Time to Beat the heat!!

You may recall my reference to the addition of A/C to the trailer. Well, here are the photos of that process. Let me warn you that it's not a conventional installation. I did not want to cut holes in our vintage trailer. I also did not want to loose storage space. Carrying that heave A/C unit around was not too inviting either. So, we decided to make this install truly  "portable". 

Here is the part that stays with the trailer all of the time. There are 2 ducts that run into the trailer to a couple of outlets. The wiring is used to turn the unit on and off from within the trailer. Have you ever found yourself comfy and cozy and then something that needs to be attended to? Lying in bed at 2 in the morning is one of those times. Who wants, or needs to get up, go outside and turn of an air conditioner?? Not me!! That is why I tapped into the power switch for the A/C unit and placed an inside switch in series with the factory original switch.  These wires run to that switch on the front of the unit.

A third duct has been added and THAT made a big difference. We had a day in the high 90's and the inside temp was 73 degrees!!

Here is how they connect to the unit. I can also place the 2 wires coming out of the unit together and return its operation to normal. The wires run inside the duct work up to a convenient location next to the vent outlet.

At present 2 ducts distribute the air to the interior but a third will be added as there is room for 3. 

See that light? That is one of those 12 volt lamps in the storage area that was referred to in an earlier post. It will need to be repositioned  for the duct to run through the area under the lamp.

Here is the hole saw used to make that hole where the lamp was. Makes it clean and very easy. 

                                    
                Now the second duct is installed under the seat.

As you can see here, the unit sits right under the rear of the trailer with both ducts running up into the trailer. When not using the A/C the duct work is disconnected and stored up under the seat. 

 With the duct work attached and the A/C running the door is lowered and the inside stays comfortable.  It generally sits on a rubber mat with a slight tilt towards the back for drainage. We plug the unit into an exterior outlet at the power station at the camp site. It isn't even connected to the trailer in any way for its power needs.

And, here is the switch to turn things off and on when the need arises. Can't beat this for simplicity.  The one question that everyone asks really has no bearing on the units operation. They ask about ventilation. Since the unit it out in the air the condenser can exchange heat without any trouble. It is sort of like it would be if sitting on a window ledge. The only difference is we duct the air into the trailer instead of blowing it directly in. When a lot of heat needs to be exhausted from the trailer we crack the top vent as hot air rises. Then we close down the vent to achieve the desired temperature.

After the previous work we were ready to take to the road. Yep, finally made our first trip. A local camp ground, Prado Dam Recreation Park. Here are a few photos of Margie and me on that trip.....

And back home safe in the driveway. It was wonderful getting it out and about. Fortunately, we were there with loads of friends and we all had a great trip. Can't wait for the next one!!!! Oh yes, that is a 1963 Chevrolet Belair sedan with an inline 6 under the hood.  The Cub is a 1963 too.. Nice match.

While we had the sides and rear skins off we decided to completely remove and replace the exterior light s wiring. Everything was new and soldered instead of butt connections being made. Sealed with heat
shrink to assure that they never have any weather problems. All lights have their own ground wire running directly to the ground connection at the tow vehicle connection. They are also grounded through their cases to the skin, which in turn is also grounded.

The upper wiring is what came out. A real rats nest. The wiring below was installed. So much cleaner. All this has been completed and the siding has been reinstalled.


Wiring on the interior was either cleaned up or replaced. Below are some photos of what we ended up doing.

That item on the extreme right is the battery charger. We will have 2 Optima Fiber Mat batteries inside. Fiber mat batteries don't gas so we will be in good shape with these. This is a special charger designed for the special needs of these 2 batteries.


A few lamps we installed. All are 12 volts except the one by the entrance. All are just as bright as the 110 volt lamps. We also added a 12 volt lamp under the seat in the storage area on both sides. A radio was installed that has MP3 capabilities so that we can insert a CD and listen all week end long. We love old time radio shows and this radio will also play them.



