Hitch reinforcement - by request

By request, here is a picture of the hitch reinforcement installed in my Odyssey minivan by CanAm.

This is a fairly typical method of transferring the weight and reinforcing the hitch - a big box section from the factory hitch to a suspension carrier. I believe they also reinforced the rest of the hitch, but I honestly didn't look that close.

The Odyssey's tow rating is partly affected by how stout of a hitch you can install. (How I know that I won't divulge; I'll just say that the folks I discussed it with certainly would know.) It's tough to install a stiff hitch, because it has to span the entire width of the van to get around the third row seat well.

As posted before, my van tows the Minuet better than the T@B, thanks to well-set-up weight distribution and a friction anti-sway set-up. I can also see around the narrow-body trailer without add-on mirrors, and can see straight through the trailer to see how much traffic is backing up behind me.

Spending My Money Upfront

Two of my Connecticut Airstream buddies, Skip and Annette, basically gave me the same advice: it is better to pay more for a trailer you can use right away rather than spending lots of time and money restoring a wreck. (Skip followed the advice, Annette and her husband spent months doing an excellent restoration of a 70s Tradewind.)

Sure, lots of people enjoy the thought and effort of restoration. But right now, I don't really have the skills or patience (my Gen-X-ness coming through) to do that. So, it was awesome that I found a trailer that was so solid.

It helped that CanAm thoroughly went through it, and that the trailer had been little used but well cared for through its 32 year history. I even found asales receipt from 1982 in the trailer. The previous owners traded in an Argosy 24' trailer on this Minet. Shockingly, my Minuet and tow vehicle work cost a princely $12,500 (Canadian) in 1982!! Let's just say that I paid quite a bit less (even without factoring in inflation), despite having CanAm do a bunch of work for me before delivery.


Since the old bias-ply tires were done for, I got a new set of tires installed. My vanity dictated getting a new set of wheels - I like these because they look like the Alcoa aluminium wheels Airstream used in the 70s. The bearings and brakes were also serviced.

My trailer doesn't have an air conditioner, so I got a Fantastic Fan installed in one of the vents. It is, indeed, Fantastic. My biggest regret is that I didn't pay to have a second one installed. Instead, the original powered vent fan is there. It pretty much works when it wants to, shutting off randomly.

I also got front window guards installed. These are similar to those found on new Airstreams, but here they needed to be cut down to fit the narrower Minuet front window. They protect against thrown stones, but they also look cool. Another neat thing - since the front window in the trailer is clear (not smoked like in newer Airstreams), I can see straight through the coach when towing to see the line of traffic forming behind me, even with the dark window guard.

You can also see the spare tire I had installed on the tongue. Not having a spare on a single axle trailer seemed like bad voodoo to me.


A bit of a disappointment - I had a low-profile German deadbolt installed. It works OK, but water dribbles through it when towing in the rain. Got to think of a fix for that.

One thing that I didn't realize until I got home, and a very welcome surprise - the original Univolt converter (for converting 120V AC to 12V DC to charge the coach battery and run the 12volt systems in the trailer) was replaced with a modern Intellipower converter. The old electronics were heavy, loud, and tended to cook batteries. Glad not to have to spend $200 of my money, or my time fiddling with wiring under the dinette.

Next post: the tour inside.

The Argosy Has Landed

It's sitting safe and secure in my driveway. After 14 months of looking and researching, an airline flight (one cancelled, one rescheduled), and 1000 miles of driving - I've got me an Airstream. (Well, an Argosy - but close enough.) I even managed to get it registered after a two day process with the DMV. (They complimented the trailer, but it didn't reduce the 4.5 hour total time needed for registration.)

I guess it's a sign of how much I wanted the trailer that I considered it a good thing to find a trailer within the same time zone, or within a (very) long day's drive. I made the trip to CanAm RV Centre, a big Airstream dealer in London, Ontario, on my own - Jules was essentially out of vacation time. The dealer did a lot of work to the trailer, and handled its importation.

The trip past Rochester and through Buffalo brought back a bunch of memories. I went to engineering school in Rochester, often making this trip in a 1981 Buick with a portable CD changer bodged through my cassette player. Quite a change to make the trip in the Honda with an iPod and GPS (though my Honda has more miles on it than that old Buick.) Remembering the somewhat depressing job interviews I had in Buffalo, I'm happy things worked out the way they did.

I couldn't make a long trip without trying out some of the local food specialities. I picked up a pint of strawberries at a produce stand at a highway stop. (They would make up for the lack of fiber the rest of the day.)

