Heading Home With Our Aluminum Dream!

[Rocinante]

Congratulations! Love that salsa interior. Looks hot!

A few thoughts:
* Regarding the jack fuse. It's possible your battery was low. We found very early on that if the battery's voltage was low, turning on the jack could blow the fuse. This could be an early indicator of an "injured" battery, but maybe it's fine if you just keep her charged up. OTOH, we recently had to replace the fuse sleeve in our jack line because water did in fact get into it and the connections became corroded.
* Regarding the sticky windows: Yep, we use 303 and wait a few minutes after releasing the latches. We keep an old Coach Net card handy if that doesn't work (opening stuck windows is the only good use we've found for Coach Net cards, but that's another story)
* Regarding maintenance and inspection routines: One of the things you definitely want to do in the first six months is go carefully over all seams and seals to see whether there are any gaps or cracks in the caulk. Airstream's warranty for this particular aspect of the trailer is only six months, while everything else is 2 years. We just spent nearly $2K having our dealer freshen the appropriate caulk (mostly Acryl-R - NEVER any silicone!) on all our exterior seams / seals. We had no leaks, but after an inspection they showed us quite a few places where it would be wise to do that work. We were inside the 2yr window but far outside the 6 month window. Lesson learned. You can obviously do this work yourself with patience and the right materials, but if it's needed why not get this done for free within that 6 month window?

[Doc Foster]

Congrats on your new purchase!

[Barretta2]

Re your blown jack fuse. I found out the hard way as a newbie last year that if you hyper-extend (raise) your jack, it will blow the fuse.
And re the glass fuse for the jack...it's an easy job to swap out the tube fuse set-up for the flat kind....took my Mr. Fixit about 5 minutes. One advantage is you are more likely to have spares of the flat fuses because they are used elsewhere in your AS.
Safe travels!

[Airborne6]

Congratulations. We picked up our 23D international last year around this time. Ours too has salsa and we love it. You don't see many of the salsas around. Have a great Streaming journey. We will get ours out of storage this Friday and head to Arkansas in search of warmer weather.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by PKI

The windows need a little help to open. Some folks use a credit card. We use a flat wooden spatula to carefully work open our windows. The dealer suggests a coating of 303 Aerospace Protectorant and rejects the use of silicone. It sticks more.

Good luck. Travel safe. Pat

Ditto to PKi and others -- dealer agrees. The 303 is available in a small plastic tub of 40 towelettes, which are very easy to use on the weatherstripping without risking over-spray and clean up problems. No liquid in a bottle to spill if stored poorly. Works well in our FC20 where space is at a premium.

303 Towelettes

Once you use the windows a while, this will not be an issue . . .

No need for window poppers -- one more thing to install and have to maintain. Not needed at all after time . . .

Congratulations on the new trailer!

[PKI]

The silicone is supposed to be sticky and the 303 is supposed to be the stuff to use. From the post content, actual experience has been different. Where are the Chemists when you need them? Could be the solvent that is the problem with some silicone lubes. It could just be bad info. As long as that putty knife does not cut the seal or scratch the window, your tool box has a good addition.

Travel safe on your trip. Pat

[chris_kelly]

Originally Posted by mkr1950

Hello chris_kelly,



Congrats on your new Airstream! We too picked ours up recently and we're also from Maryland! Maybe we'll see you out someplace.



Enjoy exploring! Take care,



Mike Robertson

Baltimore, MD

Rock on Marylander!

We're heading out this weekend but down towards Williamsburg! Happy Streaming

[Eheart]

We bought one of those suction things that you use to get a dent out of your car
panelling and use it to opening the windows. It's easy, effective and fast.

[SteveSueMac]

That salsa is mui caliente! Congrats!

[FlyinNitwits]

Is that VW Touareg? We use a Touareg with our Flying Cloud 23FB.

[chris_kelly]

Originally Posted by FlyinNitwits

Is that VW Touareg? We use a Touareg with our Flying Cloud 23FB.

It is a Touareg TDI - pulls like a dream.

How do you like your Touareg pulling the FC??


caw

[chris_kelly]

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

That salsa is mui caliente! Congrats!

Si! Sehr heiß!

Totally digging the color combo


caw

[chris_kelly]

Originally Posted by Eheart

We bought one of those suction things that you use to get a dent out of your car

panelling and use it to opening the windows. It's easy, effective and fast.

That's a neat idea.

Amazon? Do you mind posting a link?


caw

[chris_kelly]

Originally Posted by PKI

The silicone is supposed to be sticky and the 303 is supposed to be the stuff to use. From the post content, actual experience has been different. Where are the Chemists when you need them? Could be the solvent that is the problem with some silicone lubes. It could just be bad info. As long as that putty knife does not cut the seal or scratch the window, your tool box has a good addition.



