We have been working on Howie, our new UHaul. We hooked up the propane again. The previous owners had disconnected it. Boy, it is great to have a faucet that does not need pumping!
Here's pix.

CindyL

Lookin' Good!

Thanks. I am dying to get going on adding cushions, flooring, etc., but Kevin still has to work on the wiring yet. We just got a new air conditioner that needs to be installed and will be getting a new furnace too. Then we can finish making it cosy.

CindyL

amasing what 3 feet will or rather can do for a trailer, we have a 13 footer , here is a link to our trailer and what we have done to it.
http://www.terry-g.net/u-haul/index.html

Hi, Terry,

I have seen what you did to your trailer. Great work! And the additional space is amazing. The hubby and I are not constantly bumping behinds as we work on it. We are, however, bumping our heads. The UHaul seems to have a lower ceiling on the sides than our Burro did. I guess we have not hit it enough yet to learn.
At the risk of sounding naive enough to give you your laugh for the day, I did not realize that in buying a trailer with a bathroom, we also got kitchen sink running water. And because it has a water heater, it comes out hot.

CindyL

Hey, congradulations on your new U-Haul 16'. We picked up a 13' U-Haul several months ago and we too are trying to do some improvements on it. Replace the old solar panel with a new one, new bed mattress, things like that. Keep all of us posted on your progress.
Chris

Yes, that hot water from the faucet is nice! Have you taken a shower yet? I almost did in my driveway, I owned mine for over a month before I actually took it out, but I felt silly, so I waited until I was set up somewhere.

Nice curtain! It's brightening up very quickly. What fun!

I had to adapt those curtains. They were too long and too wide, so I folded the tabs over and sewed buttons on and added pleats to take away some of the width.

The windows had curtain rods that were rubber-covered springs with little eye hooks on the end for screws that go into the fiberglass. I remember that one used to be able to buy these kinds of curtain rods, but I could not find any in any of the stores around here. I looked online and could only find them abroad. So I found some on British ebay and bought them. They took a little over a week to get here. It is one long covered spring to be cut with the eyehooks. Perfect replacements for the ones that came with the trailer that are rusty and stretched out.

CindyL

Hi Cindy!
What a beautiful 16 footer!! We have a 13 footer and have spent the last few months restoring her. I was wondering where you got those "curtain rods". I too have searched high and low and can't find them anywhere. Mine are usable, but I would like new ones too! Thanks! Hopefully we'll be able to post pics of our restoration soon. As soon as we can find time to do all the camera/computer hook ups!!!

A & D:

Go to http://www.ebay.co.uk/ and search for "curtain wire." There are several listed. You will have to check if the seller ships worldwide. Mine took a little over a week to get here. Buying off UK ebay is almost the same as US ebay, although we have bumped into a few differences that we think are due to UK laws. Your ebay name works in other countries. And paypal does the math for translating dollars to pounds or euros. I have bought Eurovan parts from both the UK ebay and Germany's ebay. I just lined an English page up with a German page and, with a little help from Babelfish, was able to buy parts for our Eurovan.
The curtain wire I got is exactly like what is in the UHaul. It comes in one long string that you have to cut. We used the old ones to size it for the ones we have replaced so far.

CindyL

Thanks Cindy,
I'll check it out, did it come with the new round things for the ends or did you just reuse yours?
Donna only ( beause Al couldn't care less about curtains, or curtain wires!!

Cindy,
Answered my own ? about the hooks. What are they doing with all that curtain wire in the UK???

Donna

Cindy,
I was able to find it on ebay for here in the states. Much easier to find it, and figure out the prices!! Thanks for your help.

Oh, good. The problem is knowing what it is called to even search for it. I found my answer on the UK ebay, so I just ordered there. I did not check back to US ebay.

I hung mine today. If you have to cut it, I found that it is safe to be generous in cutting it short. I bet I cut it two inches shorter than a measure of screw to screw on each window. That way it would pull the curtains high enough to keep people outside from looking inside. I started from the outside measure of each window but then had to cut additonal wire off. I finally felt bold enough to cut it shorter than I was comfortable doing and then adding the hook and stretching it.

CindyL

One step closer to an air-conditioned UHaul for the Nauvoo trip. It took 3 men to lift it up there. The hubby keeps commenting in how well the UHaul was built to hold this air conditioner.

CindyL

Yeah! Kevin built in the furnace, fixed the hinge on the bathroom door, the TV, finished off the 'fridge, and added carpet this weekend (And, I think I forgot one or two things.). So, now it seems so cosy. We can add decorations and load up for the first trip. However, that first trip has to wait until after our daughter's graduation day.

Cindy

More pix.

What an incredible job you have done !! Superb workmanship and a flair for creativity. You inspire me to get going on mine. A cozy little home away from home.

I also have a 16 vt where did you get it and what kinda of tv is that? Maggie

Hey! We have the same dish soap dispenser!

Miabella:

We bought the VT in Arkansas off ebay. It was not real bad, at least not when you look at some of the trailers that have been redone by folks here. It needed cleaning, a new carpet, the cushion covers cleaned, leaks fixed, a furnace and air conditioner added, propane reconnected, and a few other things done. We still plan to work on the outside, that is, Kevin will. We plan to redo the stripes. Now we have to load it for Nauvoo.

Yup, Gina, I bought the soap dispensers, hand towels, and garbage cans are from Wally World. The placemats are from Kohl's with matching kitchen towels I have not brought out yet. The curtains are from Target, with modifications by me. I added the buttons and put in pleats and added ties to reduce the width. The quilt is from Sears.
Not sure where the TV is from, probably Circuit City.

