The project - axle

So, the axle didn't have any brakes inside the drums. I destroyed the seals getting to the bearings to see how they looked (OK, it turns out) and the seal numbers didn't cross reference to anything I could find.



Then I noticed a ding in the axle tube, and it looked like the axle was bent more on that side than the normal camber arch would be.



The springs are 30 years old.



All that considered, and the bottom clearance issues we had getting it into the driveway, a new axle seemed to be the shortest course of action.



According to the title, the little TT weighs about 2800lbs. Based on the various dimensions, it looks like we have a 3500# axle. With my rebuilding (some would call it overbuilding) there's no way it's going to weigh less than original, and with our stuff, it's probably going to weigh more.



So, I went with an upgraded axle capacity (was looking for 4500#, but found a deal on a 5200#), and ditched the 4" drop for a straight tube. I'm guessing with the straight tube, and new springs with greater capacity, I should see a 5-6" increase in ground clearance. As we needed a drop ball mount before, this should put the hitch lined up with the receiver on the truck. We'll see.



I originally wanted to go with the vintage style OEM steel wheels with little moon hubcaps and trim rings. Although they were rated high enough, the pilot hole was too small. I wanted something that would "fit" the old Coachmen, so that ruled out alloy rims.



What I settled on are wheels that look very much like the old white spoke steel wheels popular in the 70s, but without the spokes - just a solid dish.

I got the six lug version to match the heavier duty axle. I think they'll look OK - maybe someday I'll get a few trim rings.

I also ordered three, so we'll actually have a spare. I was going to go with 16" wheels and tires, but I'm already adding so much height to the chassis with the axle, that I was worried about overdoing it. There's only one profile available in the 16" Goodyear Marathon series, and it adds another inch to the radius (IIRC). So we're using the same size (225/75R15) that came on it, but I went with Goodyear Marathon ST tires.


As an unexpected change, I had to get a wider axle width than I wanted. My goal was to center the hub face in the wheel well, as the wheels are zero offset. There was a minimum distance from the spring center to the hub face from the axle manufacturer and that put the face about an inch wider on each side than I wanted. Things should all still clear, and this should make the trailer even more stable. I may have to trim the fenders skirts.

A benefit of the 5200# axle is it came with 12" brakes instead of the stock 10". Still drums, but it towed pretty well relying on just the truck brakes. With large trailer brakes that actually work, and a brake controller (I just received the Tekonsha P3 I ordered), we should be a lot safer on the road than our first trip.


There's a whole forum war raging on about using ST tires vs LT tires, 15" vs 16", Chinese vs somewhere else, pro-Goodyear, anti-Goodyear, pro-Carlisle, anti-Carlisle. I waded through as much as I could trying to separate fact from fiction. I've used Goodyear tires most of my life and never had an issue with defects, performance or wear. Goodyear says these are designed for trailer use, the price is reasonable, and from what I read, the D range have been made in USA for a few years now. At some point, you have to weigh the options and pull the trigger, and I found mine on ebay for a good price with a recent date code.

The project - roof

We knew the little trailer had some issues.

There was tar all over the roof, so obviously someone had at least suspected leakage. The roof had pulled away from the vents, and parts of the ceiling were wet. The contact paper had pulled away from the ceiling in a few places, and there were a couple of soft spots on the floor under the carpet.

For two newbies, this didn't seem so bad. It had an oven, refrigerator, double sink, toilet, shower with tub, sleeping for four (if two were kids). Seemed like a good fit for us and the price was right.

I've learned a lot about wood rot, water damage, and the two common types of mold (white crud, and black stains). More than I ever wanted to know.

As of this writing, I've done some major surgery to fix serious structural issues caused by neglect, damage, or water leakage. It's been about a month, and all things considered, I've accomplished a lot.

Roof:

Most sealants designed for RVs are incompatible with petroleum distillates. In other words, the tar had to come off. But first, I had to be sure the roof could hold me. The ceiling's been out for a few weeks -most of the wood came apart like paper, but the joists were solid. There was a big square of plywood (not centered side-to-side by the factory, for some reason) around the only vent - presumably to support an air conditioner. There was also a lot of space between the roof and the joists. Originally, it looked like the factory just laid fiberglass batting over the joists and put the aluminum roof skin on top. Over the years, the fiberglass collapsed, and things started to get loose.

I managed to slide pieces of plywood above the joists and under the roof skin. I have a path that matches the factory 1/2" piece, that spans all the joists front-to-back, with the exception of the curved roof section fore and aft. I plan to put a second vent a few joists back from the first, and would like to eventually get A/C in one, so on top of the 1/2 plywood, I slid two 10" wide pieces, makeing a 20" wide section that spans from the front of the existing vent to one joist back from the furthest point I would put a new vent. This helps the roof to slope away from the center, and it insures that I can support an A/C unit. It also means the roof will support me.

I also slid 1/2" insulation between the joists and the roof skin above the 1/2 plywood (but not where the 3/4" plywood is). Besides the insulating value, this helps to keep the crown of the roof with out the aluminum collapsing, but it has enough give that the roof would dent rather than puncture from impact. In the future (after leak testing), I will use 1 1/2 sheets of rigid insulation between the joists before puttting the ceiling back in.

