We Got an Airstream!
July 9, 2022: We got an Airstream trailer!
No, not the above 23 ft. Safari (though I did get this particular Matchbox trailer for MKO, to her consternation).
But a 1972 27' Airstream Overlander International Land Yacht! Yep, 50 years old this year. We're still looking for a place to store it/work on it in Akron, so currently it sits in a field near Youngstown.
It is not in perfect shape...
But it is very cool, and has some great things going for it as a renovation/rebuild candidate.
Importantly, it has a newly sandblasted, fortified, and painted frame, and a new subfloor. (Full skin off job.) Also new axles, new C-channel, new white and gray tanks, new shocks, new wheel wells, and it came with a whole bunch of tools, supplies, and other stuff.
And the interior is entirely gutted, so I don't have to deal with removing the interior skins, the old bathroom, the old wiring, and the awful pink insulation. It is bare.
So far, the "renovation" consists of research and a little bit of 3-D modelling.
The first big problem, of many to come, is figuring how to situate the fresh water, black, and gray tanks so that: the toilet is directly above the black tank; the bathroom/shower can fit into the space b/w the main street side windows; the tanks are primarily over the axles for weight distribution; and the black and gray tanks can dump in a way that makes sense.
The main problem? The originally configured 1972 Overlander had a rear bathroom with either a twin bed or double bed configuration:
We, on the other hand, want a queen-sized bed in the back and a mid-trailer bathroom.
A further complication is that examples of mid-bath conversions that I have found online have not been done the way I plan (at this point) to configure the trailer. They have either used a composting toilet (no placement constraints b/c there is no black tank), have built a "wet bath" in which the shower and toilet are in one small room that all gets wet during a shower, or have built the shower in an area with a window. I would prefer not to use a window space because of the chance of leakage and the fact that it messes up the tank placements in the Overlander.
"Helpful" online suggestions for those considering this project include: "Find a trailer you like that was built with a mid-bath and renovate that one." Ok, not helpful.