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.

[AnEv942]

No unfortunately-, wish that was the case, but if you visit PB from photo linked, pictures are held in your browsers cache for a bit, kinda sorta works until refreshed. And the links don't seem to take one to full album...

PB simply no longer allows members to link to pictures, (unless you 'upgrade').
EDIT: From what I gather, unless you 'pay-up'- its not IF your pictures stop showing it just a matter of when they stop showing up.
I wish I had some idea the rational but no explanation/justification given.

[garryk6]

I tried clicking on one of the missing pictures from your post 67, and i was redirected to Photobucket. And the picture loaded there. Then I went back to RV.net, and suddenly most of the missing pics were linking up... Has anyone else tried that? Is it just that Photobucket wants you to hit their site, before letting the links work?

[Southedistoman]

Dang, I feel like I've been kicked in the gut, and I don't have near the time, blood sweat and tears invested that the rest of y'all do. Oddly, the few pictures I've uploaded via photob. are still visible. Then my account is fairly new and small.
Life is full of coulda, woulda, shouldas, but I just finished compiling a rough draft of an index for this thread. I went and saved the first half dozen pages as a pdf. There were a fair number of dead pics early on before photon. nuked everything. I saw that the approach would work to save each page, but was also rather tedious and not much fun. I put off finishing it up. Coulda, woulda....
If any one comes up with any ideas, let me know. Maybe a go fund me or something.
Scott

[67avion]

I really don't know how to begin resurrecting over 300 pages of this thread. And besides, who can guarantee that this free hosting site - RV.net b- won't do the same thing? It is a shame that this site didn't host its own photos instead of using 3rd party. Getting by cheap.

[D1trout]

Gents, I have found Photobucket annoying and difficult all along. The last posts I made were done with Imgur which I found to be very easy. Perhaps it doesn't offer the features that Photobucket did... or perhaps I'm just technologically challenged...
In the event, I'll be interested in whatever workaround we can devise.

[garryk6]

I am sick about this too. I've been right there with you D...
I will try to find another host and I will move all my photobucket to another site. Anyone have any input or ideas?? I want to be a part of resurrecting much of this if possible.
Thanks!
Garry

[AnEv942]

Agree with your sentiments completely-
As far as the thread- if the photos/albums still exist, right clicking on the picture, copying link to album, photos can be seen-painful-out of context, but scrolling thru pictures can be seen. Depending how browser set up if pictures cached they'll show up within threads

Doesnt remedy but a workaround for folks looking at specific info that picture might show.


Mark

[67avion]

For over 6 years, with almost 600,000 views and more than 3,000 posts, the Avion rebuild thread has been a fixture on this site. It is not just an Avion thread. It is the ultimate source of information about these truck campers. People gave generously of their time and experience. Hundreds and hundreds of photos illustrating the tips, techniques and work arounds....there is nothing else like it in the world.

Now its shot through with missing imagery. Photobucket pulled the plug. Even if I paid $400 a year to host my images there are people who have moved on who would not even know that their posts are empty.

Yes, I'm shocked that this much work had been destroyed. I expect the same thing is true with thousands of other strings with rebuilding motorcycles, guitars, pianos etc., the stuff of our leisure time and deep interests.

If someone wants to argue that I "should have known" that free stuff could go away, please keep the thoughts to yourself. This is a tragedy and I'm in grief.

D. Gorton

[67avion]

I don't know if the majority of our leaks come from the running lights, but I'm sure that a lot of them do. By all means take Ticki's advice. Another product that is helpful is Eternabond that I use around the Fantastic roof fans and other roof mounted frames such as the solar panels.

[ticki2]

Southedistoman wrote:



Would a bead of trempro around the lights be in order here? There are a lot of holes under the lights now to leak, and the ones on the end caps don't fit very flush with the curve of the skin.

Definitely . Put the bead of caulk on the back of the light before mounting so it isn't just external caulk .

[Southedistoman]

Ok, I'm going to try my hand at picture posting. I thought I'd share my experience with installing the marker lights with rivnuts. I started out by removing the factory marker lights. I ran the wires in through the hole in the skin. I was able to use one existing rivet hole on the sides, but had to drill new holes for the wires and rivnuts on the front and end caps to keep the lights centered in the panels.


Here you can see the rivnuts installed. You have to be careful installing them as it's pretty easy to pull the threads out of the rivnuts.


New marker light


View from the inside, showing the crushed rivnuts, and the nylon machine screws I was using temporarily. I'll go back with stainless screws once I put the butyl tape around the lights for the final install. I also plan on some heat shrink tubing around the wires to help with any abrasion.
Would a bead of trempro around the lights be in order here? There are a lot of holes under the lights now to leak, and the ones on the end caps don't fit very flush with the curve of the skin.

[rastaman33609]

This is on craigslist in the Tampa Bay area....I have not seen it, know nothing about it....just thought I would put it out there....

http://tampa.craigslist.org/psc/rvs/6129010741.html

[ticki2]

D1 , that is a generous offer . Those are 2 items I had to replace on mine . It came without the WH door which I was fortunate enough to find on an old RV . The propane door blew off somewhere in the Catskills , that one I had to make . Someone will need them , if not now , eventually . BTW , great maiden voyage , can't wait for the interior .

[D1trout]

Fellow Avionistas, I'm cleaning out my shop in preparation for beginning the interior of Argo and I have a couple of things to deacquisition... Argo is a C11, so you know what these fit. Free to good homes for the cost of shipping. The propane door on the right and the water heater door one the left.


Feel free to PM me.
Dick

[ticki2]

So nice to hear of so many of you out and about . I'll be getting a late start this year as I need the truck for other duty . This spring I have been chasing an off again on again leak .At first I attributed it to condensation but it would happen sometimes even when not in use . Think I narrowed it down to the rear roof vent . After scrapping off the caulking I found some rivets that were never seated tight . After removing the rivets and vent I could see where the foam tape that Avion used in joints was compromised on one corner .It was probably OK until the outer caulking started to break down ( 49 years ). Haven't tested it yet , I may do the front vent while it's dry and in the shop .

Another area to look at is the aluminum angle trim around the front and bottom of the tub . I noticed a gap between the trim and skin . In the process of removing the trim I discovered they were held on with aluminum nails that looked like rivets , on several the only thing left was part of the head . I re-installed with Trempro caulk and screws.

Always something 🙂