12 volt lamp.

 12 volt lamp.

 110 Lamp AC plug outlet below to left.

 12 volt lamp. A 110 outlet will be installed on the side of that cupboard.

 Both the 12 volt and 110 lamps that have a shade would get this treatment. Another of Margie's crafty ideas.

Okay, so camping should be to get away from it all, including television. But we still decided to go with one. Below are photos of that install.

Here is what we did to beef things up to hold the weight of the TV.

This bracket is attached to the wood in the picture above. You can see the nut imbedded in the wood in that upper shot. This bracket is capable of being swiveled out the door for viewing outside the trailer if needed.  The coax connection is below the TV mount.

You can see the wiring hidden within the walls of the trailer.

Here is the TV installed. The wiring has since been cleaned up and a small DVD player added to a removable shelf to be slid into that cavity just above the TV.  The rest of the coax cable was routed around to the other side of the trailer. The service side I guess you would call it. A covered input is mounted right next to the 110 volt cord cavity. It's all clean and inconspicuous. We do take a few DVD's with us but rarely use it. I do watch ball games at home as I can plug the house cable into the trailer.

 Here is a little look around the inside. Since these blogs have been a long time between we, sort of, lost our place. But these photos should share what we have done by this point in the blog. Margie made curtains and did all the interior painting. So, she gets credit for what you see here.

No cushions  as of yet. These things are expensive!! Have you priced a 4"x 24" x 72" piece of foam lately?  We purchased a flat screen TV for the Cub along with the mount for it were much less that the 3 pieces of cushion  foam we need.

Below: The vent mounted in the ceiling. Never leaked!!! What luck for us. It has been wired for a future installation of a Fantastic fan, if we find a need to do so.

We had a spot in the upper left rear near the upper bunk window that had water damage on the ceiling. It was no real problem as the leak had long ago been repaired. But, it still bothered us. So...out it all came. That one section of ceiling was removed and what was found in found in the photos below. 

The back side of the damaged area.

The wood under the ceiling was like new.

This is the actual spot where the damage occurred. All that black is just on the surface. A little sanding and the wood was, again, like new.

This is the wood around the vent opening. Dry and always has been. What luck!!  Wish it all had been like this.

The roof/ceiling had a small sag at the middle. What we did was add a strip of "L" bracket and attached it to the wood bow running across the  ceiling. We did this in two locations and it seems to have worked well enough. The ceiling joists were installed on their sides to keep the space as small as possible. This allowed the wood (1 X 2's) to develop a noticeable dip in the center. Not any more.

The original 2 middle joists were not attached at the ends.  This was by design. We wanted something a bit more stout so we made "L" brackets from the left over joist strengthening "L" brackets. A couple holes let us place them at the intersection of the middle joists to the side frame rails. 

The finished joist repairs above and the totally finished job below. I had Margie go back and repaint the ceiling as she had already done before.  No more ugly looking ceiling wood to bother us. Glad we decided to do this instead of living with it.

If you look at the very center of this photo you can see the wood as it looked up there inside on the ceiling. This would drive anyone mad. We were pleasantly surprised that the Cub did not need a lot of work.

Now while we had this opened we decided that some day down the road we may want to add a Fantastic Fan that runs on 12volts and ran some wire the the vent opening just in case. So, since we have added an A/C unit (to be shown in a later blog) we don't need one at the moment. ya never know, better to be ready for it than not. And since electrical work is what I do for a living this was an "easy do".

 We gave up on trying to salvage the old stove and picked up an original Magic Chef stove from another Santa Fe. This was virtually perfect and had never, if ever, used. No more colourful pink in the turquoise and white mix.  Here I am just finishing her up.

Installed and ready for use. Actually, Margie has already made a few meals on it just to see how well it works. It works ALMOST as good as the one in the kitchen in the house.

Looks pretty good in there. 

