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.

[ticki2]

69 Avion wrote:

Apparently they widened the propane compartment for '69 , on my '68 the tanks are tight to each other and the side walls . I had to put some tape on the tanks to prevent metal to metal contact .

[ticki2]

noxinnhoj wrote:
http://bellingham.craigslist.org/rvs/3729133733.html

i am not the seller,just thought you avion fans might be interested,wish I have the space and time,love these campers...cheers

I find it interesting that this was called an Ultra model , The only Ultra's I've seen were under the Cayo name and had a rear dinette and squared front wing corners . They also had a deeper tank area . Always something new .

[69_Avion]

I finally made the hand rail for my scissor steps. I tried finding a suitable, factory made hand rail, but I couldn't find anything that I liked. I ended up ordering 3 - 48" pieces of 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" x 1/8" aluminum square tubing to make the railing out of.





The hand rail was strong, but it was much better once I tied it into the Avion's door handle.


This is the mount to tie it into my extension bumper.

[69_Avion]

noxinnhoj wrote:
http://bellingham.craigslist.org/rvs/3729133733.html

i am not the seller,just thought you avion fans might be interested,wish I have the space and time,love these campers...cheers

If there isn't any serious rot or corrosion, it might make someone a real good base to start from.

[69_Avion]

Jamm3r wrote:
A few words on propane.

Like many of us I have the ASME 5 gallon tanks. I had one of them refilled at an RV repair place where I was having the C-11 sealtech tested. We went round and round on certification and stuff and he finally agreed to do it.

Anyway when he was done he must have stuck an O ring in there because the POL fitting leaked and when I went to figure it out, well, there was an O ring in there. I have the stock hard nose POLs and they are a metal-on-metal design and the O ring just ****s up the system.

I still had leaks and finally figured out that he removed the other tank and put it back even though it was full. No O ring but he didn't tighten the POL enough. These things have to be wrench tightened, and if you have little plastic handwheels on them like mine did when I got it, you should take them off.

So the pilot light for the furnace went out while he had the tanks out.

Anyway that was a couple of weeks ago and last night I wanted to run the furnace. Now I have the original gas valve still in there and always have a hell of a time getting it to work because it's so stiff it doesn't want to pop out, usually takes a few tries.

Well I got sloppy on the third try and while it was my fault for not doing everything the right way there was a bunch of gas that accumulated in there and I don't have nearly as much hair on my left arm now. It will grow back and I'm wearing long sleeve shirts for the next month 🙂

But I think it's high time to tear into the furnace and put in a new gas valve. Wondering if anyone has done it. It's a nice setup, really, sealed combustion, before it's time. More or less the same idea as the Dickenson propane fireplace. I ordered a new valve a few minutes ago. Looking at the furnace, I see that the bottom of the combustion chamber comes off with screws and I'm guessing the burner and pilot and everything is attached to that and will all come out. I'm going to take it all apart and try to fix some of the creaks and klunks while I'm in there.

Meanwhile, keep a close eye on the propane dealers, they don't know how to deal with POLs any more. And be careful lighting the pilot in the furnace, in that confined combustion chamber gas can accumulate if you're sloppy pushing the dial in.

To eliminate the ignorance problem, I bought a couple of POL to ACME adapters so they have a hard time messing it up. LOL

[noxinnhoj]

http://bellingham.craigslist.org/rvs/3729133733.html

i am not the seller,just thought you avion fans might be interested,wish I have the space and time,love these campers...cheers

[67avion]

69Avion wrote:
When I first checked out my original plastic tank I was real happy that it didn't leak and it didn't look cracked. After I put all the plumbing back together is when it started leaking. Once I removed it, I noticed hundreds of tiny cracks.

I've been following this thread closely. This week we are buttoning up the 67. All of the systems - electrical, water, gas - have been checked out, and they appear to be working. At least in terms of a static test.

But, this string sure has me nervous. Its been a few moons since we took out the tank and replumbed. Now, seeing other people's experience, it makes me nervous. I mean if you are contemplating a disaster, a disintegrating black water tank has to be right up there.

[Jamm3r]

A few words on propane.

Like many of us I have the ASME 5 gallon tanks. I had one of them refilled at an RV repair place where I was having the C-11 sealtech tested. We went round and round on certification and stuff and he finally agreed to do it.

Anyway when he was done he must have stuck an O ring in there because the POL fitting leaked and when I went to figure it out, well, there was an O ring in there. I have the stock hard nose POLs and they are a metal-on-metal design and the O ring just ****s up the system.

I still had leaks and finally figured out that he removed the other tank and put it back even though it was full. No O ring but he didn't tighten the POL enough. These things have to be wrench tightened, and if you have little plastic handwheels on them like mine did when I got it, you should take them off.

