Monthly Archives: February 2021

The other leak

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In a previous post, I spoke about repairing the black tank valve and mentioned needing to fix a freshwater leak.

I could see water dripping from the belly pan but the location changed depending upon the level of the trailer. Tongue high, drip further backward – tongue low, drip forward. I checked the floors inside for any moisture. Nothing. I looked under the bathroom sink as it is easy to access. I didn’t see much. The next option is to look at the water heater which also has an easy-to-access panel next to it. I opened this up before with another fix, the electric portion of the water heater.

I peered under and around, finding a leak dripping. It was coming from under the water heater! I felt the water and it was warm. Ugh. Leaking water heater. There were no other leaks anywhere else on the water heater. It must have corroded. The tank is aluminum and they don’t normally corrode with regular flushing. That was the problem. I had only flushed the tank once and then a LOT of water scale came out. It was years of running hard water through it in Arizona and Texas.

The old one didn’t look too bad and was still operational:

I called Toscano’s Airstream in Los Banos and talked to Bobby in service. I have always been happy with their dealership and service and trusted them. We discussed the options. I knew that I did NOT want an on-demand version as I feel they don’t work that well in an RV water environment (and maybe I am just too old to change my ways). I would love to find a direct replacement but Toscanos couldn’t find one from their suppliers. I really also did not want to find an equivalent.

The model was a GE9-EXT. This means it is technically a 6-gallon heater but the 9 means how many gallons it will put out. This is because of a mixer on the back of the heater. This one heats the water to a higher temperature than is really safe. It mixes it with cold water as it feeds the trailer with hot water. This mixing stretches the 6 gallons to 9 gallons. I like that feature.

So I looked around for a direct fit but I also was keeping an eye on delivery time. I found some GE9-EXT models, some very pricey, many out of stock. I also found, on Amazon, a GEH9-EXT model. Hmm, has an extra ‘H’ in it. What does that mean?

This model was designed to be used in a motorhome and the ‘H’ means it connects to the engine of the rig like a heater core. This allows the engine to help heat the water heater. I checked with Toscano’s and they have seen Airstream send out some units with the ‘H’ model installed. Must be whatever you can get. I agree with that and ordered it from Amazon.

The concern I had with the ‘H’eater option was that the tubes invaded the heating tank and it could leak. However, the tubing is only welded onto the tank and does a heat transfer through the metal, not commingling the fluids. I put caps on it anyway:

Time to swap them out. Remove 20 screws on the outside, disconnect the hot and cold lines (with lots of towels to catch the excess water), disconnect the 110V lines for the electric heater, disconnect the 12v lines for running the computer, and disconnect the LP gas. I had to do some pulling, twisting, and breaking the seal around the outside (caulking and butyl tape). But I got it out:

Above is the hole left with the removal of the old heater. You can see all the piping (water and propane), into the bathroom (toilet), and into the bedroom. You can also see part of the blow dryer that I used to dry out the drip area. Also, there are wires to strip and connect to the new unit. In my last repair to the old heater, I had to replace the wire nuts that burned all the way through. This was not a good thing and I was looking for a solution that did not burn through again. I found a new wire connector then and used it again here:

These connectors are made by Ideal. Supposedly they will hold on to the wires and motion does not affect them. The above is for the 110V connection to the electric heater element. Ideal also makes an inline connector that I used for the 12V connections:

I prepped the mounting hole with some butyl tape to help seal the opening. I also marked, on the painter’s tape, where the screw holes are to help line things up:

With a bit of wiggling and some alignment, the heater fits great. The propane line gave me a bit of an issue getting the right angle on it to fit the connector. It leaked a bit at first but some elbow grease on the wrench tightened it up. After everything was connected, and the tank filled, I fired it up and got a nice blue flame:

Now, since the new heater is working well, I can do a forensic exam on the old one. I took off all still working parts (electrical and otherwise) for backup. I exposed the tank and saw this:

The bottom had evidence of leakage (arrows) and also you can see all the deposits from the scale buildup. Note to self: flush the heater at least once a year!

Now that both leaks, fresh and black, were fixed, we were getting ready to hit the road again. One more thing, I had to close up the belly pan to protect the valves from the road. This is what it looked like before:

I got a piece of galvanized metal and cut it to fit. Secured it with some self tapping screws, making sure NOT to puncture any of the tanks hiding under the pan. The finishing was to use some aluminum tape on the edges to keep it nice and smooth underneath:

The final touch was to support the sewer output. It kind of hangs out there on its’ own with little assistance. I decided to add a bit:

Oh, I also got a new, clear cap for the sewer.

Whew, now all those liquid repairs are done, hopefully to never happen again!

Antenna installation or putting a hole in the roof!

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One goal I wanted to accomplish during our time in one spot, was to enhance our cellular and WiFi connectivity. In my previous post about electronics, I alluded to the fact that we used a hotspot for cellular. I wanted to put an antenna on the roof for the hotspot to use, which should give better coverage than inside the ‘Faraday’ cage of the Airstream. I already had an inexpensive external antenna connected but why stop there? Additionally, I wanted to be able to connect to any local WiFi that might be available and use it on all devices in the trailer. I found an antenna that did that, although there are others, a Mobilemark LTMG502.

