Posts from the ‘Upgrades’ Category

Jul 3

Upgrades and Necessary Maintenance

As part of our one-year Airstream ownership celebration week, I found myself conducting a bit of preventative, repair, and upgrade activities this week.

The fun started on Sunday with a refrigerator and freezer thaw. In a very stealth-like manner, the ice build-up seemingly came from nowhere. As you can see in the picture below, there is no doubt our fridge is cooling quite well – perhaps too well.

Ice build-up in the fridge

Once I had all the contents resting one ice and safely contained within a giant Rubbermaid tub, I turned my attention to the task at hand – conquering the ice pack. Initially I thought I would simply wait for the ice to melt. But fortunately, common sense prevailed as I remembered Kelly maintains a portable heat gun – commonly referred to as her hairdryer. Call it what you want, on ‘high’ setting, that bad boy packs a punch. The ice was quickly overwhelmed and surrendered without much of a hassle.

Accelerating the thaw

Five minutes later, the cooling fins were once again freed from their icy confines and ready to begin cooling my food.

Clean fins free of ice and back to normal

Satisfied with my fridge maintenance, I set sights on addressing the occasionally annoying and potentially hazardous vibrations I’ve recently started noticing in my truck. Suspecting one or both brake rotors were warped, I took my beloved F-150 to the local Ford dealer for a look. Having confirmed my suspicions, the service manager graciously made time for me and even had one of “my guys” drove me to a local coffee shop while the repairs were completed.

Given my truck is only a year old and well within the 3yr/30k miles warranty, the work would not set me back anything more than a few hours of my time. The exchange seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

About 2.5 hours later, I received a call confirming the repairs had been completed and “one of my guys” would be arriving to drive me back to the dealership. It turns out that the warped rotor caused some uneven wear to the brake pads, so in addition to rotors, I’m sporting some new brake pads as well.

I’m happy to report that braking is once again butter-smooth.

Looking to complete my Airstream/tow vehicle hat-trick of activities, earlier today I installed two Fantastic Vents to accompany the existing factory installed Fantastic Fans. Living on the coast, the weather can be a bit unpredictable which can make it challenging with the roof vents. In theory, the fan rain sensors mitigate any moisture risk by auto-closing at the first signs of rain, but they are easily fooled by the thick marine fog we frequently experience around here. Further, the little motor operating the open/close mechanism is loud and eventually becomes nothing short of a major pain in the ass.

Something has to give and my hope is the vent covers will prove to be a key additional to Mabel’s exterior.

Unpacking and getting myself organized

I’ve heard a lot of conflicting feedback about walking on the roof. Unlike most RV’s and trailers, the roof of an Airstream is fairly delicate which had me a bit nervous about walking around up there. Combing the web for ideas, the variety of “best practices” for navigating the roof was amazing. Suggestions ranged from avoiding the roof at all costs, to building weight-dispersing platforms wrapped in padded carpet, to purchasing and erecting scaffolding customized for the Airstream.

In the end, I wrapped a towel around a ladder to protect the trailer’s aluminum skin from scratches, climbed up to the roof, and did my best to limit any walking to the rivet lines – a visual marker of structurally reinforced areas best able to withstand my bodyweight.

Awaiting the installation

Vent footings installed

Installation completed – pins holding the cover to the footings

In the end, the installation of both vents was a piece a cake – something anyone with a ladder, a screwdriver, some weatherproof sealant, and a bit of ambition can easily accomplish. All in, I needed about thirty minutes to complete the project.

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of the vent aesthetics – these or any of the competing brands. But as I’m a big believer in form trumping fashion, the practical benefits of these vent covers outweigh the ugly factor.

What do you think?

Admiring my work

Feb 22

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Our First Visitors

I’ve come to realize that one of the odd realities about living in an Airstream is that our visitors are not able to actually stay with us. This has never been an issue until my mom and her husband Ed decided to visit Kelly and me here in HMB this week. Staring at the prospect of four cramped adults in the Airstream, Kelly and I opted for the ~~easier~~ better solution – book a hotel room for our guests.

It’s the least we could do.

And before you ask … no … I didn’t spring for the Ritz Carlton, despite it being located just a few steps from our RV park.

I may be the most favored child, but I’m a cheap bastard. Sorry mom.

The alternate solution I decided, would be to secure accommodations at the Half Moon Bay Lodge – a Best Western property which happens to be situated just down the street. I even found an online coupon which provides Mom and Ed with complementary daily breakfast. Nice.

Being the good son I am, I took a vacation day from work today and ~~dragged~~ volunteered to drive mom and Ed all over the place as I completed a few errands, all under the ruse of a “tour of the area”. More, I even acquiesced my otherwise firm rule not to accept help from others, and allowed Ed to assist with the installation of a new set of running boards for my truck, but not before offering a tour of my office, where coincidently, I had the running boards delivered and waiting for me. Hey, I do not see anything wrong about knocking out two birds with one stone.

Apparently the lack of running boards has long proved to be problematic for others riding in the truck. It seems these basic add-ons are desperately needed by ever passenger but me. Fortunately, the good folks over at runningboardwarehouse.com had just what I needed. I was quite pleased to score a set of factory boards which look just like the Ford OEM set, but cost me only $249 shipped, not the $700 my local dealer was asking.

Ed and me sorting nuts and bolts

Prepping for the installation

The finished product

As added bonus today, Mother Nature decided to smile kindly upon us. The moderate temperatures and partly cloudy skies made for a really nice day. After completing all items on my our list, we grabbed Lilly and all of us sauntered over to the beach, which happens to be one of Lilly’s favorite locations, especially at low tide when much more of the shoreline is accessible to her.

