Tag Archives: repair

Trailer marker lights

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As I write this, we are coming back from our East Coast fall colors trip, but that is for the next blog entry.

Before leaving, I knew that my umbilical connector was not making great contact. I would get notifications in the truck that the trailer was disconnected but would immediately reconnect. I figured I should look at the connector itself. Here it is:

Just a bit of corrosion there. I don’t know how many years it has been since I replaced it but now was the time to do so.

This connector controls all the electrical (12v) that feeds back to the trailer when traveling (lights, brakes, charging). However, it does not control the next item I needed to fix. The last time we were in Texas, we had to get the trailer inspected as it is part of the registration process. The inspector passed the marker lights on the trailer but said I needed to get them fixed. On our east coast trip, we expected to pass through Texas on the way home and I might get an inspection going there, so I wanted to be ready.

Here is what they looked like:

Still functional, but barely. I have replaced one in the past and learned from that one so I attacked 5 of them this time.

Let’s start with an old one:

Take a small screwdriver and pry up the front and back ends. There are two clips at each end that will separate the bezel from the base.

You can see the Vulkem that Airstream used to seal the hole. Two wires are connecting under the skin. We have to cut those but NOT lose them inside the trailer. We also need to use some butt connectors to connect the new wires from the new lights. Two screws to remove the base and gasket from the trailer.

Time to clean up the area and prep a new light and its components. Here are the parts, the light itself, a chromed base, and a gasket.

The gasket goes right on the trailer, the chrome base on top of that and the light (bezel) tops it all off. Remember that we have to use some butt connectors to attach the new wires to the existing ones. The butt connectors are not really flush and the gasket is pretty thick. We have to make space. I put some relief cuts on the gasket and removed material in the center to accommodate the space the butt connectors will take up.

Now we assemble the layers. Run the wires from the trailer, through the gasket and attach butt connectors

Run the new connectors through the chrome base and attach them to the new wires on the new light.

Secure the base with the screws.

Now we just snap the light onto the base at the front and back.

Now do 4 more! Here is how they look when new!

Let’s hope they pass inspection!

A few projects

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Since our trailer was a 50amp model it came with two Air Conditioners.  This meant no Fantastic Fan above the bed.  This also meant there was no direct source for airflow to us, like no ceiling fan (in household terms).  When it gets hot it is nice to have a fan blowing on you.  I found a Vornado fan at Target that would work and we put it on the floor, blowing up to the bed.  This was adequate, but I wanted more.  I wondered how I could mount the fan on the wall but didn’t want it adding weight to the wall as we were driving down the road.  I put a hook in the wall where we can hang the fan when needed:

We have been having some issues with our walls in the trailer sliding inward as we travel.  Some of the movement is close to 1 inch.

These walls were very cheaply made in Airstream and no require reinforcement, Airstream just stapled the corners together and covered them with trim.  The first wall is the hallway wall for the bathroom that attaches to the wall in the bedroom (behind the bathroom).  I took a 1×2 and mounted it vertically and screwed the walls together:

Inner structure

Hall wall with structure screws covered by trim

Bedroom wall with structure screws covered by trim

Another location of poor wall construction is next to the refrigerator.  There is a small 45-degree wall there but all Airstream did was put screws through a panel and into the next.  These panels are really thin and don’t have anywhere to bite:

I shored these walls up with some better anchor points and re-attached them with screws:

The part of the wall that is most concerning to me is the wall between the bedroom and bathroom.  The first picture shows the gap.  I put some brackets in the floor and secured the base of the wall (we will see if that works):

One problem we have been having is with our Dometic thermostat.  It consistently shows a different temperature (hotter) that just a few inches away.  I attributed this to having a large hole in the wall where the thermostat attaches to the wall.  Behind this wall is the side of the refrigerator and a lot of hot space during the summer temperatures.  We found a few bamboo flooring samples from a local home store and moved the thermostat up (so we could see it behind the TV) and to cover up that large hole.  Also filling in behind the new bracket with some foam has solved the issue.

Another upgrade was the TV in the bedroom.  The old setup was a 22″ that came from the factory:

This was the only place for one in the bedroom since there was a sliding door on the other wall to close off the bedroom.  I removed that door almost a year ago as we did not use it.  The gave us the option to put a 32″ TV on that wall:

A huge upgrade was accomplished in changing our sliding doors in the hallway wardrobe.  One of the selling points, for me, was the large wardrobe that this floor plan offered (twice the size of the 30′ Classic).  However, the doors would continually jump off the tracks.  Some on Airforums found the same problem and posed some solutions.  None of them worked very well.  Airstream themselves moved away from the sliding doors in the next two model years and created hinge-attached swinging doors but they were almost $1400 for the parts!

Enter Willard Amtower.  He saw a post about the doors and contacted me.  He had full plans for creating new sliding doors with appropriate hardware to not jump the track.  I did it.  I did not use as nice wood that Uncle Bill did but it sure works great!  Heavy mirrors, heavy hardware and tracks to keep it in place.  We have done about 1600 miles on the new setup with no issues.  Here are some pics:

I was able to find a good handle match also (original and additional):

Uncle Bill also showed me one more trick.  Our water pump can be turned on/off in two locations, the kitchen and the bathroom.  This requires a 3-way switch so you really cannot tell if the pump is operational by switch location.  I was replacing the water pump because the backflow valve was faulty and I wanted a more efficient one.  Bill showed me that he simply added an LED indicator that was tied to the water pump.  When the pump was energized the LED was on:

I like it but I used an LED for a truck trailer side marker so it might be a bit bright.

So far, I am very happy with all these modifications.  Am I done?  I will never be done.