Buffalo is known for two food specialities: buffalo wings, and beef on weck. Guess which one I hadn't eaten before.

A stop at Charlie the Butcher, next to the Buffalo airport, solved that:

Beef on weck is sliced roast beef served on a weck, a roll with caraway seeds and salt crystals on top. The beef, along with a potent horseradish sauce, was great. The weck - not so much, as the salt stung my lips.

I crossed the border and drove to London. I had to try a Tim Hortons in its native environment, since supposedly the American offerings are different:

I really liked the "walnut crunch", a chocolate donut without the hole, but the sour cream donut wasn't sour enough.

Next day I hung out at CanAm while my Honda got outfitted for towing with a brake controller and a reinforced hitch. CanAm specializes in outfitting more unique vehicles for towing, and they've rigged over 200 Odysseys.

It showed. The trailer towed awesome - even better than the T@B. A big part of this was due to the weight distribution hitch allowing the van to sit level, keeping weight on the front wheels. That greatly improved traction and steering feel. I was hesitent to deal with the hassle of hitching up this stuff, but it's worth it.

I got 15 mpg towing the trailer back, averaging 70 mph on the New York State Thruway, usually loafing along in fifth gear with plenty of power to spare. It's nice towing a lightweight, aerodynamic trailer. I have to say, I enjoyed passing SOBs (Some Other Brand) being towed by big diesel pickups going uphill with my little minivan.

Next post: more pictures of the trailer.

Tom

The T-Shirt Made Me Do It

Readers/stalkers may remember that the only thing I bought from our visit to the Airstream factory was an Argosy T-shirt.

Now, how can I own a T-shirt, but not represent and own an Argosy? Problem solved:

Meet our new trailer. (Well, after I pick it up and pay for it.) It's a 1977 Argosy Minuet 6.0 Metre. Argosys are essentially painted Airstreams; they were sold in the 70s as Airstream's "mid-priced" line. Nevermind they were still pretty pricey, and they actually had some features that Airstream did without.

This sweet little 20' trailer weighs under 2500 lbs; it was built as Airstream's solution to smaller tow vehicles during Fuel Crisis II. It has some awesome 70s decor too:

We love the orange countertops.

Seeing this groovy brown and orange striped awning sealed the deal. (Ironic how the colors of the blog and the T-shirt match the awning.)

A bit of me is sad that we don't have a trailer with nice polished real wood inside, or a polished silver outside. But the sweet front wrap-around windows make up for a lot, and I would rather pay to have the trailer (re)painted than to spend hundreds of hours polishing. (Especially if Top Chef or Good Eats is on Tivo.)

So, once I take delivery of the trailer, we'll be selling off the T@B. I'm a bit sad about this: the T@B was a great little trailer, and there are a lot of wonderful memories. But memories are in the head, not in the metal.

This purchase isn't without misgivings. (I'm something less than an optimist by nature.) In the first post I made to this blog, I bragged about the T@B like this:

Hence, My First Trailer. Training wheels for the RV set. That sounds somewhat disparaging, I know, but there is virtue in simplicity. Nothing much to fix. No poop tanks to empty. No weight-distribution hitches. No need to buy a big block Suburban to haul this around.

Well, let's see:
- "Nothing much to fix" - Well, the unique aluminium floor in the Minuet can't rot, a problem that plagues old Airstreams, so that's OK. But there is still plenty to update.
- "No poop tanks to empty" - Got one of those, and a tank for sink water too.
- "No weight-distribution hitches" - Getting one of those for the Odyssey
- "No need to buy a big block Suburban to haul this around." - Score! We're still one for four! The Odyssey will tow this just fine.

But we're excited. Juliet is picking fabric and floor colors. I'm reading Airforums for hours, finding out about fixes. (And I'm craving a SMEV cooktop/oven combo.)

Not done yet

Well, we're done with the big trip, but not with the T@B. You'd think after five weeks and 8000 miles we'd be so over the trailer. Nope.

Of course, coming back to work and home took a toll on our time. The house didn't fall down during us being away, but a lot of spiders tried to take over. Luckily, during this very rainy summer, we had someone mow the lawn - but that didn't keep it from looking rather tropical on the edges.

Anyway, suffice it to say that unpacking the trailer from the trip (don't need extra laundry detergent and canned corn for a weekend), cleaning it out (five weeks of dust in the wheel wells), and repacking it for a weekend was a last minute affair.

Our destination was Syracuse, New York. Every year, we go up there to kayak the Salmon River during one of its release weekends. It's a lovely river, with lots of kayak surfing waves. What isn't so lovely is that most of the hotels are full due to a giant classic car show. So, this time around, we'd stay in the trailer.

