in Hot Water!

 

The new water heater is now installed securely, plumbed to the new PEX water lines, and connected to both 12v and 120v power. Some of the propane propane lines are only roughed in at this point, but theoretically we have hot water when plugged into shore power now. The new Dometic/Atwood heater fit very well into the old hole, I only needed to make a custom shaped sill piece for the bottom edge for a clean installation. I'm really glad to have that ugly patch gone and the giant hole left behind finally closed up! I had planned on getting a propane only model, but they are no longer in production and I could not find an old stock one for a price that made sense. Taping into the 120v AC line was pretty easy because there was an existing 120v outlet in the wall just above the heaters location. At some point I'll spray paint new door silver so it looks more like it belongs. 

Avion Fridge Vent Cap & Cabinet prep

 

We purchased a new Dometic 3-way refrigerator and I did a bunch of work to prep the cabinet and repair the roof vent. I rebuilt the back-side of the interior cabinet that’s above the fridge to have a proper ventilation shaft that matches the specs for the new Dometic fridge, this will help the fridge performance as the old shaft was quite a bit oversize per the new specs. As a bonus the cabinet over the fridge is now almost 4” deeper giving us more storage space, it can even fit a box a cereal. For the roof-top vent I decided to use an Airstream part instead of the boxy style that was standard on Avions.  Our original vent cap had a major impact with something long ago and had an old repair to make it functional, but it was looking very rough and not tight to the weather. I’ve notice in photos of other Avion truck campers that a lot of the vent caps seem to have had this issue, something to keep in mind when we are on the road. The vintage Airstream style cap is more rounded on the ends and looks like it will tend to deflect things that it runs into instead of grabbing and tearing. As part of the repair I ended up also rebuilding part the collar that extends up between the roof and cap and added a bug screen before installing the cap.

Camping with different vibes during the pandemic....

 

Over the years the we’ve found that different campgrounds have very different vibes. This year we didn’t do any summer camping other than the "Not a Rally" due to the COVID pandemic, but by the time Fall came around we decided to take the Shasta out for another quick trip within New York state. First we headed to Watkins Glen, one of our favorite places and an area that we used to live in so it’s sort of like camping and going back home. We like this state park because many of the sites have some space between them and when you are there it is a bit like hiding in the woods. Being mid-week and early October we found the campground very sparsely populated despite the reservation system showing that it all the sites we booked. I wondered if the campground had artificially booked sites to keep population down, but after a few days folks showed up to claim pretty much every site. Overall we were impressed with how people respected the pandemic guidelines and generally kept to themselves. We hiked from our campsite to the gorge rim trail and found it fairly busy because the park was routing foot traffic to follow a one-way loop returning via the rim. Seeing this we decided to further upstream where it’s always less populated and we’re rewarded with a great hike into some areas of the park that we had not explored before including a small lake above the falls past the railroad trestle. We also spent some time hiking a few other less known trails near the village of Watkins Glen and Montour Falls and made quick stops on a couple favorite wineries. A highlight of our time in here was visiting a vintage camper friend who had just completed a full restoration a a Spartan Manor, it was great to see him and check out his amazing work before it headed out to its new owners. 

Before heading home we decided to keep camping for a few extra days and to visit family in the Syracuse area. We booked a campsite at Green Lakes State Park and headed north. When I made the reservation it was slim pickings with just two sites available, after we were there for about 2 minutes I realized that I should have probably chosen the other site. We had not been to Green Lakes before but knew that it was a popular place with a generally more “social open space” vibe than the “camping in the woods” vibe we typically enjoy. Our site was conveniently located a few feet from a large kids playground and also pretty close the bathroom house. When we first pulled up it almost didn’t look like a campsite but after checking it out we were indeed in the right place. When times are normal this is the type of site we would typically avoid but during the pandemic it was shocking, especially after having been in the woods for a week. Once we were acclimated we enjoyed visits from one of our daughters and our sister in-law and did some hiking in the park and along the old Erie Canal. The park has a couple of amazing lakes with unusual mineral deposits that make it look really green, it’s super super cool and unexpected in this area. So tend while this campground was definitely not our “vibe” we had a good time and it was great to see family and see something new.

Avion Tie-Down Points & Pigtail

 

Once again the blog is lagging far behind our progress on the Avion truck camper. I'll try to get a few updates posted, the mild winter and pandemic have been good for getting stuff done. 