Back to the kitchen

Well, enough on that oddity. We need to continue with the kitchen. This trailer had and will still have Turquoise coloured paint on the inside. A good friend gave us that badly needed stove/oven but it was PINK!!! Another web friend actually wanted pink but he had a cook top that was terquoise. So, a trade was set up and we now have the proper colour top. But the door is still pink and will need to be, either traded or redone. Fortunately there are companies that will reporcelainize the door. It will eventually be sent out.

The above photo is the pink top. It was in perfect condition. Would the trade item that we receive be as nice? Well, it was every bit as nice as seen in the below photo.

As luck would have it the free stove was the nastiest item that I have EVER had to clean. But it was free and we are, in no way, complaining. It was decided to completely disassemble it and replace all the insolation.

Now, I cannot express just how important it is to have a peek at the insolation on any old stove that will be installed into one of the dry stick and aluminum cover trailers. Our insolation have settled down to the bottom of each cavity that it was placed in "way back when".

Do yourself a favour and have a look at yours. There will be tremendous heat developed when you use the oven.

I'll post photos of the rebuild once I get that done. For now it is just sitting in place to hide the hole.

Okay, now that the stove has been introduced let's move on the thr fit and finish work in that kitchen. Margie wanted a copper finish on the back splash so a web search was launched. After some time consuming hunting we found a company in Texas that had 3 pieces of the perfect panels. Only 4 and we need 4 so no room for mistakes. (One of my most visited past times!!) Could we do this and NOT screw it up? If we did we'd be in real trouble. (Actually, a second design was worked out before we started.) Now, I am an auto mechanic and use to work in dealeships in the New Car department. I installed many add on items from little trinkets to complete air conditioning systems so you would think that it would be a breeze putting this in and cutting it sorrectly. Well, for some reason, when I cut holes n a roof or dash in a motor vehicle I ALWAYS get it dead on. But, give me a piece of wood and tell me to cut it 11 inches long I will, somehow, fins a way to cut is 10 1/2!! Go figure. So when I error these days I try to error on the long side. So... this was my approach here. In the end that was best as butt joints just did not look as clean as an overlap. It was designed for overlapping so that is exactly what we did. Best of all it turned out great. 

Everything was cleaned within an inch of its life and then recleaned. I did not want to have to do this a second time!!

The one problem that did pop up was the Liquid Nails that I sed must have been old or something because when it hardened it let go and the panels were loose. I was going to have to do just what I had wanted to avoid!! I removed them, recleaned everything one more time. Now on my jusb I have used silicone to lock items in place. This is something i understand and have quite a stock of. So silicone it will be. Once I reinstalled the panels with this stuff it all stayed in place. Best of all, the clear silicoe works well as a seal at the joints. Anything splashed on the panels will NOT work its way behind making it dirty and smelly. 

As you see in the photos the overhead storage was also installed at this time. The doors and bottom of the original were in terrible shape so we cut new doors. Painted them and placed the original pull bottons in the new doors. The bottom was removed and a new one was glued and stapled in place.

Here you see it trial fitted in place. We removed it and painted that area whte that can be seen to the right. The back splash was installed and the storage cupboard installed for good. Margie has already started stocking the cupboard as you can see. Oh yes, that stove hood was aso a gift from the friend that gave us the stove. It also was pink and we peinted it terquoise. (Thanks Chris!)

Now for the trim work. All the original polished aluminum trim was saved, cleaned and buffed up and reused. On the backsplash the builder originall used wood??? What in the world were they thinking?? We found aluminum trim and the local big box store and cut it to fit. What a difference!!

Nezt was the cooler door. It was disassembled and repained to match. Reassembled and the cooler installed in its original location. Some 12 volt wiring was added to accomodate the electric fan that was to be installed in a few minutes. Who would have figured that such a little thing like a small fan would make life more tollerable in the confines of the little trailer? It really did help a lot. (An A/C unit will be installed later but that will be in another post.

Margie made curtins

And here ya go!! The completed kitchen. (Except for the PINK stove door)