"Lord, won't you buy me
a Mercedes-Benz
My friends all drive Porsches
I must make amends..."

But instead of our trusty Honda Odyssey, I borrowed a Mercedes-Benz GL 320 Bluetec diesel SUV from the office. (It's the big tan thing in the corner of the photo above.) The kayaks slid inside, and it was all set up for towing the T@B. Off we went, to Green Lakes State Park outside of Syracuse.


It really was a lovely campsite, tucked back into the trees. Only one problem:


It was at the top of a hill, requiring me to back the trailer up between the trees. Or, just drive through the adjacent (empty) site and park the trailer. I think we drew more attention than normal, maybe from the Mercedes, or maybe from the diesel clatter as I backed the trailer up the hill to fine-tune its position.

The campground was lovely, with the green lakes referring to their color. They weren't growing anything; instead they are deep glacial lakes, and minerals in the water give them their color. Nice campsites, nice lakes, and a very helpful staff who was ready to bust late generator users or noisy neighbors. ("We give them a warning, and if it goes on, well, it's game on!" said the enthusiastic nighttime ranger. Good guy.)

The T@B was comfy as always, and once again, it downpoured. The Mercedes was nice enough, but I can't say it pulled the trailer any better than our van, and fuel economy was the same.

We enjoyed kayaking and meeting friends for Thai food downtown. (How downtown Syracuse has some of the best Thai food I've ever had is one of life's pleasant little mysteries.)

But there are trailer changes over the horizon....

More Trailers, and a Very Nice Campground (day 35)

Today we went to P&S Trailer Service in Helena Ohio, an Airstream restoration shop that’s been in business for over 40 years. They had two particular trailers in stock, 60s 17-foot long Caravels, that we were considering buying,

We wound up touring all of the trailers that they had. and had a great chat with the owner of the business about the costs and benefits of restoring an older trailer. In the end, we decided to hold off for a slightly larger and later trailer, having seen a customer’s 1969 21-foot Globetrotter that we liked.

Our campground tonight is West Branch State Park. It’s great - the sites are generously spaced, we have a lake front site, it’s a level parking spot, there’s electric, and the bathrooms are new and nicer than the best highway rest stops. (That’s high praise.)

Dinner tonight, our last night of camping, is pasta and salad with local farm fresh strawberries for dessert. Not counting stopping at my parents, we only spent 3 nights in hotels on the trip. Not bad at all.

Tomorrow we stay at my parents and Saturday we’ll be home. It’s been a really good trip and we’re a bit sad to see it end.

Airstream! (day 34)

It had been at the back of my mind for most of the trip. We’d discuss it occasionally, but it was way out of the way and the schedule didn’t permit it. But the changes we made in the last few days would allow us to go on the Airstream factory tour.

This thrilled me. Airstream is in the middle of nowhere, in Jackson Center Ohio, so chances to go there aren’t exactly frequent. They give daily free tours at 2pm; we got into town plenty early. Surprisingly, we had a fantastic lunch within walking distance of the plant at Café Veranda, in a restored Victorian on the main strip in Jackson Center.

Don, our tour guide, worked at the plant for decades before retiring and giving tours. (They don’t allow pictures inside the factory.) Production was closed for the week, which was probably better since it was quiet and we could roam through partly finished trailers.

The trailers are constructed in one building that seems smaller than I expected for a company that makes 2000 trailers a year or so. It was neat to see the trailers in various stages of competition. I covet one of the narrower, lighter European trailers that they were building for overseas, but they don’t sell them here. We also really liked an old Argosy (a painted lower-priced Airstream sold in the 70s) that was being fully refurbished in their service center. Half of the assembly workers are laid off due to the economy, but every service bay was full.

We got a picture of the T@B (built also by Airstream’s parent company, Thor Industries) in front of some of the old trailers they have on the property. The tour made me want an Airstream more - but not a new one. (All I bought was an Argosy by Airstream T-shirt.)

We headed to our campsite that night, Indian Lake State Park. It was full, so it was good we had booked a site the night before. Emphasis here is on the word “park” - it was like camping in a grassy park rather than a forest, with over 450 sites and kids riding bikes past the trailer constantly. (“That is the smallest trailer I’ve ever seen” said one during every lap.) Oh well. We grilled some sausage, pattipan squash, and corn we had bought at a farm stand down the road.

As if on Juliet’s cue, it started raining at 10pm, efficiently quieting the campground. (It was surprisingly quiet, actually, with no one obtrusively playing a radio or yelling.)