It's axle time

It's axle time. I knew that when I bought the Airstream I was going to have to put on some axles. Airstream uses an axle that is called a torsion axle. It has 4 rubber rods inside that compress to provide the suspension. Over time the rubber deteriorates and the axle sags. The other issue that I had was that the brakes on the Airstream were a Vac-Assist hydraulic disk brake system. My truck is a diesel and it does not create the vacuum that I needed to run the brakes. I scrapped the whole system and bought all new axles and disc brakes. Originally the axles were manufactured by a company called Henschen. There is only one authorized dealer in the country for these axles and he can charge whatever he wants. Needless to say, I was not paying the outrageous price. I purchase my axles from Dexter Manufacturing. I got new axles with disc brakes and a electro-hydraulic pump for about $100 more than electric brakes from Henschen. Dexter is the largest manufacturer of torsion axles and if I need parts, I can pick them up anywhere in the country.

The axles are only held to the Airstream with 4 bolts per axle. Mine were rusted so I had to use my sawzall to cut the bolts off. I backed one of the axles of the Airstream up on some 2x6's. The other axle was hanging in the air. I left the truck attached to Airstream so that I was not in danger of the thing falling off the jacks and crushing me, not to mention killing me. I cut the four bolts off and the axle just dropped right out. I used a floor jack to lower them to the ground. The old axle tubes are only 1-1/2 square. My new axles are are 1-5/8 square. I will post all the specs for the axle in another post. I had to cut the frame of the Airstream a little larger so that it would accept the larger axle. I cut it with a jig saw. It took about 2 minutes per side. After that, I sanded up all the metal and sprayed it with some flat black paint. When the paint dried, I put the new axles back in. I installed them by myself. It would have been much easier if I had someone to help, but I had to make due. The axles are pretty heavy. I think around 200+lbs. I balanced them on the floor jack and jacked them up into the enlarged openings. One of the holes in the frame lines up perfectly with the new axle. The other one needs to be enlarged by about an 1/8 of an inch. After that, just bolt them in place. After I had one of the axles bolted in, I needed to put the wheels on so that I could change out the other axle. This is where I ran into trouble. I grabbed the wheel and tried to put it back on the axle. IT DID NOT FIT. What I did not know was that the Dexter axles that I had specified had much larger disc brakes than were originally on the Airstream. Bottom line was that I could not use my current rims and tires. I freaked out. I had spent $400 on new rubber for these 15" rims and was concerned that I was not going to be able to find new rims to fit my new rubber. Well I put out a question on the forums and within a few hours I had my answer. New rims It looked like new rims were were going to set me back another $400. With every problem comes a solution. I ebayed my original Airstream rims and got $400 bucks for them. I put the rims back on the axle and repeated the axle install on the other axle. I now had both of the axles on, but had no idea if the brakes worked. As I stated earlier, I purchased hydraulic disc brakes. The way they operate, is that an electric pump is installed in the Airstream and it pushes hydraulic fluid through the tubes and activated the disc brakes. I have a controller in the truck that regulates how much electricity is sent to the pump. If the truck stops quicker, the controller sends more electricity to the pump and the Airstream stops quicker. I installed the pump in the front the Airstream under the front window and hooked up the hydraulic lines. I bought a kit from distributor and I had all of the lines that I needed to complete the project. I am not sure if the pump will remain at this location or if I will move it to another location, but it is hooked up now and it works. The whole project cost about $1000 more than the electric brake option, but I figure that if I have to stop quickly, I want to have the full stopping power of disc brakes. If I stop in an emergency and fail to stop in time, I will know that I have done all that I can. It's my family's safety that counts.

Well it's now time to start on the project. My first attack was to get rid of the interior. I'm not the kind of person that likes the 70's shag and gold furniture. The first thing I did was to start with the carpet. It was a brown shag. I just ripped it out along with a bunch of smell. Then I started at the front and started tearing out the furniture. The front gaucho and folding tables came out with little trouble. They were just screwed to the floor and I dont think I removed a single rivet to get them out. As I took all the stuff out, I put it all on a skid and weighed everything that I removed. My goal is to make sure that when I build the new interior, I stay close to the weight that I removed. On the first day of removal, I got all the carpet and removed everything back to the front door.