So the pilot light for the furnace went out while he had the tanks out.

Anyway that was a couple of weeks ago and last night I wanted to run the furnace. Now I have the original gas valve still in there and always have a hell of a time getting it to work because it's so stiff it doesn't want to pop out, usually takes a few tries.

Well I got sloppy on the third try and while it was my fault for not doing everything the right way there was a bunch of gas that accumulated in there and I don't have nearly as much hair on my left arm now. It will grow back and I'm wearing long sleeve shirts for the next month 🙂

But I think it's high time to tear into the furnace and put in a new gas valve. Wondering if anyone has done it. It's a nice setup, really, sealed combustion, before it's time. More or less the same idea as the Dickenson propane fireplace. I ordered a new valve a few minutes ago. Looking at the furnace, I see that the bottom of the combustion chamber comes off with screws and I'm guessing the burner and pilot and everything is attached to that and will all come out. I'm going to take it all apart and try to fix some of the creaks and klunks while I'm in there.

Meanwhile, keep a close eye on the propane dealers, they don't know how to deal with POLs any more. And be careful lighting the pilot in the furnace, in that confined combustion chamber gas can accumulate if you're sloppy pushing the dial in.

[69_Avion]

Jamm3r wrote:

69 Avion wrote:
Besides, my original tank wasn't supported on the front side because someone cut the hole, for the tank, too large.

On my rig the tank slides around in the square hole.

I'm planning on bedding the tank in some "great stuff" urethane foam once I'm done epoxying it. I'll wipe a coat of motor oil or grease or something on the tank first so the foam won't stick, then put everything in place in my rig and spray in the foam and let it harden.

It sounds like you have it under control. Great job.

My new tank fits in tight enough that it won't move anywhere. I probably designed it a little too tight, but it goes in without any kind of excessive force. It just doesn't have any extra room.

[Jamm3r]

69 Avion wrote:
Besides, my original tank wasn't supported on the front side because someone cut the hole, for the tank, too large.

On my rig the tank slides around in the square hole.

I'm planning on bedding the tank in some "great stuff" urethane foam once I'm done epoxying it. I'll wipe a coat of motor oil or grease or something on the tank first so the foam won't stick, then put everything in place in my rig and spray in the foam and let it harden.

[Jamm3r]

ticki2 wrote:

Question , why not use a bolt on flange to the tank as original so you would have a mechanical joint in addition to the epoxy ?

The epoxy joint is stronger than the tank walls -- there's at least 5 square inches of bond surface on the flange, and that stuff has a tensile strength of 7300 PSI. So the bond strength is somewhere around 36,500 pounds and in practice that means something else will give first, bolts or no bolts. (And that's just for the flange, not including the layer of fabric on top of it. I'll post more pics.)

But the real reason I didn't is that bolts concentrate stress at the bolt head and, without some thought given to distributing the stress, could lead to a crack at the bolt head.

[sabconsulting]

69 Avion wrote:
I designed the custom tank and Premier Industries built it for $450. I know that isn't cheap, but it was cheaper than any other custom alternative that I could find...

Considering that was custom it sounds a pretty good price to me - very nice tank.

Steve.

[69_Avion]

I designed the custom tank and Premier Industries built it for $450. I know that isn't cheap, but it was cheaper than any other custom alternative that I could find. Besides, my original tank wasn't supported on the front side because someone cut the hole, for the tank, too large. I made the new tank fit the hole, plus I made it higher so that I could take out most of the wood blocking that was on top of the plastic tank. Because I reduced the amount of wood by so much, the total weight differential was very little. It now has 20 gallons.
When I first checked out my original plastic tank I was real happy that it didn't leak and it didn't look cracked. After I put all the plumbing back together is when it started leaking. Once I removed it, I noticed hundreds of tiny cracks.

[ticki2]

Jamm3R

Interesting approach , please do a follow up and let us know how it worked . These old tanks are all going to need help eventually .

Question , why not use a bolt on flange to the tank as original so you would have a mechanical joint in addition to the epoxy ?

[Jamm3r]

69 Avion wrote:
I tried my tank when I repiped all the ABS piping (really bad workmanship with many joints having little or no glue on them) and I started having leaks.

I think you've posted extensively on the problems with the drain piping, and it was a problem area on mine as well, although I only had a couple of joints that leaked. I repiped everything just as you have.

The first time I checked the tank, before the rebuild, I had no leaks. Upon close inspection, there were many hair line cracks. I gave up trying to save it and had a custom stainless steel 20 gallon tank made.

How much did the custom tank cost?

I'm mainly trying to save a buck or two here. I was using the epoxy mainly for the plastic pieces inside the bathroom so I'm only out around $50 in additional materials, including the new valve.