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.

[67avion]

edited

[Dave_Pete]

edit

[67avion]

Hi Cajun and Pete.

I'd like to continue. I enjoyed the true generosity of the members, sharing their experiences. I enjoyed being surrounded by other like minded folk who were close kin but often going after different ideas. I enjoyed the wonderful trip reports that made my camping so much more worthwhile.

But not here.

There was not a finger raised by the Forum proprietors. Nothing in terms of push back to the sites that held our images. In fact no solution whatsoever was proposed or discussed. Why in the first place did the site not bother to host its own images. Instead we all got hassled when someone would post an image larger than 600pix. I remember Whazoo getting taken down for the effrontery.

[69cayo]

I slipped up and posted this in the general forum..........
https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/29423008.cfm

Dennis

[Dave_Pete]

cajunavion wrote:
Howdy!
Avionistas, where do we go from here?
I still have an Avion. I still need y'alls experence.
Another forum?

I'd just suggest informative subject lines in the general Truck Campers topic. Including the word "Avion" like somebody recently did.

It all is truly very disappointing. I think the circumstances (such as becoming used to free hosting - pics OR text, or becoming dependent on certain "expectations" which are really more like fair weather friends than they are "human rights" for example), makes it all the worse.

When one steps back however, and looks from a standpoint of reason (witness the concept of homelessness answers paid by taxpayers, or universal basic income, or open source software, etc. - even though each of these issues isn't as simple as implied) - one can see that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Maybe if we think of this as a "forum hurricane" - that we "once had it all", and yet most of us never put up the cash for flood insurance, or "made our saves and backups" for a rainy day. And now it's time to pay the fiddler.

We must regroup, reinvent, create our own solutions. May include RV.net, and maybe not. We may choose to rebuild in the same place, or maybe this time we'll move - not build our houses on the sand.

Considering she's a mother, the earth isn't all that concerned about us, seeing as how we are just one of her issue. The big brother who terrorizes younger siblings, might just grow up to go to prison.

At least it was only a "forum hurricane" and not a "catastrophic global Web EMP". But is that coming?

[cajunavion]

Howdy!
Avionistas, where do we go from here?
I still have an Avion. I still need y'alls experence.
Another forum?

[67avion]

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and advice: JoeChiOhki, Sabconsulting,Silversand, user113 and others including Ticki2. I don't know if I can rouse myself to pull down images, store them and then replace them into a forum that is so utterly indifferent to our concerns. I get it that the Forum is "free" and that there is a place for truck campers to swap ideas. But, when something like this Photobucket business happens I would expect the mods to be all over the issue. Else, why bother? This string was put together by selfless, thoughtful and generous campers over years in the expectation that it could be helpful to future Avion owners. Its gone. Unless I find some relatively easy work around, or hear from the Forum that they are working with us on a solution, I am standing down.

D.

[user113]

JoeChiOhki wrote:
The easiest solution for that is to buy a VPS from one of the major providers (I use Tektonic.net which is based in Texas), then either install one of the open source gallery suites or if you're savvy enough, just manually upload the pictures to it (Blogging services like Blogger and the Open Live Writer suite can also be configured to automatically upload).

VPS is probably overkill; simple web hosting is often cheaper. Domain name for $30/yr, web hosting for $10/mo., or less.

JoeChiOhki wrote:

Other than renewing your domain subscription periodically, this is the only guaranteed way to really achieve stability, because if your hosting company is bought or sold, you can simply migrate to a new hosting company, and all your links will still work because you own the domain that they're going through.

You should also be able to host images from your own home, via a properly configured NAS. Then it would only be the $30/yr for the domain name, and your monthly ISP costs, which you're already paying anyway. (You might be able to do without the domain name by relying on your NAS provider to give you a "free" account, but that puts you right back at same place as before by relying on someone else...) The only drawback with hosting the photos on your own equipment (provided you set it up safely) is you may not be able to provide 24/7/365 availability, but the photos would be available when your internet connection is up and your NAS is running.

I imagine that being able to configure your own photo hosting will become easier in the future as things like this PB debacle will inspire people to write apps to facilitate your own hosting.

P.S. That's why I own my own domain name, I am not at anyone else's mercy for a "free" account of any kind. But, it's not really something that just anybody has the skills to do...yet.

[JoeChiOhki]

sabconsulting wrote:

So it isn't just a case of not being able to rely upon a service if it is free - you can't rely on it even if you are paying for it, because it will likely get sold out from under you. You can probably only rely upon it if you own the service yourself.

