Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos
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...
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I took my damaged Avion back home yesterday. We traveled to Watervliet, Michigan, where the original Avion trailers and TCs were manufactured. Later Avion expanded to several cities in the West during the height of their popularity. But this is the mother ship.
Chuck Cayo met us at his shop. That's Chuck on the right.
We examined the issues on the roof where the solar panels had been ripped off. We also discovered a lot of problems with the electrical system where shorts had jumped from spot to spot after the solar panels had been damaged. We still don't understand why the fusing didn't stop the wires from burning. It appears that the hot water heater is fried as well as the Wave3 catalytic heater. I think I'm lucky the whole thing didn't burn.
Chuck Cayo inspects the roof.
Outside was an historic Avion TC. It was used by Ford Motor Company when they designed their "Camper Specials" in the early 70s. According to Chuck, Ford wanted a camper that wouldn't fall apart during their arduous track testing. Apparently several other TCs had collapsed. Not only did this Avion survive the 250,000 mile test program, it still is still being used.
I am confident that Cayo can handle the damage to my coach and we'll be camping again.
It turns out the road to Muley Point runs through Watervliet, Michigan.
Chuck Cayo met us at his shop. That's Chuck on the right.
We examined the issues on the roof where the solar panels had been ripped off. We also discovered a lot of problems with the electrical system where shorts had jumped from spot to spot after the solar panels had been damaged. We still don't understand why the fusing didn't stop the wires from burning. It appears that the hot water heater is fried as well as the Wave3 catalytic heater. I think I'm lucky the whole thing didn't burn.
Chuck Cayo inspects the roof.
Outside was an historic Avion TC. It was used by Ford Motor Company when they designed their "Camper Specials" in the early 70s. According to Chuck, Ford wanted a camper that wouldn't fall apart during their arduous track testing. Apparently several other TCs had collapsed. Not only did this Avion survive the 250,000 mile test program, it still is still being used.
I am confident that Cayo can handle the damage to my coach and we'll be camping again.
It turns out the road to Muley Point runs through Watervliet, Michigan.