Back to the tar. Well, it was more than tar. There was a mixture of old putty tape (easy to remove), tar, silicone caulk (PITA) and something I took to calling "caramel". I couldn't find a solvent that would cut whatever the caramel was, and it was tough. Tar is no fun under any circumstances. After much trial and error, and a battery of solvents arrayed against my new enemies, I settled on the following process which, although time consuming, worked pretty well:

1) Heat gun. This softens the tar and makes the caramel a little easier to scrape off. I used the heat gun and a putty knife to scrape off the top layer of crud.

(note, the aluminum roof has a texture to it. Inconveniently, it makes removing sticky, gooey, crud even more problemmatic)

2) Goof Off. It's a combination of Xylene and Toluene. Nasty stuff. Laquer thinner worked, but it evaporated too quickly. I used a stainless steel wire brush from the welding dept at Home Depot, a container of Goof Off, and a box of disposable "super rags" that HD sells. The process is to dip the wire brush in the Goof Off, scrub the crud until it softens and dissolves, then use the rag to soak up the material before the Goof Off evaporates and redeposits it onto the surface.

This actually works pretty well, although it takes a few applications to get down to clean metal. Oh, and it's hotter than heck on the roof already without leaning over a heat gun and fumes.

So the roof's all clean, and it turns out I can't find any leaks. Well, except for the holes around all the vents, but the area covered with tar (seams and perimeter) are surprisingly solid.

As insurance, I'm going to use Eternabond tape over the seams and Eternabond double-stick to secure the corner moldings. This would be a great weekend to do it, so, of course, the Eternabond is on back order and I won't get it until early next week. Plenty of other things to do...

First Post

Several people have asked for pics on this not-altogether-planned project of rebuilding a travel trailer. I'm setting up this blog as a central place to post pics, show progress updates, etc.

So here's some background:

Mom and Dad were looking at a motorhome (which they eventually bought). This got us thinking about camping ourselves.

There were a couple of advantages we saw...

Less expensive than staying in hotels and eating out.
No bedbugs
We could more easily take Crazy Dog
We both enjoy the outdoors
Easier to turn a weekend into a mini vacation.

We already had a truck, and it turns out that it is a quite capable TV (Tow Vehicle). When I bought it, I was looking for something that could tow, but I ended up getting the absolute best engine and axle combination - we could haul much more than we need, but it only has a 6.5 ft bed.

First thing we looked at was truck campers. There's a lot to be said for them. Don't take up much space compared to TTs and motorhomes when not in use. Don't need to tow anything. Downside is they aren't very big, and most are made for 8ft beds.

The big downside is they aren't easy to leave in one place, so, like a motorhome, if we want to go somewhere while travelling, we have to haul the whole thing along for the ride, and that means hauling the dog too.

For similar reasons, we quickly ruled out a motorhome. Besides the comparatively tremendous expense, and those reasons above, we also don't have a very large driveway or parking area, and the driveway is pretty sloped. Even if I could get a MH up the drive and past the house, I don't know if I could park anything else in the driveway. The insurance is also pretty expensive, comparatively.

So, that left two choices. Travel trailers and pop-ups. Pop-ups also have a lot going for them - lightweight, generally smaller and easier to tow. However, we live in a noisy neighborhood. Campgrounds aren't always quiet, especially in the summer. Compared to a travel trailer, a pop-up doesn't offer much noise insulation, is impractical when it gets cold, and is not very secure. All things I don't want to worry about when on vacation.

I started looking around for used travel trailers. Wanted something on the small side (driveway issues) and didn't want to spend a bunch of money in case we didn't like it as much as we thought.

Came across our little gem. It's a 1978 Coachmen Cadet. At 16', it was a little bigger than my ideal, but the price was pretty reasonable ($1200, IIRC). Biggest downside was it was outside of Detroit. Mom and Dad had a similar vintage Leprechan (Class C) when were were kids, so I had some familiarity with the layout and the appliances.

We took a look at it. It looked a bit worse than the pics (don't things always?), but not all that bad. Sales guy said someone else had offered $800 and the dealer had accepted, but his wife nixed it. Perhaps that should have been a warning to us. Well, we offered them $700, and shortly after had it hitched up and on the road.

Now, all this happened rather quickly, from the decision to look for a TT to buying this old girl. Generally, my obsessive nature would cause me to learn way more than I needed to know about the subjects of trailers and towing. There just wasn't time. The trip home was remarkably uneventful, (once we had the right size hitch ball), especially considering we didn't know enough to know better. Turns out the TT had no brakes - the mechanisms were removed from inside the drums. We didn't have a brake controller - didn't know what it was at the time - or a breakaway box (wouldn't have done any good). No safety chains, seriously old tires, and no spare for the trailer. Not that it would have mattered - we didn't have a jack that would lift it to change a tire.

Once we got home, it didn't exactly fit in the driveway without plenty of work, blocks, scraping, and some persuasion with a 2x8 against the side of the tongue. We had ourselves a trailer, but the fun was yet to come.