The easiest solution for that is to buy a VPS from one of the major providers (I use Tektonic.net which is based in Texas), then either install one of the open source gallery suites or if you're savvy enough, just manually upload the pictures to it (Blogging services like Blogger and the Open Live Writer suite can also be configured to automatically upload).

My personal server runs about $25 a month (you can also pay on a yearly rate for a discount), and has enough power to drive a forum and gallery.

Other than renewing your domain subscription periodically, this is the only guaranteed way to really achieve stability, because if your hosting company is bought or sold, you can simply migrate to a new hosting company, and all your links will still work because you own the domain that they're going through.

[1968_C11]

OK
Hi Folks
Back to topic
😉
At the beginning i was not sure if i should change or renew the isolation.
As soon as i startet taking the inner panels of, i knew it was right.
There where tonns of ants in the isolation.
I was thinking sleeping in there not knowing what is behind those panels.
(disgusting)




Now i have two Questions.
How thick are the Wings Floor, cab over etc, is it wooden board with styrofoam as an isolation?
in which sequence do i have to change the whole wood?
At the beginning my thought was first the wings, than the floor (and the Camper can stay on the jacks.
but whan can i change the front wall underneath the bed?

[silversand]

Steve:

.....just wait till the overturn of the landmark 2015 net neutrality rules happen soon...the free and open Internet may be a concept of the past soon (this will really hit consumers in the pocketbook!).

[sabconsulting]

This is very frustrating. I feel everyone's pain. I have had problems with hosting providers and people have suggested I use Photobucket on several occasions. I have been using Richard Branson's Virgin as a fibre cable provider for years now and it came with hosting. You couldn't really describe it as free because it was part of the expensive fibre-broadband and cable service I have been paying for. Then one day I got a letter saying they were moving out of the hosting business and sold hosting to a third party, and there was a deal where you could buy space at a discount off this new provider. Even if I wanted to pay AGAIN for I service I thought I was already paying for (and do not got a discount for not receiving) the URLs of my images would be different, and after a period of time you cannot edit your existing rv.net posts to re-point them to different URLs.

So it isn't just a case of not being able to rely upon a service if it is free - you can't rely on it even if you are paying for it, because it will likely get sold out from under you. You can probably only rely upon it if you own the service yourself.

Thankfully, I took PDFs of my trip and camper rebuild posts before losing these images, but that doesn't help anyone who wants to see them.

Actually, videos end up being easier, because they are all in one - I could reload one of my videos to another provider if Youtube stopped hosting them. The problem is that the photos on our posts are hosted separately from the text and the combination cannot be easily ported to another forum.

Cheers,

Steve.

[silversand]

.....interesting, and catastrophic! Jeesh.

I've had a Photobucket account (free, not paid) since 2004 (1 year after this hosting service was founded). And for 14 years, never ever had an issue linking to or accessing my photos. All of my linked photos still "function" no problem (across the myriad forums I have posted to)....but for how long....hmmmm?

I do have my own "web servers" where I host a number of domain names (belonging to me). I wish I could host all the photos here (through a custom storage interface), but even I couldn't host a waterfall of photos on my terabytes of SAN...it would simply cost too much.

Its a real ****-shoot relying on any (whether e-mail service or photo storage provider) "free" service. I've been through dozens of on-line service company "takeovers" and mergers (including Rocketmail, in the very early days of the Net: Rocketmail set up a special mail server host for me at Yahoo....which itself was just taken over recently LOL), but have been very lucky in that I have never been "stranded".....yet LOL.

[Boatycall]

69 Avion wrote:
As others have stated, even if Photobucket reversed their decision, I won't use them again.

Ditto. I deleted all images I had on there and closed my account.

[AnEv942]

The link provide has an extra http://
however going to the site the picture it tries to generate, ( full of errors), is directing to amazon
https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.fixphotobucket.com/albums/xx38/dgorton/interior.jpg

What this 'fix' does is download the picture from PB and uploads to amazon web services..gives new link to where photo uploaded.
noted he has also started a hosting site, well in process...
I tried several folks pictures including my own and didn't work?

my opinion this isn't really a simple 'workaround', doesn't simply make PB picures show up, still need to edit posts for pictures to show-so a host that gives you full control, keeps file names would be a better fix.

If you havent already-download your PB album. Find a host, upload pics to it, replace posted picture links with new url. Slow/painful but doable over time. Once pictures hosted somewhere else- its just taking the time to relink pictures.

I noted, 67avion, going to your PB account all pics are in 1 huge album. When/if recreating on new host site is to separate out photos to subjects. Will make finding a lot easier verses sifting thru 500+ pictures.