on the pump and filtered water faucet and was shocked at what I saw next: a leak!

Water droplets were falling from the under side of the plastic tube going into the faucet. And dripped when I had just the filtered water faucet turned on.

Well, this required a closer look with the aid of a small collapsible mirror from Home Depot.

[SilverGate]

There it was, a water drop oozing out of a pinhole or hairline crack in the plastic tube that brings filtered water into the faucet!