Travel safe on your trip. Pat

Too bad I'm just a cyber dude - no chemist in this corner

I haven't been able to get out to the trailer as I sold our old teardrop yesterday.

I'm heading over today to try out the putty knife and maybe get the 303 wipes. I already have the silicone so I might give that a shot on one window.


caw

[chris_kelly]

Originally Posted by Airborne6

Congratulations. We picked up our 23D international last year around this time. Ours too has salsa and we love it. You don't see many of the salsas around. Have a great Streaming journey. We will get ours out of storage this Friday and head to Arkansas in search of warmer weather.

There should be a salsa only thread 🤓!

It's so warm and inviting. Totally digging it.


caw

[OTRA15]

Chris, better not to use a metal blade IMO. A credit card or other plastic tool (spatula etc.) will allow you to lift one lower corner of each window. Once you get that corner "started" the rest of the window should release from the weatherstripping, as it is safe to pull on the tempered glass at the corner IMO.

In some lumber yards and hardware stores (or a glass/window shop maybe), you should be able to get a white plastic Glazier's Tool (my term) which is about 8" long, 1/2" wide, and about 1/8" thick, with a tapered end that goes under the glass real easily. It is also handy for tooling off caulk in a corner, with both edges taped off, into a nice fillet, like a welder's inside corner.

When my dealer gave me the tour before I took off with our new FC20, the mechanic teaching me got out his Glazier's Tool to demonstrate. I opened up the back of my van and pulled two more out of my tool bag. He was surprised!

Here is the tool in blue:

http://www.amazon.com/Tapered-Plasti...azier%27s+tool

Have fun with the new trailer. We almost bought the same model, but opted for the 20' at the last moment.

Cheers,

Peter

[chris_kelly]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Congratulations! Love that salsa interior. Looks hot!

Ditto

A few thoughts:
* Regarding the jack fuse. It's possible your battery was low. We found very early on that if the battery's voltage was low, turning on the jack could blow the fuse. This could be an early indicator of an "injured" battery, but maybe it's fine if you just keep her charged up. OTOH, we recently had to replace the fuse sleeve in our jack line because water did in fact get into it and the connections became corroded.

So after we had to leave it in TN for a week, I'm not so sure they plugged it back in ... so the battery voltage may have had something to do with it. How did you replace the sleeve? I'd be interested in doing the same and getting a flat fuse connection there instead ...

* Regarding the sticky windows: Yep, we use 303 and wait a few minutes after releasing the latches. We keep an old Coach Net card handy if that doesn't work (opening stuck windows is the only good use we've found for Coach Net cards, but that's another story)

I'm leaning on trying out one with silicone and the other with 303 - apparently the wipes are sold out on Amazon

* Regarding maintenance and inspection routines: One of the things you definitely want to do in the first six months is go carefully over all seams and seals to see whether there are any gaps or cracks in the caulk. Airstream's warranty for this particular aspect of the trailer is only six months, while everything else is 2 years. We just spent nearly $2K having our dealer freshen the appropriate caulk (mostly Acryl-R - NEVER any silicone!) on all our exterior seams / seals. We had no leaks, but after an inspection they showed us quite a few places where it would be wise to do that work. We were inside the 2yr window but far outside the 6 month window. Lesson learned. You can obviously do this work yourself with patience and the right materials, but if it's needed why not get this done for free within that 6 month window?

Will totally be keeping our eye out for that - any tell tale signs I should be looking for?

[chris_kelly]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

Chris, better not to use a metal blade IMO. A credit card or other plastic tool (spatula etc.) will allow you to lift one lower corner of each window. Once you get that corner "started" the rest of the window should release from the weatherstripping, as it is safe to pull on the tempered glass at the corner IMO.

In some lumber yards and hardware stores (or a glass/window shop maybe), you should be able to get a white plastic Glazier's Tool (my term) which is about 8" long, 1/2" wide, and about 1/8" thick, with a tapered end that goes under the glass real easily. It is also handy for tooling off caulk in a corner, with both edges taped off, into a nice fillet, like a welder's inside corner.

When my dealer gave me the tour before I took off with our new FC20, the mechanic teaching me got out his Glazier's Tool to demonstrate. I opened up the back of my van and pulled two more out of my tool bag. He was surprised!

Here is the tool in blue:

http://www.amazon.com/Tapered-Plasti...azier%27s+tool

Have fun with the new trailer. We almost bought the same model, but opted for the 20' at the last moment.

Cheers,

Peter

Absolutely agree with you - it's a plastic putty knife ... metal bad.

Why the 20 instead of the 23? If the 20 had been produced with the same décor as the Int'l Sig/Ser then we would have been there too ... happy wife = happy life!

[Bhkh226]

Congrats to you!!! Love our international also. Hope you have a great time!!

[chris_kelly]

Originally Posted by Bhkh226

Congrats to you!!! Love our international also. Hope you have a great time!!

Thanks!


caw