Lilly inspecting a rock formations only accessible during low tide

Lilly inspecting rock formations only accessible during low tide

Mom and me

Ed and Mom - the Ritz Carlton in background

Mom and Ed – the Ritz Carlton in background

Once Kelly returned from work, the four of us went to dinner and enjoyed tasty eats and good conversation.

Tomorrow we are playing in the city.

Nov 20

In Spite Of the Rain

Yesterday’s stop in Eugene was productive – I got a good amount of work completed and our Airstream upgrades were completed as planned.

Until very recently, our thinking was to install a solar panel solution which would be installed by a well-regarded RV solar specialist located in Eugene. Our installation date was Nov-19, but as the date approached we found ourselves increasingly struggling to finalize our preferred solution. Ultimately we significantly scaled-back our plans, instead modestly upgrading our electrical solution without any solar, but we did buy and install upgraded batteries and a charge controller.

Actually, the service guys at George Sutton RV did the work and they did a great job.

These new batteries are taller than those that came with the trailer. Consequently, we had to have our battery box modified. The solution was to enlarge the box by dropping the bottom a few inches and then re-attaching with fresh welds.

New batteries – Trojan T-105, 6volt wired in series at 12volts

Modified battery box, now about 2″ deeper.

Following our stop in Eugene, we made it Bainbridge Island late last night. It’s been raining cats and dogs in the Pacific Northwest lately and arriving to our campsite – even in the dark – it was immediately clear that our chosen destination for the week may necessitate reconsideration due to massive flooding. A quick look revealed that some spots seemed possible, but in the dark of night it was hard to confirm whether we could use the park as our base this week.

We were pretty tired following a long drive day, so we opted to park in the shallow waters of the parking lot and defer any decision to the morning. Then, we awoke to this…

Water everywhere

Only one other camper in the park

After conferring with the park ranger, we settled into a nice spot – level and flood free.

It continues to rain, but we are optimistic the spot will work for us. Fingers crossed…

Our spot in Fay Bainbridge Park

Nov 11

1 Comment

Sleeping Beauty(rest)

When Kelly and I bought our first RV, there was no dedicated bedroom area. Consequently, what Winnebago referred to as a bed, I (and I suspect others) referred to as a couch. A fold-down couch no-less. It was awful.

Buying the Airstream, I was hopeful that the mattress would be something decent. I was wrong. In moving full-time into the Airstream, downsizing from a king size bed was only made worse by the flimsy and wimpy mattress provided us. After nearly 100 nights, the OEM mattress contained a nice-sized (and rather uncomfortable) crater, offering little to no lumbar support. Given this situation, there was no doubt that a new mattress was in order. Unlike a vacation RV, this bed is our primary bed and comfort is paramount – this is one of the items we are not willing to compromise.

One worthless piece of crap

Generally, RV mattresses are not standard size – they are ‘short’ a few inches from those typically found in traditional residential use. Given this reality, our first decision revolved around whether or not to maintain the ‘short’ dimensions of our queen bed (80″ x-75″) or move to the normal dimensions (80″ x 60″). While the difference does not sounds material, those five inches matter.

Our bedding is cut to 80″ x 60″, hence is a bit loose and not securely affixed to the ‘short’ mattress. Secondly, our bedroom is not large – adding an additional five inches of clearance consumes otherwise needed space.

The other primary consideration was whether to have a mattress custom made. As most RV mattress are junk, anyone wishing to maintain the ‘short’ sizing and a decent mattress must often procure a custom mattress. This option can be quite expensive, however, in doing so, the buyer gets exactly what s/he wants – not so when buying at a typical mattress store.

Ultimately, we chose to buy a traditionally sized mattress. We ventured over to Sleeptrain, a local mattress retailer and began the customary action of resting atop a number of purchase candidates. Ultimately, we chose a very firm Beautyrest affectionally dubbed the “brick” by the staff. No matter – Kelly and I both prefer a very firm mattress and while the staff had a bit of fun, the ‘brick’ had Kelly and me at hello. Like most mattress stores, Sleeptrain had obligatory big sale underway and we scored what we felt was a nice deal (btw – is it just me, or does anyone else notice that only mens clothing store JoS. A. Bank seems to offer more ‘blowout’ sales than the mattress stores?).

With the purchase decision complete, our next order of business was to rebuild our bed platform in order to accommodate the larger mattress. It turns out that it is very difficult to find plywood in excess of 48″ wide and when you do, the price is exorbitant. This presented a problem as we wanted our platform to be 56″ wide. After a bit of rude sketch work, I landed on a design that would allow for a nice solution … and provide extra scrap wood to be recycled into a small deck outside our door step. Score.

In the spirit of plan the work, work the plan, that’s exactly how Kelly and I spent our day yesterday.

First order of business – disassemble the existing platform.

The previous platform with slats to allow under mattress airflow

Ample under bed storage

Second, we assembled the new (and, at 3/4″ thicker & heavier) platform.

New platform in place

Once the new platform was on, the final bit of prep was was to complement the slats with small holes to aid in air flow (an idea I completely stole from Tiffany & Deke of Weaselmouth fame).

Kelly working the drill

Final assembly complete, I was curious to visualize the impact of losing those five inches, so I placed the OEM mattress onto the newly constructed longer platform.

A few extra inches

Once this comparison was complete, I unceremoniously finalized the upgrade, surrendering this mattress to the Sleeptrain delivery guys for a proper burial.

Then, it was time to look forward to improved sleep comfort. But not before first better understanding the loss of those lost five inches.