Saturday, June 17, 2017

Secrets to the Airstream

About our 1969 Airstream Tradewind:

Setup: Unhitch trailer. Unhook 2-inch ball. Crank up jack. Note the level bubble on side of trailer. Bubble should be in middle if trailer is level. Also note level bubble above propane tanks near tongue of trailer. Everything level? If so, apply screw jacks to back bumper and tongue. No need to put jacks under frame. Level blocks go under tires if they are needed.

Leveling trailer important for the A/C and refrigerator.

First thing to do is connect to electricity. Pigtail cord is stored in back bumper. Plug cord into campground outlet. Might have to buy an adapter to fit RV outlet.

Trailer has a 30-amp breaker located in bathroom oak cabinet; has its own little gray box. This 1 breaker will cut all 120-volt power to whole trailer.

From 30-amp breaker, power feeds to front of trailer to cabinet on R side of control center (above bed). Grey box has 3 breakers. 1 breaker is dedicated to A/C. Other breakers run electrical outlets on right side of trailer and left side of trailer. Also one of the breakers supplies power to the power converter.

When 120-volt power is one and converter is on, converter is supplying power to lights and charging battery and radio up front.

2 small fuses located next to converter (in panel on side of trailer and near back of trailer). Each is 30 amp.

When hooked up to 120-volt power, this supplies power to A/C and all receptacles (outlets).

The 120-volts goes to converter, which breaks it down to 12 volts. All lighting in camper and radio is 12-volt. If lights go dim, something wrong w converter; check fuses.

Water:
Hook up water hose. 2 water sources on trailer. Water source from campground is shore water. Hook up water hose to back rear of trailer. (Put water filter between hose and hookup location, located on lower part of fram on back L side.

Then open back hatch (compartment that has battery). On L side is an orange orange valve. If lever is vertical, it’s off. To turn valve on, lever will be horizontal; this releases water into trailer. Pressure gauge is to right of orange lever; pressure reducer valve is set for 50 psi.

Water not flowing. Test it. Make sure water pump in center control panel in front of trailer (above bed) is off. The button for this is the 3rd button from L. It’s the only button that has an old label marker. Turn button on if we want to use water from fresh water tank.

Check hot water heater. See monitor in bathroom on wall to R. If red light is on, power is on to hot water heater. If light not on, go outside and open hot water heater door (rear side of trailer) and see on/off switch. Turn switch on if red light inside trailer is off.

Rear bumper. Open compartment for storing sewer line. Look for RV sewer hookup. Hook one end of sewer hose to RV sewer intake; hook other end of sewer hose to trailer. Once that is locked into place, open the black (sewer) holding tank on trailer. Do this by opening central compartment rear door. To lower L side, see a black T handle. Don’t pull out; pull up! This releases door for sewer wast to travel from black holding tank of trailer to campground septic tank. (Be sure to put freshener in black tank of trailer).

Fresh water tank: will water in this tank go stale? Combat this by adding freshener to fresh water tank. Maybe add a tablet or 2 of freshener.


Radio:
On R side of battery compartment, there’s a fuse panel. Has little glass round fuses in it (30 amp round fuses). Some of the fuses are rectangular with 2 little prongs at their base; others are little cylindrical fuses) Buy some extra fuses just in case.

Radio is 12 volts. Has a removable face on front. Make sure radio is off. If radio is on, it’s drawing power from battery.

SRC is the source button on radio. Hold SRC button down to turn radio off. Also has buttons for seek/tune to change channels.

There’s an ejectable face on radio. Lower R hand black button. Push button in to eject the face. Radio face pops out and kills power to radio lights.

Gas:
2 propane tanks. Between tanks is regulator. Has a black switch (little lever) that regulates gas from 1 tank to the other. Keep tank knobs turned on.

Plumbing:
Drain system for winterizing Main water drain is in closet to R of hot water heater. (See 2 valves). There’s also a drain for fresh water tank—located in little box next to head of bed.

Buy a fire extinguisher!