vintage terry travel trailer help!!!

Welcome to the Forum. Your Terry looks to be a well built TT.

Yes, the compressor was probably for the original water system My '71 Starcraft had that system and I retained it. The diaphragm pumps like this are easy to maintain and repair. There are a few reasons i chose to keep the air pressure over water system: 1)quiet and doesn't cycle every time a faucet or toilet is used 2)if it fails while underway and can't be fixed, I carry an inflator that will put all back in order, immediately. If the inflator fails, I can drive to a filling station, fill with air, and be back in business. 3) Good reliability from these pumps (low part count) and is about as easy as it gets for winterization--drain tank, blow lines, etc.

You're probably better off by eliminating most of the 12v wiring that is accessible and starting from scratch--new converter, distribution panel, batteries, etc. and wiring it all the correct way. If you decide to gut the inside, your AC can be upgraded, too. If you want some pictures and ideas about how to go about some of this, you can click the link in my signature line, the Cowboy/Hilton.

Good luck with your Terry!

Sounds to me like your trailer used an old school method of an air compressor to pressurize the water tank.

While it did work it is less than ideal (think of what happens when a tank springs a leak) and someone may have simply disconnected the air pump and converted the system to a non pressurized tank as you would find on newer RVs. They may have just skipped having a water pump if they always camped in places with city water hookups.

Sounds like there was a lot of modifications done and you will need to really spend some time sorting out all the systems...

There should be a water pump that is close to your fresh water tank. My tank is in the front going across the front width wise. Then right to it is a storage door that would be on the drivers side. In that same storage area is where my converter is at. I had to install a inverter into the trailer. I hope this makes some sense. Here are some pictures of the trailer on the inside.

1971 Terry

If you have any questions that I might be able to answer or maybe I can take some pictures of what your asking about.

Jim

Trailer life did a series where they restored a Terry about a year or so ago. Took it through stages and systems over about 8 months of issues. I havent been able to get the series from their web site, might check a stick and brick library. There may be some resource info in the articles for you. Good luck!

hey guys, thanks for the replies! sourcing info on the individual appliances, looks as though that will suffice to get the info im needing! simple solution that didnt cross my mind. thanks gdetrailer! there was a bit of shotty remodeling i've been removing over the last couple days. removed the queen size bed and shotty frame and discovered a small compressor. the copper line on it had been cut and the wires had been as well. i assume from its location at the water tank, that it is a part of the tank but not sure of how it worked. i havent seen an inverter, must've been removed some time ago. the wiring was redone as well so there is no way to hook up to a 12v source. so, do i need the compressor operating or is it unnecessary? also, the hot water heater has no identifying labels or such.is it possible to learn how it works by comparing one similar? i took more pics last night, will post shortly. thanks again guys! nice camper jim, i believe mine may be same year as yours just a different floorplan. i could be wrong of the year of mine. i found one like it and thus thats where i got my year from.

Here are a couple pictures of my 1971 21ft Terry Travel Trailer. I couldn't find any info on mine either.





Mine has the door in the middle. Mine has the bathroom in the rear, then the kitchen in the middle and then the couch and bed in the front.

Jim

That is a beauty of a project!

As far as manuals go, don't bother looking for the Terry manual. The manufacturers tend to not put any real specific info on your trailer in them. That includes how your tanks are setup, wiring and appliances..

What you want to find is the appliance manuals, you need to take a look at each appliance and locate the name and model number. Once you have that you simply do a Internet search. Many appliance manuals are available via Internet..

For that vintage, I would highly recommend replacing the "converter" which is basically a large 12V powersupply. The converter takes 120V AC and converts it to 12V DC which supplies 12V to all of your 12V lighting, furnace and such. The converter also does double duty by recharging your battery on the trailer.

Your current converter will be an old style "linear" type and most likely will not function correctly without a 12V battery attached.

New converters use a switching power supply and add three stage smart charging which really helps with reducing water usage of your battery...

I would recommend rewiring the electric brakes, good chance that you will have broken or badly corroded connections which will reduce the strength and reliability of the brakes. While you are rewiring the brakes I would highly recommend replacing the factory wire, typically they use 14 ga wire which is OK but if you replace with a heavier gauge of wire the brakes will work much better.

Good luck with your project!

nice! thanks! couldnt figure out how to do that.

emerge36 wrote:
https://www.rv.net/SharedContent/cfb/memberphotos/27508580/rig/P1000845.JPG

Here you go;

https://www.rv.net/SharedContent/cfb/memberphotos/27508580/rig/P1000845.JPG