Domino Effect

It started simply enough... take out the goucho (AKA futon) and make a new dining, bed, and couch area. Out went the goucho. Meanwhile, I discovered a hole!

Well that won't do...

Water had entered in and unfortunately rotted the subflooring to squishy wood pulp. This is a pretty common issue for vintage trailers. Thankfully, my new best friend, airforums.com, has a wealth of information about subfloor issues and anything Airstream related. Some people check facebook, I check the forums. More on the subfloor later.

Another issue I came across was the Univolt, a converter that changes 110v (what comes out of a household outlet) to 12v (like the battery power in your car). It was functional, but the buzzing was so loud and persistent it felt like living in a beehive. For the sake of my own sanity, I needed to replace this ASAP. Bestconverter.com was highly recommended and they pointed me in the direction of this little fellow:

Ta daa!!

May I present to you the PowerMax Boondocker 60 amp 4 stage converter/charger!! Fewf what a mouthful. But honestly, it's worth its weight in gold since it is easily a quarter of the weight and size of the Univolt monster and virtually silent. Now I can enjoy a peaceful night's sleep in silence. So silent in fact, I can hear the deer in the bushes just a few feet away from my bed!

OK so this is where it's going to start getting dirty. Ready? Let's do this.  

What happened up there??

What a mess!

Long story short, the goucho is out, the Univolt is out, and here comes the PowerMax Boondocker!! But wait, what's that hole underneath? Why are the floors sagging when I stand next to the batteries?

I see ground!

The old Univolt didn't have a fan, so there was a hole cut in the subflooring and belly skins for it to suck cold air up and blow out a vent in the front panel. Between that and the leaky battery boxes, it became clear that a total replacement of the subflooring was necessary. This calls for a big bag of M&M's and a lot of rivet drilling since the lower skins would have to be removed to access the C channel above the subflooring.  

35 year old subflooring showing its age...

So as usual, one thing led to another... led to another... the interior aluminum skins coated with Zolatone turn incredibly sticky after three decades. As I was working on taking them off I hit my head about fifty million times on the fiberglass dome shelf above. Off with it's head! Vengeance was indeed necessary. I drilled out a thousand more rivets and still the thing wouldn't budge. It wasn't in the best of shape, but it still had a fighting spirit... until I had found the last two hidden rivets.  A slight tug, a forceful push.... and BAM! it hit me on the head one last time. But then I had a 7.5' long unwieldy fiberglass dome sitting on my shoulders.  Maybe this should have been a two person job.  I would like to tell you that I gently maneuvered it to the ground all on my own, but it didn't exactly happen like that. More like a loud crash. The great thing about an Airstream is that everything inside came in through the front door. So that means that it can go back out through the front door... in theory.  

Bye bye!

Shameless selfie.

What's left...

As you can imagine half of me is standing there victorious thinking 'that's the last time you mess with me end cap!' The other half of me is quietly thinking 'ohhh no.... this time you've really done it Lauren.' Until next time...