I finally got around finishing the installation of the Tie Down points where the camper gets attached to the truck. I ended up using stainless steel U-bolts that are used on the bows of boats, they went in pretty easily except for one where I didn’t leave myself much access to back side by the water heater, it was a pain but eventually I was able to get the backing plate and nuts on.  It feels good to have this and the jack brackets both finally complete. 

I also installed a new pigtail wire connection to the truck along with inline fuses. I bought a long pigtail because on many trucks the 7-pin socket in the bed is on the drivers side, but on the Avion the pigtail is on the passenger side front corner. Once we get a truck we will install socket in the same corner as the camper but I wanted flexibility to be able to use a different truck if ever needed. I also added a bunch of inline fuses for pigtail leads that power the running lights, brake lights, turn signals, and reverse lights. Early on with our Shasta we had an electrical short in one of the running light wires that resulted in the tow vehicle needing a new control module only a year after it was installed, putting inline fuses on these lines is simple protection for the electronics in the truck. I put the connections for the pigtail and the fuses and in a new electrical box inside the wall that I can now access by removing a switch plate in case I ever need to get at them to troubleshoot. 

Not a Rally

It was supposed to be a mid-September  TCT rally, but all rally activities were cancelled so it became the "Not a Rally". Sampson State Park had recently opened to limited camping, and those that were registered for the rally were given the option of keeping their site registration - after being cooped up for months we decided to go! Camping by nature is outdoors and the distance between sites helps with distancing.  We are really glad that we went, we got to spend time sitting around a few campfires with our vintage camper friends and used the time differently than we would typically when camping in part of New York's Finger Lakes region. We did some hiking along Seneca lake, made a quick visit to a winery, and did a tasting at Muranda cheese company. The cheese tasting was a very cool experience, and their cheese is amazing! Back at the campground there was no open house or viewing of interiors of most the vintage trailers, but it was good to just walk the campground loop and check out the campers from a distance. There were a couple of rigs there that we had not seen before, including a great looking Avion trailer that was painted light yellow with a automotive quality finish, and a recently painted Shasta Airflyte that was very similar to our trailer. Also, some friends from home who are into vintage cars rented a cabin in the park for a few days and are now starting to catch vintage camper bug as well. We are hoping that things get back to normal next year, but this was a welcome break for us during the pandemic. 

Avion water and power upgrades

 

I've been spending a lot of time on power and water utilities... We decided to go with a new plastic fresh water tank instead of repairing the old aluminum one (even though it is super cool), the new tank is a perfect fit and off-the-shelf from VTS. A new water pump and about half of the new PEX water lines are now roughed in. I bought a new Atwood water heater, not plumbed in yet but a perfect fit sitting in the hole that’s been in the side of the camper since we bought it. I replaced the 30Amp 120v electrical inlet with a up-to-date one made by Furrion. I found that the old 120v inlet was an odd configuration made by Hubbell that looks like a common one but has one tab that is reversed, you can buy an adaptor (HBL3333C) but it costs as much as a new standard 30Amp inlet and I wanted to run new wire to the box anyway. I replaced 120v wiring to 3 outlets that I could do without removing any interior skin. I added a 2nd circuit breaker to to the box as we learned by surprise one day that only half the outlets were on the one breaker that was there, the other half were just hot all the time. I added an access panel on the inside wall where the truck umbilical comes in, crazy that you had to remove rivets to get the wire connections in there. I replaced the old glass screw-in 12 volt use box with a modern 12v one and installed a new Progressive Dynamics Converter/Charger to replace the old-school battery charger. I also ran lots of new 12v wiring for the appliance locations and some for lighting. I installed a small 12v to 120v Inverter so that we can run a laptop and other small 120v appliances off the 12v batteries if needed when boondocking. The fuse box, new electrical components, and water pump are all located in the cabinet under the front edge of one of the dinette seats, I spent a lot of time working out an arrangement so they would to be fairly compact so the 12v utilities only take up half of that cabinet.

refinished woodwork and interior wall paint

 

Here's some photos of the refinished cabinet frames and some paint on the interior walls. In the first photo above you can see the original finish on that was under the laminate next to the stove compared to the new darker stain and stripped wood on the fridge cabinet.  The original finish was very opaque, and while in good condition in some areas there were other places that needed a lot of attention. We decided to go with a darker but more transparent stain after looking at a lot of vintage interiors at a vintage camper rally last year. Our Shasta has amber shellac interior and while I like that, I also like that the Avion will feel different yet it still has a lot of wood inside. The light wall color has a great warm tone to it that really works well with the dark wood.