Rucio's Winter Makeover

[WildBirder]

Wow, thanks for the follow up Jen. It's a been an inspirational trip

[Robin G]

Yeah, so glad to hear you have it done enough to go out and enjoy it!


I remember your posting about your fall trip, so how did the no reservation versus reservation work out? Did you find a lot of campgrounds still open?



Enjoy FL.........

[francene]

Wow, wow, and wow! Stunning job, Jen! Lots of creativity inside, beautiful exterior finish.
What did you use for the floor material?

Very nice job!!! Thanks for sharing your progress and photos.

Fran
1974 Compact II

[partslady9]

Jen, as a new owner of a TLC project Casita I really appreciate your pictures & step by step.
Do you think your Dad & your Uncle would like to spend next winter out here in Sunny Southern California? )
Elaine

[jen b]

Robin G, we ended up doing okay with the campgrounds - most had plenty of spaces available.

The weather conditions were interesting in their contrast. Our highest temperature of the trip was 112F in Badlands National Park, and one morning in the Wyoming Rockies we woke up to ice on puddles and 26F.

francene, I went with Allure for the floor. Satisfied with it so far.

I need to dig up some photos of the spare tire carrier I designed (and had a machine shop build) - it is welded to the bumper and pivots away from the body, leaving me enough space on the butt of the trailer to do a storage hatch back there. We'd decided against a hatch opening on the side because of the water splashing from tires issue that already makes the main door opening a challenge. Anyway, I much prefer having the spare sitting on a nicely sized piece of steel instead of hanging on the fiberglass body. That seemed like a bad manufacturing idea to me.

partslady, I'll ask but I do remember my dad saying a couple of times over the past year something subtle, like JUST SO YOU KNOW I'M NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN.

[cpaharley2008]

Rucio's shine looks like a newly restored airstream without the rivets, love that paint job and the curved wood shelves and the spar tire mount!!

ps,
my favorite place to camp is in the Badlands........

[DannyH]

What a wonderful trailer. No wonder it turns heads and your giving lots of tours. The inside turned out just as awesome as the outside. I would love to see it in person, but it looks like you live pretty far to be taking in any west coast NOGs, dang.

[Raz]

Very nice job. Following your project has been very enjoyable. Thanks for sharing all the details. Now you can enjoy it, Raz

[jen b]

Thanks guys! I'll have more to share as we do the rear hatch, so stand by for that. And once I have some more time I'll find and process the tire carrier pics.

Danny, if only I could get my job to send me money every month without having to show up in the office, I'd be right on over to the west coast gatherings. Still working on that.

[papas34]

Love what you have done!!!!!

I sure like to see photos of the spare tire mount and those wonderful curved shelves.

[Shannon Thompson]

Jen, such a good job...and a fun story to follow. What did you decide to use as fasteners for the cab doors? I currently have rollers; am thinking of switching to earth magnets. And what did you use for edging on the Allure flooring? I will be putting it in soon and am struggling to find a good solution to attach edging but keep the floor floating. The best I've come up with is quarter round glued to wall edge and leave floor edge free.

Thanks for how generous you've been with your well documented project!

S.

[WildBirder]

Originally Posted by Shannon Thompson

And what did you use for edging on the Allure flooring? I will be putting it in soon and am struggling to find a good solution to attach edging but keep the floor floating. The best I've come up with is quarter round glued to wall edge and leave floor edge free.
S.

Hi Shannon, I used cloverleaf (similar to quarter round). Attached it to the wall with thin but strong double sided tape, leaving the floor free. Easier for replacement and clean up of the FG if needed. Holds well after the second try, lol. First try I used cheap tape.

[jen b]

Originally Posted by Shannon Thompson

Jen, such a good job...and a fun story to follow. What did you decide to use as fasteners for the cab doors? I currently have rollers; am thinking of switching to earth magnets. And what did you use for edging on the Allure flooring? I will be putting it in soon and am struggling to find a good solution to attach edging but keep the floor floating. The best I've come up with is quarter round glued to wall edge and leave floor edge free.

Thanks for how generous you've been with your well documented project!

S.

Shannon, thanks! For cabinet fasteners we went low-tech with your basic hook and eye things. And with the flooring, we bumped the allure up as close as we could to the wavy-drunk Burro molded "furniture" and then caulked the edges.

[jen b]

Well, it's been forever since I did an update here. I haven't done any updates for a couple of years, but this summer I caught up with some stuff I've had on my list. I lost my dad and Burro Rebuild Captain to lung cancer three years ago, and the garage we were using is no longer available so to keep my life simple and straightforward I found upgrade help in the form of Henry at Stone's Camping World in southern New Jersey. Henry is awesome and does great work.

Here's what I've gotten done lately:

last fall at the body shop:

• New chip-guard paint on the front of the trailer to replace the clear chip-guard film that my dad and I put on ourselves. That was one of our "any idiot can do this!" situations. We were definitely idiots, and the film definitely protected the front of the trailer from rock dings, but it also looked like an angry toddler trying to gift-wrap something.
  
• Repair of the door hinge attachments. I think originally there was something solid like a block of wood between the inner and outer hulls that gave the door hinge screws something to grab, but in 35 years it had turned into air, and a couple of my screws were spinning around and the door was starting to be misaligned. Body shop squirted something in there and ran bolts all the way through to the inside. It feels super stable now.

This summer and just last week at Stone's Camping World:

• New axle to replace the original. We went with the torsion type thing and holy moly the difference in how the trailer rides is really something. I wish I'd done this sooner.
  
• Addition of BAL stabilizers, 4 all around. I'd been using the aluminum floor jack stands that had come with the trailer when I bought it, and they were such a pain in the butt. Even though my dad and I had modified the screw piece of those stands to make the minimum height a little lower, it was still often a struggle to get them under the back end of the trailer at certain campsites. I was done with having to lift up the back of the trailer myself in order to scoot the stands underneath the frame. The BAL gadgets are so very nice to use.
  
• General cleanup of my coupler, with the addition of a safety pin. It did not have this before and I am happy that I am a lot safer from being the guy whose trailer pops off the hitch on a hard bump.
  
• Addition of an outside plug for my solar panel wires. I have a flexible panel on a leash, and have been running the wires through my door to the battery underneath one of the front seats. This is way better.
  
• And finally, I've gotten a new Norcold 3-way refrigerator installed. Super excited about this one. Henry is an artist and did a great match on my wood accents, making the thing look like it was originally built in.

So that's what's up! Photos in the next couple of posts.

[jen b]

This is the chip guard paint and view of the door hinge improvement.

[jen b]

Cleaned up coupler, new axle, BAL stabilizers, solar plug added to my utilities array.

[jen b]

And finally the new refrigerator.

[cpaharley2008]

So sorry for your loss, Jen. I remember meeting you way back when at a rally I organized in Pennsylvania at a KOA. You and your Dad had just completed your overhaul and it was nice.
I had an Eggcamper then, maybe 2010?

[jen b]

The less romantic side of the fridge.

[jen b]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

So sorry for your loss, Jen. I remember meeting you way back when at a rally I organized in Pennsylvania at a KOA. You and your Dad had just completed your overhaul and it was nice.
I had an Eggcamper then, maybe 2010?

Thanks Jim! I remember you too. That was a fun rally that gave us both a lot of great ideas.