Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

[67avion]

Without going into too much painful detail, we had a mishap several week-ends ago. While working with sand bag crews on the Mississippi River, the truck and camper fell into the flood waters as a road collapsed. Because of a number of issues dealing with the wrecker truck, we had to release the camper as the truck was reeled up over the bank. The good news is that the truck is as good as new after a thorough rinsing, inspection of brakes, etc. The bad news is that the camper was thoroughly drowned. A lot of people had far worse trouble than we did, so we consider ourselves lucky. The floods are ongoing as I write.

Our planned trip to Montana in June is called off. heh.

However, I have now convinced my dear Jane that its time to really update the TC. After drying for several days we pulled out the interior. Amazingly the Zolatone paint that I had applied last year is good as new after a cleaning.



Without burdening the TC family overmuch, I'd like to ask some advice other than don't park too near a flood :-).

My DW was overjoyed that I had a plan for the bathroom: a composting toilet developed by Nature's Head http://www.natureshead.net/. Our holding tank was practically unusable and there was no real grey water tank on the 67 Avion. Our plan is to rip out the bathroom and install one of these and converting the blackwater to a greywater tank. Any experience with this?

Finally, the roof. I admit that I have not really done the work I should have. Now, I need to remove the various sealants on the roof and repair it. We are also setting up for a solar installation. Any advice as to this?



Here's hoping I have posted the pictures correctly. And many thanks in advance for your advice.

[D1trout]

And speaking of interesting Avion projects, ck out this Cayo Motorvator (almost worth owning for the name alone...) from craigslist in Oregon. There's another one in SoCal, listed for $10K.

http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/rvd/4493031754.html

Got to stay focussed...

Dick

[D1trout]

Man, am I glad I'm going with the gray water tank and the cassette toilet! I get dazed and confused with all this plumbing talk. More power to you, cajunavion, I know you'll do a great job and get a great outcome!

Regarding your table top/bed support issue from a couple of pages ago, here's a pic of the model for my east-west dinette and table. You really don't need more than 30" of width for a table that allows two to eat across from each other comfortably. By extending the seat out on the right side, I've opened up storage behind the seat and under the seat. In my case, propane behind and probably storage below.



Oh, and I'm using the Lagun table support system you showed us a couple of months ago. It's swivel feature will make it easy to get in and out of the dinette when the table is rigged.

Just my 2 cents.

Dick

[Desertboy]

Did anyone else save those pictures of the Avion posted at the clicky above? I would really like to have it because of the interior. Is that pretty close to original inside? As far as the outside is concerned I think mine is in as good of shape. I just wish whoever had it before me had not polished it. I know a lot of people like the polished look but I like that anodized look. I wont ever get rid of mine but I will get in position and be ready to pounce when another one pops up somewhere near me.

[Michael_111]

67avion wrote:
I assume everyone saw this post? 71Cayo for sale...I posted that it appears to be collectors level coach..but 69 is so right...check for rot.

click

thanks for the link
i would never do to this unit what i am attempting to do to mine 😉

but mine was also one tenth of this asking price and i could see all of the rot before i pulled the trigger.

BTW, new passenger side wing is in and is solid, had to patch a lot of the aluminum outside, underneath the wing ,where the center lift was. Someone changed it to front and back lift and and the skin underneath the new lifting points needed fixing as well, decided to cut out patches from the no longer used inside skin and go with roofing screws( rubber gasket)and Vulkem in between to fix this. pics to follow
As i was inspecting the box from the outside i discovered that it is held together by nails, considering to change this to roofing screws.
One of the previous owners had changed an entire run - driver side underneath the cab overhang to this setting
I poked at some of the original nail heads and they just fell apart.
This will be on the back burner. Not Broken enough to fix immediately
Cheers

[67avion]

I assume everyone saw this post? 71Cayo for sale...I posted that it appears to be collectors level coach..but 69 is so right...check for rot.

click

[Jamm3r]

A couple of things.

If you're just pumping greywater, a shower pump like the Whale Gulper 220 is going to be a better choice than a macerator. Lighter, smaller, less power, faster flow, more reliable.

For blackwater you need a 3" gravity discharge line to deal with clogs. The marine guys get away with 1.5" because they use toilets with a 1.5" discharge and macerator features of their own instead of rv toilets with a 3" discharge. Sure you can use a 1.5" line to the macerator and it will usually work but if your grandkid flushes a great big ball of TP or a pair of underwear then what.

With that said the space taken by 3" plumbing is considerable and the availability of things like 3-way valves in this size is limited; what is out there is high buck. So I would suggest keeping it simple. You can use a short section of dump hose to connect the macerator inlet to the gravity drain and save yourself some complicated valving and piping. At which point you might want to use 3" cam lock fittings for your gravity dump connection instead of the more common valterra bayonet as the cam locks do not require turning the hose to lock it.

[67avion]

Garry et al,

I really don't understand plumbing, so simplicity is my byword. I hope that the scheme advanced by Cajun works well, as well as the other ideas for retrofitted cassette toilets. I can only speak for my installation that is located somewhere in this string....way back. I repaired the black water tank to OEM standards. Our use of it has been completely satisfactory with the issues of odor and sanitation well resolved.

