Leak fixed

Well I fixed the leak in the water line. While helping my brother with his Airstream LPG lines, we were looking at what type of fittings to replace existing parts with. For the copper lines, you can use a flare fitting or a compression fitting with ferrule (or solder, but it is a gas line, yikes!) I prefer the flare fitting, but did not have a good reason to tell him other than my preference. However, after my experience with both fittings while working on the water heater bypass, I believe the flare fittings are more robust.

Water heater Bypass and Sanding

The other day I installed the water heater bypass to reduce the amount of RV antifreeze used to flush the system of water. However, I created a leak in another fitting and today finished the repairs of the leak. I am awaiting more deliveries to prepare it for the last camping trip of this year. I now have almost all of the primer gray sanded off of the rear f the rig, wow it is amazing how beautiful she is under that layer of paint. I will need to find out how to rejuvenate the gell-coat of the rig, as there were areas where the white had been sanded off and also there are cracks in places.

Nearby Travcos

The other day I discovered there is another Travco (one of my followers) nearby (a good looking rig) and possibly another even closer. No pictures this posting, even though I talked to the previous owner of my Travco the other night and he thinks I should have LOTS of photos. . Even though my wife may not care much for it, I am casually looking for another Travco of similar age and style, a sister to use as my "Belle" to my current Travco "Travis" (I know, really creative, huh? Not!)

Cold Weather and Spare Tire

OK, so it is time to get the Travco ready for winter. I use the sink on occasion with my work in the Travco, but not enough to risk frozen pipes. The '66 has made it this long without a winterizing setup, but I think it is time for one. My friend Gary has a water heater bypass at his shop, so after I determine there is enough extra room above the water heater for the bypass valve fittings, I will install the bypass as well as a connection to suck-up the RV anti-freeze. The resent wave of warm weather has allowed me to drag my feet on this "upgrade."

A week or so ago while my wife and I were in Little Rock visiting with family showing off the new baby boy, I picked-up the spare tire from Chuck. When I got home I aired it up to 65psi and yesterday I checked it and it still had air in it, so we are good to go! I have it mounted over the rear bumper using the bumper/receiver hitch w/swing-out spare tire holder thingy that I took from a donor Winny B. I feel a lot better having a spare tire now.



Today is my wife's birthday, so Happy Birthday Manda!

Fuel Injection

I have been gathering research on the future fuel injection system for the 440. I am going to use a GM Throttle body with a purchased adapter plate. I could make one, but I can get the plate, gaskets, hardware for $46, so it is worth the time savings. I have learned that I should not use the throttle body from a small bock Chevy, but one from a big block 454 and maybe even bore it out to 54mm for more torque. http://www.affordable-fuel-injection.com sells an almost all inclusive system for about $1600. Hmm Looks like the DIY route is the way to go, can do it for a lot less, but need to get the 454 T-body first....

Engine and Seating

A day ago I decided the stump that once supported a passenger seat needed replacement, so I took it out and put in the 2/3rds bench seat had I pulled from a Winnebago. Even though it is not pretty, it is worlds more functional than what was there before, which was practically nothing.

I started preliminary work on the the fuel injection upgrade by measuring and drawing the mating surface of the 440's intake manifold. Later I will measure and draw the bottom of the Chevy 350's throttle body fuel injection base. While I was working in the engine "bay", I decided to adjust the ignition timing after adjusting the linkages on the carburetor. I must say it works much better, you can really hear the throaty rumble when the secondaries kick-in. WooHoo!

This and That

Today's finished tasks were small, but something else to cross-off the list. I finished installing the electrical outlet under the ESD workstation, and I completed the support legs for the other workstation. I made coffee today in the "hobo pot" (as good friend of mine calls it) while my brother was over visiting. He ordered an 400W Air-X WTG (wind turbine generator) and had it delivered to my house. Tonight we made a trip to Lowes and Home Depot to get assorted hardware to build the short tower to attach it to his Airstream trailer. He is in the process of building his new house and lives off-grid in his trailer for now. Until he gets his WTG going, he only has 75w of PV panels to charge his two batteries (not really enough for this tech. age).

The other day, I put in another track light with LED lights above the 2nd workstation, and moved the existing light to the end of the closets near the bed. There were lights there originally, but my Travco lacked them when I got it. I got the LED lights from Sams Club, and after reverse engineering them, discovered I can run them off of 12V after some modifications, so I can use them dry camping without turning on my 1500W modified sine-wave inverter. Eventually I will have the inverter connected to automatically engage on power failure/disconnect from the grid. (I'll only have it connected to the lighting circuit breaker, not the AC, fridge, water heater, charger, etc.)

I have been looking on the http://www.vintagetrailersupply.com site that VoyageVixen has listed in her blog. Very cool, I will have to make a list of all the curtain related items I need to restore privacy to the rig. Also, I have to buy a new mattress, as the previous one was water-logged and tossed-out.