We put in the cushions tonight and hung the towels in the bathroom. (Psst, did you hear that? A bathroom!)

Cindy

The 10" LCD TV/DVD/Radio is a Polaroid from Circuit City. I believe it cost about $350 last summer when we purchased it for our original trailer. It works great in the trailer and I'm hoping to get an outside antenna installed soon. Right now we have just been watching DVDs and local TV stations in Chicago!

Kevin

Cindy L what is the gizmo on the ceiling of your bathroom for? Just curious.

It is a vent.

I am trying to figure what else to do with the bathroom; the walls seem so blank. Found a TP holder, stick-on soap holder, and plastic mat to stand on, but since the theme has kind ot turned Southwestern, I was looking for shower-safe wall things that go with these theme. If anyone has a source, please pass it on..

CindyL

CindlyL
where did ya get that fridge lock and do you have a better pic of it soz i can see it .

on the curtin wire thing, we looked and looked , i just went to our local autoparts shop and picked up some elect wire and "loop terminal ends", measures them out and put the terminal ends on and crimped both ends to the wire.
put the screws through the terminal ends and screwed then in , holds all the curtins up fine both top and bottoms.

I will go take a picture today, but the latch came with the trailer. We changed out the fridge, as the one that came with the trailer was just a small dorm one.
It is a child's safety latch, the kind we used for cupboards when the kids were babies. Kevin drilled two holes in the door of the fridge and then just hooked the latch over the door. I will tell him to add details.

CindyL

To answer a couple questions:

The ceiling vent in the bathroom is a simple push-up/pull-down mechanism. You push it up to ventilate the room and pull it down to seal the vent. I plan to use this as our "open window" when using the Wave 3 cat heater.

The refrig door lock is simply a child-proof plastic lock that is used on kitchen cabinets. It had been added by a previous owner, so I adjusted it to work with our larger fridge. It is designed to keep the door from bumping open while traveling. I'll attach a close-up of it when I get home later today.

Kevin

Great job you guys

I too, was a little thick and took a bit to realize that the hot water heater came with my external shower - love that hot water out of the sink first thing in the morning!

Great decorating ideas too!

Here's the picture of the latch, Terry.
And Anne, I was not quite done. I added rugs today and finished off the bathroom. I am going to hang a clock yet and a full-length mirror.

CindyL

Cindy, be careful of the rug in the john. I learned the hard way that my grey water will come out the lowest drain when the tank has "Had enough". I ruined the rug I had in there.

Now, the dog has a fluffy red bed that smells like snacks.

Thanks, Gina. Our bathroom has a porta-potty that tucks under the seat beside the privacy room. As I understand it, the 16' UHaul simply came with a privacy room and the tuck-under portapotty, so someone must have added the shower. Honestly, I doubt that the potty will be used during the day, under the assumption that the campground will have a toilet. At night, the rug will be rolled up, probably along with the shower mat that I have under it, when the potty is brought out. But, given your warning, I will likely take up the rug during travel too, just in case.

Right now, I am debating getting a folding seat of some kind for the bathroom too, so that Kevin has some place to sit as he can't stand in the bathroom. Trouble is, I think it should be higher than most are made, and I want it to fold up. But then again, I am not sure I want it either. Just looking for now.

CindyL

If anyone wants to see this, I posted the Uhaul restoration pictures (141 and adding) here:

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/dr_cindy_ander...460762401308683

CindyL

And there will be more! I finished painting the sides today and got the rims done, too. I also put a batwing antenna on the roof for our LCD TV.

OK, I posted additional pix. Sorry about the number of them. I got a new digital SLR camera a couple of weeks ago for a Mother's Day gift. What can I say? We are practicing with the lens for our daughter's graduation this weekend.

Cindy

Well, we took it out on Howie's maiden voyage to Nauvoo, IL for the Scamp Camp and had a blast! The folks were great, they liked the UHaul, and we enjoyed the extra space inside. Now, the trip home was another story. About halfway into the 5 hour drive, the right tire completed fell apart. It looks like it was a retread the way it separated. In the 100 yards it took me to stop on the side of the tollway, the rim was running on the ground and the tire remains were smokin'! The whole things was so hot that it boiled off the water from the rag I used to first grab it. I let it sit for about 30 minutes, go the rim off the trailer, and tried the spare. (Yes, it had air because I'd done that before the trip.) When I put it on, the drum made crunching noises inside, so I'm guessing the brake pads or parts had been damaged. Since the brakes weren't working anyway, I wasn't worried about that. However, the drum didn't want to rotate much, either. I figured it was the heat causing expansion. I put the spare on the studs and found that the rim's center hole was not quite big enough for the axle stub to stick through. No go! I ended up tightening the lug nuts as tight as they'd go, but the rim is riding a bit further out than it should. I had to get home, so I took it easy and made it back to Oak Park after a nine hour trip that should take 5 hours. Big question: can that rim hole be made larger? Also, the lug holes are not quite perfectly lined up. The studs go through but not in the center of each hole. Any suggestions? (By the way, Dave and Kate Watling from Pleasant Prairie, WI helped me when I was stuck on the tollway. They were at the Scamp Camp, too. Thanks!) Also, the noise was gone after about 30 feet of driving. Either the cause broke off or slipped back into position.

Sounds to me like your "spare" is not on a U-Haul specific wheel rim.

Check out This Link.

I just ordered two new rims from UHaul, so I'll have a new rim for the spare and an extra rim just in case I ever need it. They should be in to the local dealer early next week.