We plumbed a graywater reservoir that was SEPARATE from the black water. We fashioned the "tank" out of 3" pipe, wrapped back and forth with its own discharge. Garry is correct that the grey water should flush the blackwater line - however there is not enough room under the bustle to accomplish that. In practice there has not been any real problem except that my graywater capacity is lower than I would prefer.

Flushing the blackwater is easy enough with a separate hose. We try to have as short a connection to a dump as possible since the cleaning and storage of the hose is a bit of a problem.

What this discussion proves, however, is how valuable this string is to open experimentation and improvement of these coaches. The last thing anyone wants is to discourage our Avionistas from taking their ideas and running with them.

So, go for the macerator and go for the cassette and write it up. We're all interested.

[garryk6]

That looks like it will work. I use the same line to fill my gray tank as I use to drain it. My black is the toilet,, but in any RV you want to try to orient the gray water tank so that it can flush your discharge line after discharging the black.
Hope this helps.
Garry

[cajunavion]

[cajunavion]

Howdy!
I am onboard with the submariner!
Here's a first napkin idea. This all lives
in the right rear bustle. The gray and transfer
tanks are in the belly basement. Now a first question:
can I use a single line for the transfer tank: both
fill and discharge with a 3 way valve?

[ticki2]

cajunavion wrote:
Howdy!
Jammer your correct on all points on macerator pumps. The RVers who
have them rave about them. You reduce your waste to
a liquid that can travel pressurized through a
3/4 inch garden hose! Bye bye 3 inch dirty slinky.
They plumb with a 1.5 inch pipe and self prime.
The real advantage here is that you can dispose
of the waste just about anywhere including
flush toilets. They weigh around 3 lbs. and
the yacht guys have used them for years, it is
a tried and trued technoloy. It would be easy to
replace one at home, and you could keep your
standard hook ups for an emergency. 10 years
plus seems the average RV life since we are not
flushing salt water through them.
The reason I hit upon them is a lack of
useable black tank space in back, this would
let me put my tank anywhere, and it would also
allow me to pump the gray tank out as well with well
designed valving. Anyone up for some really wild
plumbing?

Perhaps I missed something but I didn't take Jammers comments as a glowing endorsement .

[garryk6]

cajunavion wrote:
Howdy!
Jammer your correct on all points on macerator pumps. The RVers who
have them rave about them. You reduce your waste to
a liquid that can travel pressurized through a
3/4 inch garden hose! Bye bye 3 inch dirty slinky.
They plumb with a 1.5 inch pipe and self prime.
The real advantage here is that you can dispose
of the waste just about anywhere including
flush toilets. They weigh around 3 lbs. and
the yacht guys have used them for years, it is
a tried and trued technoloy. It would be easy to
replace one at home, and you could keep your
standard hook ups for an emergency. 10 years
plus seems the average RV life since we are not
flushing salt water through them.
The reason I hit upon them is a lack of
useable black tank space in back, this would
let me put my tank anywhere, and it would also
allow me to pump the gray tank out as well with well
designed valving. Anyone up for some really wild
plumbing?

It doesn't get much crazier than plumbing a Submarine.... Did that for 23 years...
Garry

[cajunavion]

Howdy!
Jammer your correct on all points on macerator pumps. The RVers who
have them rave about them. You reduce your waste to
a liquid that can travel pressurized through a
3/4 inch garden hose! Bye bye 3 inch dirty slinky.
They plumb with a 1.5 inch pipe and self prime.
The real advantage here is that you can dispose
of the waste just about anywhere including
flush toilets. They weigh around 3 lbs. and
the yacht guys have used them for years, it is
a tried and trued technoloy. It would be easy to
replace one at home, and you could keep your
standard hook ups for an emergency. 10 years
plus seems the average RV life since we are not
flushing salt water through them.
The reason I hit upon them is a lack of
useable black tank space in back, this would
let me put my tank anywhere, and it would also
allow me to pump the gray tank out as well with well
designed valving. Anyone up for some really wild
plumbing?

[garryk6]

67avion wrote:
Hi Garry,

My Avion came like that. It appears that the original split window was removed and another installed. In the photos it may be that the aluminum blinds may reflect the sun in odd ways.

By the way, Garry. After we start the Avionista Caravan at Muley Point in Utah the next stop will be Kodiak Alaska. That's right...

Your all welcome for a visit! Just realize that the ferry from Homer to Kodiak only sails a few times each week, and has to have reservations made well in advance... unless you walk on... The joys of living on an Island in Alaska!!!

Garry

[tonyj54]

67avion wrote:
Hi Garry,

My Avion came like that. It appears that the original split window was removed and another installed. In the photos it may be that the aluminum blinds may reflect the sun in odd ways.

By the way, Garry. After we start the Avionista Caravan at Muley Point in Utah the next stop will be Kodiak Alaska. That's right...

Well, showed Shirley some pictures of Muley Point. As expected, she says "Thank you for the invite. If you ever decide to trek towards the Big Bend area of Florida down near the Gulf of Mexico, or better yet, down to the Keys, I'm all over it!" Flatlander. Yeah.