I thought it was supposed to be "May flowers", not showers!

Planned a bunch of work on the camper, plus hoping to sell a bunch of appliances. 

After replacing some copper tubing on the fresh water tank, decided to sanitize the tank.  After filling it with diluted bleach solution, priming the line to the sink and the toilet, realized "There is a bunch of water on the floor under the tank!  I better drain it and find out why!"

"Hmmm... where's the drain valve?  DOH!"

Luckily, there were a couple holes in the floor, and the line to the toilet was actually patched with rubber tubing that I could route through there.

Anyway, my friend has tackled the leaky steel tank... the lower seam was bad in a few places.  As well, the outlet sits at least 2" above the bottom of the tank, meaning the system is prone to standing water remaining in the tank!

There was even a loose screw plugging a rustout on the back side of the tank... maybe the makeshift draincock?  I'm going to have to fix that!
















Anyway, on to the furnace...

We expected a lot of rain, and we got it!  Sunday morning, I was expecting Jim to come to town and ooh-and-aah over the fabulous working furnace!

Wouldn't you know it that the storm we had blew out the pilot and formed whitecaps in the yard where the day before there was grass!  I thought "I'd better move the trailer around so that it's sheltered from the wind for the furnace to work, and so it's out of the water!"

Jim arrives in short order, and suggests a piece of plywood to lean up near the furnace vent... I'm soooo embarrassed!  What kind of a city slicker am I?  The worst kind I guess!

So as time goes by, and I run to the shop to get the vent / exhaust flange for Jim's furnace, he waits to make sure the furnace cycles as I promised it would.  Eventually we are both satisfied with closing the deal.

He also says "Flames arent supposed to come shooting out of the top of that gas lamp... I wouldn't burn it until you fix it.  Probably cobwebs in the lamp."  He gives me some info on websites for restoring vintage campers, and makes his way home.  The lamp is a Humphrey.

I'm wet and cold, and immediately proceed to reconnect my original furnace...

Ready to go... light it up... realize that I had only confirmed that the pilot light worked, when in fact the main burner NEVER cycled on!  I JUST SOLD THE ONE WORKING FURNACE I HAD ON A MISERABLE DAY!!!  Good grief!!!

Parts Camper

I found a 70's truck camper, severely rotted and water damaged, with clean appliances and hydraulic camper jacks for $100... can't go wrong, right?  Again... seller seemed like a good honest man.

In the process of evaluating those appliances, I learned how to work the ovens and furnace pilots... so now I had extra stuff!  Maybe there will be other useful parts from the truck camper, but I should be able to recover my expenses by selling the appliances I don't need, right?

The four-burner stove / oven, which has a matching fume hood...

The old Hydro Flame furnace, which looks virtually identical to my original, but a little newer... I've since learned that this model of furnace was popular because of the exterior fresh air and exhaust venting, as well as the lack of a blower fan... quieter. 

I left these installed in my camper so I could readily demonstrate they were working.  When I sell them, I'll just swap in my originals.  Good idea, right?

Then there is the 3-way Dometic refridgerator... I plugged it in at my buddy's shop, and it works great!

So if I sell all these things, it should pay for both campers and some renos!

Is This Thing On?

So I figured on taking stock of all the appliances, electrical and plumbing... decided I had better figure out what worked and what didn't.

1. Running 12V electrical... very old, dim, poorly grounded, but worked enough to get me home.  Should replace wiring to the running gear and update the flat-4 plug.
2. Cabin 12V electrical... there is none!  Well, there is one light fixture that may be wired into the running light circuit.  This means too that IF the fridge is a 3-way fridge, it's not wired for DC.
3. 110V AC electrical... it has a 30 amp socket, but the RV cord is wired to a household 15 amp plug, not original.  Would like to replace it.  Socket is in rusty condition, but works.  Circuit panel up above the fridge, four AC ceiling lights and one receptacle over the dinette (two if you count the refridgerator plug).  Upgrade plans include installing a converter, DC lighting and GFCI AC receptacles.  I had already bought a 12V Deep Cycle Marine battery, expecting the camper to need a replacement, but it needs to be wired in.
4. For propane, I was able to figure out the fridge and stove top.  But furnace and oven pilots were a mystery.  Gas lamp needed a mantle as well (that's what those things are called?) I feared I would need to replace appliances.  As well, the copper lines under the camper were quite badly kinked and twisted... I have no idea who did that, but I will guess that a previous owner bought a length of flared copper tubing and twisted it around rather than cutting it to the proper length.  But if it works...
5. Plumbing... fresh water tank was disconnected, and camper has no grey tank.  Black tank is above-floor type, and I hit my head on the 110V light in there (I'm so getting rid of that!),  So I planned to replumb the water supply, and dream of under-floor grey and black water tanks!  Oh, might as well add a hot and cold shower to the wish list while I'm at it!

In Search of a Camper Trailer...

After looking at several camper trailer projects for less than $1000, I decided to go on a road trip... ready to scour the province from morning thru night for a camper trailer that appealed to me.  Searching online, I had already missed out on three locally, so I needed to be aggressive!

After a couple hours drive, I found this 1969 Skylark camper trailer.  Dirty on the surface, some structural wear (though the owner said it didn't leak), but a pretty clean interior with fridge, stove, furnace and toilet.  Oh, a custom "feature"... four ice fishing holes cut into the floor!  I could see that there was previous water damage on the ceiling panels and the door.  There was no propane in the tanks, and it wasn't plugged in to AC current, stored in a dark quanset, so I had to take his word that all the appliances worked.  Honestly, I couldn't tell how bad it was, but it did look pretty good.

So after a bit of negotiation, I was the proud new owner for less than $700.  Let the adventure begin!