Here's the story. My brother Mark told me about a person in his community that had an old Airstream and she was interested in selling. We both went over in November of 2006 and looked at the Airstream. It was in pretty bad shape. The old lady took us on a tour and told us that she and her husband used to use it all the time. It was in pretty tough shape and I did not know enough about the restoration process, so I did not make her an offer. In the spring, after a bunch of research, I asked my brother if the lady was interested in selling. He said that she passed away a few weeks prior and I then contacted the executor of her estate. It was her cousin and when I contacted him, he was more than willing to sell it to me. It was sitting on 4 flat tires under a tree and had not budged an inch since 92'. After re-inspecting the trailer and assessing what I thought it would need, I made him an offer that I thought was a fair offer for both of us. We shook on it and I then started the process. The first thing I needed to do was to get the thing out of the yard. I went over there with a few floor jacks, jack stands and an air compressor. The tires were shot. 15 years being exposed to weather and UV is too much to ask for tires. I then pulled all 4 tires and threw the rims in the truck and bought 4 new Carlisle trailer tires. A few days later I put the tires back on the trailer and hooked it up to my truck. I had downloaded the wiring diagram for the trailer and made up the connection to the truck. The brake lights did not work, so I went inside the trailer and started to work on the fuse panel. I eventually got the brake lights to work, so I started to pull it out of the yard.

March 24, 2007
My first destination was about 10 miles over to my parents house. I called them to ask if I could drop the trailer in their driveway. They were not home, so I just unhooked it and left the green slime covered crappy trailer in their driveway. Needless to say, my mother was not pleased when she got home. The next day I went over and started the cleaning process. I got the power washer out and started blasting.

Before Cleaning:
This is what it looked like after sitting under a tree for 15 years. It was a nasty green slime. It was a fairly simple process. I power washed the whole trailer and the grime just blasted off and looked great. I took care to power wash over the seams, so as not to disturb the seals between the panels. After I got the trailer power washed, I have to admit that I thought it looked pretty good. Sadly it does not look as good as the picture. You will see later that I have much more work left to do.

First Blog entry

Well its November of 08' and I'm finally going to blog my Airstream makeover. In the next few weeks I plan on documenting all of the work that I have done up to this point. After that, hopefully I can document the completion of this project.

I guess you ask.. "Why would E-Rock start a project like this?" Well, I guess I have to say that its for the family. When I was growing up our family went camping. We never went on fancy vacations to Disney or overseas. We were not rich or poor but my father worked for P&G. Have you ever met someone that worked there that was not cheep? My dad would take 2 weeks every summer to take the family camping. We went camping! Not in a fancy RV, but tent camping! Dad and Mom always said that if you had an RV, Popups or campers, you were not really camping. Jump to the future.

In 97' I was purchasing some equipment for my company and noticed that the dealer had a pop-up camper in the lot. My brother Mark was with me and we both decided on the spot to purchase the used pop-up. It was re-po'ed and we got a serious deal. We both figured that if our wives did not like camping, we could just sell it and still make a few bucks. As it turns out, both of our families like to go camping. My 2 boys can't get enough of camping. They love it. I like the pop-up a lot, but wanted something more. I have always liked the Airstreams. They are considered by everyone in the RV industry to be the best of the best. I like to have the best, so the search started for an Airstream. A new 31' Airstream starts around 80K. I love camping, but I'm not exaclty in a finincial position to spend that kind of money on something that we will use a handful of times a year. So that left me with the possibility of rehabing a used one.

My intention was to buy one, put in a new interior and use it. It has become a bigger project than I had ever imagined. I tear one thing out, just to find newer and bigger problems. Well at this point I'm completely gutted and the belly pan down. Not much more to tear apart. If I get some time, not likely with 2 young boys, I will update my progress as I go.