We are in hot water!!!

So the accomplishments this week are pulling the furnace out, hooking up the LP, and making the hot water work.

The Suburban NT-30S furnace on the OR table

After considerable angst, work, and several busted knuckles, I pulled the furnace out completely. These things make me waaaaaay nervous, as I've read story after story of how they explode, or worse, kill people in the dead of night with CO2 emmissions. Once the Suburban NT-30S was completely out,  I connected the thermostat, plugged it back in, and bam! nothing. After I gave the fan blower a nudge with my toe, it began spinning, slowly, grudgingly, squeakingly, and then it ground to a stop. So I pulled the entire thing completely apart. If I'm going to feel safe with the family being heated by this furnace, I want to know all about it, down to the smallest part. The end result is a new motor, first. I just hope that after we drop the $120 on a new motor, that there is not more broken stuff in store for us, just to get an 11 year old heater to work again. I could probably find a replacement for around $500, so I think if the motor is not the problem, we're going to have to look at other alternatives.

Magic Chef broken oven

I did get the LP hooked up after a trip to RV Pats in Petaluma for a new regulator and hose, and another trip down the street in Guerneville to Ace hardware for some pipe dope, and now the LP system is working great. Once I turned the valves on, I noticed a strong LP odor in the cabin. Valves off immediately. I'm suspecting the stove, as there is a broken oven knob and for all I know it's stuck on full open. So I climb under the Airstream, and with a hefty dose of WD-40 and some vise grips, I get the rusty, gunky, old  shutoff valves to the furnace and oven closed. Now I'm needing a success here - I decide to switch to the water heater. I cleaned out the water heater compartment, cranked it up, bled the air out of the line, and it fired right up! YAH! Houston, we have hot water. REALLY hot, if we want it to be.

Fire! Fire! Hot water works flawlessly....YAH!!!

At the beginning of the week, I power washed the trailer thoroughly, top to bottom. I'm going to get stock in a sealant company like Vulkem, cause we're going to need a lot. We also have some rust on the back endcap. I'm just thinking that, if I'm going to stay in this Airstream this winter, I need to focus on the outside now, while it's warm out. The last thing I want is to wait for the first really cold, hard rain to find out I have to climb on the top and fix a leak in the freezing rain. nah.

Next week maybe I'll finish the furnace project, and start focusing on the exterior. Been looking at fantastic fans or maxx fans too, maybe a little ebayin this weekend. And maybe even a trip to Camping World - my new favorite box store. Stay tuned, Airstreamers!

On the ground, demo begins.

So we've got a place to locate the Airstream, behind a friends house in Guerneville. Hooked up to power, pretty much leveled, and ready to begin the project. First a side note about last week...

Spent the first couple of days at the Sonoma County fairgrounds, in the RV park. Water (on city water) worked just fine, only one small leak at the dump valve by the water tank in the front. Gooped it up with sealant, as a temporary fix, and we're good to go. Upon inspection, someone actually put PEX in this thing! No copper piping anywhere, all upgraded already. What a huge bonus! I was pricing out PEX to do it myself, and it was looking like about $600. Superbonus! Hooked up to the 30 amp, cranked up the a/c, and it was blowing super cold. Another huge bonus! All the power & electrical looks like it works good. Tackled the water tank, $30 at home depot for some tubing & hose clamps, and we have a onboard water supply. (side note - the fairgrounds is a great deal, $25 a night). First night spent on the floor on the air mattress, listening to the mice that we evidently brought with us from Santa Cruz. Second night, up most of the night catching them & resetting traps, we relocated 4 of them.

Now that we're on the ground in our location, work began on the fridge - which was not working. After reading the tech manual (thanks airforums.com!) I found the hidden fuse, and voila! we have a cold fridge. Tuesday, I secured the LP tanks on the front, and found out that our regulator is bad, so it's off to RV Pats in Petaluma tomorrow for a new one, and some LP system testing next week.

Tonight I began the bath demo. The plan is to demo as much as possible, but still leave it inhabitable. Strip the interior nasty paint, and begin the subfloor work.

Thanks Brian, for making the deal to give us a place to park, work, & live here in Guerneville. This place is beautiful, on the Russian river. I'm liking the project alot, so far. Sure hope the heater, hot water heater, and stove will work next week.

The first adventure

So here it is, in the pasture, with Amelia. It sat here for about 2 years, with the only inhabitants a ton of icky bugs and some mice. Surprisingly, everything (thus far) still works! The box on the back was for a generator, but it sits empty at the moment. See the solar panel on the top, behind the air conditioner? I am dreading opening the awning.

We showed up to view the Airstream on Sunday, and decided to buy it on Monday. After our offer was accepted ($1600), we began to make arrangements to make the hour and a half drive down to Santa Cruz on Tuesday morning. Since we already had a small utility trailer, we were set up for towing. But on Sunday, I noticed that the Airstream used what looked like a much larger ball. After joining a Airstream forum (Airforums.com, what a great resource!!!) I learned all about towing an Airstream. It is, indeed, a 2 5/16' ball. And it is much better if you had a weight distribution hitch, instead of a simple ball hitch. Since these hitches are north of $400, we made the decision to forego it for now, with the intention of getting one before doing any real traveling. So we headed out to the trailer supply place to get a 2 5/16' ball, on the way to SC. Sounds simple, right? Too simple. The shank of a 2 5/16' ball is bigger than the shank of the utility trailer 2" ball, so we'll need a new setup. I estimated (incorrectly - there is a lesson here) that we would need about a 3" drop. But that was based on how the utility trailer rode behind the Avalanche. There in considerable difference between a 6000 pound trailer and a 250 pound trailer. Duh. So we get to the pasture, and realize that what we just spend almost $100 is not going to work at all. Luckily for us, the seller had a weight distribution hitch that he was willing to sell us. Sounds easy? Nah, where is the adventure in that? His truck sat about 8" higher than ours, and the hitch was not adjustable. So now we have this great towing giddy-up, and cant use it. Off to town to try and find someone to do some metal fab on this setup, to no avail. We end up driving about 50 miles to Camping World (the IKEA for the RV world) to spend yet another $100 on a new, fully adjustable, hitch-thing.

Back to the pasture, more coordinating phone calls with the seller, and an hour later we are pulling out of the pasture, headed home with our new Airstream, solidly in tow.

Let the adventure begin!

From the horse pasture to the driveway

This is the story of our 1978 27' Airstream Argosy travel trailer. Purchased in June 2010 from a really nice guy in Santa Cruz, CA, and now awaiting a serious rebuild and years of adventures for us, the "AM Club". Hope to see you on the road! - Allie, Amber, & Amelia.