I wanted to add some type of conduit between roof access and inside the trailer. Usually, this is done behind the refrigerator and exiting to the roof through the vent on the roof. This is what I did with the solar install and also did with rear camera install. So we take the refrigerator back out, again. This time it was out for a couple of days. This is what I found:

The wires on the left are for the backup camera and a pull cord for future use. The wires in the center are for the solar panels, the lump in the middle is a jumper to connect the different segments of wires. The wires in the upper right are some Airstream wires.

Ammonia based refrigerators, like the one we have, depend upon airflow from the bottom to the top at the back of the unit. In our ’92 we had a lot of space behind the refrigerator. However, Airstream apparently decided to start building boxes close to the back of the refrigerators to concentrate the airflow and enhance cooling. The drawback, for this project, is that there is only about 1/2″ space between the box and the back of the cooling fins near the top. There was no way to put in a 2 1/2″ conduit like I wanted. Time to revise the plan. I was going to have to go through the box behind the refrigerator. I did some measurements. Here is my little diagram:

What the above denotes is that there is 9 1/2″ from the streetside edge of the refrigerator vent to the wall of the box. I also had to figure out the distance from a known point on the outside of the trailer to the other side of the box wall. Here are the measurements from the roof:

9 1/2″ from the edge of the vent puts me right about the drip moulding on the top of the trailer.

This measurement is from the side of the trailer, offsetting the appropriate inches (I don’t remember the number). The two measurements coincide to show about where the wall is, and where I need to put the hole. I have to put it below the drip moulding, into the curved side. I looked for other solutions but could not find one that I liked.

Time to put the refrigerator back in. But before I do that, I tidied up the wires a bit more:

I tightly secured the camera wire to the wall. I was able to disconnect the solar wires, drill a hole near the top of the box and underneath the box. I could then run the solar wires into the box and out so there was no interference with the refrigerator.

I asked Airstream about running wires in the box and they stated there is no issue with that as they do it all the time. Drilling a hole underneath allowed me to get an inside view:

You can definitely see that Airstream DOES use it for wiring! They have power (yellow), 12vDC, coax from the TV antenna, HDMI cabling in addition to my solar wiring. Plenty of room for my conduit!

Choosing the conduit was not easy. I wanted it flexible, not rigid. I wanted a smooth interior, not ribbed. I wanted it large enough in diameter. The local big box home stores didn’t have what I was looking for so I turned to Amazon. I ended up using this:

This is actually tubing for a pool pump but, at 2 1/2″ diameter, it fit the bill. It, however, was very stiff for most of the time but leaving it in the sun for a while softened it up.

It takes a bit of buildup, mainly mental, to prepare to drill a largish hole in the topside of your Airstream so I took a few days to prepare the other components. Here is the antenna and its’ components:

This shows the antenna, with the 5 cables from it, and the ground plane that is recommended. The 5 cables that come from the antenna are three different types of connections. Two of them are for WiFi, both 2.4GHz and 5GHz which will connect to the router, two of them are cellular connections that will connect to the hotspot. The last cable is for a GPS, which I have no need for until I add some GPS tracker unit for security. The grounding plane is needed for better reception since the antenna will not be mounted directly to the metal roof (see below).

This box will be where I will mount the antenna. This way I can mount the antenna wherever I need to. I will simply stick this to the roof with VHB tape. Here is the assembled antenna:

The wires just hanging free will be encased in a waterproof (even though it should not matter) conduit.

I ran the wires through the 6′ of conduit to the other end:

Now, let’s tackle that hole! This is the approximate area that I need the hole:

The first thing was to drill a test hole:

This enabled me to peer from the underneath to assess where I want put the large hole. The peering view:

I could compare this to the other photo to assess that is is pretty close to where I wanted it, I just have to take into consideration the angle how the conduit is coming through. Remember there are two walls to the Airstream construction. Time to drill!

Mark off the area, tape it up, drill it!

The holes are drilled! Let’s look from below:

I think I got it in the right place. More work up top.

The next question is where to mount the antenna. I wanted in the middle and decided that this location was the best option:

This is on the centerline. It is high for the cellular, it is above the solar panels, the only issue might be to the rear due to the air conditioner. It also was the right distance for the waterproof conduit.

The wires from the antenna are not long enough to get down to my devices so I needed to add an extension. I also used heat shrink tubing on the connections. You can also see the conduit coming through the hole. I had a device to attach to the end but could not get it to work so a simple hose clamp should hold it in place. You also see the pull wire there to ease any other wires I might need to run in the future.

This is all coming into this access box that is VHB’d to the roof and will be thoroughly caulked with Vulkem.

Here is the box ready to close up:

The conduit path worked out pretty well also:

All buttoned up:

The next question is, how does it all work now?

I have connected up all 4 wires to their appropriate devices and the performance is great. On the cellular side, the bars went from 2-3 to a constant 4. Speed from 12Mbps to around 40Mbps. On the WiFi side, connecting to our son’s network, the signal strength has improved by about 20 dB.

It was a lot of work to get all this going, planning being the most, but I am pleased with the results.